Lenses and gear from Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Sony, Panasonic, and Pentax
Vintage Lenses and Beyond

YOU SAVE SO MUCH MONEY BUYING USED!!! It is possible to get absolutely obscene price to performance value on used gear. Image quality for photography maxed out around 2012 and video quality in 2018. Any camera made after those dates only has marginal improvements.

If you’re looking for your first dedicated camera, it rarely makes sense to buy new. Spening thousands of dollars on new gear doesn’t mean you’ll actually like using it. My two recommendations for camera shopping are:

  • Don’t discount the importance of size and weight. Smaller and lighter is better.
  • Think about the lenses you’ll want. Don’t spend your entire budget on a camera body to get stuck with a kit lens.

Just like all new tech, camera gear quickly depreciates. Last year’s best in class camera is often this year’s 50% off used deal. That doesn’t even mean it is worth buying because until you have experience, you don’t know what camera features are actually important to you.

The difficulty in finding deals is that there are hundreds of different camera models. Dozens of them might fit your needs. To make your life easier, I’ve been going through series of models to create used buying guides.

  1. Canon AE-1
  2. Pentax K1000
  3. Nikon FM2
  4. Asahi Pentax Spotmatic

All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintange and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.

On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.

I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.

  1. Canon AE-1 Lenses
  2. Pentax K1000 Lenses
  3. Pentax Spotmatic Lenses
  4. Nikon FM2 Lenses
  5. Nikon FE2 Lenses
  6. Canon A-1 Lenses
  7. Olympus OM-1 Lenses
  8. Minolta SR-T 101 Lenses
  9. Minolta X-700 Lenses

Have you ever been paranoid about the capacity of a battery? Especially if it was from a third party? I was.

I have figured out how ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. I have written a guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires a screwdriver and pair of wire strippers.

Cameras are the fastest depreciating pieces of photography gear. That’s bad if you buy a new camera. If you buy used, you can get a high-end camera from 10+ years ago for pennies on the dollar.

Being able to use flagship cameras of years gone by is an interesting experience. Medium format in both film and digital become obtainable for non-professional uses. Or owning many cameras is remarkably affordable.

The camera reviews section showcases all of the cameras I have reviewed. You can also find information on camera manufacturers that are no longer in business.

Recent Posts

Nikon D50 What You Need to Know for Best Performance

Nikon D50 Battery Type & ReplacementsThe Nikon D50 uses a Nikon EN-EL3 Lithium-Ion & charger included. The battery can not be charged via USB. This means a battery charger will be necessary. Third party battery chargers will be less expensive than OEM Nikon chargers. There will usually be an option to get one bundled with a third party battery purchase. Memory Card Compatibility & RecommendationThe Nikon D50 is compatible with SD memory cards.

Nikon D5000 What You Need to Know for Best Performance

Original Price& Current Used PriceThe D5000’s original MSRP was $899.95 for the body and $1,299.99 with the Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens. Used D5000 cameras fall into a price range of $150 to $200. The difference will be due to condition and accessories included. Nikon D5000 Battery Type & ReplacementsThe Nikon D5000 uses a Nikon EN-EL9a Lithium-Ion battery. The battery can not be charged via USB. This means a battery charger will be necessary.

Nikon D5100 What You Need to Know for Best Performance

Nikon D5100 Battery Type & ReplacementsThe Nikon D5100 uses a Lithium-Ion EN-EL14 rechargeable battery & charger. The battery can not be charged via USB. This means a battery charger will be necessary. Third party battery chargers will be less expensive than OEM Nikon chargers. There will usually be an option to get one bundled with a third party battery purchase. Memory Card Compatibility & Recommendation SanDisk Extrme Pro UHS-I 512GB Card The Nikon D5100 is compatible with SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards.

Nikon D5200 What You Need to Know for Best Performance

Original Price& Current Used PriceThe D5200’s original MSRP was With 18-55mm VR lens: Eu: €920 UK: £820 Used D5200 cameras fall into a price range of $250 to $350. The difference will be due to condition and accessories included. Nikon D5200 Battery Type & ReplacementsThe Nikon D5200 uses a Lithium-Ion EN-EL14 rechargeable battery & charger. The battery can not be charged via USB. This means a battery charger will be necessary.

Nikon D5300 What You Need to Know for Best Performance

Original Price& Current Used PriceThe D5300’s original MSRP was $799.95 / £729.99 (body only), $1399.99 (w/ 18-140mm F3.5-5.6 lens) / £829.99 (w/ 18-55mm F3.5-5.6) Used D5300 cameras fall into a price range of $300 to $400. The difference will be due to condition and accessories included. Nikon D5300 Battery Type & ReplacementsThe Nikon D5300 uses a Lithium-Ion EN-EL14a or EN-EL14 rechargeable battery & charger. The battery can not be charged via USB.

Nikon D5500 What You Need to Know for Best Performance

Original Price& Current Used PriceThe D5500’s original MSRP was $899 (body only), $999 (with 18-55mm VR II lens), $1199 (with 18-140mm VR lens) Used D5500 cameras fall into a price range of $400 to $500. The difference will be due to condition and accessories included. Nikon D5500 Battery Type & ReplacementsThe Nikon D5500 uses a EN-EL14 / EN-EL14a lithium-ion battery & charger. The battery can not be charged via USB.