I (still) love Craigslist...!

[radhak]

Ok - this is a camera gloat, thanks to CL !

I have had some bad experiences with CL recently - would-be-scamsters, no-shows, 'already sold', and even one "when you called and came over, I assumed you are definitely buying...". But yesterday was a good day.

Late saturday night, I did my usual scan of the local CLs (FLL and Miami are both close) and found this advt for a Nikon D40. I immediately emailed back, and got a reply in the morning, asking for my phone no. He called me from a corporate number, and asked to meet at a parking lot ! I did not like all the secrecy but went anyway, and I'm glad I did !

Turns out he had bought the camera around 14 months ago. has been downsized to a lesser job, so is offloading stuff to get money. Seems like the reason for his caution was that he wasn't sure of me (or anybody on CL) ! First thing on meeting he gives me his business card - working at the local Ford car dealership (we met at it's parking lot) in Pompano.

This D40 works great, and he offered it with the regular 18-55 lens, and another telephoto lens by Quantaray (70-300mm), a Tamrac backpac bag, a Nikon shoulder bag, a Tripod, two 1-GB SD cards, 2 filters, and the charger and cables. All that for $400! The camera is in excellent condition, as is everything else. He told me the telephoto lens was manual focus, and I found it so - havta learn how to use it. Funny is, it's box-packaging says 'AutoFocus'!

Gotta learn a lot on how to use a DSLR. I don't even recognize a couple of 'rings' and 'camera hood' he gave me. He also offloaded a bunch of Popular Photography issues (which has his name and home address - so much for his trying to keep all that a secret ).

Anyway, here's to CL - again! I have got some great deals from it!

[TB Roye]

I have been lucky on Craigslist so far. Got a PLaner, jointer, Radial Arm Saw,
some lawn and garden power tools and had no problems. I have changed my mind a couple of times and turned down deals after contacting seller. I have always notified them. You have to be careful though Been lucky on Ebay also. The only problem I have had on EBay is slow shipping and not getting return Feedback from sellers.

Tom

[TheRic]

Many Auto lens can also be controlled manually (at least years when I was more into photography that was the case). Might be auto, and the guy didn't know how to use it. Maybe the auto part is broke / damaged and he got it that way, or he damaged it. If you do have a lens that is auto you might be able to get it fixed at a decent price, if having an auto lens is important to you.

Look the model number up on the INTERNET. Might even be able to find the manual. I have bought items, that didn't come with a box, so they grab another box that is about the same size and give me that. So it might not be the exact same model Box vs. Lens.

[Wandere]

The D40 is special (looking for one myself)...the AF ring on the body is absent and requires lenses with internal AF motors....the exact Nikon line of lenses escapes me...getting old.

Most AF lenses will be able to be used as MF only with the D40 (and maybe the D40x, would have to look it up).

D40 + fast prime lens = great shots of the kids...waiting for the perfect deal on one myself here. The ol' pocket point and shoot does fine outdoors, but I'm missing a lot of great natural-light shots of the fam.

Anybody wanna trade a Nikon 8008s film camera for a D40?

I missed the boat on that Sony A100 a month or so ago...scanning fatwallet daily now.

Congrats on what is probably the best bang-for-the-buck dslr on the market.

-Rob

[Anna]

Good score! I'm not familiar with the D40, but I own a D70s, and have used a D50, D100 and D200. There was not much of a learning curve going from an SLR to a DSLR. The biggest debate you'll probably come across is whether you should use RAW vs JPEG.

One thing to remember is to be careful when changing lenses so as to not get dust and other extraneous materials on the sensor. It costs about $70 to get it "professionally" cleaned, and the kit I bought to do it myself cost >$100.

The other thing to remember when buying a digital SLR is how many actuations it's had (shutter clicks) because most of them last for about 50,000 to 75,000 shots before they fail (although some people claim they've taken more than 100k pictures with theirs).

One of the best-value lenses I got for my camera is a Nikon 50mm/1.8 lens that only cost about $100. I think bhphoto still sells it. It's great for a lot of low light stuff and much much cheaper than the 50mm/1.2 that I've been lusting after.

Lastly, check the warranties if they're still valid. I think the Nikon lenses have a 5 year warranty (might be 3 years) if they were registered correctly. The lenses that came with the kit are not very durable and will fail sooner or later. My friend's lens won't autofocus anymore, but will still work manually. Maybe your wonky lens has the same problem (the motor died).

Have fun!

[radhak]

Thanks everybody - shall keep investigating about that lens.

I missed the boat on that Sony A100 a month or so ago...scanning fatwallet daily now.

Congrats on what is probably the best bang-for-the-buck dslr on the market.

-Rob

That Sony A100 deal was what finally pushed me towards DSLRs - having tried a couple others at the store when I went to look for it, I fell in love !

One thing to remember is to be careful when changing lenses so as to not get dust and other extraneous materials on the sensor. It costs about $70 to get it "professionally" cleaned, and the kit I bought to do it myself cost >$100.

The other thing to remember when buying a digital SLR is how many actuations it's had (shutter clicks) because most of them last for about 50,000 to 75,000 shots before they fail (although some people claim they've taken more than 100k pictures with theirs).

One of the best-value lenses I got for my camera is a Nikon 50mm/1.8 lens that only cost about $100. I think bhphoto still sells it. It's great for a lot of low light stuff and much much cheaper than the 50mm/1.2 that I've been lusting after.

Good warning about that dust on the sensor. I did change it once without any particular caution, but shall be careful now on. The guy says he had taken only around 300 pictures. Lets say 1000. Still okay, right?

Btw, what's with the description of lenses like "50mm/1.8"? Some lens are described as "18-55", what does that mean - are these different species?