Buying / Selling Camera

[Aedai]

Two questions here...

1)
I'm looking to buy a new camera. I have a Canon Rebel T3i and I'm looking to upgrade to something that will cost no more than, or just barely over, $2,000 for the body AND one/two lenses.

I'm looking for something more on a professional level. Particularly, I need it for taking stock images and I also want it to capture pictures of my daughter (who is 2 and knows how to run fast fast fast).


2)
What's a good asking price for a Canon T3i that is gently used (in perfect condition) and about 6 months old [bought it brand new]. I plan on selling both lenses with it. Also where is a good place to sell it?

I don't plan on buying / selling for a couple of months but want to get an idea of what I really want.

 

[D-B-J]

Check on Adorama and B&H for used prices. And ebay. Average/base off those. As for gear, I shoot nikon so I'll let someone more knowledgable about canon help. What you COULD do is tell us what you want. Telephoto? Image stabilization? Low light capabilities? Macro?

Jake

 

[KmH]

With the 18-55 mm kit lens, very good used T3i's that also include the battery and charger have an asking price of about $400.
If you still have the original box, user manual, USB and other cables, software disc, strap, body cap, and lens caps you can start with a slightly higher asking price.
What other lens(s) are you wanting to sell?

Selling price is determined by demand and how motivated you are to sell.
If you want it gone quickly you'll need to use a lower asking and selling price.

Frankly I would spend the $2000 on a couple of good lenses and keep using the T3i since it is a very capable camera for doing stock photography and photos of your daughter.

 

[Aedai]

What lenses would you recommend?

 

[Overread]

That depends entirely on what you mean by stock photography. What kind of stock are we talking about here will define what kind of equipment will work best for you. Note I said equipment, not lens, because many times what you need isn't always a better lens, but better lighting or other support items. Thus investing in flash units and light modifiers can often give you a far bigger jump in image quality than any lens ever could.

 

[KmH]

+1.
There are many distinct genres of stock photography.
Lighting plays a big part in making stock photos, both in a studio and on-location.

With $2000 for lenses you could get these 2 f/4 maximum aperture zoom lenses:
Canon EF 24-70mm f/4.0L IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
Seriously consider buying refurbished or used lenses instead of new lenses.

The 2 most common f/2.8 zoom lenses used by pros would require a budget of $4400, unless you bought used lenses:
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Standard Zoom Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Or, less expensive because they are older versions, the 70-200 without IS:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Stock photography's business model has changed a lot in the last 15 years.
If an agency accepts your photos, making significant money from it has become very difficult, particularly if you make photos for stock agencies that sell royalty-free (RF) stock image use licenses.
We can still make some money from stock agencies that sell rights-managed (RM) stock image use licenses, but the image quality bar to entry for RM is much higher.
And to make money you need to make a lot of stock photos that get accepted by the stock agencies.
Most of the stock photos that sell have people in them.

My latest issue of Photoshop User magazine has an inside the front cover full truck (both sides of the open magazine) advertisement for dollar photo club. com. The sell use of their stock photos and vector art for $1 each. Figure the photographers gets a few cents of that $1.

 

[Designer]

I'm looking for something more on a professional level.

Start by looking at the professional level cameras. Note that they usually are not packaged with a lens.

Add up the cost of the professional camera and one or two professional-level lenses and ask yourself if you need any lighting and modifiers to make the kind of images that you want.

Does that amount fit within your budget?

 

[vintagesnaps]

It's probably not a good idea to spend $2000+ on equipment to try to do stock photography. Spend some time researching it, but anything I've read seems to indicate the market is beyond saturated.

Besides microstock, and those 'do-it-yourself' stock sites where people post their own photos and license them for pennies, now there are sites geared to photographers to use the galleries and sell/license thru the site. The website may make 80-90% of the license fee, which is usually a one time payment and the Terms allow the site to resell and sublicense and keep making money off the photo.

And then there are the contests that must assume people don't read Terms & Conditions and reportedly are selling user submitted photos with no payment to the photographer.

So I'd consider used if you want to upgrade lenses, or new if that works for your budget.

 

[Aedai]

For the record, I'm not looking to SELL stock images (I've never really even thought about doing that, but it might be something to look into as a side thing to get a few extra dollars). I want to take high quality pictures to use in my art that I DO sell.

I'm going to do some more research though after hearing your opinions. I always thought the Canon Rebels were considered 'unprofessional' (terms thrown around from my photography friends) but maybe that isn't the case! I'll look into different equipment first and make a decision after that.

 

[Designer]

I always thought the Canon Rebels were considered 'unprofessional' (terms thrown around from my photography friends)..

A professional can make pictures with just about anything. I think it depends more on the skill level than merely equipment. If it was equipment alone, anyone with the price of admission could be a professional. Learn what you have, learn it well, and go make art.

 

[4rum]

Some very, very good advice here.

 

[gsgary]

For the record, I'm not looking to SELL stock images (I've never really even thought about doing that, but it might be something to look into as a side thing to get a few extra dollars). I want to take high quality pictures to use in my art that I DO sell.

I'm going to do some more research though after hearing your opinions. I always thought the Canon Rebels were considered 'unprofessional' (terms thrown around from my photography friends) but maybe that isn't the case! I'll look into different equipment first and make a decision after that.

A professional can get good images from any camera you don't need a pro grade camera to get pro grade images

 

[Overread]

Ahh art work stock photos! What kind of artwork are we talking about - and what rough kind of size? There are a few good options (and not all that expensive) that you can use for this kind of photography to get some really good results.

And yes in an environment where you've control over subject and lighting you can get some very good shots without needing to spend $5K on a top of the line body (in that environment the lighting comes first - then the lens - then the camera body). It might well be that you end up with a Rebel camera body - they are very fine camera bodies. Yes bottom of the rung DSLR wise and yes with some limitations - but they are still very capable.