So I want to buy a new digicam...

[Leets]

... and I think I'm gonna go with the Canon A520. I would love an SLR, but funds are considerably limited at this time. Anyone have any experience with this camera?

... also, I was gonna just go buy it at Circuit City or something, but it seems to go for about $100 less on ebay. Seems like a no brainer, but I'm always cautious of something that seems too good to be true... any thoughts on what I should do... why or why not... thanks.:wave:

[GT40FIED]

Well...going Ebay probably won't hurt you. Just check the fine print to make sure it's not remanufactured or some shit. People on Ebay can sell shit for quite a bit cheaper since they don't do the bullshit mark-ups that places like CC or Best Buy do. Standard retail mark-up is usually between 25-33%. Of course, if there's any kind of problem, a local store would obviously have an advantage to fixing it.

[ChrisCantSkate]

make sure they are a good "ebayer" and i dont see how you can go wrong. try to pay through paypal or something that will leave a paper trail so they cant run off

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by ChrisCantSkate
make sure they are a good "ebayer" and i dont see how you can go wrong. try to pay through paypal or something that will leave a paper trail so they cant run off

Or use the USPS. Any sort of fraud commited using the postal service automatically becomes a felony and their actually suprisingly good about tracking down those folks.

[ChrisCantSkate]

well the problem with that is if you send the money then they never ship anything via USPS then they havnt commited fraud via federal mail. you need to leave yourself a paper trail in order to be able to prove how much you gave em and that they never sent you anything. USPS will say package "A" made it from point 1 to point 2 and then package "B" was sent from point 2 to point 1. but unless you insure it and/or have proof of what is going on, the worst you can do is leave em bad feedback. ive been hosed before and tried to get them back any way i could and well.. things didnt work out

[Leets]

thanks for the responses... I think I will go with one of the ebay powerseller type places as opposed to just some individual selling one

I've read lots of good reviews on different opinion sites, but has anyone here had any personal experience with the A520. It's a pretty new model, and it seems to have plenty of options for manual settings.

[CD5Passion]

think the a520 looks dumb lol
and by SLR i guess you mean DSLR. save up for a DLSR...it'll make a humongous difference

i personally long for the Canon 20D......:crazy:

[Leets]

Originally posted by CD5Passion
think the a520 looks dumb lol
and by SLR i guess you mean DSLR. save up for a DLSR...it'll make a humongous difference

Why? I've owned a SLR (not DSLR) before and loved that (until it was stolen by some of the extremely kind people of Boston), but outside of the lens selection what constitutes the humongous difference? The a520 has aperature priority and shutter speed priority, manual focus, optional lenses and filters, etc. I just can't justify spending twice as much money on a camera that only offers better zoom capabilities. I understand that the higher end DSLRs have more megapixels, manual settings, etc., but those are all over $1K street price. I'm not doing any professional photography (unfortunately) so I really don't see the point in spending the extra money. It's been far too long since I've devoted any serious effort into photography so I'd much rather start with something simple and hone my craft with that. Buying a professional DSLR now would be like giving an Enzo to someone who just got their license. ;)

[CD5Passion]

haha I just love the SLR.

[Leets]

Originally posted by CD5Passion
haha I just love the SLR.

ya, I'd have to agree with you... I still miss my old skool SLR;(

... but now that I have bills to pay I'm trying to be intelligent (i.e. cheap) with my money. I'm just sick of my my2000 Fuji FinePix. It was good for a first digicam, but I'm going crazy not having any manual settings or options.:crazy:

[CD5Passion]

lol go minolta or Canon or nikon those 3 names are pretty good

[Addict]

Panasonic makes one of the better digicams. I'd put that up against Nikon & Canon any day.

The A520 has 4x zoom. It drives me nuts how low the zoom is on some of these. But in this price range, 4x is about all your going to get without losing some features.

Check out www.newegg.com too. Pretty good pricing.