Buy new or repair old?

[sadiqabsar]

Hi everyone. I am looking to buy my first DSLR having outgrown my Fuji FinePix s1900. A week ago, I was on the verge of buying a Pentax K-r with standard kit lens and 55-300mm lens for £569 (after the Pentax cashback). However, a day or so before I took the plunge, a family member kindly offered to give me a spare, albeit faulty, Nikon D80 body. So now I have a dilemma: do I a) get the Pentax K-r dual lens kit or b) get the D80 repaired (no idea how much this will cost but apparently there is something wrong with the flash unit and all pictures are just coming out as black screens - with or without flash) and buy the best lenses I can within the same overall budget? I'm trying hard to resist the Canikon route purely because of the name, but am happy to go that way if they truly are superior. What I don't want to do is avoid them and then regret it afterwards. I have tried them out as best I can in the shops (K-x is the only Pentax I can find, but I believe the size etc is similar) and I think the best fit for my hand so far is the D90 - but it's just too expensive.

My main interests are macro and bird photography (as I'm trying to show on my Flickr page - /photos/sadiqabsar), and I would also like to take some nice light trail shots at some stage. I wouldn't buy used as there is always the danger of a problem soon afterwards but seeing as I am getting the D80 for free and can then get a quote on it it throws the game wide open....

Any help or advice you can offer would be greaty appreciated.

[nikorman]

Hi and welcome to the forum, Getting the camera repaired can be as expensive as buying a new or good second hand one, black screen could mean the ccd/cmos is gone but may be something a little cheaper and easier to repair, you could send it in for a estimate and hopefully get it fixed and have money left over for a lens ?
Their is many good brands new and used, i statred with nikon then canon then pentax and now back to nikon (and happy) I would not say one is better than the other, its what fits your hands and style of shooting.


good luck

[silversnapper1]

As nikorman said, ther is no harm in sending the camera in for a quotaion for repair as long as that quotation is free. The D80 is the predecessor to the D90 so it should sit in your hand just as easily. I have both and love them to bits but it is always down to personal preference and feel. If you don't like the feel of the camera, you will not enjoy your photography.

[KeithT]

It's a difficult call isn't it? Being of the age where I grew up with the 'make do and mend it' philosophy I would be tempted to get it fixed. However, the speed of change with today's technology doesn't always make sense of this attitude. You might just as well toss a coin to get your answer, because mending isn't the philosophy of manufacturers these days and they price things accordingly. Sometimes it is cheaper to throw away old technology and buy new. It's a shame, but you have to ask why your family member didn't go the route of fix it themselves. Buy new is my advice.

[pburness]

Buy new - it was your decision until offered the Nikon. If you have the Nikon mended you will probably ougrow it and end up replacing it at some point anyway.

Phil

[sadiqabsar]

Thanks for the responses. In no particular order:

- The D80/D90 both fit perfectly in the hand. When I'm holding I can have a solid hold on the body and the finger just falls directly on the shutter release. I never considered these before because they were too expensive. It was sort of a trade off as the budget is limited and the one thing the 'lower end' camera's all had in common were that they were a tad too small for my hand. Now I'm certainly no giant, but it feels as though I am only holding onto the body with my fingers and not 'holding' it.

- Believe it or not, my nephew was given two D80's by a very kind teacher at school when she realised that he was into photography. Didn't think people like that existed anymore! :-) So it sort of came out of nowhere.

- I came across a web site (http://www.sendeancameras.co.uk/) who say they do free verbal estimates. I was planning on taking the camera there but have no idea on how reliable they are or how good their service is. Has anyone used them before?

- I'm hesitant to spend more on a new D90, for example, as I don't want to spend so much and then find that I don't use it as much as I think I am going to right now. It is a lot of money.....

- ... but if I do decide that that's the best option (purely because of the 'fit' of the camera body) then it brings a whole load of other camera's into the mix - Pentax K7/5, and prob a Canon one too. I think if I had to go halfway on the size issue, the closest I have seen is the D500.

The shops don't make it easy to chose anything but Canikon - I have only found one Pentax model in the shops - that was a K-x in, believe it or not, Currys. No chance of it being charged up for a proper test though - that's just being silly. ;-)

What would you recommend for max spend to get the D80 to full working order before buying a new camera becomes the better option?


I really appreciate the feedback.
Sadiq

[Sue Allen]

I've used these people in the past http://www.hlehmann.co.uk/index.html if you use the form provided on their site and send all the details of your faults they may be able to give you a few pointers as to the cause of the problem and likely costs. How many shutter actuations does it have. If it's had low use it would be more worthwhile repairing it than if it's 'high meleage'.
The D80 is a pretty old camera now in DSLR terms - nothing wrong with that but newer models tend to perform better in low light etc. The D90 was, for me at least, a much better camera [did'nt keep either of my D80s for very long] and can still stand up well against newer models especially when it comes to upping the ISO. The lower end models do tend to be smaller - D80/90 are somewhere in the middle size wise.

[sadiqabsar]

Thanks Sue. I hadn't thought about # of shutter presses at all - a very valid point. I'll check once I get hold of the body but is there a manufacturer stated lifespan for this sort of thing?

Is there anything else that I should (and would be able to) check? I know one thing I do like about the mid range camera's is the LCD on the top where the core settings are always visible. For me, this is one of the reasons (other than size) I'm considering the repair - to get that on a new camera does cost a lot more. However, this may just be inexperience talking - do you find the top LCD very useful?

I called up Sendean cameras and their work is guaranteed for three months - so that does help. As soon as I get a chance I'll take it down there and get an estimate as the only thing I have to lose is a bit of free time.

Although very new to it all, I've spent many (MANY) hours reading up on and learning about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, reciprocity, dof etc etc and have enjoyed it immensly. I now see a photo in a magazine and think "I know how they did that....." - it's such a good feeling to have learnt so much in such a short space of time. But now I want to put in the time (as much as I can) to try and take some good shots myself.

[Sue Allen]

These days it tends to be 100,000 life cycle for lower /mid range up to 250,000 for higher up models - that's simply the manufacturers guide for the expected life to cover themselves. Some fail earlier others just keep on going to double or more the guide life.
Top lcd is a bit of an essential for me as I've been used to one since film days and the first modern SLRs.

[Sue Allen]

Worth a look
http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/ViewPro...%20Body%20Only