*Things To Look For*

If the 300D will meet your needs, and I suspect that it will from what you have said, I would consider putting a Wanted To Buy (WTB) in this Marketplace forum here, photo.net, and on FredMiranda.com.

I've purchased a lot of gear on these forums from knowledgeable and good folks with discounts ranging from 20-45% off of list for practically new equipment. Fredmiranda is a high traffic site, and you'll get plenty of bites within an hour or so, but make sure to check the feedback threads before purchasing. Photo.net is also very good and has a comprehensive feedback mechanism with revision history for all ads. The Marketplace here is not as "fast" but you'll get quality folks with a good reputation on this community. This is the only way I know of buying used equipment at a reasonable rate.

You should be able to get a reasonably used 300D for $450 US or $590 AUD for body only if you are patient.

Let us know what you end up getting.

Must not be much of a "friend" if he's going to profit 120au from you. I know that my friends would not make me pay more for an item that they're just going to pass along to me. Unless there's something that I'm not picking up on.

There's nothing wrong in buying a second-hand camera as long as you know what you're getting. Remember that there is no warranty (normally) on a used camera.

Enjoy your dRebel 300D - I love mine.

thanks guys, big help. i'll definately post up some WTB threads. -
1 more question (i'm a question asker since i could talk :S)
if anyone has the time or knowledge, could you do me a favour and tell me the outdated DSLR's that canon made? i was only looking at the 300D because it's the first DSLR i found in my price range..
whats a D60? :S i saw one of those pretty cheap.

If you find a 10D, it would be much nicer than the 300D. Better built and not software "cripled".
Other then that, the sensor is the same.

"Older" Consumer Grade bodies in order of desirability:

1. 10D
2. D60
3. 300D
4. D30

If you can get a good use 10D for a great price, I'd jump on that over a 300D.

I agree with the above sentiment, and Ridata cards aren't expensive. Try Renura from www.powerinnumbers.com​.au, I think I paid $120 for my 1GB 80x a few months ago now.

D30's and D60's are good cameras to start with,it may mean you can afford more money on really good lenses you can use when you upgrade the body.
Just use them to test and train yourself.

A real friend would take you to the "Professional" - introduce you - then step back.

300D is all you'll need for at least a year - then move on.

As for the 300D...eh. Far too limited for me. I love my XT. As for CF cards...a 512 mb card in my xt shooting large jpeg's...that'll only get me about 100 pictures. That's nonsense if you ask me. For some, that's enough. I shoot weddings fairly often, though. Personally, I need to be able to get a solid 1,000 shots in to be happy. that means a 4 gig CF for me. My SanDisk Ultra II 4 GB CF was about $450 US. Yeah, it's a lot..but that's what I need! I get about 1150 pictures on that card. Oh, and as for brands? I use only SanDisk. They're great.

I'd say using one large card to hold all your wedding shots is risky. What if something went wrong with that one card. You'd have no pictures. I'd suggest several medium cards. A 300D will store 157 large/fine jpeg or approx 60 RAW. I personally use 2 - 512 meg cards.

Here is the price range you should be going for (convert range to your equivilant)
based on BH used prices:
10D body $800 US
D60 body $660 US
300D w/18-55 kit lens $600 US (knock about $70-90 US off for body only)
No D30's available - they are good cameras, but I would avoid because they don't meet what I consider to be the minimum resolution needed to supplant a 35mm film camera.

These are for cameras in good condition with few if any marks.
I would use the above to judge any ebay prices (as in don't pay more then this amount)

If you can get a used 350D (rebelXT) for about 10D price it should be a good value given the extra pixels and slightly better noise reduction, but the 10D is an overall better camera for multi-purpose use.

As to other stuff. I highly recommend having two CF cards (never just one), the largest I recommend for the D60/10D/300D series is a 1GB CF card. I can recommend the standard Sandisk cards for this. Note that I used several 256MB CF cards to good effect for the past few years until last November, when I upgraded.

Scratches on body of D60, 10D, or 20D are not as big of a deal as scratches on 300D or 350D, the first three are designed to take a bit more abuse. But scratches will also show up more easily on the silver bodies of the 300/350D.

hope that helps a bit.

thanks guys, i've decided on a 300D for 550us (720au), plus 50ish to get it here, and that comes without a CF card
BUT, it's like new, the lens' has hardly been touched, and it comes with EVERYTHING that standard would, only 1 year old.

i'm fairly happy, i'm paying him today/tomorrow, so this time next week i MIGHT be running around looking for things to photograph.
thats if i can sell some stuff off to buy some CF cards and pay for the postage

Maybe not huge, but I've made 12X18" of about a 85% crop, & they're great! If you choose your shots instead of shotgunning, the "slow shooting for sports" shouldn't be a big factor.

Not true. It will track in the other modes, too. There's a thread on that somewhere, but see if these are good enough for you:

RSE has some very good noise reduction tools built in if you shoot RAW.
Enjoy the 300D, Matt. When you can, put some $s into good glass & you should be happy with it.

MattyB wrote:
thanks guys, i've decided on a 300D for 550us (720au), plus 50ish to get it here, and that comes without a CF card
BUT, it's like new, the lens' has hardly been touched, and it comes with EVERYTHING that standard would, only 1 year old.

i'm fairly happy, i'm paying him today/tomorrow, so this time next week i MIGHT be running around looking for things to photograph.
thats if i can sell some stuff off to buy some CF cards and pay for the postage

You'll be happy with your choice, I'm sure.

Re the CF card, my advice is: - buy 1 GB card at least. That will give you some 155 RAW Photos.
oh yeah...shoot RAW!

Frank, Wonderful pictures in that "example"!