Any Qualms Buying Canon Refurb' Products?

[conropl]

You should write for TV shows....that is the best cliff hanger of the season. What is your next purchase???? 1DX II??? 5DsR??? The Hasselblad MF mirrorless

5DS R

I do not shoot sports anymore (kids are grown up), and I do not do a lot of BIF anymore. So there is no real good reason to have the rapid fire 1DX anymore. I do mostly landscape and I want to do more portraits, so this camera makes more sense. I also like the smaller package to haul around, and I won't miss the "hay look at me and my enormous camera"... although I still haul my giant tripod everywhere. However, I will miss the low light shooting capability (night shots), A/F, the spot metering that follows the a/f points (I really like that), the built-in / stiff grip with redundant controls, and the seldom talked about viewfinder shutter (I use it a fare amount). I can learn to live without all of that with the exception of the low light shooting, but I think if I can get a decent shot at ISO 6400, and then down sample it, I may be able to get to something comparable to the 18 Mp 1DX. I will have to check that out right away.

I bought a 24-105mm F/4L, and T1i refurb. Both arrived in like-new condition, but I also don't have either one any more, and that's worth pointing out.

I was one of the few here who didn't like the 24-105mm, finding it a bit soft. Not sure if it was normal copy-to-copy variation, or typical for a crop sensor user, but I wasn't happy with it. I have no idea if it ended up being refurb because somebody else found it soft and returned it, or if I'm just picky.

My T1i always seemed fine, but AI Servo couldn't keep up with the dogs, and so we upgraded to a 7D. While this did give a boost to tracking, the 7D was also surprisingly much sharper. I'm not sure if that was due to advancements like micro-lenses on the sensor, or if my particular T1i happened to be softer than usual, so once again, I'm not sure if my experience is typical for a T1i to 7D switch, or if the refurb T1i was unusually soft.

These doubts have prevented me from buying any more refurb gear.

As for the warranty, is that new? Canon and partners used to offer only 90 day warranties on refurbs, with Adorama being the exception, offering a full year on Canon-refurbished products.

Not sure how good the T1i was, but I did not think the 7D was that good until one of the firmware changes came. I am not sure what they did, but it was like I had a totally different camera. The A/F started working better and my shots seemed so much better. I took some crap for daring to say the A/F was not that consistent, but it did get better or at least covered up a flaw in my technique with the fw change. I still do not understand what changed. If I remember correctly, you came to the 7D well into it's life cycle, and it would have already been upgraded. So my guess is it was better than the T1i... it was way better than my xTi.

You comments regarding your experience with refurb's are what worries me. Basically, I am getting someones return. However, since the 5DS R is fairly new and Canon allows CPS Gold and Platinum members to try out equipment for free, I would assume there was a lot of folks testing the new high MP camera and/or trying 5DS R vs 5DS to see which they want. So I imagine there are a lot of perfectly good cameras that were just trial cameras that get returned... at least I hope so. It is hard to throw away $700. I hope I did not make a bad decision.

Thank you both for the input. I just purchased it with an extra battery.

Pat

[Kayaker72]

5DS R

Congrats!

From everything I have heard, excellent camera.