Some cameras age like fine wine. Others age like milk. You can find bargains, quirky relics, or outright junk, and knowing the difference matters if you want to avoid wasting money. Buying older digital cameras can be a gamble, but if you know what to look for, you can walk away with gear that still produces solid images without draining your wallet.
Coming to you from Prickly Pear Camera, this entertaining video shows a haul of cameras picked up in one trip and runs through which ones still work and which ones are headed for the parts bin. The Canon Rebel T5 makes an appearance in its less common red body, and it’s in great condition with low signs of wear. Pair it with a decent lens and you’ve got a camera that still delivers clean images at a fraction of the cost of a modern DSLR. On the other end, there’s a Rebel XS with a lens so mangled it looks like half of it went missing. The body still works, but the lens is worthless.
The video also highlights why mirrorless and point and shoot cameras can be hit or miss. An Olympus EPL1 with a sticky grip still powers on and works with its 17mm pancake lens, a setup that remains useful for street photography. The grip issue is annoying but fixable. In contrast, a Kodak EasyShare is completely dead on arrival, which is common for that line.
Bridge cameras, those chunky models sitting between point and shoots and DSLRs, also get attention. A Canon PowerShot SX60 with its 65x zoom still runs smoothly, producing surprisingly strong results for long-distance shots. The video points out, though, that at extreme focal lengths you’ll need a tripod unless you want shaky images. Then there’s the Panasonic FZ200, one of the earlier bridge cameras to feature Leica glass, which still holds up. It even powers on with no major sensor issues, though it does have dead pixels on the LCD. That’s the trade-off with older cameras: you may get solid optics with a screen that makes you squint.
Toward the end, there are more finds ranging from forgotten Nikons to Fujifilm’s FinePix S9000, which still feels satisfying with its manual zoom despite its age. Some of these cameras retain more value than you might expect, while others are practically e-waste. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
