Only $12 for the camera and $10 for the shipping? That seemed low. Oh, but the seller had no battery for it and couldn’t test it. Estate dispersal. Well, all right then. I’ll take a risk on a Canon EOS 350D with an 18-55 EFS IS USM kit lens that looks to be in excellent nick from the photos. Besides, my BP-511 batteries I have for my other bodies would fit it.
The short story is the camera arrived, it looks as good as it did in the photos, and it worked. The surprise was that the camera takes NL-7 batteries, not BP-511. The 350D is the 2004 successor to the wildly popular 300D released in 2003, and Canon made some tweaks including a much smaller form factor meaning a smaller battery. Happily, NL-7s are also used in the Canon G7 and I have one of those plus some batteries for it. I was up and running.
The very first image I made using it is of the Tom Sadler Bridge, naturally. An annual annoyance for me is that Western Irrigation District (WID) turns off the water in our canals in town on Octobober 1st, every year. The tree by the bridge takes another week to turn yellow, so I never get nice reflection shots of it. It makes me nuts.
I headed north to Gray Park for my lunch hour and had some a blast working the fall colours. The 350D is much more responsive than my original 300D dSLR was. I had also forgotten what a relatively decent macro lens the 18-55mm kit lens is.
This camera is a steal for the price. It has plenty of life left in it and it makes great images. I’m going to have fun playing with it more in the future.
Images made using a Canon EOS 350D with the Canon 18-55mm EFS IS USM kit lens.