I just wanted to share an amazing find I picked up yesterday. My wife likes to frequent the second-hand stores (or thrift stores) and when I go, I always check the electronics section. I never expect to find much, but sometimes I’ll run across a decent tripod.

Well yesterday I scored a big win! I’m scanning across the section with old wifi routers and didn’t even notice it at first… a DSLR camera with lens just sitting there bare on the shelf. Checking it over, it’s a Canon Rebel T5i (I already have a T4i so this is great for me as a backup camera) with an 18-135mm Canon lens. The battery is dead, no way to check functionality but visually the body is in great shape with hardly any signs of use. The mirror appears clean, no corrosion on the battery, the buttons and selector work smoothly. The lens also appears pretty good, except for one small ding on the front glass and all elements appear to be moving smoothly. And the whole thing is marked for only $25! For that price I couldn’t pass it up, I knew I could sell the lens alone for more than that.

Once home I plugged in a battery and memory card, and it powered up with no sign of problems. Took some test shots, and as expected the small dings on the glass don’t appear to affect anything (although it might catch a glint if I use it outdoors in the sunlight). I went through the motions of resetting the camera, upgraded the firmware and installed Magic Lantern, and discovered the shutter has half the clicks of my existing body. This just keeps getting better and better! A dark shot showed some stuck pixels, but a manual sensor cleaning cleared those. I mean, I can’t find anything wrong here. I’m going to take it outside over the weekend and collect a bunch of shots to see if any problems show up, but I’m feeling really good that I now have a backup camera I can set up with a different lens to use during a shoot.

Anyway, I wanted to share my good fortune and remind others to always keep your eyes open, you never know what you might miss.

tl;dr: Found a working body and lens compatible with my existing camera for only $25 – Score!

[Update] One of the pictures I took today… Dried garlic flowers hanging over the edge of my small pond. A quick scan of the image on the computer still shows a few hot pixels but you have to look closely to find them. And some shots directly at the setting sun did not highlight any glinting from the lens defect. Overall I’m a happy camper!