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£500 Used Challenge Throwback Thursday

Welcome to Throwback Thursday where each week, we take a look at some of the older, different and more interesting items in our used department and what you can do with them.

This week, we've set ourselves a challenge; What kind of camera and lens setup can we create with a £500 budget and how much change will we have left over?

The Setups

We asked some of our staff to look through our used section and pick out a camera and lens setup for £500 or less. As it turns out, there’s a lot of variety depending on the kind of photography you want to be shooting.

We ended up with two kits, a Canon kit and a Fujifilm kit.

The Canon Kit

Body: Canon 5D £219

Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 £59

Total Cost: £338

Change left over: £162

Our first kit gives you a full frame camera with a 12MP resolution. Even with that lower resolution, you’re still going to be able to get some really nice pictures. We’ve paired it with the Canon 50mm f1.8 STM lens which is a great all rounder lens.

For someone looking to get into photography, it’s a great option because it’s easier to shoot in lowlight with that large maximum aperture and you’ll also be able to incorporate bokeh into your shots and get that lovely, blurred background.

Taking this kit out and about, the photos we were able to capture were lovely. I was pleasantly surprised by the dynamic range, since this is an older camera, I wasn’t sure how that would perform but it’s particularly good.

Using the 50mm f1.8 STM lens for portraits, we were able to blur out the background of portraits and capture some lovely out of focus areas.

The Fujifilm Kit

Body: Fujifilm X-T10 £209
Lens: Fujfilm XC 15-45mm f3.5-5.6 £119

Total Cost: £368

Change left over: £132

Our second kit is a much smaller setup with a mirrorless camera and a zoom lens giving more versatility for how you want to shoot. It’s a newer camera so you’ve got features like face detect autofocus and an EVF.

I was actually surprised by how nice the electronic viewfinder looks. Considering this model came out in 2015, it holds up particularly well.

The size and weight of this setup makes it a perfect everyday camera or travel system and the zoom lens gives you more versatility for how you want to shoot. It’s not as fast as the Canon setup so you’re not getting as much bokeh in your shots but the tradeoff is that versatility in the zoom range.

Both kits provided a great shooting experience and were actually quite different to shoot with. You’ve got the smaller Fujifilm setup which is perfect for travel and everyday use while the Canon setup gives you a full frame sensor and a nice, fast lens that allows you to capture some lovely bokeh. Even better, both setups leave you with a decent amount of change that you can use on accessories, a camera bag, strap or perhaps something non photographic.

You can watch our whole video at the top of this page and check out our used department yourself here.

Gear used to shoot this video:

Sony A7 III

Sony 24-70mm f2.8 GM Lens

Canon 5D (Used)

Canon 50mm f1.8 STM (Used)

Fujifilm X-T10 (Used)

Fujifilm XC15-45mm f3.5-5.6 (Used)

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By Park Cameras on 03/12/2021