I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for a bargain.
When one of my former students Michael Lambert emailed me about Canon’s Customer Loyalty program, I was skeptical but I had to look into it.
Did I need a newer camera body? Not really, but I had been looking for a DSLR with video capability for quite some time.
If you follow this blog, you might have read my trusty Powershot G3 headed to its happy-picture-hunting ground recently.
Even though it was a Point-and-shoot camera, it had video recording capability.
So does its replacement, the Powershot G11 which I bought recently.
So how long was I expected to do without video on my DSLR?
I love my workhorse 40D, but it is almost 3 years old and doesn’t have video capability.
If I wasn’t teaching, I would be alright with just stills.
After all, I have to justify every purchase I make, if not to myself, then surely to the general or the Chief Financial Officer of the house.
Here’s the step-by-step if you’re interested in following this fool jumpstart the economy
- Visit Canon’s refurbished camera page to check the DSLR you want is in stock. If it is, get the serial number of your trade in Powershot camera ready.
- Call 1-866-443-8002 (At prompt choose Option 2)
- Tell them you’re interested in upgrading and buying one of the refurbished cameras (subject to stock in hand)
- Canon will require you to give them the serial number of your trade-in camera
- Provide your credit card number, address and other details, complete the purchase
- When your upgraded camera (in my case 5DMark2 ) arrives, you ship your trade in camera (my dead powershot G3) in the supplied box, shipping paid by Canon.
My Trade-in Camera
I paid close to $500 for my Powershot G3 when it was new.
I was ready to chuck it into the electronic junk heap. Imagine my delight when I saw not only was the refurbished 5DMark 2 a good deal at $2,099, by sending them my dead G3, I was getting $419.80 Â back !
It’s almost too good to be true, isn’t it? The final damage? $1934.88 for the body and a spare battery.
The first time I called Canon to look into this, the best DSLR they had was a refurbished Canon 50D–not an improvement over my 40D, so asked if I could be placed on a waiting list.
The lady on the other end said, all I can do is call back and check or bookmark the following page to see their stock of refurbished cameras.
http://tinyurl.com/2avb2kq
So what you are guys especially those here in the US waiting for?
Canon 5DMark 2 on the way!
My Canon 5D Mark 2 supposedly shipped and should be here on Wednesday. By the way, I also ordered a spare battery because what else? “Without batteries, all you’ve got is a ugly ……
Now I’ll have to pinch my pennies and buy 16GB compact flash cards as well. I’ll probably need at least 4 of these bad boys. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.