I believe if a camera was good many years ago, it is still a good camera today. As a photographer I am also infinitely curious about any camera, whether old or new. It is no secret that my small photography business does not allow me the luxury to buy all the latest, greatest and most expensive gear. I do need a consistent stream of content for my YouTube to grow the channel, hence the viable option is to look for older gear in the used marketplace. Using these older gears not only provided me with more content to be made for my socials but also, they are incredibly fun to use! This way, I do not need to break the bank to acquire new (old) gear, and after I am done with my review, there is always an option to resell this used gear to recover some cost.
The thing about YouTube, as I have mentioned earlier, you need to feed the algorithm with frequent updates. Initially I used to make two new videos every week. When I was coming out from the pandemic business void, of course I had some time to spare making as many videos as I wanted. However, as my photography business slowly recovered and I spent a huge chunk of my time week after week taking in jobs, shooting, editing, networking, having business meetings, etc, the time available for making content has also shrunk. I now make one new video every week, with one Live Stream, which was not too bad, as I have saved plenty of time from editing the video. The solution of not getting new gear all the time, was to look at older gear, which of course, is lot more affordable.
Finding gear in the used market has a lot to do with luck. If you are extremely lucky you can buy an almost new camera with low shutter count for just the price of few cups of coffee. Many sellers will intentionally inflate the prices, and negotiating the prices is a norm in Malaysia, you don't pay full price, you bargain with the seller for the price that both parties agree. I have bought so many cameras and lenses from the used market that I am happy to have used them to make so many blog articles and YouTube videos over the past few years.
There will always be a risk buying items used. I have had a dead-on arrival camera, a camera that died after the first use, and many more stories. Understanding the risk and not being bent out of shape when bad things happen is also critical in buying from the used market. I consider myself fortunate to have high ratio of good purchases vs the problematic ones. You can't avoid the few bad eggs; they just happen and sometimes it is nobody's fault.
I intentionally would find older cameras or lenses that have a strong story to tell, as I am making content for YouTube. It is not as easy as using any cheap, used gear and successfully spinning out a high-quality content out of it. A good example is my purchase of a D600. That camera looks so out of shape, had been abused over the years with crazy high shutter count, but still 100% fully functional with no damage or fault. D600 was the only consumer level camera that was banned in China, and perhaps the only camera ever banned by any country. That interesting nugget of information made the camera extremely attractive as a content piece - something I can talk about rather than just the gear itself. Story is very, very important,
A few other examples would be - E-M5, the first mirrorless camera to revolutionize the industry, Canon 5D, the first true consumer level full frame DSLR, or Olympus E-P1, the first Micro Four Thirds camera from Olympus. There must be something special about the camera or lens to talk about. Another example would be why everyone hated the Pentax K-01 so much, the controversial camera design and slow operation were good talking points.
I can't just buy any gear or whatever I can find in the market, I do have to be more selective of the content that I choose to make. But hey, so far it has been fun! You will see me playing with old cameras and lenses more and more from now onward.
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