Just thought I’d post this here.
It’s from the ebay Canon outlet (which is run by a different company on their behalf).
It says ‘refurbished’, but they have lots available, which usually means from this store that they’ll come new.

1 year warranty.

Anyone wanting to get into photography or making mini-movies probably can’t do better for the price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-EOS-600D-DSLR-Camera-18-55mm-II-Lens-Refurbished-/290794683182?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item43b4b6bb2e

Bargain.

Shame I can’t afford just yet.

I bought my first Canon dSLR from them.

It’s didn’t work.

To be fair, they sorted it quickly, but I think a lot of ‘refurbished’ products are faulty returns that are simply switched on and off again to see if they ‘work’.

T’is a bargain though.

I’ve seen some people say that the best thing to do with warranties from there is to deal with Canon direct rather than the Outlet Store.
I have no personal experience though.

I always assume that when they get large batches in like this, that it’s some large store returning the lot. The majority of people seem to report that everything is new sealed.

Dammit, went into jessops today to have a fiddle about with one, got home and they’re all sold out 🙁

Is this something they have fairly often or not worth waiting for the next one and get one at £399?

They’ve gone back on at £350 for the body-only.
Might be worth considering, if you fancy upgrading your walkabout lens anyway.
You could get that body and a Canon 50mm f1.8 and play about for a while and see what takes your fancy.
That’s what I did.
Ended up buying a Tamron 17-50mm (for £250) as my general lens.

(edit available for £219 here: http://www.digitalrev.com/product/tamron-sp-af-17-50mm/MzQxNQ_A_A)

Miles better than the kit lens (which is worth about £40 second hand).

See they have a 1000d with the kit lens and a 75-300mm lens for £329! That seems a great deal.

I always worry about these ‘entry’ lenses though Will.

I was never even remotely happy with my (non IS) kit lens. All the time required at the computer processing just felt a bit unsatisfactory when the images were very so-so.

Can the images really be that bad?

Not that bad, no, I’m probably overstating but not what I was looking for coming from a good compact. I felt like I had to process heavily to overcome the shortcomings.

As soon as I got the nifty fifty, my faith was restored 🙂

That same evening, I went out and shot this:

Bleak Bluebell by tryingtimes, on Flickr

—

Whereas these are the only shots I did with the kit lens that I bothered posting:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=7977606@N06&q=kitlens

I felt like I had to process heavily to overcome the shortcomings.

Process how?

Did you see the ones in the link above? That sort of thing. I was just never very happy.
Maybe I’m just a DoF junkie 🙂

They were ok. They were so small I couldn’t see if there was detail or not. A fair bit of flare in that trees one.

Not having a large aperture isn’t really a fault of the lens. And anyway it looks like the way you took those shots was responsible for the deep DoF.

Why exactly were you not happy with those images? (curious)

See they have a 1000d with the kit lens and a 75-300mm lens for £329! That seems a great deal.

A £350 600d wipes the floor with it though.
There’s a few places with them at that price now. One Stop Digital for starters, and they are brilliant. I’ve used them 3-4 times now, last week I ordered Sunday evening and it arrived on Tuesday. Less than 48hrs from Hong Kong? Fine by me! 🙂

Those ones were the only ones I was happy with,
It’s a few years ago now, so it’s hard to remember exactly, but I had young children and I just didn’t feel it was right to keep taking once-in-a-lifetime shots with average results.

Hmm.. I’ve never felt unhappy with my kit lens… in fact I often use it because it’s a useful zoom range 🙂

To be fair, my kit lens wasn’t very good either. It was alright I suppose but there was a noticeable improvement switching to my (now very well used) Sigma 17-70 f2.8.
Faster, lots sharper, quicker to focus, far better made………

I don’t think the kit Canon would have stood up to being crashed on and thrown down a road from knee hight at 15mph….. 🙂

molgrips – Member

Hmm.. I’ve never felt unhappy with my kit lens… in fact I often use it because it’s a useful zoom range

They’re not Canon though are they 😉
To be fair, this was the kit lens without IS which got universally panned.
Scores at the time on photozone.de:
Optical Quality: 1.5/5
Mechanical Quality: 1/5
Price/Performance: 2/5

Compared to the current IS one:
Optical Quality: 3.5/5
Mechanical Quality: 2/5
Price/Performance: 5/5 !!!

In all fairness I haven’t bought a zoom in the same range as my kit lens. It’s part of my expenditure control measures. There’s a supposedly amazing 12-60mm f2.8 but it’s £600 and much heavier than mine.

I’ve got a couple of primes in that range but they don’t get used as much as the kit.

Alex.. holy cow that is a panning 🙂

As soon as I got the nifty fifty, my faith was restored

They can’t be beaten. Mine was £55 a few years ago, I don’t use it often but, boy, is that a SHARP lens. Wonderful tone to the pics too 🙂

Faffing around with it in a hotel the first day I had it (Straight off the camera, not even cropped)

IMG_1381 by PeterPoddy, on Flickr

Or how about buying my old Canon 350d over there on the classifieds! Couldn’t resist!
Make me an offer.

There’s just 2 £350 refurbs turned up on the site again today:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-EOS-600D-DSLR-Camera-18-55mm-II-Lens-Refurbished-/281009928501?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item416d7f3935

Nice one! Thanks AlexSimon.

Now, would anyone like my Canon 450D?!

No worries. I’ll repeat a tip I heard. Deal with Canon directly for warranty, not Digital River (unless it’s a problem with the sale).

Kit lenses get a bad press.

Sure, compared to an L-series beast costing a grand they’re rubbish, but as general purpose walkabout glass there’s really nothing wrong with them. Even though I’ve got others now, my humble 18-55 is still the lens that spends the most time on my camera day to day.

I’d say ignore the snobbery; by the time you’ve outgrown the kit lens you’ll almost certainly know exactly what it is you do want.

Or how about buying my old Canon 350d over there on the classifieds! Couldn’t resist!
Make me an offer.

I’ve been watching that. It’s well overpriced mate, sorry to say. £150 buys a 400D with kit lens these days, yours is worth £125-ish

Just bought one of the 600d’s on Sunday at 399 with 1200 nectar points and 5er cashback from TCB. Good deal I thought, until the camera arrived with a spare battery and a remote! Bonus. Looked split new too. Awesome bit of kit and am delighted with it.