This is a question I was asked at a hobby club when I was seen using an older camera. It was doing the job brilliantly, but when the questioner learned that the design is some 9 years old all credibility seemed to vanish. He'd bought a new camera last year, and while he had not learned how to operate it yet, he felt that surely it must be better. When I told him I had bought mine as new, old stock when a replacement was being sold he called me a madman.
I was so pleased...that's the nicest thing that someone has said to me for years. But the whole question did beg a real answer. Why buy older gear?
a. It is cheaper. Cameras and lenses are expensive, though not in comparison to designer handbags and shoes from shops at the top end of Collins Street. If you can get good service at a lower price you are often wise to take it ...and save your money for shoes.
b. It is proven. New models are fully supported by their makers, but sometimes that support comes in the form of bug fixes, updates, and apologies from the CEO of the factory. Older cameras may have had these, but they are mostly past and all is serene.
c. It is often better built. Ooh, that one will case howls in the design bureaux. But often the older camera from a maker will have been made with more metal and less plastic and not depend upon glues and ultrasonic welding to keep it together. It may well be serviceable where a newer product is only replaceable.
d. It may be closer to what the user is comfortable with. I am an older photographer and used rangefinder and SLR film cameras. Indeed I grew up on rollfilm cameras with scale focussing. I remember how to turn dials and lens rings and expect to do so now.
e. It may be there - on the shelf - where the promised replacement isn't. Shipping troubles, manufacturing troubles, importing troubles...they have all been cited as reasons that the new is delayed. if you need to do it now, you may well have to do it with what is there - now.
f. All the accessories that second and third-party manufacturers make for the camera are already made and ready to go. Ditto the lenses. You can move through the camera shop filling your trolley. The staff thoroughly approve.
g. Other people have experience with the older gear. This can be accessed through YouTube, internet sites, printed books, or seminars. Club members will tell you what happens when you press button B. You benefit from the combined experience of hundreds, if not thousands, of users. Some will still spout hooey, but most will tell the truth.
h. Some older cameras and lenses may have features that have been sheared off the newer designs - in the case of the heading image the Fujifilm X-E2 has a flash that pops up on a pantograph arm. This was removed with the subsequent X-E3 and
X-E4, but is a feature I frequently use. I would miss it buying an upgraded model.
