Canon 7d with 12K shutter count, should I pull the trigger?

[CaptainAwesome]

Not sure if the sticky's message means I should just beware of too-good-to-be-true, or that this isn't the place to post messages like this. I'll take it down if it's the latter.

I have the chance to buy a used 7d body only with ~12,000 shutter activations for $1100. I haven't seen it yet, but the reported condition is excellent. Looking around google, I can only find instances of 7d bodies going for ~1300 but with <1000 shutter counts.

Too good to be true? Or should I jump on it? The seller wants to upgrade, apparently.

[dlambert]

That seems pretty competitive, but you're going to have to judge the specifics yourself. If you can see it, that's great.

When it comes to non-new equipment, the safest is probably a refurb from someone like Adorama. Local sales give you the advantage of seeing the equipment in person, and ebay gives you the advantage of seeing seller reputation and having some of the buyer protection options they give you.

Ultimately, you're deciding if it's worth saving some money in exchange for these risks. Having said that, though, you'd be saving a pretty fair bit of change compared to buying new.

[RichardTaylor]

I can't comment on the price, However 12,000 actuations is not a lot.

[inkista]

Does anybody else think of shutter actuation numbers like mileage on a used car? (i.e., that this would be like a car with 12,000 miles on it. As Richard says, it's not much.)

[dlambert]

Originally Posted by inkista

Does anybody else think of shutter actuation numbers like mileage on a used car? (i.e., that this would be like a car with 12,000 miles on it. As Richard says, it's not much.)

I never thought about it that way, but that's not a bad way of looking at it.