For sale is a Canon 50D + 24-105L IS lens that is in very good condition. The 50D has had less than 10,000 shutter actuation's (the rated shutter life is over 100,000 actuation's).
Cosmetically, the kit looks near new at very first glance, but on closer inspection you will notice there is some minor damage to the paint work - I've photographed the worst of it here. Additionally the rear grip had a piece of tape on it that I removed and this has left a mark. The lens has a tiny nick in the lens mount O-Ring which is not large enough to effect the weather seal.
The 50D is an excellent performer for astro-photography. Well known French astronomer Christian Buil extensively tested the 40D, 50D, 5D and 5D mark 2 a couple of years ago and found the 50D had the highest per pixel sensitivity of all those cameras (see this
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/50d/test.htm ). You can also do live-view tethered control off a laptop using USB or firewire which is really cool! It does not have the video functionality of the current 60D, but does have higher frame rate, a full magnesium body, lens AF micro-adjustment and a host of other features not available in the 60D.
The original boxes are gone, but instead I will be providing a camera bag that fits this camera and lens together. Additionally I will be providing a 4GB memory card with the sale.
The pic's attached show the camera and lens from 3 views. Because of weather here, not much astrophotography has been possible but I have provided here a 2 samples from this 50D and 24-105 Lens. The first image is Eta Carinae with an 8" F7 telescope and is just 4 x 30 second exposures stacked. The second is a single ISO1600 16 second shot using the 50D + 24-105 lens mounted on a fixed tripod.
$980 + shipping.
Terry
