I might get in a bit of trouble with Wex’s commercial team for this one — but I must live my truth. I’ve bought a fair few cameras, lenses and photographic accessories over the years, and I have never paid sticker price for a single one of them.
People ask me quite often for camera recommendations, and I invariably follow up with one question and one recommendation. The question is: “What’s your budget?” (because they for some reason never think to mention it) and the recommendation is: “You know, you could squeeze a lot more juice out of that budget by shopping second-hand.”
I admit it — I’m a second-hand addict. I love it. Even when I’m not actively shopping, I love scrolling the listings with an eye out for particularly tempting deals, which are changing every day. Cameras that have shot magazine covers, competition winners and some of the most iconic photos ever taken can be picked up for a fraction of their original price. Lenses too!
I also happen to think the second-hand market for photo gear is one of the best and most robust around. As long as you buy from a reputable retailer, you can be sure that your gear will have been checked over by a professional to ensure that it is in good working order. You’ll also get a limited warranty (Wex’s is 12 months) on your gear, guaranteeing that if a fault does develop, a professional will fix it, or give you a refund if it proves unfixable. You won’t get either of those things on eBay, and you definitely will not get them from the psychopaths on Facebook Marketplace.
It’s not just about saving money. Buying used electronic equipment is a much more sustainable choice than buying off the shelf, and an excellent way to lessen your environmental and ethical impact. Less materials used, less labour involved, less carbon emissions. All good things.
Of course, this approach won’t be for everybody. While I have sold photographs for money and have undertaken the odd paid-for photographic assignment, I am by no means a professional photographer. None of my trusty second-hand cameras have AI-powered subject-recognition autofocus, five-axis image stabilisation or a megapixel count in excess of 30MP. I don’t need those things for the kind of work that I undertake — but others, of course, do.
To really get value for money out of second-hand camera gear, you have to be comfortable being at least five years behind the curve. Buying a second-hand Canon EOS R5 Mark II, for instance, is not a meaningfully different expenditure from buying a brand new one — the used ones currently tend to go for around £4,100, down from a ticket price of £4,499. If you’re getting a £4K camera either way, you might as well just pay the full ticket price and get the extended warranty with a multi-year guarantee.
But compare that to the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, a full-frame DSLR released in 2016. At time of writing, you can pick one up used from Wex for as little as £689. That’s for a camera that cost £3,629 at launch, and still costs £2,489 today — an incredible saving on a superb photographic tool. And while it’s old, the EOS 5D Mark IV is hardly obsolete. I recently interviewed photojournalist Santi Palacios for Canon’s ambassador programme. He is known for his powerful documentations of refugee crossings, water crises and the war in Ukraine, and he explained to me without hesitation that the EOS 5D Mark IV is still his camera of choice. If it does the job for him, it will very likely do the job for you!
Like I said, used gear isn’t for everyone — but if you’ve never considered it before, it’s well worth looking at as a way to get some seriously high-end camera gear for absurdly good prices. So, in a final, last-ditch effort to stop Wex’s commercial director showing up at my house with a big bat, I’ll recommend you head over to Wex’s Used section, and pay particular attention to the new “MO” grade items. These are second-hand stock returns in pristine condition, meaning you essentially get a new camera for a second-hand price. Can’t argue with that!
