I need some yard ornaments like that!

Now THAT is a tool, Regis. The mental adding machine is smoking. Maybe more like 4 or 5 guns being auctioned.

Thank you, RonPier! I'll count on that.

Ha! As admitted way earlier, I'm so new I guess I'm a hoglet. And I agree with you completely, although the two extra lenses and the bag plus the 3 extra megapixels, the slightly upgraded processor, a couple more shooting modes (to confuse old shooters like me), extended ISO range, improved LCD pixel count, and addition of movie mode are nothing to sneer at....IF one is ready to dip deeper into savings. Were I at LowellR's stage, I'd probably go $125.

I'm no expert on Idaho, but I have been in the Sandpoint area several times. Had a friend who lived a few miles straight north of Athol across the Pend Oreille River near Dover...his widow still lives there. Lots of forest in that whole area. I did a bit of ATVing around his property, did some tree-thinning with him, watched the deer, bear, and wild turkey visit his big, forested back yard often. In fact, here's an embarrassingly lousy picture of that very back yard. So I'm guessing you must be remembering a different area. Check it out on Google Earth to confirm.

Never did see one of those monster wolf-dogs, though.

Incredible picture. So THAT's what a good photographer can do with a Canon 5DSR. I may have to sell the Lumix GX85 and a gun or two and make the move while I'm still mobile enough to be out trying for shots like that. It won't make me a good photographer, but with a good lens or two, I could get lucky.

Lowell, I don't know what a "hogger" is , but otherwise I know I agree completely with HJ. The T1i would be a fine choice at the bargain price quoted above.

Actually, if you have the cash, that more recent offer for the T2i with extra gear for $500 is a pretty good deal too. The 2i was the 2010 follow-up to the 2009 T1i and had some nice upgrades.

Um...LowellR, are you seeing any of this info? Whatever way you go, I hope you get hooked on photography. Never too late for a great hobby, and the more time you spend focusing on it (pun?), the more you can learn and improve.

Oops. That's a Canon EOS Rebel SL1. Forgot to put in the L.

That may be the most enviable photo I've seen, Mesa. Let me give you my address to send that digital file so I can really analyze it thoroughly for you. Eh? Yeah, right. Seriously though, we head to Phoenix in our motorhome for a few weeks every Feb or March pulling our Rubicon. I really need to make note of that road and make a point of taking a ride up that way. We always try to do a little mild 4-wheeling while we're there, but this one might require an overnight in either Sedona (which we love) or Flag.

Thanks! Of course, getting a photo such as yours takes a combination of a whole lot of things....like weather conditions, of course, which is mostly fortune, but also things like skill and equipment, on which I'm guessing I'm a few rungs down the ladder. Timing too, naturally. I am NOT going to promise I'll post a sample of what I shoot when I go, but I do occasionally hit the jackpot with timing.

Actually, it's happened fairly frequently lately in Colorado along the front range. These cities along the foothills just keep exploding onto the plains, and the suburbanites - for lots of good reasons - love their "open spaces," so the coyotes have found good hunting grounds. They regularly jump back yard fences and snatch up smaller pets, taunt larger dogs out of yards where high fences are not permitted by HOAs then gang up on them when they get away from refuge, and they've begun making tries for little children on the walking/biking paths. And a few have gone for adults. I don't think there has been a single case of rabies proven in any of these instances.

Of course municipalities downplay all this, just like the wildlife folks downplay the instances of lion attacks in populated places in our mountains or along the front range. As we encroach on the land in which they've always resided, and with our kindly laws and honorable desires to maintain the sanctity of wildlife, these dangers are only going to increase. Even as a hunter in the past, I'm divided on all this, but I'm not above being armed when I'm on my own in the prairie or back-country hiking and taking pictures. Perhaps I've lived my share of years, but I'm not interested in being an active participant as a lower tier food chain member.

PS: coyote

CatMarley, I finally had to skip several pages of this thread. I'm glad I found your comment as I was feeling very ...uh, underequipped. (Come on, guys, do not go where your minds just went.) Now I can simply think of everyone else as mentally ill. While I'm too old to remember the long and dusty list of the cameras I have owned, at least I am neither disturbed by that nor hoarding them in a trunk under the stairs in the basement.

Right now, my camera is a Lumix GX85.

I've had a handy little pocket camera for quite a while as well that I'm not too proud to carry around on occasion: a Canon SX610HS.

Due to good intentions (provide my granddaughter with a camera to use in h.s. yearbook - the Sony A100 I retired to her usage in middle school...uh, died), and due to bad communications (actually total lack, in this case) with my daughter, I bought my granddaughter a very clean used Canon EOS Rebel S1 to give her before Christmas then discovered that my daughter had already bought her (Without my advice?!?) a Canon bridge camera for Christmas. So, now I have a back-up. And I've been buying lenses for my old Canon Rebel S1. Used. A Canon 75-135mm is on order. And this nice Tamron.

Oops! I'm new here too. I was just rereading this and realized you just posted this TODAY, LowellR. Too late to edit my first reply, so I'll just add here that I'm a doofus. Sorry, but I'll catch on to the date someone joined and the date of his/her post. Duh!

Fortunately, more answers will make your thread more interesting to follow!

Oh, and just for your shopping pleasure, there are some reliable online sources for used camera equipment too. They have a rating system that details what you can expect from each individual item, and the price for each is reflected in the condition of the item. If you order it, get it, and are not happy, let them know in a timely fashion, and you can return it. bhphotovideo, KEH Camera, and Newegg come to mind. In fact, I just ordered a lens from KEH with a "bargain" rating after a phone conversation. Sounded worth the risk of a return.

No one has replied? Surprised to see no incoming help. Maybe something more specific in the subject like "Seeking Used Canon Buying Advice" would have helped. Still, perhaps someone more expert than I will chime in here and give you more thorough guidance...if you're still looking at this thread 3 months later. But this 75-yr-old will toss out a couple of ideas...though you've probably already bought something.

The XSi was a pretty good old camera. If I were you, though, I think I'd look for a little newer model. I have a nice Lumix G85 mirrorless that I use these days, but I miss some things about the SLRs...a little more room between button for fumbly old fingers, for one thing. I enjoy looking at SLRs in pawn shops, and often one can find clean, lightly-used cameras in such places at decent, even bargain, prices. Before Christmas, I picked up a Canon EOS Rebel S1 with stock 18-55mm lens w/caps, good battery & charger, and bag for a touch over $200. (I recently saw a Nikon D3400 with lens for $300 on Facebook Marketplace, and I would have jumped at that had I seen it first.) I intended to give this to my granddaughter, who is taking h.s. digital photography and working on the yearbook team. Unfortunately, her Mom bought her a Canon bridge camera for Christmas without my advice, and I learned it just in time NOT to give the S1 to her and mess up Christmas. OY. Before learning that, though, I found in another pawn shop a Tamron F/2.8 SP AF28-75mm zoom for $200 that I just could not pass up to go with the S1. Double OY.

Needless to say, I have a second camera now. Don't need it, but I love it. I've even ordered a used Canon 75-300mm zoom to go with it. The Rebel S1 was meant, I think, as a beginning enthusiast's SLR, but it really has about everything a hobbyist needs, including a respectably modern 18 megapixel sensor. Many advanced photographers sneer at the push for higher megapixels, but as long as other good features are present too, I like lotsa pixels for my cameras, though my hot-shot Lumix DMC-GX85 only has 16. The Nikon D3400 I'm passing up has 24!

Anyway, I'd suggest you look around a bit. The Canon S1 is VERY user friendly, 18 megapixels, magically stabilized to accommodate shaky old photographers, and old enough (5.5 years) to be found at decent bargains still in good shape. Even newer models can be found for not a lot more. You'll be happy with what you can find, and the search itself is fun.

And I was wondering if that Canon SX610HS in my pocket might be too much on my hike.