New or Refurbished?

[slymouse]

So, here is my sob story. I bought a Canon A70 a year and a half ago. It just died on me a couple weeks back, screen goes black (okay black with white stripes) and I can't take any more pix. I can still view the pix that are stored on the memory card though.
So it's dead, CCD must have fried and died (on dry land even).

Canon says since it's out of warranty, so I can get it repaired for $100-$200. Or I can buy a refurbished one with a 6 month warrenty for $150 plus I pay shipping. I only spent $280 on the original camera. The housing has never leaked on me but now I feel like the A70 and the A60 can't be trusted to be good cameras. Anyone else have either of these cameras and/or got the refurbished one and had it last longer than 2 years?

Or should I just buy a new Oly-/5050/5060 and get a new housing etc...Or should I buy one of those refurbished Oly-5050/5060 off of ebay? How well do the refurbished Oly/5060/5060 hold up? What is the lifespan of these cameras?

 

[montyb]

I purchased a refurbished C5050 about a year and a half ago and picked up a PT-015 oly housing. It works great, no problems. Camera was virtually new - not a scratch on it. I wouldn't even worry about picking up a refurbished on ebay. Someone sold a used one yesterday for $240.00. I almost bid on it because it was going so cheap but then I remembered I just picked up a C5060 and pt-020 housing. I'll just put that one away for a spare in case I need it... Oly refurbs are going for $325 - 350.

montyb

 

[fpoole]

Yeah, refurbs are fine.. actually, eventually you'll have no choice... but I've gotten 3 of them over the years, from Oly and they work just fine... so that shouldn't be an issue...
Re: you Cannon, depending upon the mpix is is (not familiar), I'd get one with at least 4mpix, preferable 5mpix range and then housed accordingly...
So if your Cannon A70 (sorry, don't know the mpix on it) is 4 or 5 then it might be cheapest to get a refub'd one and continue using the existing housing. If it's a 3mpix then I'd spend the money on uplgrading to get into the ball park of the 5mpix range.

They all go out eventually, I had a 3030 that blew out one sensor, had horz lines through the pic and repairs/refrub cost were a little high so upgraded (special deal so check with the mfg) to a 5050.... glad I did...

Hope that helps..???