Canon T3i Rebel Best Price Ever

I'm a bit of a sucker for SLRs. Not that I'm a particularly adept photographer, it's just that I've had my Canon AE-1 since I received it for my 16th birthday in 1980. It's my baby, but of course, film cameras have become all but obsolete in the last couple of years. I wanted a digital SLR for years, but just couldn't justify the cost.

I've been going through "point 'n shoot" digicams at the rate of 1 every 2 years or so, but was never quite happy with the quality of my pictures. I'm a Canon fan, but their SLRs were just out of reach. With the current Canon promotion going on at Amazon however, I was beginning to see some daylight. My personal budget for a dSLR is somewhere around $300, and here is how I'm going to make it happen. YMMV, as they say, but I'm fairly confident you could achieve a similar price if you want it badly enough. Just follow my lead...

These are all the applicable discounts and rebates I used in securing this deal:

1. Save $100 via instant rebate on the Canon T2i, T3, and T3i digital SLR cameras. Simply add the product to your cart, the discount is already reflected in the price.
2. Save an additional $150 when you purchase a Canon EOS T2i, T3i or 7D camera with a Canon EF-S 55-250mm lens or $100 if you purchase the EF-S 75-300mm lens. To take advantage of this bundle offer, simply add both items to your cart and the savings will be applied at checkout. (current promotional discount for lenses ends Nov. 24. Check for updated promos after this date)
3. Get a $400 American Express Reward Card via mail-in rebate with the combined purchase of a Canon T2i, T3, or T3i digital SLR camera and a Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II photo printer. Direct link to Rebate form.
4. Free Tiffen Filter with Purchase: Purchase this product (the Canon EF-S 75-300mm lens) from Amazon.com and get a free Tiffen 58mm UV Protection Filter, or apply the discount towards a more expensive filter. Simply add both qualifying products to your Shopping Cart, savings will be applied at checkout.

All rebates and promotions will bring the effective price of the Canon Rebel T3i including 3 lenses, 1 filter and Canon Pixma photo printer down to about $870. That's about the same price you would pay for the camera kit alone in most "regular" B&M stores.

Check out all the EOS Rebel Promotions from the official Canon store!

This is where the major YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) comes in. Depending whether you have a good camera and whether you even want to sell it at all. I just bought the Canon PowerShot about 2 years ago, and although it is a nice little camera it still is not the same as a dSLR. Since it was a pricey little bugger with a fairly high resale value I am going to sell it to finance my new Canon Rebel and bring the total cost down even more.

Update: I am still debating with myself whether I should sell my G11. It's a tough decision as I really love this little camera. I was afraid this would happen...

Woo-hoo! Exciting news!

The camera and extra lenses arrived last night. This was one of the longest weeks I've had to suffer through! Unfortunately, the 75-300mm lens was in a ripped box and the packaging was missing. Amazon customer support however came through without problems and I can return it for a full refund. Let's hope this works out as promised.

The printer had arrived the day before so now my order is complete. Just need to file for my $400 rebate now and then I can proceed to list it on eBay. It's a really nice printer and I'd love to keep it, but I have no real need for it and must remember my quest to lower my out of pocket expense for this camera indulgence.

But for now, here are a few of my very first shots with the new camera. I did some cropping and edited the picture of my son with a simple "auto levels" filter of my image processing program.

I have received my $400 mail-in rebate and sold some of the extra equipment. I was able to return the 75-300mm telephoto lens for a full refund (see above), and I sold the printer for a net profit of $180 (after shipping and sales commission).

New breakdown of total cost (rounded):

$554 for the Canon T3i body plus EF-S 55-250mm, EF-S 18-55mm, Tiffen UV-Filter

I did adjust my plan of selling the Canon G11, and decided to keep it after all. Even though its not exactly a pocket camera, there are times when I still don't want to tote the big photo bag around. If I would have had the heart to sell it, I'm pretty confident I could have gotten around $300 for it. Once I made the decision to hang on to the G11 I felt much better about the whole deal. I'm happy!