Its not really saving you that much money... I bought my d40 refurb and have had no problems at all

 

I didnt like the lens cause it was a little too slow for me but as long as your aware of that and shoot with plenty of light you should be good.

I also noticed I usually don't shoot too long and don't like switching lenses if I don't have to so the 18-105 VR works better for me then having the 18-55 & 55-200.

What do you want to shoot?

Oh and you can get it off Amazon in case you dont want to deal with Ebay haha:

Amazon.com: Used and New: Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Zoom Nikkor Lens

He's be saving a little under $50 which could be used on a few filters for the lens

 

For $20 you can get a Mack 7 year warranty for lenses costing less than $500, but that brings the price of the lens to within $25 of a new one. I'm pretty sure the Mack warranties will cover refurbs, but if you go that route you will want to double check.

Tim

 

My 40D was a refurb and that saved me about $200 at Adorama. It was worth buying refurb'd then lol


Check with your flash on what the length of your TTL is. I know my flash will only reach about 100-110mm so anything after that, it doesn't light anything up that much.

 

^ I am getting a TTL speedlight with various power levels pretty much at the same time so I should be OK I hope. Stock pop-up strobe covers very little distance.

 

i culd see going with a refurb to save 200 bucs but in this case i think the extra 40 bucs is worth it because your getting a 5 year waranty.

 

When you get your flash off camera with modifiers, that is when the magic happens.

 

I bought a refurb'd 55 - 200 DX VR awhile back off EBAY. It was fine. Just make sure you're dealing with a licensed reseller. My lens came with a refurb ticket from Nikon too. I know Cameta Camera sells legit Nikon refurb'd products on EBAY.

I wouldn't buy refurb'd prime lenses or heavy duty pro lenses unless it came from Nikon directly or a licensed reseller camera store, where you could try out the lens. When you're buying the cheaper DX style kit lenses, you should be fine. Just my .02.

 

I was reseraching off camera lighting on strobist and was pretty amazed at things that can be done...I think I will look into an umbrella and softbox next but budget is definitaly there so I took one step at a time. I think that learning about basics first is very important because money can't buy you knowledge so having all the equipment in the world without knowing how to utilizing it and using it to do what you want is not worth a penny.

Right now my ar-15 is my primary goal that I am saving the money for

 

Thanks