Is it a good idea to buy a 6 MP used canon digital SLR camera?

6mp will be absolutely fine. Don’t worry about it at all. If anything you’re going to get LESS noise with that camera compared to a point-and-shoot.

I work in a photography and have several canons, one being a canon eos 2000 film and a rebel xs 10 mp. Most people will never use over 5mp which equals about a 8×10 picture with clear detail and no distortion or pixelation. Your camera will do the job and do it well.

6 mp will blow up to a small poster pretty well.

I had an older Canon DSLR (one of the first D-Rebels) and I can tell you it has it’s good points and bad.

Overall it’s a good camera. It takes good pictures, pretty reliable, etc. The things I didn’t like about it were:

Slow to turn on- took about 3-5 seconds to turn on. So, if you needed to take a picture like NOW it had better already be on otherwise the opportunity will be missed. The newer DSLRs are instant.

Poor noise reduction- The amount of noise you’ll get is pretty noticeable at the higher ISOs. Now- ALL cameras get noisy at faster speeds but some have better noise reduction than others. The newer canons are much better. I have a 40D and the amount of noise I get shooting at 1600 is I would estimate about half or so what I used to get from the DRebel. At 800 the noise is tolerable- not great. At 1600 it’s pretty noticeable. For portraits, landscapes, macros, etc- I’d always recommend shooting lowest ISO possible.

Landscape photographers will often use 50 or 100 speed film if the environment will allow for it because it gives the best picture (obviously you use a tripod, too). The lowest ISO on the DRebel is 100 and you’ll rarely use it unless shooting on a tripod in daylight.

400, 200, and 100 is pretty good and I did pretty well shooting in those ranges MOST of the time. If shooting action like sports/cars, etc then 800 or 1600 is a must and then noise doesn’t seem to matter as much given the nature of the photo.

The lens will help determine a lot for your pictures as well. They have nothing to do with noise but A LOT to do with clarity, depth of field, etc. The lens you get will entirely depend on what type of photography you want to do- but an Image Stabilized lens will allow you to take more photos at a lower ISO and still get good clarity. The only exception being motion pictures- the stabilized lenses aren’t great for those.

THe DRebel also not that great for shutter burst- it can do 4 pics in a row and that’s it. Mine (40D) can do continuous on the right setting, which is awesome for trying to get that one GREAT action pic. (Your memory card speed will also play a part here).

On a budget, I think the old Canon DSLR is a great starter camera. You’ll have some things to tinker with and get a feel for the cameras limitations. If you really need higher ISO with better noise reduction I’d go with the 20D if you can- probably worth the few extra bucks a used one of those will run ya. Better noise reduction. If you can afford new- I really like my 40D!

For best results shoot RAW format, use Adobe Photoshop LE for photo editing (there are others that are good for quick fixing but Adobe is much more versatile and LE is pretty affordable- especially on ebay).

I don’t know what price you’re looking at for this camera- I probably wouldn’t pay more than $400 or so for a Canon DRebel used. They’re getting down to around $675 for the newer ones (body only) so no sense in over paying.

Also- if you’re looking to buy this from an Ebay person- I’d look into getting a square trade warranty just in case. I had my DRebel for 4 years and no troubles but they’re expensive to fix if something goes awry.

Good luck!