1. Body inspection: Let’s take out the most obvious thing first, inspect throughly the body for any trace of damage or abuse.
Minor scratches are normal and should worry you a lot, more pronounced scratches aren’t harmful either but they are story telling about the history of the camera.
2. Auto Focus accuracy: Use a lens you already know to be focusing fine and test the auto focus accuracy of the digital camera by taking some “real life” pictures of well contrasted and well lit objects using the central focus point with the lens set to its widest aperture, download the pictures to your computer and check for front/back focus. Also make sure to check that all other focus points are working, no need to test them for accuracy.
3. Sensor inspection: Shoot a defocused white wall at f/22 download the picture to your computer and check it at 100% for sensor scratches.
N.B.: Some dust spots are normal, they are often even found on brand new cameras.
4. Shutter inspection: Ideally speaking check the number of shutter actuations and compare it with the shutter life cycle of the camera you are planning to buy. If it is impossible to know the actual number of shutter actuations, inspect the shutter curtain visually for wear and damage.
5. Colors inspection: I know that colors can easily be fixed and that they are factors of a lot of things, but I have seen some DSLR which colors are really really bad, just take a couple of shots in daylight with White Balance set to Auto WhiteBalance
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