At least, at the very least, buy a professional DSLR like the Sony Alpha 7 III
DepEd strikes again with another suspicious purchase. Take this with a grain of salt as apparantly they are “investigating” this extravagantly purchased amateur DSLR. A quick Google search shows that Henry’s Cameras, an authorized reseller of cameras and other photography paraphernalia, sells the body and 18-55mm kit lens of the Canon EOS 1500D for just Php 33,998. Also, this comes with a free 32GB SD Card.
If you could recall, the organization got itself in hot waters after purchasing a set of entry-level laptops for a very very luxurious price. DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa is currently investigating the matter.
This was raised first in a now-deleted Facebook post. However, a user from Twitter saved it and posted it there. The original Facebook post was created by Jhun Dantes. In his post, it appears that DepEd has purchased this same model for Php 155,929.
Canon designed the EOS 1500D DSLR for “first-time DSLR owners who want impressive results straight out of the box” After Poa learned about the accusations, he asked the Public Affair service on what type of camera was purchased.
“It was being claimed that certain cameras were procured back in 2019 if I’m not mistaken and when I looked into it ang nasa picture was an entry-level camera” Poa explained. “But when I asked the Public Affairs service regarding the cameras used by DepEd, lahat po naman yan Mark IV, so hindi po siya entry-level na camera“
We decided to take a closer look at the camera in the picture ourselves. Poa claimed that the camera they purchased is a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV; which, if you look at Canon’s website, the company sells the body and only the body for Php 209,998,000. Unless the Department of Education purchased the camera in large quantities, there’s no way you could purchase it for Php 155K, let alone with a default kit lens. Also, the camera’s crown in the picture is located on the left-hand side whereas Mark IV’s crown is located on the right to make way for a small LCD screen located on the left. Another red flag is the way the shutter was designed, it is on a flat, even surface wherein the Mark IV had its shutter placed more in an ingressed position.
For more detailed specs about the Canon EOS 1500D, it is an entry-level DSLR featuring a 24.1MP APS-C CMOS sensor and DIGIC 4+ image processor. It also has 9-point autofocus with 1 centre cross-type AF point, a non-reflexible display, and a replaceable lens. When purchased, it would usually come with an 18-55mm AF/MF lens. It supports ISO levels 100-6400 and also has Wi-Fi and NFC access.
Source: Canon, Henry’s Cameras, CNN, Twitter