$8,000 to spend? What would you get?

sactown024

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Good Morning Fellow Photographers,

This may be a huge mistake or may be the greatest idea ever, prolly a mistake....

Anyways, I own a 2008 Subaru WRX that has about $8k equity and I am thinking about selling it, buying a cheaper car and using the equity to invest in photography equipment. If you had $8k dollars to spend on equipment (lets imagine that you cant spend it anywhere else, since we all have such great imaginations) what would you buy, given the gear I have?

I currently have a T2i, YN 560 II, 50mm 1.8, 55-250 IS, promaster tripod (Cheap $80), canon backpack, 32GB class 10 card, 1 battery.

I was thinking buying used gear to save all the money I can, what would you buy?



btw here is a picture of my baby clearly taken with a iphone....

cah.jpg
 
Since you're getting rid of the car you might as well get rid of the Canon gear too.

D600, the trinity (about $5k used), leaves $1000 for extra batteries, tripod & head, more SD cards whatever other "stuff" you might need.

That being said yeah it's probably a stupid move unless you'll be saving a lot on gas and insurance, particularly since you called the car your baby.
 
If I was going to spend $8000 (or multiple thousand dollars, either way) on photography, I'd take a workshop.
 
keep the nice car. save for the camera gear. its much easier than trying to afford a new car when your "cheaper" car breaks down.
 
a lot can go wrong with $8000. I'd consider what aspects of your current gear you don't like or find limiting. Think about your photography, and what kind of features would best benefit you. For example, if you don't need 12fps, then the D3/D4/1D is probably not a good choice, if high dynamic range is important but low light isn't, maybe start thinking about medium format. If compactness is an issue, maybe a Leica M, X Pro or NEX might be worth looking into. There is supposed to be a full from mirrorless popping up within the year.

I guess what I'm saying is that we all have a dream camera in mind that will solve all our photographic problems. But in reality what this dream camera is will depend greatly on what we're currently doing with our cameras.
 
keep the nice car. save for the camera gear. its much easier than trying to afford a new car when your "cheaper" car breaks down.

How much will the car depreciate from now and how much will top shelf lenses depreciate.

the camera gear wont get you back and forth to work. no matter how much they are worth.
 
If you're using some of the $8k to buy another car that reduces your amount to buy gear. With that said, unless this is something you're considering turning into a career I would never sell a working car for a used car just to have nice camera gear. And if you are considering hanging an "open" shingle on the front door, the money would be best spent on the business side. That's just me, though. I'm fiscally conservative. Despite my personal thoughts, good glass, a good lighting system and some workshops would be my recommendation.

I'm poking your ribs on this part but I remember a thread when you just joined saying how you were just a hobbyist and nothing more. Gear acquisition syndrome is dangerous. Be cautious. Might wanna check out Zack Arias and his thoughts on simplicity.
 
the car has $8k equity, not using any of that for another car although I may bank $4k for my son/house and spend $4k on equipment.

i think its a much better idea than going in debt with a credit card. I guess i should also ad this is a second car. We just bought a new toyota venza.

maybe i should re-word the thread, if someone gave you $4k gift card to Adorama.com, what would YOU buy?
 
the car has $8k equity, not using any of that for another car although I may bank $4k for my son/house and spend $4k on equipment.

i think its a much better idea than going in debt with a credit card. I guess i should also ad this is a second car. We just bought a new toyota venza.

maybe i should re-word the thread, if someone gave you $4k gift card to Adorama.com, what would YOU buy?

yea..THAT changes things. im waiting until early next year to see of the D400 is on the horizon. no matter what though, find the body you want, then get the 14-24, 24-70, and 70-200 f/2.8 lenses. get all the gear used.
 
sactown024 said:
maybe i should re-word the thread, if someone gave you $4k gift card to Adorama.com, what would YOU buy?

For you? One L lens, 2 light monolight set up w/ modifiers, speed light and spend the month watching Adorama TV YouTube channel.
 
I think the big question is "what am I going to shoot or want to specialize in", and don't be in a rush to spend the money. Used equipment lets dollars go a longer way. My $.02
 
Canon 7D - $1000 used
70-200 2.8L IS II used $1500 (?)
7D Battery pack - $150
5 16gb sd cards - $ 250 (?)
2 canon 580 speedlites ($1000)
2 pocket wizzrds ($300)
2 stands and umbrellas and mounts ($200)

$4400

keep the t2i as a bakup and the 50mm 1.8 for now.

The wife is sending me to the 2nd C1M course for xmas.
 
First you need to decide if you want to go full frame or crop frame. $4K is on the line where its not wise to mess that decision up. I'd say hold on to the $4K until you know the answer to that question.

$4K v. $8K is also a big difference. $4,000 is kind of a worst case scenario for you in the sense that it's enough that it doesn't make sense to spend it on a setup based around your T2i, but it also isn't really enough to build a GREAT new setup, even if you sell all your old gear.

That being said, with $4K and the gear you have, I'd:

1) buy a D7000 or a 7D used (4K isn't really enough to make it worth it to go to full frame) $3,000-$3,250 left
2) buy a Tokina 11-16 f/2.8, Tamron 24-70 f/2.8, and either the canon f/4 IS L or the Nikon 80-200 f/2.8. All used. If you're ever worried about your budget, don't buy new glass. The only people who should buy new glass are the people that see prices and think "yeah, I guess those numbers called 'price' have some sort of relationship to the 7 digit numbers that show up when I log into a bank account." That should leave you with about $1000 left give or take depending on the prices you can find
3) Sell your T2i setup. That should net you around $700-$900 depending on how patient you are. SO we're back up to about $2000.
4) buy a great tripod and a very durable bag. Buy third party speedlights (I like having 2 Metz AF-1 50's). whatever other random accessories you may need. You should be around 1,300
5) Buy a couple of really nice primes for the focal lengths you like most. That 50mm f/1.8 you have is a piece of junk, it will break sooner or later.
 
Canon 7D - $1000 used
70-200 2.8L IS II used $1500 (?)
7D Battery pack - $150
5 16gb sd cards - $ 250 (?)
2 canon 580 speedlites ($1000)
2 pocket wizzrds ($300)
2 stands and umbrellas and mounts ($200)

$4400

keep the t2i as a bakup and the 50mm 1.8 for now.

The wife is sending me to the 2nd C1M course for xmas.

Good luck finding the 70-200 IS II L for 1500 used. Lowest Ive seen on that was 1,900 for a model that had large dings in it. Usually they're selling in the 2,200 range used because A) they're built like tanks, B) they're relatively new C) nobody sells those things, so demand is high.
 

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