Sticker shock, photography hobby is expensive, $20,000 lens??

[luvmyfamily]

I thought photography hobby was expensive. Well, it all changed after my daughter was born.

No Kidding!!! Glad I bought all the expensive stuff I wanted prior to my son's birth.


Guys... Don't forget there are people who can spend $20k on something but not be wealthy and still need to save. I had a friend who criticized me on my camera equipment... being that I have a tough time walking away from a debate, I proceeded to list out his purchases I see. Starting with his car (3x cost of mine), house (2x mine), cloths (2x mine), etc.. In the end, I proved to him that he is actually more frivolous with his earnings. Once again, I proved the 1 rule I try to stick to when it comes to expenses:

Buy Many Cheap things.

Buy a Few Expensive things.

NEVER buy Many Expensive things.




Its easy to focus on the one expensive item that a person chooses to purchase and loose sight of the whole picture.

That is so true. I may have three to four thousand dollars of photo equipment which isn't much to real photographers but may seem exorbitant to non photographers but on a yearly basis I spend zero dollars on tobacco, zero dollars on alcohol and very few dollars on eating out. I sometimes wonder about people who think nothing of running into Starbucks on a daily basis spending $5.00 or more for coffee when I can buy a can of coffee from the local grocery store for $12.00 that lasts me an entire month. For some reason spending $12.00 per month for coffee seems more reasonable than spending $150. Even if I were a drinker I would have to think twice before purchasing a bottle of beer at a major league baseball game for $7.50. Ouch! So as you said people need to look at the whole picture.

Jerry

I think you should work with what you have, expensive or not and perfect it....

 

[Redeyejedi]

as previously said: it's relative, and you gotta pay to play.
some hobbies have have very high initial and sustaining costs involved, and to remain competitive requires many sums of currency.
and other hobbies less so, but photography, in my opinion.... certain acquisitions enable more creativity, distance shooting, magnification etc, but the skillset doesn't necessarily benefit. ie, if you had the eye before the $10k purchase you have it after, but the inverse does not hold, one doesn't shoot better cause they outfitted themselves with $45,000 worth of gear. -insert drooling smiley-
being able to produce results on a race track can be proportional to the amount invested.(you are not beating racers with 12times your budget and back-up vehicle)
being able to produce captivating, stunning, moments with a camera is not(well at least not as much) hinged on wallet size.
besides, producing magnificently more pleasing photos on what one may deem inferior equipment compared to a "pro" with a bookoo setup is just that much more satisfying.
shoot what you got, grab glass you can afford and make it fun.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Look at the bright side, your AMEX rewards points account will grow quickly with this hobby

 

[KmH]

Nikon's Holy Trinity of Professional grade zoom lenses (almost $6300):

$1997 - Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens

$1890 - Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens

$2400 - Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens For Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

I'm 66.6% divine.

Not me. I never bought any of those.

But I did pick me up a used 200-400 f/4 for a killer price in a distressed sale.

I found a used set of the Nikon Budget Trinity of zooms did the job very well for my photography business:

Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX Nikkor Zoom Lens - bought used on Amazon.com from a camera store in Washington state.

Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0D IF AF Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras - bought used on Amazon.com from a private seller.

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras - bought used from KEH.com

 

[Village Idiot]

I can honestly say that I'm not shocked that people in business for themselves say that they easily have over $15,000 invested in equipment...