Guilty about cost?

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cam1986

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Do you ever feel guilty about spending x amount on camera gear? I do and i haven't started yet!!!

I want loads of stuff. Only have a camera and one lens at the mo and i still feel guilty about spending a lot on those 2! My wife doesn't mind but i always feel guilty, doesn't matter what i am buying.
 
nope, i don't feel guilty about whatever i buy, camera or otherwise. I only ever spend money when I can afford to
 
joescrivens said:
nope, i don't feel guilty about whatever i buy, camera or otherwise. I only ever spend money when I can afford to
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As do I, but I have on occasion had a twinge of regret after dumping 2-3K on gear, but this soon disappears.

The value of the item remains long after the cost is forgotten (assuming it's not on the never never)
 
I take a long view, £100 per month, however that works out, spend now or latter it's all the same if I stick to £100 per month.

HTH

David
 
Yea, best way to think of it is over the long term.
 
i know what you mean about guilt...its alot of money. There always seem to be more equiipment i need...to ease my guilt i just paid for my wifes next 4 months at the gym...everybody is a winner:thumbs:
 
Starting out like me though i need all the basic stuff now!

I need a Tripod, Camera bag, CF cards, Flash. Add that lot together and it can amount to a fair bit even though i won't be buying top end stuff.

Just had gas and elec bill too and that was very high! Trying to justify hobby costs is hard sometimes.
 
cam1986 said:
Starting out like me though i need all the basic stuff now!

I need a Tripod, Camera bag, CF cards, Flash. Add that lot together and it can amount to a fair bit even though i won't be buying top end stuff.

Just had gas and elec bill too and that was very high! Trying to justify hobby costs is hard sometimes.
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you have to take it stage by stage...thats the way im doing it...the next lens i want i will wait until christams..as much as i would love it now as i say take your time to justify the outlay
 
I sometimes feel a bit guilty about all the lenses I've bought, which I justify by saying that they're old MF lenses and don't cost more than £20-30 a time. Except the really fast glass. And the couple of rare big lenses. And that L-series FD lens...

:tumbleweed:
 
Don't ever feel guilty about cost. I try to buy used so that if it came to it, I could sell for most of what I paid - I think one of mine I could now sell for more! I also try to pay for my lenses with booze - I stop drinking until the money I'd have spent on alcohol covers the cost of the lens :lol:
 
I do tend to, because I often don't feel I need the level of equipment I'm getting. Fiance says I do though. And I must admit, it's fantastic. I do therefore get a bit annoyed when I see comments about how a 550d isn't a pro camera and you're not a professional if you own one (as this is how I'm trying to earn a living)...

Now my fiance on the other hand, oh my gosh, he never stops going on about money he is considering/has spent. He absolutely hates it. It's not guilt...just regret. In the switch from his Nikon D70 to Canon 7D he was constantly saying 'oh, but do I REALLY need it? I know I need this that it has but... couldn't I just get by without it? Am I even going to earn any money through photography? Oh god, look at the cost!!! Do I really, really need it?' and yes, he did, and he certainly wasn't going to do any work with his current camera/lenses.
Rant over... :D

Everything really does cost a lot of money though :(
 
Ava said:
Now my fiance on the other hand, oh my gosh, he never stops going on about money he is considering/has spent. He absolutely hates it. It's not guilt...just regret. In the switch from his Nikon D70 to Canon 7D he was constantly saying 'oh, but do I REALLY need it? I know I need this that it has but... couldn't I just get by without it? Am I even going to earn any money through photography? Oh god, look at the cost!!! Do I really, really need it?' and yes, he did, and he certainly wasn't going to do any work with his current camera/lenses.
Rant over... :D

Everything really does cost a lot of money though :(
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Exactly how i feel!

Plus, i guess you don't need a FF camera or semi pro one to make money from the art. The so called 'Entry level' DSLR's of today are probably a lot better than the Pro DSLR's of a few years ago!
 
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Ah, well, sorry you're feeling so bad then. I'm sure you're making the right decision though. You probably wouldn't be considering spending the money if it would negatively impact on you financially.
Just saying though - he does this if he spends a fiver too ;)

Plus, i guess you don't need a FF camera or semi pro one to make money from the art. The so called 'Entry level' DSLR's of today are probably a lot better than the Pro DSLR's of a few years ago!
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Yes, that's true, they likely are.
 
Going on holiday next week so I treated myself to a new lens, I was having buyers remorse before I even pressed the "Pay" button. Before it had arrived I was planning on sending it back unopened. It arrived safely and all of those irrational thoughts evaporated and it's now tucked away safely in the kit bag.

Happy days.
 
zlinuk said:
Going on holiday next week so I treated myself to a new lens, I was having buyers remorse before I even pressed the "Pay" button. Before it had arrived I was planning on sending it back unopened. It arrived safely and all of those irrational thoughts evaporated and it's now tucked away safely in the kit bag.

Happy days.
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What lens did you buy?
 
The only person I have to justify any expenses to is myself. As long as I can pay the bills and eat, I can afford pretty much what I want to, although I do try to keep it down to a reasonable level of expenditure.
 
I've been cagey and bought second hand so I'm not going to lose much money on my lenses, but when we added it all up for the insurance (new prices) we had around £15k of camera equipment, which was a shock.
 
Never regret buying anything, I save up till I can afford to buy it then buy it. I dont drink and smoke so I spend on my hobbies.

I am currently saving for 2 new bodys but keep seeing things I want to buy like the 135mm curently in the classifieds and I want a fast wide angle also its making it slow going saving up for the 1Dmk4's and the fact I just dropped almost a 2nd hand 1Dmk4 on a private plate for my sister its going to take me a few more month to get back to where I was.

Whats worse the day after I registered the plate (so no refunds allowed) the memory card slot on my camera stopped holding the SD card in, it worked as the door would hold it in but I managed to fix it. So all is good.

I did do the add things up for insurance purposes and It would cost over £12k to replace everything now ouch
 
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I live alone :( My girlfriend lives miles away so what i earn usualy goes on all my bills straight away then im left with plenty for myself, I never feel guilty spending all my money in one day and being skint for the rest of the month, thats what pot noodles and super noodles were created for :)
 
cam1986 said:
Do you ever feel guilty about spending x amount on camera gear? I do and i haven't started yet!!!
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All the time.

I had a 10 year hiatus from having any gear other than an old 2Mpix sony compact (and before the 10 year hiatus it was almost all film gear too), largely because I had no money to buy anything better.

But recently we came into enough money for me to buy some gear. But I constantly feel guilty at the endless stream of stuff I 'need', get a pair of flashes, fine, but now I need to spend money on gels, and cables, and so on.. Essentially, it's starting fresh, since I haven't had any real SLR gear since the 90s, I didn't have a tripod, or camera bag, etc.

Thankfully a lot can be DIYed, which is much better when you have more time than money, but even then there are expenses to tools and so on.

The really awful weather for the last couple of weeks really has compounded the guilt too, if it was a little less rainy I'd be out there justifying the cost. And yes, I know it makes more sense to think of it as a longer term investment, and that I'll justify the cost over the next X years, and for some pieces of gear, the next XX years :)
 
I have 5k's worth of fishing tackle, of which I am losing interest in. If I seriously get into photography then I might sell some tackle and reinvest it in camera equipment.
 
silure130 said:
I have 5k's worth of fishing tackle, of which I am losing interest in. If I seriously get into photography then I might sell some tackle and reinvest it in camera equipment.
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Maybe I should sell my tackle, although I doubt it's worth more than your fishing gear!

Badaboom tssssh

... I'll get my coat :exit:
 
Flash In The Pan said:
I'd feel guiltier if I wasted £2k a year on cigarettes......
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A little too simplistic Graham......

An adult smoker could probably maintain that spending for 40 years (until premature death) give or take.....cost £80k
An adult photographer, by virtue of increased longevity, would maintain the spending for possibly 60 years....cost £120k

I conclude that, over an expected lifetime, photography is 50% more expensive than smoking. Other benefits include the fact that a 3rd party lighter (ie, Bic) works equally well with Marlboro or B&H and nobody gives a damn about 100% crops.

Bob
 
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Canon Bob said:
A little too simplistic Graham......

An adult smoker could probably maintain that spending for 40 years (until premature death) give or take.....cost £80k
An adult photographer, by virtue of increased longevity, would maintain the spending for possibly 60 years....cost £120k

I conclude that, over an expected lifetime, photography is 50% more expensive than smoking. Other benefits include the fact that a 3rd party lighter (ie, Bic) works equally well with Marlboro or B&H and nobody gives a damn about 100% crops.

Bob
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It depends how guilty he feels. He might have a stress related health problem that would reduce his life span. And assuming he keeps trading to newer equipment his widow can sell some off at the end and get some back.120k of equipment..... Mmmmm what a thought..... anyway I think an independant study should be done on the long term comparison between smoking and photography.
LOL
 
I was always told that for every year that a person smoked, it would take ten years off of his/her life.
My advice to you all is to start smoking at aged 60, thus after a year of smoking it would take ten years off of your life, so you would now be aged 51.
Thus ten more years of enjoying your chosen camera gear.
 
A very optimistic take on it Keith although I suspect reality is somewhat different. Either way, using you equation, I calculate that it'll be another 250 years before I'm even born. :cool:

Bob
 
Not in the slightest. I earned the money, I spend it as I please, whether thats the cars, lenses or decorating the house.
 
Some, like myself, do feel guilty about spending money than others. Money is tight at the moment but i do need some equipment for a course i am going to start so i know i will have to spend money i could use elsewhere.
 
if its money you need to spend elsewhere then maybe now is not the time to do said course?
 
joescrivens said:
if its money you need to spend elsewhere then maybe now is not the time to do said course?
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Well, booked course and spent that money!! No going back. Thing is, we could spend a £1,000 one day because we have the money but the very next day something crops up that also could have needed the money!
 
Canon Bob said:
A little too simplistic Graham......

An adult smoker could probably maintain that spending for 40 years (until premature death) give or take.....cost £80k
An adult photographer, by virtue of increased longevity, would maintain the spending for possibly 60 years....cost £120k
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What's the market like for secondhand empty cigarette packets these days, Bob? :naughty:

At the end of the 60 years the photographer still has goods with residual value, perhaps even more in cash terms than he spent originally.

The smoker, all he has at the end of his 40 years, if he's lucky, is emphysema :lol:
 
Ava said:
do therefore get a bit annoyed when I see comments about how a 550d isn't a pro camera and you're not a professional if you own one (as this is how I'm trying to earn a living)...
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the first is true it isnt a pro spec camera - the latter is utter *******s you can be a proffesional and shoot with anything - ive done paid work with my 20D before, and even with an eos 3 shooting slide film - its your shots and your attitude that make you a pro, not your gear - you could be a pro shooting with a pinhole camera

i think a lot of those comments are aimed at people who think buying a 550D/1000D whatever from jessops automatically makes you a pro , there are a lot of walter mittys out there who think an entry level camera and a kit lens means they are read to get paid - but this would be just as true about someone with all the gear and no idea who lays out 10K on two 1DSmk4s and a set of L glass but doesnt have any capability to use it
 
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