If you had £300 to spend on photography, what would you do?

twhite87

twhite87

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I have about £300 coming my way in the next few weeks (which my better half has given me permission to do with as I please) and I've been in a dizzy thinking about what to do with it. I'm looking at buying a 300mm 2.8, so could put it towards that, but I haven't bought anything camera related for a while now so part of me thinks hell with it, and buy something else.... like a nice 10-22mm perhaps, or a nice A3 printer. Which got me thinking, what would most folk do with that? And 'give it to me' is not a valid answer for all you funny people out there. You know who you are! o_O
 
depends on what you've already got - but if it were me I'd either put it towards buying a 7D , or I'd spend it on a couple of photography workshops

(I'm presuming that although the wife said you could spend it on anything alcohol, mind altering substances and the company of women of low repute would not fit with her definition of 'anything' :LOL: )
 
I'm saving up for the Fuji 56mm lens so I would put it towards that ;)
 
It depends on whether you want to scratch several little itches or go for a big one really. It's an intermediate amount of money that will get a few interesting things eg tripod, filters, trips out or one lens you might want or even part of one lens you might want.

I'd make a list of all the things you could spend it on and see which ones are a priority or will give you the most bang for buck spent.

Also scour the second hand sections on photography supplier sites and see if there is a better deal out there or something you didn't realise existed but would be really useful.
 
Weekend away to an area where I can pursue my photographic interest to the full ... wildlife, city, landscape, whatever :)
 
If you haven't got any wide lenses then either the 10-22 like you mention, or the sigma 10-20 (which I love / prefer) and some change left in your pocket to use to go somewhere and take some shots with it.
 
Now this may be curious, but all most people seem to be able to think about is self-indulgently buying more toys. I like the photographic trip idea though. I often get the impression that this forum's members by and large are more engaged with equipment than culture. Anyway, for me, I'd spend it on prints, mounts and frames.
 
kit lasts / trips are ephemeral - so really it depends on whether this 300 quid is nothing special or more money than he's seen in the last ten years. If its the former spend it on a trip if the latter take the once in a lifetime chance to get that kit.
 
Either a trip away to try to get some decent landscape type pics (I mainly shoot portraits) or a couple of lights and stands!
 
droj said:
Now this may be curious, but all most people seem to be able to think about is self-indulgently buying more toys. I like the photographic trip idea though. I often get the impression that this forum's members by and large are more engaged with equipment than culture. Anyway, for me, I'd spend it on prints, mounts and frames.
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This is a fantastic idea! We finally got round to the idea of printing out pics for ourselves in our house (parents and in laws have several pics from us) and then we decided to do some building work! By the time it's done though, I should have some more shots!
 
Towards a 12-24 f4, TC 17E II or a 105 f2.8 used will do as long as their boxed in Gold colour :rolleyes:
Ummm need to find a spare £300 now :exit:
 
Can't buy much kit for £300. These days.
 
I would use it as an 'eBay rental fund' for some guaranteed photography fun.

What I mean by that is this:

A lot of secondhand camera gear depreciates to a point where it sort of maintains its deflated value and never really gets any cheaper. So you get can something for £300, use it for a month, then sell it again for the same price. Selling on eBay means you lose a few quid on fees but you could always sell on here or elsewhere. If you're savvy with what you buy you can even make a small profit.

Think about it the fun you could have trying out completely random photographic kit once a month for a year (blog idea!).

FILM IDEAS
Medium format TLR (like a yashica mat)
Classic SLR
Rangefinder like a Bessa + nice lens

DIGITAL IDEAS
Canon 5D (A FF digital classic)
Fisheye lens
Sigma 105 macro (for some macro fun)

Could be a fun year! And at the end of the year - you will still have your £300 (or a large chunk of it). Just a few quid month to month for film+dev if you pick film cameras. You could even make a profit.

Who knows, you could even discover a whole new aspect of photography you've never considered before.
 
richardm said:
I would use it as an 'eBay rental fund' for some guaranteed photography fun .....
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A very effective and charming answer - but it's still about EQUIPMENT! I grant you though, it does involve fun and genuine adventure.
 
Just because it involves equipment doesn't mean it's about equipment. Subtle but very important difference.

Anyway, isn't your answer of 'prints, mounts, and frames' exactly the same thing?!? Just 'self-indulgently' buying equipment for displaying photographs when your monitor would do just fine?!
 
Buy the missus a pair of shoes! Only kidding. I'd do something that you could both enjoy. A trip away somewhere nice, where she can go round the shops whilst you take some photos.
 
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richardm said:
Just because it involves equipment doesn't mean it's about equipment. Subtle but very important difference.
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Glad you've cottoned on to my deliberate omission.
richardm said:
Anyway, isn't your answer of 'prints, mounts, and frames' exactly the same thing?!? Just 'self-indulgently' buying equipment for displaying photographs when your monitor would do just fine?!
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I acknowledge the first part of that, but the second part sounds like it's coming from someone who just uses a point-and-shoot. There's a distinct ambient difference between the two modes of display, and one of them has only become available recently - that doesn't make it better by default, though it has its place.

No, it's easy enough to make prints for the home - I've got several here in clip-frames (from IKEA - real glass!) - I was thinking more about exhibition prints. Some exhibition spaces fund the mounting / framing, and others don't.
 
droj said:
Glad you've cottoned on to my deliberate omission.

I acknowledge the first part of that, but the second part sounds like it's coming from someone who just uses a point-and-shoot.
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I see where this is going... I didn't realise you were one of those forum trolls. I'm new here so I'm still learning which user names are going to vomit up nuggets of gold like this... I shouldn't have responded to you in the first instance. Everyone's opinion on this thread is equally valid - 'cause we'd all do what we wanted with the £300.

And for what it's worth, I consider all my cameras 'point-and-shoot' because that's how it works - I point 'em and shoot! Works well enough for commercial photography, front page of national newspapers, art prints... so I reckon I'm doing something right ;)
 
I didn't actually accuse you of using a point and shoot Richard, if you'd read more carefully, so there's no need to hop up and down.

You made the arrogant assertion that my 'monitor would do just fine'. Well it won't, ok? My perception, my life, my choice.
 
in theory I love the ebay rental fund, but I really struggle to part with equipment - even stuff I haven't used in years - so I'm not confident I could make that work!

Technically if I had 300 spare today I should put it back into my savings as I promised I'd 'pay myself back' for the 28-70 I bought recently... in reality though I think it'd go on a cheap easyjet flight to somewhere in Europe and a couple of days away with my camera
 
Spend it on your other half as an investment. Should make any future purchases you want to make an absolute doddle! ;)
 
If you want to improve the IQ of your shots get a good tripod, a used Gitzo
 
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For me, it would be going on a little photography trip.
I'm yearning for a return to Scotland so I think I would head on up there for a week or so. Saying that I received around £250 for my recent birthday and bought a Lee polarising filter, so who knows :P
 
droj said:
You made the arrogant assertion that my 'monitor would do just fine'. Well it won't, ok? My perception, my life, my choice.
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Then why is it so bad that some people prefer to buy equipment? Their perception, their life, their choice but it hasn't stopped you from harping on about how terrible that is. Or is that another "deliberate omission" that you're waiting for someone to trip over?





I'd buy the best Canon P rangefinder I could find and an appropriate lens to use with it (either 35mm or 50mm, preferably single-coated and collapsible). I'd then post about how happy I was with it, join various film-specific groups on flickr and ignore anyone who doesn't understand why I'd indulge myself in that way when I could have bought some mounts instead. :)
 
id get a new tripod.. i have a benro which is fine for small camera and a lightweight lens and i have a rednapper which i hate with a passion , heavy, crunchy leg threads and the head bolt sheered off nearly costing me my camera. though they drilled a larger bore hole and fixed a bigger bolt /thread ( original red snappers used a smaller one and they corrected this on later models ) , the pan and tilt head has always been problematic and never sites a perfect horizontal and dips by about 1-2 degrees.

So with that all in mind id get myself the carbon fibre manfrotto MT055CXPRO3
 
The only item left on my 'must have' list is a macro lens, so that's what I would get.

Then I can get to work on my much more exciting 'would like' list. :D
 
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