Buying Insurance for your camera

[rick barclay]

Persian Rice's experience moved me to search the forum insurance. I only looked in the
Equipment Talk section and I didn't find any hits that were useful. So, can anyone
recommend a good insurer for one's camera? I suppose I can search Google and will if
I don't get any answers here. But this is a more convenient way to find out, IMO.

Another question: If someone breaks into your car and steals your gear, wouldn't that be covered by your auto insurer? PR, did you file a claim with your auto insurance company?

[Nightcrawler]

When I had some music gear stolen out of my car, my auto or renters insurance covered it. So, I would think the same thing would be the case for photo gear.

[JAZZ D.P.G.]

Depends on your insurer.

Personal property in a vehicle is covered by the home insurer in Ontario, Canada.

Be sure that your insurer does not require "riders" to cover such things as laptops and high-end camera equipement. My insurer, State Farm, has separate clauses regarding my computers and camera gear, with additional costs of course. If your camera and computer are business use, this needs to be stated as it affects the risk for damage.

Don't fool with the insurance, buy what you need as you will be the one disappointed.

[aikidoforever]

I had a camera (film) bag with all my gear and a video camera bag stolen out of my car a few months ago. The car was sitting in my driveway at the time. It was not covered under my auto insurance instead it was covered under my home insurance. I had no problem collecting the funds and we are talking about $6,000 worth of gear. (thanks to this I went from being a Minolta film user to a Canon DLSR guy.)

If you are talking about insurance to cover damages, like if you dropped you camera, that's a whole different ball game. Home and auto insurance covers theft only. I was told that if I've ever received payment from someone for my photographic services that my auto/car insurance would no longer cover my camera gear. I would then need to get seperate insurance as a photographer (even though I am simply an amateur.) However, the benefits to getting this seperate insurance is that it would cover damages if dropped as well as if it were stolen. I am seriously considering getting this insurance now that the value of my gear is adding up... too quickly I might add.

Note that this info might be subject to a particular insurance company and or province or country...

Hope this helps.

Cheers! ;-)

[Illegally_Alive]

I have my gear covered by an all risk rider and love it.
I pay $80 a year (I know that's more that some/most pay) but it's totally worth it for me.
It allows me to not have to worry about what's going to happen. I can now take my camera to places that aren't very Canon friendly at all. (Abandoned buildings, sketchy area's, Nik*n conventions, you name it!)


~Ben

[Jon]

What kind of insurance is available, and from whom, will vary depending on where you live. There's probably been more discussion of insurance in the "Sharing Knowhow" area. I have an Inland Marine policy on my gear through our Erie Insurance Group. Runs about 1% of insured value per year.

[charlesu]

I have my gear covered by an all risk rider and love it.
I pay $80 a year (I know that's more that some/most pay) but it's totally worth it for me.
It allows me to not have to worry about what's going to happen. I can now take my camera to places that aren't very Canon friendly at all. (Abandoned buildings, sketchy area's, Nik*n conventions, you name it!)


~Ben

Wow!! I am paying a LOT more than that but it covers all my gear (studio, etc.). WHo is your insurer?

[Jon]

Wow!! I am paying a LOT more than that but it covers all my gear (studio, etc.). WHo is your insurer?

Part of that may be professional vs. personal use. IIRC the professional coverage from one agent I dealt with was about 2.5x the personal use only rate. Mine's currently "personal use".

[Persian-Rice]

Car insurance wont cover anything but the broken window, I wont tell them that. Considering the rates in Canada for people under 25, I am not willing to risk paying more, besides, my window and tint will cost about $500 which is my deductible.

Actually it is my homeowners insurance that covers it, but I got a special rider and makes sure they cover it. My mom pays for the home insurance, but I think it is about $60/month(no deductible) for the equipment, but I have insurance on the large format too which alone is worth about $25,000 Canadian(School pays for half of the insurance cost on the Large-format) + approx $14,000 for my Canon gear and misc.

[Medic1]

Interesting.....I think its time to check my policy and make sure I'm covered!!

[Mills]

I use Chubb for my home and all personal belongings. They may cost a little more, but there is no comparison when you have high value belongings.

[CyberDyneSystems]

At the risk of oversimplfying ,. there are essentially two catagories of insurance for this type of thing.

1. A rider tacked onto your homeowners insurance.

2. Professional Photographers Insurance. (note the word "photographer" as opposed ot "camera" it's your business insured as opposed to just your gear)

This is why there is such a large difference in cost,. A home owners rider can be about $100.00 a year or even less.

The pro package like I have and I suspect Charles has is more like $400.00-$500.00 depending.

It covers a lot more than home owners rider does,. not just gear replacement.

[Avalonthas]

costs me 50 bucks a year to cover many man thousands worth of gear. Not bad.

[GerryDavid]

This is something I get to look into in a few months hopefully. Also insurrance for doing weddings. I dont want to get stuck wtih the bill if something goes wrong.