Saving money?

Interesting article. It supports my feeling that you usually get what you pay for. Take it with however many grains of salt you feel it's worth.

Cheap Gear

I disagree because you can do your research. Not all third party accessories are bad. Some are just as good. When comes to lenses, since I shoot Nikon now and my D7000 can use AF lenses dated back to the 90s, you can't believe how many older, good quality Nikon lenses out there you can have as little as $150 to $300.

You can walking around with a bunch of L lenses all you want but you know that you can still get the same shot using a less expensive lens. If you have the money, you can use and buy whatever you want, of course.

TooManyShots wrote in post #16883317
I disagree because you can do your research. Not all third party accessories are bad. Some are just as good. When comes to lenses, since I shoot Nikon now and my D7000 can use AF lenses dated back to the 90s, you can't believe how many older, good quality Nikon lenses out there you can have as little as $150 to $300.

You can walking around with a bunch of L lenses all you want but you know that you can still get the same shot using a less expensive lens. If you have the money, you can use and buy whatever you want, of course.

If you read the article, he did do his research and still got burned. I've done the same thing. Now I buy Canon. My choice. Used or refurb is quite different from third party made who knows where or to what sort of oversight or inspection process.

I have learned this lesson many many times in all of my equipment, mostly non-camera related.
While some people find buying the manufactures equipment to be over priced or even a ripoff,
I find there to be a very good reason why the party costs less; it is lower quality.
As a young child I had several third-party Playstation controllers break with no refund.
As a teenager I had both a generic-replacement radiator and a generic distributor fail.
After dealing with many third party or generic alternatives many times
I have vowed to save up my cash. Not just for photography gear, but all of my gear.
If I wanted something quality, I will save up for that item, and do-without until I can afford it.
As a result I can't recall anything in the past 5 years that has failed me. And I do buy used gear quite often.