Is this hobby really expensive?

Lightstream wrote in post #2258395
It's therapy. It's cheaper than the shrink. Anybody knows what a good shrink charges these days? I figure it would buy a lot of glass

Exactly. I like talking to my camera too.

My SOLID Nova cost $475 and the motor cost $600 and its made us over $10,000 and lots of fun

liza wrote in post #2254808
The only thing more expensive in my life were those two ex-husbands of mine.

Yeah, I had one of them too....
But I probably spend more on books than I do on photography, Photo gear was a big expense, but now just a little electricity to charge my batteries, and paper if I decide to print.
Not ongoing like eating... I just spent $2,000 on a new oven and stove, and own a fortune in pots, pans, baking stuff...
...and cookbooks, where my other 2 hobbies collide

Photography is the least expensive of my hobbies. From top down for expensive:

1) Girl Friend
2) Traveling
3) Amateur Radio
4) Computers
5) Photography

--Evan

i used to play paintball quite often. at first i was paying 10cents a shot. eventually it went down to about a penny a ball but wow does that add up. go through 2-3k balls in an evening.
thats on top of over 1000$ in gear and memberships and...


my friend addicted to RC cars.

his nitro(gas) vehicules include a 1250$ car, 1000$ buggy, 750$ monster truck.
and a 1000$ electric car. that doesnt include his tools, and remotes and who knows what else.

and he thinks my hobby is expensive.

i spent about 9k on my car in 3 yrs...

i spent just over 1k in 6 months on camera gear.. and will end up spending about 2k more with the lenses i want... and maybe around another 1k for an upgraded body in about 6 months or so.. but then after that i Imagine the spending will drop off abit..
I'd say cars are more expensive cause there is just so so much you can do to them..

now that i sit here thinking about it... i bet i won't stop spending on camera stuff either.. oh well.. i guess that's what $$ is for...

Lightstream wrote in post #2258395
It's therapy. It's cheaper than the shrink. Anybody knows what a good shrink charges these days? I figure it would buy a lot of glass

Unless the photos come out bad enough that it ends up sending you to a shrink

Evan Idler wrote in post #2259090
Photography is the least expensive of my hobbies. From top down for expensive:

1) Girl Friend
2) Traveling
3) Amateur Radio
4) Computers
5) Photography

--Evan

Wow, I wouldnt have guessed Amateur radio above Comps and photography!!

BIGTUFFGUY wrote in post #2259308
i used to play paintball quite often. at first i was paying 10cents a shot. eventually it went down to about a penny a ball but wow does that add up. go through 2-3k balls in an evening.
thats on top of over 1000$ in gear and memberships and...

Looks like you have decided to move to a slightly cheaper form of shooting then

Oh, don't remind me of the computers.

Every 12-18 months we'd throw more money down the black hole of instant obsolescence, watch the asset depreciate to zero, and do it again. Change one thing, and you'd change everything. Think cameras changing mounts is bad? Try keeping up with the myriad changes of sockets, protocols, interfaces, and standards every 12 months. EVERYTHING that was advertised as 'future proof' WASN'T. "Oh we kept the same socket but the electrical requirements are now different or the software isn't compatible so you have to throw away the board and change anyway" well stuff that.......

Video cards were the worst. NVidia and ATI were on a six month release cycle. I eventually gave up on playing games because it was more eye candy graphics than absorbing gameplay. Games of ten years ago could glue my a55 to the chair till it hurt - without the aid of fancy graphics.

However, I invested in good monitors (Sony Trinitrons) because they did not depreciate very fast and had a (comparatively) very long service life. My 17" delivered six years of nonstop 12-hour-a-day quality service till the very end where the colors started drifting, the CRT started dimming and I figured it was gonna go any moment.

The only good that ever came of it was that they became a job for me. I don't like to think how much I spent as a hobbyist, though.

In ten years time the glass will all still be here and still be useful. My 1D is a 5 year old design, my 300/4L IS is nearly ten, and my 100-400 is 8-9. (Note: design age, not equipment age - the equipment itself is only a couple of years old)

Yes, in terms of short term, it is. Long term it isn't because glass doesn't really change.
But then i guess its relative. And then it depends how much you use the equipment.

It's still fairly expensive for most.

I've dropped about £2000/$4000 in HiFi gear, about £5000/$10,000 in computers over the years, and about £3000/$6000 in photography.

I still have my HiFi, one of the PC i had that was $2500 new is now worth its weight waste. And I still have all my photorgaphic gear, and i suppose its hold up its value quite well, thou not as good as my HiFi thou I must admit.

kram wrote in post #2259479
Wow, I wouldnt have guessed Amateur radio above Comps and photography!!

HF, VHF, UHF, Satellite, Hi Speed Packet, ect. and I don't even have a lot of stuff but it adds up. I use to sell and service the stuff for 14 years. Ever buy a Motorola RF Service Monitor?
I have friends that have spent more on putting up 200 foot towers for their antenna farms than it would cost to buy a nice house. Ever seen a 4 element 80M Yagi. One of the locals put one up.
http://andor.net/ve6jy​/ve6jy-80m.html

He's Working on a 5 element now

--Evan

I've spent about $5,700 on photography and about $4,950 on my computer (that includes software and a bunch of other stuff) and $1,500 on my laptop. Ouch. This isn't a hobby, it's a habit. And I need rehab.

overclock wrote in post #2262947
I've spent about $5,700 on photography and about $4,950 on my computer (that includes software and a bunch of other stuff) and $1,500 on my laptop. Ouch. This isn't a hobby, it's a habit. And I need rehab.

Half of us here do .