If this is what you do, how much are willing to pay for your tools?

It's just a observation, but many people who don the mantle of professionalism and claim to make a living through photography appear to be a very parsimonious lot. Every mechanic I know has dropped close to fifty thousand or more into their tools, and God help the professional filmmaker, but photographers seem to **** and moan all the time about their price of their tools. Why? Even if I loaded up on L lenses and got a couple of EOS 1Ds Mk III bodies with all the bells and whistles I'd be hard pressed to get close to $50K. Am I missing something?

75k AUD there, not that i have all the gear.

1DsMarkII - 11k
1DMarkIII x 2 - 12k
16-35 - 2k
24-70 - 1.5k
70-200 - 2k
300 - 6k
400 - 9k
500 - 9k
35 - 1.5k
85 - 2.5k
135 - 1k
CF Cards - 1.5k
Flashes - 1k
Studio Lighting - 5k
Misc - 5k
PC for processing - 4k


i think the difference is mechanics dont pay upwards of 5,000 for some of their tools but they must have alot more smaller tools, also tools of a mechanic generally last a lifetime, mechanical items like camera bodies and lenses have a lifecylce so after a while we have to replace/upgrade/repair which ends up costing more.

You're not far off. I guess more of a casual observation of mine is that the ones that do complain the most are not the full time professionals but the weekend warriors. Many of those are the same ones that are lowering the bar by offering insane pricing, imo. I keep an inventory of everything that I have and it is far in excess of the figure you are throwing out here.

Tools do matter to a point. Anyone can shoot a wedding with an XTi if you wanted to. It becomes more of a point when you are chasing higher end corporate work where it becomes a point. Alot of these want the largest file they can get and this required the 1DsMKII (at the time), assuming that I wanted to stay in the DSLR range of things. I couldn't justify a medium format with a Leaf back at the time.

When I went from working at this part time to full time I spent alot of money to get the tools to do the job right. Some of my gear list is for my personal enjoyment but it all gets lumped in together.

My neighbor is a mechanic and trust me, he does complain about the cost of his tools. I think if you went and talked to dentists or any other of the professional careers you would find the same thing. We see alot of it here because well this is a photo forum. If we hung around forums for other industries I would not be surprised to see the same flavor of posts there.

I just chalk it up to the cost of doing business. Would I like to pay less, heck yes. I don't spend the time complaining about it on a forum and I have written to Canon a couple of times about the disparaging price difference between Canada and the United States.

I do believe that the ones that like to make the noise about the price of gear are the ones that would like to be a full time shooter but are not quite there yet. If you notice that alot of the price complaints also have a fairly common theme, the spouse. If you can't justify it to them with a business plan then you don't have a solid enough of one. When I was married my wife never balked at any of my purchases.

All in all it is just people getting something off of their chests and I just glean over those posts.

I've got about $65K invested in equipment, $30K in studio 'stuff', and another $15K in misc. I generally don't **** about the cost of the equipment, because it does come back to me in revenue. I do **** about how fast some of it becomes outdated and needs to be replaced (computers and camera bodies).

Professional film makers often rent the equipment on a per job basis, some own nothing more than a video camera they use for casting. Lucky them, plus budgets we can only dream about. I wouldn't even guess what I have invested in gear, some of it lasts forever, some like Stephen points out gets outdated far too quickly.

I have about 15K invested in camera equipment, computers, and software. And I just dropped 95K on a studio. And I'm not griping about it, since I realize I have to spend the money to make a living.

Mechanics dont have to upgrade their wrenches every 3-5 years. =)

no..but certain automotive things art cheap either. My family owns two auto repair facilities in California, and having grown up in them, I have become accustom to the exorbitant prices of some things.Take a Smog machine, for example....which must be upgraded around every 7-10 years (at least thats how it as been lately). it is just a simple little computer with some hoses attached, can easily cost over $25,000. Also, some of our diagnostic tools cost over 12,000. And while wrenches do not need to be upgraded, they certainly do need to be replaced from time to time if they break (which can happen). So cameras really are like every other industry. It is a tool marketed towards those who need them, which is why the prices are adjusted accordingly

That being said I have about $9,000 worth of gear

Kadath wrote in post #4289807
Mechanics dont have to upgrade their wrenches every 3-5 years. =)

No but the Snap-On truck comes around once a month anyway!

I wonder sometimes how many people on POTN who say that they're professional actually are.

Good question. I'm definitely not. Not sure if I ever said I am...but if I did I lied.

M.Wheeler wrote in post #3959196
Even if I loaded up on L lenses and got a couple of EOS 1Ds Mk III bodies with all the bells and whistles I'd be hard pressed to get close to $50K.

Switch to Hasselblad...you'l hit $50K in no time.


Good point, Kadath...shutter mechanisms will wear out long before the average Snap-On torque wrench, but I'm sure mechanics have their ''recurring'' costs as well. I've never really heard (or read) anyone **** about photo equipment prices, but its unjustified. In fact, the $25K I've spent on pro photography equipment has been the CHEAPEST investment out of all my ''passions''. Try collecting vintage guitars and restoring antique automobiles!!

cdifoto wrote in post #4290296
Good question. I'm definitely not. Not sure if I ever said I am...but if I did I lied.

Not you specifically, I mean in general.

hortonsl62 wrote in post #4290318
Not you specifically, I mean in general.

lol I know. I'm just speaking for the record. Stick me in the database as a "No"

Yeah, I'm a NO as well.

Revenue is 1/1000000000000th of the gear, so unless I was just the Crazy Eddie of Photography, I could not be called 'pro' --