A Sinkhole of Money

[images39]

The cost of analog photography is all relative... before I discovered photography, I was very close to getting an old British or Italian sports car to work on an enjoy. It was going to be either a chrome bumper MGB or a Fiat Spider (very different choices, but that's another story). Then I inadvertently stumbled into photography, which completely diverted me from the old sports car idea. I've bought way more cameras and lenses than I need, but compared to getting into an old sports car, photography's been dirt cheap. I can shoot film and print to my heart's content, and it feels like I'm getting a lot of joy on a shoestring budget. So it's all relative...

Dale

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Now that I've sold off about 60% of my camera gear (all 35mm cameras and lenses except one), it's amazing how much money I have sunk into this hobby. Built up over the last 10 years, I had well over $10,000 in hardware! No wonder my wife gets angry from time to time (and is ecstatic these days).

This is not a critical comment towards others (or myself!) as that gear gave me immense pleasure during the past 10 years. You have to spend your money on something, as you can't take it with you.

I still have my medium format gear, and the digitals, which are worth next to nothing since time has passed them by.

if you divide what you've spent by the hours of fun you had with it, it's cheaper than bowling.

 

[RattyMouse]

if you divide what you've spent by the hours of fun you had with it, it's cheaper than bowling.

Bowling must be very expensive where you live.

 

[RattyMouse]

The cost of analog photography is all relative... before I discovered photography, I was very close to getting an old British or Italian sports car to work on an enjoy. It was going to be either a chrome bumper MGB or a Fiat Spider (very different choices, but that's another story). Then I inadvertently stumbled into photography, which completely diverted me from the old sports car idea. I've bought way more cameras and lenses than I need, but compared to getting into an old sports car, photography's been dirt cheap. I can shoot film and print to my heart's content, and it feels like I'm getting a lot of joy on a shoestring budget. So it's all relative...

Dale

Interesting. I'm on the opposite path. The loss of Neopan Acros has put such a damper on my interest in photography that I'm exploring getting a sports car of some kind. I'm not 100% sure that I'll go this route but I need something to occupy my time. A very productive month for me is now down to 1 roll of film shot. I often can't even muster that amount. Looking at my B & H order history I was buying 10-20 rolls of Acros at a shot.

My new bike arrives in a few weeks. Maybe that will be the ticket to occupy my time. It's been a long wait for this thing.

 

[Ces1um]

Bowling must be very expensive where you live.

The balls are solid gold and they only use woolly mammoth tusks for pins, and only the left ones at that.

 

[michr]

Now that I've sold off about 60% of my camera gear (all 35mm cameras and lenses except one), it's amazing how much money I have sunk into this hobby. Built up over the last 10 years, I had well over $10,000 in hardware! No wonder my wife gets angry from time to time (and is ecstatic these days).

This is not a critical comment towards others (or myself!) as that gear gave me immense pleasure during the past 10 years. You have to spend your money on something, as you can't take it with you.

I still have my medium format gear, and the digitals, which are worth next to nothing since time has passed them by.

On the one hand, $10,000 is a lot of money, but over the course of ten years, it starts to look more reasonable. That's $1,000 a year, or about $3 a day. That's a soda or two, a coffee or pint of beer, maybe even less, depending on where you live. When you put it in those terms, of things people spend money on often without a second thought, your hobby seems a quite reasonable use of money. Likely it brought you more joy, and you were left with something to show for it (the photos), and the equipment retained enough value to make it worthwhile to sell. That's not a bad bargain.

 

[freecitizen]

Photography is inexpensive compared to international flyfishing.

 

[Vilk]

Now that I've sold off about 60% of my camera gear (all 35mm cameras and lenses except one), it's amazing how much money I have sunk into this hobby. Built up over the last 10 years, I had well over $10,000 in hardware! No wonder my wife gets angry from time to time (and is ecstatic these days).

This is not a critical comment towards others (or myself!) as that gear gave me immense pleasure during the past 10 years. You have to spend your money on something, as you can't take it with you.

I still have my medium format gear, and the digitals, which are worth next to nothing since time has passed them by.

i have kept a gear sales spreadsheet (though not a purchases spreadsheet) for a while now, precisely to feel good as of this writing, it stands at $11,815

assets are one thing, operations another: since i abandoned wet for d(ry) i can--and do--stay overseas at least an extra month each year

 

[4season]

On the one hand, $10,000 is a lot of money, but over the course of ten years, it starts to look more reasonable. That's $1,000 a year, or about $3 a day.

And yet, try saving that much money and hanging onto it!

 

[markjwyatt]

Go to Starbucks 4 times a week (you and spouse, say, $4.50 ea. x 2 = $9/week) = $468/yr. x 10 yrs = $4680. ROI =$0.00. And you are telling me $10,000 in 10 years is a lot for a substantial hobby?

 

[Helios 1984]

Go to Starbucks 4 times a week (you and spouse, say, $4.50 ea. x 2 = $9/week) = $468/yr. x 10 yrs = $4680. ROI =$0.00. And you are telling me $10,000 in 10 years is a lot for a substantial hobby?

That's 10 years of bus passes and Starbucks. Going to work is a sinkhole of money too.

 

[markjwyatt]

That's 10 years of bus passes and Starbucks. Going to work is a sinkhole of money too.

Unfortunately, without going to work, you likely would not have the $10k to spend in the first place.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

if you divide what you've spent by the hours of fun you had with it, it's cheaper than bowling.

5 pin or 10 pin?

 

[MattKing]

5 pin or 10 pin?

With 5 pin, it depends on whether Rye Whisky, is involved

 

[RattyMouse]

That's 10 years of bus passes and Starbucks. Going to work is a sinkhole of money too.

Tell me about it. I use 3 tanks of gas, per week. Every other day I gas up.

 

[Arthurwg]

As far as I can tell. none of you are really spending all that much on your film cameras. Take a look at M3 prices on Ebay. Among others, there's an olive green ex-military camera with kit for $318,520 and "the last M3 ever made", with documents and still unused at $595,000. On the less expensive side, for those on a budget, there's also several M3s priced between $14,1000 and $44,000. I never really loved my M3, with those goggles and silly light meter. Much better was my M4, but I really love my M6 ttl.

 

[RattyMouse]

As far as I can tell. none of you are really spending all that much on your film cameras. Take a look at M3 prices on Ebay. Among others, there's an olive green ex-military camera with kit for $318,520 and "the last M3 ever made", with documents and still unused at $595,000. On the less expensive side, for those on a budget, there's also several M3s priced between $14,1000 and $44,000. I never really loved my M3, with those goggles and silly light meter. Much better was my M4, but I really love my M6 ttl.

You dont have to spend stupid amounts of money to qualify as spending a lot. My film cameras cost in excess of $10,000 all together. I shot 8 binders of negatives in 5 years with that gear. Hundreds of rolls per binder. That's a lot of expense in my book.

 

[markjwyatt]

You dont have to spend stupid amounts of money to qualify as spending a lot. My film cameras cost in excess of $10,000 all together. I shot 8 binders of negatives in 5 years with that gear. Hundreds of rolls per binder. That's a lot of expense in my book.

I wonder how much film and processing cost relative to the $10k. May double the cost.

 

[CMoore]

I bought way more cameras than i need, and am selling many of them.
So going forward, cameras and film are not much of a cost.
Chemicals and Paper...especially Paper are my main cost.

 

[Toyo]

A good friend of mine is an avid photographer. His wife is not, but she was a smoker.
He always liked to have up to date camera equipment, but he never approached the costs to his budget that his wife's smoking habit cost them.
She was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and had to stop smoking.
Their bottom line improved by over $10,000 a year!
Everything is relative
T

 

[RattyMouse]

I wonder how much film and processing cost relative to the $10k. May double the cost.

At least double. Back then I shot a LOT of E6 film. Since returning to the US I have not shot a single frame of E6. No lab.

 

[Arthurwg]

As far as I can tell. none of you are really spending all that much on your film cameras. Take a look at M3 prices on Ebay. Among others, there's an olive green ex-military camera with kit for $318,520 and "the last M3 ever made", with documents and still unused at $595,000. On the less expensive side, for those on a budget, there's also several M3s priced between $14,1000 and $44,000. I never really loved my M3, with those goggles and silly light meter. Much better was my M4, but I really love my M6 ttl.

You dont have to spend stupid amounts of money to qualify as spending a lot. My film cameras cost in excess of $10,000 all together. I shot 8 binders of negatives in 5 years with that gear. Hundreds of rolls per binder. That's a lot of expense in my book.

Ratman, I was trying to make a joke. Somehow those prices are rather astonishing.

 

[RattyMouse]

Ratman, I was trying to make a joke. Somehow those prices are rather astonishing.

Yes, ridiculous indeed.

 

[Arklatexian]

A good friend of mine is an avid photographer. His wife is not, but she was a smoker.
He always liked to have up to date camera equipment, but he never approached the costs to his budget that his wife's smoking habit cost them.
She was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and had to stop smoking.
Their bottom line improved by over $10,000 a year!
Everything is relative
T

I had a cousin who would watch me using my old used Leica M3 and M2. He once told me that he wished he could afford a Leica. I answered him that if he would completely give up smoking cigarettes for one year, at the end of that year he could buy, not used equipment like mine but a new Leica and lens and pay cash. Cigarettes won out and he has been dead from emphysema and cardiac problems for years now. Me?, I am still using my old (now older) M3 and M2 cameras. Sure glad some rich person bought them new so I could have the opportunity to wear them out. It seems as if they are outlasting me........Regards!

 

[blockend]

People with disposable income like to find ways of making their hobby expensive. HiFi people want things other people can't hear, car people want them to be impractically shiny or fast. Camera people own perfectly good lenses but want one four times the price that's 10% better. It's a way of justifying an urge that only makes sense in the asylum they inhabit.

The assumption that such things are for listening to music, or a means of transport or of making pictures are met with same pitying incredulity reserved for the mentally impaired. It goes up to 11, manufacturer's make them and other people own them so, duh...