George S.
How many is enough?
Just wondering...
Gumby
Veteran
Same answer as last time: 4... I'm neither buying or selling, just using.
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W
wlewisiii
Guest
No, I was broke before the economy tanked so no diff to me 
William
William
bob338
Well-known
yes, it is affecting my selling habits. i recently bought a chrome .85 m6 to replace my black m6 thinking it would be an even swap. i had it on here and on craigslist for sale and got no bites. i have decided to try to trade it for a .58 instead of selling it...
bob
bob
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
My personal economy kinda betrayed me long before the national economy tanked. I'm on half-salary for this academic year, so not a whole lot of buying.
I sold a lot, but mostly to make room for my Nikon D700 purchase.
I sold a lot, but mostly to make room for my Nikon D700 purchase.
noimmunity
scratch my niche
Exchange rates ...
While the decline of the euro offers some solace for red-dot star gazers, back here on earth the rise of both the yen and the dollar (and the decline of the taiwan dollar) is really bad news. Camera-lovers in Korea must be devastated...
While the decline of the euro offers some solace for red-dot star gazers, back here on earth the rise of both the yen and the dollar (and the decline of the taiwan dollar) is really bad news. Camera-lovers in Korea must be devastated...
amateriat
We're all light!
9/11 knocked the props from under both my nest-egg and full-time occupation, so the current economic debacle, personally speaking, has been relatively mild by contrast.
That event, interestingly enough, might have guided my wholesale abandonment of SLRs for my current RF setup in early 2002: smaller, simpler, "gooder." As far as future purchases are concerned, I'm looking at an R4a and 21 f/4 replacing a handful of other gear. Not exactly "bullish", but forward-looking nonetheless. I'm thinking strictly in terms of how I prefer to work photographically, with no other considerations. I'm taking my work behind the lens very seriously, while simultaneously having more fun at it. "The economy" has only negligible impact on this at the moment.
- Barrett
That event, interestingly enough, might have guided my wholesale abandonment of SLRs for my current RF setup in early 2002: smaller, simpler, "gooder." As far as future purchases are concerned, I'm looking at an R4a and 21 f/4 replacing a handful of other gear. Not exactly "bullish", but forward-looking nonetheless. I'm thinking strictly in terms of how I prefer to work photographically, with no other considerations. I'm taking my work behind the lens very seriously, while simultaneously having more fun at it. "The economy" has only negligible impact on this at the moment.
- Barrett
steamer
Well-known
Strange how many of us are in the same boat. Haven't been hit by the meltdown yet. I've been freelancing for about a year and a half. My income has been halved and expenses are up say 30 percent (food and wife). I don't spend anything beside living expenses these days, though the LX3 is tempting. I don't plan to sell anything because the couple of grand I'd get wouldn't make much difference anyway.
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If the choice was available I would have selected "Yes - I've stopped selling gear through the RFF classifieds". In my case, mainly because of the strong yen, but I also noticed a significant drop in the number of enquiries for the last few items I sold, and they took longer to sell than expected.
Just running my eyes over a few headlines ... it ain't pretty out there.
Tough economic times (cars, factory output, and bankruptcies)
Retailers report steep sales declines in October
Ryanair boss predicts airline failures this winter
European car industry slumps amid financial crisis
BMW 8-series credit-crunched
Toyota warns full-year profit may dive 74%
Just running my eyes over a few headlines ... it ain't pretty out there.
Tough economic times (cars, factory output, and bankruptcies)
Retailers report steep sales declines in October
Ryanair boss predicts airline failures this winter
European car industry slumps amid financial crisis
BMW 8-series credit-crunched
Toyota warns full-year profit may dive 74%
35mmdelux
Veni, vidi, vici
i took a bigger hit with the high petro prices than with the collapse of the market. Just the same, I am being cautious given the economic future remains unpredictable.
stefan_dinu
Established
It has to be a fifth option. I buy at low prices. Because everybody else is selling the prices will go down. And since the money value is changing, I thought it is better to invest in cameras.
ruby.monkey
Veteran
Not the economy so much as me finally growing up and buying what I know I need rather than what I think I want.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Steamer: welcome to the wonderful world of freelancing! I've been doing it for 27 years. Odds are you'll never get rich, and when you work for yourself, the boss is an unforgiving b*stard, but I'd still not want to change it. About 17 years ago my wife took the same route.
Stefan: Yes, exactly -- though actually, the only second-hand gear I've bought lately was a Thambar from a friend who needed the money, so I didn't get it cheap. The thing is, there's not mich left that I want, let alone need.
Ruby Monkey: Good thinking! See my second sentence to Stefan above.
Cheers,
R.
Stefan: Yes, exactly -- though actually, the only second-hand gear I've bought lately was a Thambar from a friend who needed the money, so I didn't get it cheap. The thing is, there's not mich left that I want, let alone need.
Ruby Monkey: Good thinking! See my second sentence to Stefan above.
Cheers,
R.
stefan_dinu
Established
Is the same problem for me. I want to buy just an investment since I don't need anything. After I bought what I named the perfect camera for me, all the GAS just stopped.
italy74
Well-known
In Italy, home loans and prices went wild in these years have made poorer much many families so that now or you can afford a super luxury vacation from 10000 € or more (fewer ones) or you can't afford the 1000 € one. Tradesmen, bankers, oilmen, lawyers and corrupted politics will have to pay their greed, sooner or later, this is for sure.
Olsen
Well-known
Don't bet on it. All the economical intervention I have seen launched, be it Europe or USA, is directed towards 'bankers' with too little public oversight, - making it open for 'corruption'. Even Obama's newest initiative is going to directed 'towards the middle class'. Not the working class, among whom you will find the largest number of people in economical distress. If you think the up and coming economical crisis is going to produce justice, you are wrong.
mervynyan
Mervyn Yan
The last thing I fancy is to swap my medium format to full frame digital SLR, but I still have over 50 rolls of 120/220 and no time to shoot.
gdi
Veteran
In the US, we generally consider the "Middle Class" to be the "Working Class". It is that huge chunk of the population able to earn over $40k or so, but not rich enough to totally avoid paying taxes.
There is currently a proposal for the government to pay off credit card debt to protect the card companies - this would be the new "trickle down". So maybe the middle class will finally catch a break!!
Olsen
Well-known
In the US, we generally consider the "Middle Class" to be the "Working Class". It is that huge chunk of the population able to earn over $40k or so, but not rich enough to totally avoid paying taxes.
There is currently a proposal for the government to pay off credit card debt to protect the card companies - this would be the new "trickle down". So maybe the middle class will finally catch a break!!
OK. Thanks for the info. Over here you are 'middle class' if, say, you own a shop, you are middle managment and a bit up.
I am getting a bit tired of this US/Sovjet Union style sensorship (moderation, as it is called here) here at RFF. Couldn't somebody come up with a European RFF?
Roger Hicks
Veteran
'Middle class' is indeed a flexible concept, and, as gdi points out, definitions differ regionally. Most people define themselves as 'middle class'. I suspect that this is because the abject misery of the working class prior to the Great War is for most people almost unimaginable, but remains as a folk-memory: pawning clothes, Father getting the meat, with leftovers for the children, rags instead of curtains, bare feet even in winter...
I am no communist, but there are two lines in the Red Flag that are unarguable:
The People's Flag is deepest red
Stained with blood our fathers shed
Does anyone REALLY believe that without many decades of struggle by the workers to achieve better conditions, today's 'working class' would be as well off as they are (relatively, compared with 100-150 years ago)? 'Trickle-down' works, there's no doubt; but the prevalence of servants in 'middle class' homes until the Great War shows just how great income discrepancies were, and I strongly suspect that when the bourgeoisie talked of 'bettering the lot of the working classes' they probably didn't include giving up the cook-housekeeper.
I'm firmly bourgeois now, and my brother is bon bourgeois (read: rich), but my father's parents, when they were first married, rented two rooms in a shared house, which is pretty hard-line working class. Thus do we have class mobility, and thus do we redefine class.
Cheers,
R.
I am no communist, but there are two lines in the Red Flag that are unarguable:
The People's Flag is deepest red
Stained with blood our fathers shed
Does anyone REALLY believe that without many decades of struggle by the workers to achieve better conditions, today's 'working class' would be as well off as they are (relatively, compared with 100-150 years ago)? 'Trickle-down' works, there's no doubt; but the prevalence of servants in 'middle class' homes until the Great War shows just how great income discrepancies were, and I strongly suspect that when the bourgeoisie talked of 'bettering the lot of the working classes' they probably didn't include giving up the cook-housekeeper.
I'm firmly bourgeois now, and my brother is bon bourgeois (read: rich), but my father's parents, when they were first married, rented two rooms in a shared house, which is pretty hard-line working class. Thus do we have class mobility, and thus do we redefine class.
Cheers,
R.