How much is too much for you?

FrankS said:
I bought a new CV 21 and a new CV 40. That was pretty spendy for me. My other RF lenses were all bought used. Every one's financial situation is unique so you will get as many different answers to the original question as there are folks who'll answer. No one should apply their own personal situation to anyone else's and criticize the other's choice in spending on photo gear. Photography as a hobbie is still much cheaper than drug abuse or supporting a mistress. (I'm thinking)
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Dear Frank,

Oh, dear, what a sheltered life I've led...

But as I say, look at classic cars. In my early 20s I used to assist at Custom Car shoots. Those guys used to spend far more on tarting up cars than is readily believable.

I had a wonderful job, though. Take 'em into the pub next door and pour beer into them so they didn't worry about their cars getting scratched by the models' bums.

At least, I think it was Custom Car. But it was a very long time ago, and all that beer on the clients' budget has clouded my memory. To say nothing of the models' bums.

Cheers,

R.
 
Keith said:
But an individual can only hold one camera and one lens up to the eye at a time Roger. I can understand a fashion photographer or similar needing multiple bodies and a supply of lenses though.

I remember ages ago seeing a doco about Annie Lebowitz doing a shoot for Vanity Fair I think from memory ... her assistants wheeled in a two tiered trolly full of bodies and lenses! :D
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She is bankrupt now.
 
Interesting to hear/read different opinions. It's also interesting that we have so many people here, on RFF, with many very expensive lenses, yet based on many comments in this thread - so many people dont go over $300 for a lens.
I too, at times wonder, why in the world I blow so much money on new toys- lenses, cameras. I really dont need them all. But I suppose I'm a bit like Ron (see his post above) - I like to try many things and find what works the best for me. I know I have found a few camera/lens combos that I know I like and will keep for sure. Yet there are so many others that I still want to check out - like Bessa R4A/M camera - still keep wondering about that WA VF. While I had several Bessas in the past and present - that one somehow just never crossed my path. Same goes for lenses - I just keep wanting to try new things.
Also, when I started this thread, I didnt mean to include a pro-users. If one needs a certain tool/lens for a job - well - thats what you get. I was asking more about people for whom photography is a hobby.
 
My Leica gear is worth about 4 times my 135'000km 1997 Jeep.
Depends on your priorities.
Some have watches, other have houses or luxury cars. All of this turns to dust at some point, yet there is always a chance that one picture will make history, right ? So it better be taken with the best glass, no ? ;)

This being said, €2000 is the most I am willing to pay on a lens.
 
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I'd say about $1000. I'm not informed about prices other than CV's range, but looking into the future, I suppose ZM lenses is where I'll stop.
 
Krosya said:
Interesting to hear/read different opinions. It's also interesting that we have so many people here, on RFF, with many very expensive lenses, yet based on many comments in this thread - so many people dont go over $300 for a lens.
I too, at times wonder, why in the world I blow so much money on new toys- lenses, cameras. I really dont need them all. But I suppose I'm a bit like Ron (see his post above) - I like to try many things and find what works the best for me. I know I have found a few camera/lens combos that I know I like and will keep for sure. Yet there are so many others that I still want to check out - like Bessa R4A/M camera - still keep wondering about that WA VF. While I had several Bessas in the past and present - that one somehow just never crossed my path. Same goes for lenses - I just keep wanting to try new things.
Also, when I started this thread, I didnt mean to include a pro-users. If one needs a certain tool/lens for a job - well - thats what you get. I was asking more about people for whom photography is a hobby.
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Fair point. But I genuinely don't think it makes any difference to how I feel about the kit. If I'd stuck with the law, or ever managed to warm to accountancy, I'd probably be a much richer man today. Even without writing it off against the business, I think I'd buy the same kit (which I would be much more easily able to afford).

An enormous difference, though, is that there is very little new that I desperately want to try out. I'd rather just take pics with what I have. When something very clearly better comes out - M9 over M8/M8.2 - that's one thing. Another damn' DSLR: that's another.

This relative indifference enables me (I think) to review things fairly honestly. There's stuff I'd really like, and can (with difficulty) afford. There's stuff I'd like, but can't afford (WATE, 24 Summilux). There's stuff I'd buy, even at the premium, if I didn't already have perfectly serviceable kit that does what I want (21mm Summilux; I'd like the extra 2 stops, and I love the image quality, but for the amount I use my 21/2.8 Kobalux and how I use it, I don't need to trade up). And so forth.

Cheers,

R.
 
As the sadly missed All Kaplan said,"You don't need that lens, you want it"

I am trying to live by the KISS principle but now have over 850 ebay transactions, sales and buys. If I would have put all that energy and money (I almost never made a profit) into two camera's and some lenses I would now have had a pair of M's and a quiver of summiluxes and crons. But would I crave for more or different....probably, my life isn't easy:eek:

So everything is relative, the most important thing is if you enjoy what you have and use, having something you can not afford does not help in this department.

For now I make do with two Rolleiflex SLx, yes one spare body Keith, 80planar and 150 Sonnar and a Technikardan with 180, 135, 90, 75 and 55mm.

And I am happy :D
 
skibeerr said:
As the sadly missed All Kaplan said,"You don't need that lens, you want it"

I am trying to live by the KISS principle but now have over 850 ebay transactions, sales and buys. If I would have put all that energy and money (I almost never made a profit) into two camera's and some lenses I would now have had a pair of M's and a quiver of summiluxes and crons. But would I crave for more or different....probably, my life isn't easy:eek:

So everything is relative, the most important thing is if you enjoy what you have and use, having something you can not afford does not help in this department.

For now I make do with two Rolleiflex SLx, yes one spare body Keith, 80planar and 150 Sonnar and a Technikardan with 180, 135, 90, 75 and 55mm.

And I am happy :D
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Whew! That's over 850 more eB transaction than I! And I'm sure you're dead right that if you'd not bought what you could 'afford' you'd have a lot more to spend on, yes, a couple of Ms and a handful of top-flight lenses.

But isn't the Technikardan lovely? The lenses I have panelled for mine are 110, 150, 168 (Dagor!), 210 and 300. I used to have a 47 (which JUST covers) but could never see the image clearly enough to compose.

Cheers,

R.
 
The most expensive lens in my collection cost $40,000. It went to an optical computer made in the 1980s. I dug it out of the dumpster.
 
I have purchased based on value. Of course, value is rather subjective. My only high dollar lens was purchased used and probably could be sold for the same price.

What I question is spending $8K on a digital camera body that depreciates like a BMW in sandstorm. I will make sure that the next digital camera that I buy is one that I will want to live with for some time to come.

BTW: I only question such a purchase should I be the one putting out the $8K. If you make that purchase, then have fun. That was a purchase that you judged to be a good value based on your photographic goals and financial situation.
 
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I sold my most expensive lens, a summicron asph 35, bought for €1000 3 years ago and sold 3 months ago for €1250. For me it was just too much to have invested in a lens that didn't get used €1250 worth.
My last lens buy was €650 for a v.4 summicron 35. My limit for a lens but now that I have my Leica kit completed I don't need to buy any others.
I have a load of Nikkor's, most expensive was the 50 1.4 A/F €200 and having collected all the ones I wanted don't need any others.
For me, expensive doesn't mean better. The only time I would consider spending big money on a lens would be if I needed a special quality it had and it showed in the images AND I was selling the images to pay for it.
I do think a lot of people buy expensive glass and never fully appreciate or get the images they are capable of producing.
 
I can't remember having ever bought a lens over about 325 €. (And that one was 20 years ago.) But I will most likely top that one day.
 
seems this is a changing thing... have you seen how much 35mm leica lenses have gone up by lately?
 
Double Negative said:
Going by that logic, I have a $30,000 SGI Indigo2 High IMPACT workstation. ;)

I didn't get mine out of a dumpster, but that's about where it belongs these days. It's worth about $200 at BEST today. The only thing that might be worth some coin is the Cosmo Compress board that's in it for doing video. Though without the high-end Hollywood software like nTitle and Pandemonium, and such - it's also pretty useless.

Though I have to say, that thing STILL does OpenGL manipulations better than anything I've ever seen; including a relatively recent, high-end Mac Pro with hopped-up video card!
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I bought one of those for my Mechanical Engineer. Also bought him a CNC machine to go with it. Told him that if I tasked him to make replacement parts for a Nikon SP that it was not work related and that he was not to listen to me. All of that stuff is surplused now.

The most I ever spent on a lens for personal use was $450, for an AF-Nikkor 28~85 zoom. Also long gone, part of a trade for a Nikon S4.
 
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I've owned, at one time or another, a big chunk of Leica's flagship lenses (28 summicron, 35 summilux asph, 50 Summicron, 75 summilux, etc.) But I've sold all of them off.
I'm down to two Leica lenses - a 35 pre-asph lux and a 40 summicron (my walk-around lens.)
My others include an Ultron 28/1.9, Zeiss 50 Planar, a J-3 that I just love and a canon 50/1.4 that may or may not stick around.

I just don't feel like I need the more modern Leica glass. When I want to go with a modern look, I use my Nikon D700 and a growing kit of outstanding Nikon glass.

In the end, this kit does what I want it to do. And that's all that matters.
 
Keep in mind that buying equipment for a working photographer means they can write it off (or at least some of it) on their taxes ever year.
 
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