buying gear
 

what is the most you have spent on one piece of photographic gear .I just broke my personal best the other day by buying a second hand lens for my Mamiya 645afd ,I have spent a couple of hundred pounds before on a lens but £550.00 is the most I have ever spent its probably a fraction of its cost new but its still a lot to me ,Do I need it no ,did I want it yes ,and when amateur photographer was doing a survey on what we spend on gear it coincided with me buying this lens ,do we spend to much money or not enough our hobby.

www.essexcockney.com

This is far too painful for me to even think about! They all gave me emense pleasure in their time, but they didn't improve my 'seeing an image' ;)


Neil.

The most I have spent in recent years, since I became interesting in using classic/vintage cameras, was £240 for a leica IIIc converted to IIIc body, pretty much mint, came serviced and with a written 1 year guarentee, the most ever I guess was up in the £thousands, a good few years ago, for a new Bronica ETR camera, complete, with an extra back, 50mm lens and 200 mm lens, which is today very seldom used If my better half reads this the amounts are typos, not for the Bronica, she was with me when I paid for it, but for the Leica, I have so far kept the bank statement from her
Richard

At at point where the Pound was very weak agaist the Dollar and Yen eraly 1990s - £800 for a new Nikon 300mm f9 M lens for my Wista, I've only used the lens a couple of times and never printed a negative from it. At the time I realised I'd move to 10x8 although that actually took another decade.

Second would be £600 (then $900) plus about £75 shipping and then import duties etc a 10x8 Agfa Ansco Commercial View. However this was a bargain as it came with a NIB 10x8 Beattie Screen worth over £200, a really mice compendium lens hood a coate 12" Dagor and theree spare lens boards one to take a 300mm f9 M Nikkor :D

The Dagor was described as useless having separation, in fact it was just 50+ years of dirt around the edges and is an excellent lens, shutter speeds are spot on. Neil has seen it in use.

Ian

Ian, yes I remember your Dagnor being used at Rocky Valley recently and I admired its focal length. If it's ever up for sale - first refusal please ;)

Neil.

In one Hit?

That has got to be my F6 and that was for a used body, not new, I seem to remember around £600 ish. I still have it and it is used regularly, but perhaps my recent acquisition of my Bronica ETRSi plus 2 additional lenses will take over a little of the limelight.

I think I paid about 800 quid for my xpan, second hand. I justified it because A - that was a reasonable price for one, you can pay a lot more, B - it's bloody brilliant, and C - being unique they have seemed to hold their value, so I'm thinking of it as a loan I can call in at any time. Of course I was rather vague about the price when my other half asked.

Last year I bought a 50-10 zoom for my Bronica Sq kit, £600. Did I need it, not really though 10-12 years back I would have used it a lot but I did fancy having it when discovering it accidentally on Ffordes website loking for something for a Mamiya C3.
For a tenth of that I also last year got privately a 35-105 macro zoom Nikkor which again would have been my everyday use lens 10 years ago.
The Mamiya kit I assembled simply because a friend gave me the body and 80mm lens, another member here a 65mm so I paid a visit to Ffordes for a 135mm and prism finder, a visit which turned out to be rather more.
Al these are not really needed and I suspect will be sold on like many other items I've acquired over the years which looked a bargain, attractive and potentially useful but changes in both life and working methods proved to be otherwise.

Thee Mamiya I found to be slow in use, almost like using large format, a good thing it turned out as it made me think more about each shot.