Buying Camera Equipment - where to put the money

As a person who has spent way more money on photo equipment in the last three years than I thought I would in a lifetime, I've come to appreciate where my invested dollar is treated best.  I entered the digital age of photography three generations ago (or about 3 years ago) with my purchase of the Canon 10D.  Since then I've owned a Canon 1dMKII, which I eventually sold to buy my current camera, the Canon 5D.

My advice...INVEST IN LENSES.  They hardly become obsolete and are compatible each time you upgrade your camera body with the same manufacturer (with the exception of Canon's -s series lenses).  The lens is the key component for unlocking creativity with your photography.  In general, I prefer primes over zooms with the largest f-stop I can afford.  Primes are usually more affordable, give superb image quality and generally offer larger f-stops, giving you a world of creative possibilities.   

But here's the real key...if you ever decided to sell a lens, you can get up to 90% of what you paid for it when you resell it (assuming you've taken good care of it).  For example,  I recently sold my 17-40mm lens after owning it for three years.  I got 85% of my original purchase price.  In contrast, my three year old Canon 10D (which I bought at the same time as the 17-40mm lens) won't even bring $500 on the resale market, 1/3 of what I paid for it new.   

As PMA approaches, one thing is for sure, camera bodies (or more specifically, camera sensors) will continue to evolve at a rapid pace.  This cycle makes the camera body the worst place to "trade up" due to the severe depreciation.  Lenses are like money in the bank.  You can't rent a lens for three years as cheaply as you can own it and then resell it. 

That's my two cents. 

Comments

[Jeff Seltzer]

Chuck,

I agree with what you are saying about prime lenses! I recently purchased the Canon 50mm 1.4 and absolutely love it! Sharp, fast, and helps you be creative. On my 1.6x crop 30D, it makes a great portrait lens. Only problem, it's not the best walk-around lens because of the crop factor.

I'm considering adding either the Canon 28mm 1.8, or the Sigma 30mm 1.4. to effectively give me a 50mm lens considering the crop factor.

This is raising the question for me: do I even need a zoom lens (currently, I have a 28-77mm 2.8 Tamron which is nice)? Do I sell my zoom lens to fund the purchase of the new prime? What primes do you have? Thoughts? Answers? Questions....?

[Craig Persel]

I think I must be in some weird category on this subject. I can't imagine shooting with anything other than a zoom. I bought the 28-200 VR Nikkor, so I could have maximum flexibility for shooting under all circumstances in the fastest possible way. I'm a very impatient photographer, so I want to shoot as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort or thought to interfere with what I'm seeing at that moment. A zoom allows that for me. I understand the technical issues, but I can never get beyond the concept that equipment doesn't matter much in photography. Anyway ... those are my "radical" thoughts on the subject. :-)

[Jeff Seltzer]

Craig,

A month ago, I would have said the exact same thing. It's a given primes are super fast (no flash needed!), technically very sharp with excellent color/contrast, and the large appeture opens the creative doors. But, what about the flexibility. Honestly, I don't really miss it! The best zoom is your legs! For me, most of my shots were around 20mm-70mm anyway, so a 50mm lens doens't require much leg-zooming at all! And, I think it makes you focus more on composition than a zoom. I also believe that no zooming alows you to focus on other technial aspects (e.g., manual controls) more. Of course, I still carry two zooms: a 28-77 2.6, and a super wide 10-20mm. But, I tell you, that 50mm 1.4 is on my camera most often!

[Craig Persel]

Good point(s)! I think I'm figuring out that I'm very lazy. :-)

[Chuck]

Jeff & Craig,

Keep the zoom, it's a great tool for spontaneous street photography. I'm keeping mine. But for images where I have all the time I need to compose the shot, I use the primes. I have the following lenses:

Sigma 20mm f1.8
Canon 50mm f1.4
Canon 85mm f1.2 (just got this one)
Canon 200mm f2.8
Canon 24-105 f4.0 IS
Lensbaby

Its interesting to read your comment here Craig, as I know you tend to create dof after the fact with your processing. A prime makes that a little easier, but the look is definitely not as distinct as what you are creating.

[Craig Persel]

A top-notch 50mm lens would be very useful for my collection and would probably force me to slow down and take my time to compose. Most of my photography is on the way to or from some appointment which has gotten me into a "shoot and run" mode that I need to break at some point. :-) Thanks for the great run down on lenses.

[Photo Nut]

Thanks for the tips on buying camera equipment. It's pretty tough deciding where you should spend your money when you don't have a large budget. Great work on the article.

[North Face Sale]

I chanced upon the same thread when it was just starting up a few days ago. Started seeing the usual bi-polar comments of people either loving or tearing down the guy's work and sighed at the usual pack mentality of the latter.