Mt. McKinley photo by Bill Brophy
Interchangeable lenses are the strongest selling point for buying a DSLR camera. The wide availability of situation-specific lenses allows you to cover all your bases and deliver the best shots no matter what conditions you’re shooting in.
But this freedom comes with a price. “How much?” you ask. Well, Thom Hogan has worked out the higher costs of ownership in McKinleys (that’s the five hundred dollar bill, to you and me) in this article entitled “Tip of the Iceberg”. It’s a good primer if you’re considering moving up to a digital SLR camera and want a “worse case scenario” of the associated hidden costs of ownership.
I don’t think Thom intended this to read as a shopping list, though it might in fact be exactly what he’s spent so far on equipment — or what he’d like to spend. Instead, I read it as a plausible warning on how someone, who may be conscientious when it comes to budgeting, can quickly incur a lot of debt if they’re not extremely careful when entering the exciting world of digital SLR photography.
You see, in addition to lenses, there are other accessories which in total will also end up costing a lot more than your initial outlay: tripod, camera plates, memory cards, and so forth. It all adds up.
Thom wisely advises his readers to keep their receipts, any calculations, and his article out of the sight of your spouse.
We would also like to advise our readers, should you insist on making such extravagant purchases, to at least buy with a credit card that offers cash-back rewards or other incentives or protections instead of paying outright with McKinleys or other large cash denominations.
