When I registered for school they sent me an equipment list that was about 20 items long. To my disappointment, I didn't own a single item on the list. Not one! Subsequently I have spent the last month scouring the web for good deals on photo gear and let me tell you, saving money costs a lot of time! Let's take something as seemingly simple as a normal range camera lens. First, you have decide on a brand, then a price range, then whether you want a fixed lens or a zoom lens. Once you narrow this down you could spend days online reading reviews of the 2 or 3 lenses that are left. Finally, you decide on a lens and now you want it for a good deal because after all that research you sure don't want to pay full price! This takes days of bidding on e-bay, calling people on KSL and Craigslist and looking for used gear on photo sites. Needless to say this has been my full time job for the last month.
Finally, after developing a seriously unhealthy relationship with my computer, I am happy to report that I have crossed most of the items off the list and will wait to purchase the rest once I'm in Montana. Here's a list of my loot:
Nikon D700 Camera Body
Nikon 16-35 mm f/4 lens
Nikon 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens
Macbook Pro 15"
Adobe Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 software
2 portable external hard drives
16G and 8G Compact Flash memory cards
Wacom Pen Tablet
Burton camera backpack
Misc. gray scale cards, batteries, camera straps, card readers, cables and flash drives
It's official, I'm invested.
