I never thought I would buy XXXXXXX, but.....

spraynpray

I made a big mistake on Friday, a friend of mine needed to buy a new tripod as his was an absolute joke. I advised him to try before he bought. He said why don't we make a trip of it and I said sure, sounds like fun. We tried all the stuff in his budget and then we tried the stuff I had said he would end up buying and he ended up buying one. The deal he got on an ex-Jessops bankrupt stock Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 CF with Q90 column shocked me and made me remember the hot night we walked 8 miles in London when I was carrying my SLIK Pro 700DX. Next thing I knew I had bought a set of the same legs to put my Slick head on. Very similar performance, but has the neat Q90 macro column and is a kilogram lighter. £179 - bargain or what!

I kept my Slik ball head as it uses the circular QD plate which makes panoramas a piece of cake.

I'm not taking him shopping again! Could have been worse though, I was handling a D800 for a while, but I stopped myself....

scoobysmak

Like you said it could have been worse, at least it takes dragging a friend along to motivate you to purchase something you didn't intend to, sometimes I am my own worst best friend in this case; lol.

Golf007sd

The same sort of thing happened to me but it was not any camera gear...it ended up being a new car. #-o

shawnino

Enjoy your new gear!

I never thought I'd buy a Black Rapid strap. $70 for a strap, are you nuts? Then my misses bought one for herself and I saw how they worked day after day.

Perhaps the best $70 I've ever spent.

spraynpray

"are you nuts?" LOL - you sound just like me Shawnino!

Photobug

I never thought I would spend over $1,000 for a digital camera. That D300 has been a terrific camera and a work horse. Well worth the money. I waited 4 weeks for the local dealer to get one in stock. I never buy unless I have felt it..ergonomics is important to me.

spraynpray

@Photobug: That made me think - my first digital camera was an Olympus E10. Including the accessories I bought for it, the cost was about £1200 ($1800). That was back in 2001!

That makes a D800 quite a bargain.

PB_PM

I also never though I would spend over 1k on camera equipment. I guess I have, with around 10k worth now.

proudgeek

This thread applies to half the stuff in my camera bag at any given moment.

kyoshinikon

My second 300mm f/2.8, My D200, my monopod, and my 2nd 17-35mm. I am porrer than dirt but I have probably $12,000-$20,000 of gear between my bodies, Lenses, Flashes, Stands , and hotlamps...

Ade

Flashes. I remember shelling out an outrageous $300 for an SB-800.

Then I started buying Profoto gear. :O

Gareth

^^^you poor thing b-(

Photobug

Five years ago I could not believe how much I spent for a tripod and a ball head. Then the cost to buy lens plates and brackets for two DSLR's. That was a small fortune.

Got to admit, the investment in Gitzo and the terrific ball head was worth the money. Wish I had done it long ago.

Killerbob

I always knew I needed bags for my gear, but since I upgraded to professional gear I have found myself spending 4-5 times more on bags and carrying systems than I even thought possible:)

My original Tamrac bag was too small to fit D800 with grip, 14-24mm and 24-70mm, so I got the LowePro Flipside AW500.

I needed something for walking around and got a bunch of LowePro lens bags as well as a Toploader. These of course warranted getting the LowePro S&F Utility Belt with the Technical Harness.

For travelling I got the Peli 1510 Photographer with the TrekPak insert.

Hello, my name is Bo and I am a gear addict:)