The self professed bum on a surfboard is right, even though he called my 50D an empty tank. :eek1: Actually his analogy is pretty good. Much like early in my reef tank evolution, I have a large and expensive wish list for my camera gear.
Here's a short list of expenses you can look forward to. You can apply different price ranges (low, medium, high), but the structure of the list will be pretty similar regardless of budget. For example, let's say you get the totally awesome camera back you've been drooling over. Great. You're not taking pictures yet.
You need a lens. Not want. Need. There are a number of choices and price ranges depending on what you want to accomplish. I prioritized a macro lens because I have this insane desire to take close ups of my corals. Lucky for me, the lens I chose wasn't as much as my dSLR, but now I've spent 50% more than the already massive dSLR purchase before I've even taken my first picture.
And you'll probably want a filter on the end of the lens for protection if nothing else. And a lens hood to keep the light out.
You'll want an extra battery or two because batteries always die right before the perfect shot gets captured.
You need a tripod to put the camera on. You don't want to put your high dollar dSLR on a bent coat hanger, so add a couple hundred for a stout tripod.
And you don't want to be blurring your pics when you press the shutter release so you'll need a remote shutter release.
And you'll need some sort of bag or case to lug your gear around.
In my case I've now spent about the same on a lens and various minimal accessories as I did on my expensive dSLR back.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a happy coral close up taking guy. But I'd like to take pictures at a party. My macro lens is not well suited for that. The "walking around" lens I want costs as much as my expensive dSLR back. Now at 300% of original purchase price.
And it's dark at the party, so I'll need a flash. And the flash needs a battery pack.
Oh, and I'd like to take pictures of that beautiful bird on that tree over there. Add another dSLR purchase price for some type of telephoto lens. I am now approaching roughly 500% of my original purchase price. Basically equipped but poor. And I don't even have any of the more advanced accessories, like light meters, wireless remote flash sync setups, light diffusers, etc.
And then there's image manipulation software for post processing after image capture.
Get the picture?
