What was your biggest-ever waste of money in photography?

[steve_t.1]

<p>James,</p>

<p>I wouldn't consider the purchase of my fish eye lens a blunder. Quite the opposite- I have a lot of fun with it, distortion and all. With judicious placement of the horizon, heavy distortion becomes secondary to the overall view.</p>

[andrew robertson]

<p>"G4 Powerbook. I bought it within a few months of Apple's move to digital."</p>

<p>Yeah, all those old analog Apples suck. I still use a Powerbook G4 when traveling - the thing burns through a quart of oil per week!</p>

<p>Much better to use the digital computers they have now.</p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>I don't have any real duds, but my Nikkor 400/5.6 gets used too little in relation to what I paid for it. LF gear gets used rarely now, but OTOH I've made some good pics using it and it doesn't go obsolete.</p>

[matt_needham]

<p>All the film camera and darkroom equipment and accessories that I snatched up (at what I thought was a deal at the time) as everyone else was switching to digital. I was determined to stick with film, and thought folks were nuts. Eventually I reluctantly bought my first DSLR, and promptly fell in love with digital and kicked film to the curb. In the meantime the value of the film camera gear dropped to 25% what I paid for it, and the darkroom gear dropped to $0 value.</p>

<p> </p>

[jason_hall5]

<p>"and the darkroom gear dropped to $0 value."</p>

<p>Feel free to unload it on me! :o)</p>

<p>I am building a dark and am in need of some gear. 4x5 enlarger anyone?</p>

<p>Jason</p>

[samn]

<p>I don't know why I buy all this stuff and even more importantly why I keep it. Lenses from old broken digital cameras, maybe it'll screw onto something some day, have a use. A General Electric light meter probably out of the 50's, still works though. Flashes of varying descriptions. Don't know if they work or not. Six camera bags of varying descriptions, gave up on all of them and bought a laptop bag at Ross for $15.00. Works great.</p>

<p>I wonder what I did with the new KEH Catalog?</p>

[patrick_mont]

<p>Some Fuji slide film</p>

[tombartlett]

<p>3rd party 2x teleconverter, enough said I think.</p>

[cametacamera]

<p>Canon EOS 50mm f1.4 USM was the biggest money sucker I ever purchased. It kept on breaking with use that I would not consider rough.<br>

I have since switched over to a EOS 50mm F1.8 1st version with the metal mount. I've been shooting with that for about 5 trouble-free years. The 1st version is FAR superior to the subsequent plastic mount versions. The loss of USM and the 1/2 stop loss is not an issue IMO.</p>

[lovcom_photo]

<p>I have regreted all non-L Canon zooms that I had purchased over the years...especially the 28-135 IS, which was really bad.<br>

<br />I have regretted all Tamron and most Sigma lens purchases. However the Sigma 30mm F1.4 is very good.<br>

<br />I regret bying the Canon 50L F1.2....it is not reliable even after two calibrations by the factory. It is perhaps the only junk L lens made today.</p>

[ted_tahquechi]

<p>A tamron 70-200mm lens I bought it because it was cheap. Come to find out so was the quality of the images. I think I used it maybe ten times and then bought a canon L lens. When it comes to lenses its sooo true that you get what you pay for.<br>

Ted Tahquechi<br>

<b>Signature URL removed. Not allowed on photo.net.</b>

[wogears]

<p>Worst: A Nikon 300 f4.5. Great lens, but it just gathers dust.</p>

<p>Best: D70 or Epson R800. Great prints fron the combination, and truly WYSIWYG.</p>

[dmanthree]

<p>I once bought a Lentar 400mm 5.6 pre-set tele for $50. I overpaid by $49. A true coke-bottle of a lens. Threaded T-mount was garbage, too.</p>

[arlen_c._elkins]

<p>A Canon 1Ds Mk3 - Not that the camera does not do everything that it was designed to do, but I do mainly studio and architectural work and needed the IQ to allow me to use this instead of my BetterLight Scan Back for jobs not needing the resolution of the scanback.</p>

<p>This purchased only a few months prior to the release of the 5D Mk2 which would have been a much better camera for my use ( Same IQ plus better LCD for Live View critical focus ) and for the price I paid for the 1Ds Mk3 I could have had the 5D Mk2 + 17mm PC Lens + 24mm PC Lens + money left over!</p>

 

[bob_lazzarini]

<blockquote>

<p ><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=215867">Thomas Sullivan</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"><img title="Frequent poster" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/1roll.gif" alt="" title="Frequent poster" /> </a> , May 15, 2009; 06:16 a.m.<br>

every flash I ever bought....present count is 5 of the things.<br>

Yeah, all better than the last one.<br>

And when I actually use them, they are the only way to do that particular picture.<br>

Trouble is, I only do that particular type of photography about once a year.<br>

Give me a ridiculously high ISO, and a really fast prime lens....and I'm in my glory.<br>

So, the other 364 days and 23 hours a year, the flashes all sit on the shelf.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Thanks Thomas, I thought I was the only one who bought flash units only to have them languish in a cabinet.<br>

The only one I ever really used was back in the 1970's, and it was a high-end Vivitar which had a tilting head for bounce flash.<br>

I even went so far as to buy one unit before acquiring an new camera, only never to buy that brand at all.<br>

No big loss tho, they all can be used with slaves to really light up an area. :)</p>

<p>BTW, worst move I ever made was trading-in my Bronica S2A with its compliment of Nikon lenses.<br>

They were the absolutely sharpest I've ever owned.</p>

<p>Cheers!</p>

[thomas_hardy1]

<p>Hi-speed internet connection to quickly post images that no one ever views.</p>

[thomas_hardy1]

<p>Second place : Nikon D200 ... might as well stick with Neopan 1600 for anything over ISO 200.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Unicolor E-6 processing kit. At the time I didn't shoot enough E-6 film to use the chemistry before it went bad.</p>

[frank_b._baiamonte]

<p>Oddly enough, my biggest waste of money was, and still is, my all time favorite camera, my Nikon F100.</p>

<p>I say a waste only because, looking back on it now, I really did not need to switch from the Minolta Maxxum system I was enjoying using over to Nikon. I guess that is what happens sometimes when there is extra money floating around. Sadly, since buying new gear is always fun, I don't see the extra money situation cycling back any time soon.</p>

[peter_ferling]

<p>Mamiya 528TL. I think it performed better with the lens cap on.</p>