Originally posted by mamethot Hey folks,
I am curious to know how will you dispose of your old bodies when you get your K-3?
I know some keep their current ones as backup, others will give them away and finally some will sell.
I intend to give my older body to my niece who has enrolled in a photo course this winter.
You think that such gifts can increase user base eventually?
I have multiple cameras. Quite a few older film bodies, plus two DSLR bodies. Generally when I totally replace a body it goes to a photography student at the local colleges or to one of my nieces who are currently learning. I don't replace bodies though just to replace them, to upgrade and have the latest model. I replace them because I have a genuine need for a new body for work. I tend to put serious mileage on my cameras shooting. I'm estimating but I think I can shoot minimum 4K-6K shots a month if I am working a lot plus doing my own stuff. I don't just take my camera out a few hours a week and shoot 500 photos. I can shoot several hundred photos in one two hour photo shoot and I try to book 3 a week at least. That's what it takes to pay my base bills. Some months its less because I don't get the work I'd like. Sometimes it's more during busier times of the year but I think it averages about that and I'm nowhere near as busy as some of the other professionals on here I'm sure.
My K-x has been used a lot. I do want to replace it next year with a K5II. I really could use the AF upgrade. It will last my niece a year or so too. But I probably would not sell it because of the mileage. By the time I am "done" with a camera it's seen a lot of abuse. With the old film bodies it a lot easier to maintain them in some ways and I have options for that. I can send a body out to Eric eventually. With the digital cams there's no one local who can repair them and mine are not under warranty so if one goes I'd better have a backup or I am screwed. I can't just go out and drop $500-1000 on a new camera whenever. I just don't have the income level for that yet and unfortunately I don't have the credit for it either.
I've had credit problems for a long time because of major illness, and a couple of bad car accidents and the surgery that followed. I had to stop working a regular job. I can only work so many hours now. The financial mess that came with all that really hurt me. I had to retrain and even now I'm not working as much as I'd like. I can only do so much every week before my body poops out, and I have a lot to do besides my own stuff. I take care of my Dad who's older. I have a lot of stuff I have to do for him all the time, shrug.
I only have two credit cards. One for Walmart and one MC and the MC has a very low limit actually. It's a bit annoying. In the 3 years I've had that card I've only a couple of times had a higher balance and I've never missed a payment but I'm still stuck at a level where I can't quite go and buy a decent new DSLR body. Believe me I would if I could but I just don't have the room on there. I'm stuck in a low limit, high interest hell and I'm usually too busy paying off vet bills, medical bills, unexpected household repair bills and that to go out and just buy a new camera. I put money away in my Hello Kitty bank when I can. But that's my reality. Big purchase things they tend to come very slowly if at all around here. Actually budgeting for a K5II body is a major challenge for me, even used. I'll probably buy a K5II used next Spring. By then I'll be able to find one sub $550 and I'll have the $$$ saved up for it. But a K-3 brand new is simply not in my budget.
I'm trying to buy a K-7 now to replace the K-x with. I'm working on buying the loaner I've got. Depending upon how expenses look this Spring it might even be later till I get the K5 but eventually I am going to have to go there. I do need to replace the K-x with a WR body. It's just more practical for both of my bodies to be WR where I live. I really like the K-7 though actually. It's a nice working camera and as a backup it will suit me just fine having that in the bag too. I think if I wasn't needing the improved AF and that I'd probably just get another one actually. I could do most of my work with one easily. A K5II as main body is what I'd prefer but I could make two K-7's work too if I had to.
I have several people I know, photography buddies, all well intentioned lovely people, thoughtfully sending me links to good deals on a K5 or a K30 from time to time. I just smile when I see them. That they care enough to do that is just so nice. But they just don't quite get that I can't just go plop down a credit card and and pop on a deal whenever. That I've really got to have all the $$$ actually in hand to go there and that it usually takes me a while life depending to be able to afford something like that. I think a lot of people who do photography just take it for granted that they *can* go out and upgrade. But I don't. When I finally do give up a camera I pass on my gear to someone I know who needs it and will use it. I have actually donated a lot of film cameras to a local college over the years for their students.
When I was in school there I really wanted to take photography and could not because the expense of the class was just not affordable at all for me. Above tuition you had to buy a camera and a basic set of lenses and there was like 2K in lab costs on top of that. I checked. I just could not do it even with a grant and a student loan. It's easily triple that figure that now and that despite the fact that they finally allowed DSLR's. The tuition and that is still just crazy. I can't pay a kid's tuition, or buy one a DSLR, but I can see to it that a couple of kids now and again get a film body and a couple of lenses to offset some of that so I do.
My teachers both of them they were really good to me with donating time and their expertise and not charging me anything for that. While I was studying with them they let me use their equipment to learn. My one teacher gave me my first good film SLR and a few lenses an original Spottie. Unfortunately I never got to use that kit. I was about to move and it got stolen from me. I didn't get another one until some guy on CL gave me one a few years later. My teacher he was still paying it forward from when his teacher taught him and that was like 50 years ago so that tells you something about the kind of man he is. I think if I had stayed there and completed his master class with him he'd have likely given me a DSLR set up too. But I ended up nearly losing my shirt because I got ill, lost my job and ended up moving back here. I had to quit for a while, and it was only later I found another teacher locally.
But that's what I do. I donate it or find a kid to teach and let them use it. I think that we all should if we can. I think it's easy seeing all the lovely gear on boards like this to forget that there are a lot of kids out there who want to learn but who can't because they can't afford to. I think it's important to pass the knowledge and some stuff on when you can. Some of these kids they're going to be the great photographers of the next generation and and it would be sad if a good one never got there because they just couldn't afford a simple SLR set up, you know? Or couldn't find a teacher to show them how...
(MK steps off the soapbox, lol....)