Thursday, June 9, 2011

Keeping Equipment You No Longer Use?

Just curious do you keep camera equipment you're no longer using?  I do and I'm beginning to wonder why I do it (aside from the packrat gene I inherited from my dad, that is). Two examples come to mind:

Canon EF-200 F 2.8L Lens. When I was shooting sports this was my lens of choice. I've shot several thousand images using this lens. It's been a great lens. Great enough that I even placed 3rd in a photo contest with a photo I took using it. Problem is these days I'm no longer shooting sports and it just doesn't have the reach I want/need for the type of nature photography I do. I suppose I could get the 1.4x extender which would take it out to 280 but that's still short. I primary shoot birds with my 400 and often wish I had something longer than that. I checked B&H Web site and this lens is now selling new for $800. I guess I need to check eBay and see what used ones are selling for these days. Let's just say this lens is worth $550 these days.

Canon Speedlite 580-EXII Flash. I bought this when Canon was offering one of their rebates and I'd be willing to say it it's been fired less than 100 times. Why? I just don't shoot in situations that require flash. I've tried using it with my nature photography and didn't really see enough improvement to warrant lugging it around all of the time. B&H sells this for $475 so let's say it's worth $350 on the used market.

So I have about $900 worth of equipment sitting on the shelf. That's crazy don't you think? So what do you do? Do you keep your equipment you're no longer using or do you sell it off on Craigslist or eBay?