I met with some friends over the weekend, and we started swapping stories about stuff we bought, that ultimately we regretted. I was surprised by what some people regretted, like a friend of mine regretted buying a very well regarded camera, because he bought it based on its reputation, and spent a lot of time trying to fit it into his workflow, but it just never worked out for him. Of course, a lot of gear was bought early in the career for cheap that broke and they had to buy the more pro expensive gear anyway etc. Or gear they bought because they thought they'd use it, but it ended up hardly ever being used and became a big guilt trip about unnecessarily spent $ and no follow thorough on the project etc. The conversation came about, because I'm assembling a list of gear to buy for a project, but I'm extremely gun-shy about actually buying, and I'm postponing the buying moment to the very last minute as the project demands. So, gear that you bought, but wish you hadn't - what's your story?
Film-related gear you regret buying?
- Thread starter OldCorpse
- Start date
Well, that's just the thing - I'm extremely gun-shy when it comes to buying gear, so I've mostly avoided this, but a lot of my friends didn't so, I was curious. But even so, yeah, I bought some things I wish I hadn't. Most recently I bought a Sigma f 1.8, 28mm lens for my D300 Nikon, which I wanted then to use as a DSLR lens for video. It was between that, and the Sigma f 1.8 24mm. In the end, I came to the conclusion, that I should have bought the 24mm.
HorseFilms
Look ma no hands
Glidecam2000 Pro. Never use it.
Panasonic btlh900a 8.4" hd monitor.
Best monitor ever, but I spent $5,000 on it, at the wrong point in my career. It was too expensive for me to actually afford, and my clients weren't big enough yet to rent it. Wound up selling it for 2k. Put me 5k in debt for 3 years, and wound up losing 3k on it. Still payiing that stupid thing off.......
Best monitor ever, but I spent $5,000 on it, at the wrong point in my career. It was too expensive for me to actually afford, and my clients weren't big enough yet to rent it. Wound up selling it for 2k. Put me 5k in debt for 3 years, and wound up losing 3k on it. Still payiing that stupid thing off.......
Hawk Teflon
Veteran
+1. I had one of these, too. Sold it with my GL2, and I had used it once to test it out. It then sat on a shelf for two years.
Mattykins
Cute Member
My HV20. It's a small camera, but I bought it right when it came out when it was 1,000 (more?) dollars. I was still pretty young. Was planning on using it for my paintball media company. Then paintball became uncool. Most local tournaments went away. And I only made one film with it. I maybe put 2 hours on the heads. Thinking of selling it now, too bad they go for 200ish on eBay.
Postmaster
Dark Side of the Camera
Anything from Cinecity India.
Actually it was alright back than when I could not afford something else, but I replaced all of it with better bits now.
Buy twice, cause you don´t have the money to buy the right stuff in the first place - I guess that sounds familiar to some of you guys.
But my biggest (and most expensive) regret was the Letus Extreme - extreme expensive till it is in Germany. Though I had it serviced 3 times (more expensive) never got rid of the dirt inside and the pattern that the GG made. In the end I lost about 5000 bucks on that Letus.
Frank
Actually it was alright back than when I could not afford something else, but I replaced all of it with better bits now.
Buy twice, cause you don´t have the money to buy the right stuff in the first place - I guess that sounds familiar to some of you guys.
But my biggest (and most expensive) regret was the Letus Extreme - extreme expensive till it is in Germany. Though I had it serviced 3 times (more expensive) never got rid of the dirt inside and the pattern that the GG made. In the end I lost about 5000 bucks on that Letus.
Frank
drapeama
Well-known member
How come? I paid nearly the same price, 1135$ CND for my HV40 and I don't regret it at all. I'm only doing short films for contests on another forum, but still, it's a great camcorder for consumers or pro-hobbyists!
Well, more often than needed, that's the problem. Hopefully I'm good at DIY stuff, so I usually end up doing it myself for almost nothing. And it usually works great. Here's something I've done a year ago for my 35mm adapter:
Worked great when I used it, and saved me a lot of money! I'm currently working on something for my DSLR setup, that will again save me a lot of money. I just don't like spending much money on things that usually doesn't pay. I like it, as a hobby, but spending my pay on it, it's another story.
snowleopard
Well-known member
I can completely see this. Having used a few units that belonged to other people on a few shoots. They don't get used very often in shoots. They take a long time to set up, and a long time to get good at. Beyond what many people realize. Me too. I'm just lucky enough to have never bought one.