The cost of photography equipment and knowing the dangers of London makes me very wary to get out my SLR. This is a real shame considering how much time and money I’ve invested in photography.
This has made me start to reconsider camera insurance. Although I believe cameras are covered to a certain degree on house insurance, I’m not sure how good the cover is and it certainly wouldn’t apply when taking your equipment on holiday overseas.
Last year I was looking into specialist camera insurance and although there are a few options out there, none seemed to have very favourable reviews. Most advice seemed to be to phone up your current insurance company with your requirements to see if they could provide additional cover.
“I’m not sure how good the cover is and it certainly wouldn’t apply when taking your equipment on holiday overseas.”
I think I might have given this story before, but nevertheless. A few years ago I was given my dad’s Nikon F2, which he bought new back in 1977. It was worth just a few hundred pounds as a second-hand item, but was insured on my parents’ house insurance (Norwich Union). I should point out that I wasn’t living at my parents’ place at that time, as I was sharing a flat in London. But my official address for the electoral register was there because I was moving house every couple of years so it was just easier.
On a trip to Prague I stupidly left the camera, in its case with lenses, on the plane when I got to Prague. By the time I realised and had the staff search the plane it was no longer there.
Gutted though I was, I made a claim through my parents’ insurance policy and just a couple of weeks later they called me telling me I had a 2500 budget for a new camera kit! Because the F2 was bought new back in 1977 when it was the top-of-the-range camera, they seemed to have worked out the value based on that. I was immensely surprised of course, and although the insurance guy offered me a Nikon F5 film camera as a suggestion, I asked instead for the Canon 10d digital camera and a lens, plus a case, card etc up to the 2500 value.
Anyway I just wanted to point out that home insurance can not only cover expensive items like cameras and computers, but can even stretch to cover them when you travel abroad. Of course it depends on the policy etc.
Thanks for the comment. Now that I’ve read it, the story sounds familiar. I must have been talking about this last year when I was looking into insurance options.
Your story is amazing but I wonder how common or rare an occurance it is. £2500? Wow! Saying that, if you lost all your lenses as well as your camera I’m sure that did add up to a pretty penny.
Are you still using the 10D? How does it perform? I presume it’s the elder brother to the 40D? I love my 40D but admit to longing for the newer 50D, not that I particularly need it. Why did Canon have to release a new model so soon?
The Nikon F2 plus the lens was probably only worth about 800 pounds or so in second-hand value, but because my dad had bought it new back in 1977 when it was top-of-the-range, I assume they figured out what the top-of-the-range model was now (the F5) and used that to figure a ‘new’ price. Not exactly sure but I was very surprised and happy.
I kept the 10d for a year or two, and then did a swap with my dad for his Leica Digilux 2 as I wanted a smaller lighter camera to do my world travels with. The 10d was notorious for taking a couple of seconds to turn on, which meant I missed a good couple of photos. It was 5mp the same as the Leica.
After I returned from my travels and subsequently moved to Japan I bought myself a 40d like yourself. My dad had already upgraded to the 5d by that point, opting for the full-frame so he could use a fish-eye lens among others.
If you’re interested his site is here:
http://www.cameraflair.com
(Perhaps I’ve posted that before too, I can’t remember, so apologies if I have.)
It’s all coming back to me now. You recommended the battery pack for the 40D, right? How forgetful of me.
I’ve never even held a Leica before but I’d like to one day. Mind you, I’m getting more and more attached to my 40D and the way it works. Will I be a Canon user for life?
Your dad obviously has a taste for very expensive equipment. I can only dream of owning a 5D, even considering there was a major price drop at at least one UK website following the release of the Mark II. I see your dad is semi pro – love the pictures on his site.