Not Even In The League
Everybody, and their dog, thinks that a camera's all they need to get into the business of photography. On average, I spend about $6000 Canadian per year on equipment: that's camera updates, accessories, computers, software upgrades… I'm chicken feed, a small potato. Rod Mar wrote, on the PhotoShelter Blog, an article about doing Football photography. That's American Football for everybody else, because what the North American are calling soccer is football for everybody else in the world.
It's a very interesting article, but at the end of the article Rod Mar list his equipment:
| —Equipment— | —Canadian Cost— |
|---|---|
| Nikon D3 bodies (3 of them) | 5000 * 3 = $15000 |
| Nikkor VR 600mm/f4.0 lens | $10500 |
| Nikkor VR 400mm/f2.8 lens | $9000 |
| Nikkor VR 200-400mm/f4.0 lens | $6500 |
| Nikkor VR 70-20mm/f2.8 lens | $2000 |
| Nikkor 24-70mm/f2.8 lens | $2000 |
| Nikkor 14-24mm/f2.8 lens | $2500 |
| TC14 1.4 extender | $500 |
| Nikon SB-800 flash | $500 |
| Gitzo monopod | $300 |
| Pocketwizard MultiMax (2x) | $600 |
| Pretrigger and remote cord for Multimax | $300 |
| Miniball head (to attach camera w/wide angles lens to monopod for overhead wide shots) | $200 |
| Rain covers | ?? |
| Raingear | ?? |
| Think Tank Airport Security | $350 |
| Think Tank Speed Demon and pouches | $ 250 |
| Think Tank ShapeShifter backpack | $300 |
That's a cost of almost $51,000 in equipment and that's only the beginning. Plus the memory cards, the office, the computers, the laptops, the various software… By the way, in North America, unlike the rest of the world, the prices do not include taxes. The taxes are an extra $6,100, in British Columbia, Canada.
The lenses will last between 5 to 10 years depending on how careful he will be. The cameras need to be replaced on a rolling basis every 9 month or every year, the shutter is only good for three hundred thousand clicks or upgrade them all at the same time to have identical cameras. The flash needs to be replaced regularly.
Ain't cheap! How much do you have to charge per photo session just to break even?