Buying Photography Gear As A Gift Is A Terrible Idea, Here’s What To Do Instead
Photographers are often gear obsessed; while this might make it sound like they’re easy to buy gifts for, photography gear is normally a terrible present. Here’s why and what to do instead.
Photography Gear is a Bad Gift
The photography market is basically made up of a thousand different incompatible standards. Clip A won’t fit on tripod B and X lenses certainly don’t work with Y camera, though Z adapter may make it possible.
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Photography gear is also incredibly expensive. Good lenses start at a few hundred dollars and quickly go up to a couple of thousand dollars. Even a decent tripod will set you back $150.
Photographers are also very particular and often have very specific areas of interest. A landscape photographer and a portrait photographer are probably both “the photographer” to their friends and family, but the stuff they covet and what they buy will be totally different.
Combined, these three issues make buying photographers gear an absolute nightmare. Even if you can afford to buy them something, there’s a good chance it won’t work with their existing setup or won’t help them with their style of photography.
Now, there’s one caveat to this. If you know the person you’re buying for well and know a specific piece of gear they want (or they’ve asked for a particular thing) then go ahead, they’ll be delighted. I’m just talking about the kind of aimless buying that’s so common when you have to buy a gift.