I was thumbing through Popular Photography last night and noticed that I could buy a top of the line Canon 35mm camera (EOS-1V) for $1,650. In all my years of running Story Photography, I've never owned a pro model film camera, and have survived (nicely) with the midrange Elan 7. In fact, I wouldn't even spring for the EOS-3, a great camera, that's available for less than $900.

Yet, I've plunked down $1,500 for a Canon 10D, $900 for Rebel XT, and recently $3,200 for the Canon 5D digital SLR bodies. Funny how our perceptions change based on the tools that we perceive we need. To my credit, I resisted buying a digital SLR body when they were running close to $10,000. I stuck it out with advanced amateur models until the price became slightly more reasonable. I'm not that crazy.