CS,
Did you pay $100K+ for your computer ? >Mech
The one I am using right now, to read Capitol Hill Blue?
Oh hell no. This is cobbled together from the remnants of an old Dell SC420 server that a friend gave to me, and some parts I had lying around. It cost me the price of the newer RAM, hard drives and a craptastic video card plus the time spent modding the slot so it would accept said video card.
The one I use to edit video however...that one only gets turned on if I am getting paid, for the most part.
That's my main tool, my "axe" and I haven't really thought about how much I have tied up in it down the last dime but I suspect I probably have at least 25 thousand invested and it's getting obsolete by the second right now.
It's a multi processor server, it has a very large hi speed RAID array with fiber channel, gobs of RAM, two blazing video display cards, a MOTU audio video analog/digital IO unit, another Kona I/O, and GOD KNOWS how much in software.
And there's the color correction peripherals, there's just a ton of crap connected to that machine. It looks like a mess of industrial junk but it's a flamethrower.
I also have a cheapo used Macbook...unlike the myth claims, not ALL film and video professionals use a Mac.
I've been an AVID shop forever*, and now that Apple screwed everyone over with the latest "Final Cut Pro X" I am so relieved I didn't invest much in the Apple gear. Because of Apple's higher prices, a comparable system to the one I have would have set me back well over 60 thousand dollars.
*(I also use and LOVE Sony Vegas Pro, in fact I use it maybe more than AVID)
Video gear has dropped in price a ridiculous amount, Mech.
But I still have more invested anyway, even now, than the average over the road trucker.
There's cameras (I currently own FOUR) lights of all kinds and sizes, from a tiny battery operated LED onboard camera light to the monster 5K sitting in my garage, 2K's, 1K's, all the various spots and redheads, broads, scrims, filters, gobos, light stands, reflectors, flags, arms...
Then there's the audio rack and all the audio gear.
Then there's all the craptastic camera support gear, gliders, dolly, track, shoulder rig adapters, and a lot of odds and ends that come in handy.
In 1994 the Northridge Earthquake wiped out my entire small post production facility. Thanks to loopholes, Allstate managed to get away with not covering a lot of it.
I lost well over $350 thousand dollars worth of gear in that quake. I got back about two cents on the dollar.
So if you're asking if I have as much invested in my video gear as a trucker has invested in his rig, the answer is, I actually have MORE, and at one time I had WAY WAY WAY MORE invested.
And if I was able to afford an ALEXA, or something equivalent, I'd have even more invested. Just the bare ALEXA camera body (no lens included) starts at around 60 thousand.
I'm a SMALL FRY in the field, an award winning small fry, but a small fry nonetheless, and I have a lot more invested.
Maybe I should go into trucking instead!
