On Oct 22, 2008, at 09:01 , Anthony Farr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
-----Original Message-----
Joseph McAllister
Please don't tell my insurance company that the value of my SMCP-A
15mm f3.5 has been devalued!
Joseph,
I thought your were to be given the value of an equivalent
replacement.
Does that mean you can replace it with a functionally identical new
lens, or
do you have to find another SMCP-A 15mm f3.5? Or can you just take
the
money if you provide a current valuation?
Regards, Anthony
An independent firm will derive the value of the equipment for the
insurance company. I assume they will use such sources as eBay, B&H,
McKeown's, etc to get current market used prices. Once my insurance
co. gets the report, they will pay me that amount. IF it costs me more
to replace each item with the same item of the same age and condition,
they will pay the difference based on my receipts. If I choose to buy
new equivalents, I don't think they will make up the difference unless
the old lenses are no longer obtainable.
Because the price of used 67 equipment has dropped so dramatically, it
will be easy to replace. If I choose not to do so, I will have little
cash to spend elsewhere.
Because the price of many of my 35mm lenses has risen so dramatically
in the past 8 to 14 years, I should be able to replace them if I can
find them.
The 28mm shift, the 85mm 1.4, the 24mm f2.0, the FA 100mm f2.8 Macro,
and the 28-70mm f4.0 zoom should be easy to replace. The 15mm 3.5 and
the 135mm f1.8 not so easy. There is a 135mm f1.8 for sale in Poland,
for $2600, on eBay, but it's not selling at that price. I've only seen
one 15mm f3.5, in China, for $2300. As a matter of fact, most of the
ex and ex+ lenses for sale on eBay are in China now. Used to be Japan,
but now the Chinese seem to be the monied collectors. They are
photographed and handled by someone with white gloves. :-)
After calling all the camera stores and pawn shops, I put an ad in the
local paper with a $500 reward for the return of all the equipment. I
did receive calls from two women, one who said she saw one of the
camera bags with the 67 and lenses in it at someone's house, and
wanted to try to get me a cell phone photo to confirm, and the other
from a lady bartender who said she had been given the Tamrac bag with
most of the 35mm lenses in it and would give it to me for the reward.
They both sounded medicinally impaired over the phone. But they had
the description of the bags and contents very accurately. Neither
person called back to make arrangements at all.
I informed the police of the phone numbers, and they said they were
going to trace the owners of the phones and have a talk with them.
When I called again to inform them that I had not been contacted for
some days after I was supposed to, the detective called the numbers to
see what would come of it. He spoke to one cooperative woman who said
she had loaned her phone to several friends that week, but knew
nothing about the bags. Neither party was reachable by their cell
phones after that. One was no longer in service. The cooperative woman
never answered, the call going to voice mail with a man's voice. The
whole deal just shut down. The cops told me that most likely the gear
had been redistributed amongst friends, and they would probably sit on
it for a while before they tried to get rid of it.
At that point, the insurance company and I agreed to proceed with the
claim, as the items were most likely in the wind, and I should not
have to wait around for them to show up. So, I'll know the outcome of
their research and get a figure in a few weeks, if I understand things
correctly.
None of you ever want to go through this, believe me. Knowing my gear
is somewhere within a few miles of me, not being properly cared for,
just clamps my jaw, and leaves me with a feeling of despair. I guess I
just get too attached to 'MY' equipment. I hope the check dispels some
of that feeling.
At that point my major decision will be do I try to replace what I had
and can, sticking with full frame in the hope that Pentax comes out
with a FF DSLR in my lifetime, or replace the lenses with DA* primes
(not that many are available that compare) and consider my K20 my last
camera. Remember, I'm 66 years old, and have much more work to do on
my past imagery than I have plans to shoot new imagery. IOW, the more
I shoot now, the less time I'll have to compile the past work into
something worth while.
Thank you all for a your good thoughts and wishes.
Joseph McAllister
Pentaxian
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