I've had renters insurance for the past 20 years, auto insurance either with or through the same company. Being afraid what an excess camera equipment rider might cost, I did not get one. Turns out as long as I'm not making a living with all my kit, it doesn't matter. Now if the house had burned down, they may get a bit tight about that gear as an added replacement expense, after all, it would ALL be gone, as well as tens of thousands of slides and negatives.
So I've always chosen complete and comparable replacement coverage with no thought about what was covered. The insurance company rules under that coverage is to limit you to new and current replacement. If not available new, you must buy as you can find it and be reimbursed. I had portable computers, cameras, and lenses of the cameras I used from the sixties to this 1992 theft, i.e.: screw mount. My insurance company replaced everything with current tech, PZ-1p, and some of the top FA lenses at the time, including a Tamron 300mm ƒ2.8 AF to replace my old stovepipe 600mm off brand. Including the computers and software, the toll reached $14,500. Stolen out of my VW Westfalia at Bumbershoot. Everything replaced. In 2008 I had most all that equipment stolen out of my Dodge Minivan (except the 300mm Tamron), including all my 67 gear. I had several inventories I had made over the years going back to the 70s and 90s, which I sent copies of to the insurance company, as well as empty boxes the gear had come in over the years. Whenever I move people are always saying "get rid of those empty boxes" because they do take up a bit of space. Don't do it. Leave the serial number cards in them too. Whether an insurance claim or selling on eBay or PDML, it makes a big difference in value, the Ins. Co. notes you take care of your gear and respect it. So this last theft Geico replaced everything I could think of that had been in the car. Only this time they substituted DA* and DA and D FA lenses and two digital bodies. 2009 prices were a lot lower than they are now, so between my adding some dollars to get a better lens than they were offering in a couple of incidents, they did not skimp. I asked for filters to replace the ones I kept on my lenses, and they placed a B&W regular or slim for anything below 20mm lens length. Some of the things I wanted to replace were no longer available new, so when I found a ref-converter A they reimbursed me for it. Same with some other smaller items and older but usable Pentax gear. Between their purchases and those I got reimbursed for it came to over $16,000.00. No hassles, no questions. I basically traded a spreadsheet inventory for all new gear. I had no rider for cameras or computers. My renters insurance at that time was costing me $21 month, and I'd only had it for 5 months. By 2012 my rate had gone up to $30 a mo.; after I moved into this large house from on apartment my monthly went up to $39 month. When asked why the big jump they said a: I had moved into a different insurance zone (more remote, less fire and police protection) and b: they can now raise my rates taking my 2008 loss into consideration. Still, I feel $480 a year is cost effective for all my possessions. I'm paying almost $1200 a year for auto insurance even though I've not had a chargeable accident since 1982, almost half of what my car payments are per annum. On Mar 6, 2013, at 22:53 , Igor Roshchin wrote: >> On Mar 6, 2013, at 9:06 PM, Darren Addy wrote: >> >>> I've never bothered with doing anything special to insure my photo >>> gear in the past but I'm not reaching the point where I think I'd >>> better consider doing so. I don't know a lot about the subject >>> however. I was hoping for some pointers. >>> >>> I'd like to be insured against theft and also equipment damage in the >>> case of an accident. (I take a camera bag back and forth with me to >>> work almost every day). Is there something special that I must do to >>> get this covered under my homeowner's policy and my auto policy Joseph McAllister [email protected] It seems that I need to stop my mind running off at the fingertips. — Mike Wilson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
