Wrap-up: putting it all together

Again: this guide has been written for the hypothetical unequipped photographer who is nevertheless serious enough to want to achieve uncompromisingly excellent results ... with a minimum cash outlay.

I went shopping as a fictitious purchaser by browsing B&H Photo to price my recommended purchases in US dollars. These numbers reflect first quarter 2009; they may be even lower as time rolls on:

Durables:
Canon 50D + 18-75mm IS lens or	$1430
Nikon D90 + 18-105mm VR Lens or	$1160
Pentax K20D + 16mm-45mm Lens (Adorama) or	$1300
Sony A700 + 18mm-70mm Lens (Adorama) or	$1100
Canon XSi or Panasonic G1 with kit IS lens	$700
Tripod with ball or joystick head (optional)	~$300
Memory cards and carrying case	~$50
Windows or Mac desktop computer and OS (if needed)	~$1000
LaCie 320 LCD	$1000
EyeOne Display 2	$200
Lightroom	$270
Photoshop CS2 (eBay)	~$200
Epson 3800	$1300
Consumables:
Epson 3800 ink cartridge	@ $60
Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, 50 sheets 13x19"	@ $110
Epson Proofing Paper White Semimatte: 100 sheets 13x19"	@ $130

Thus, we have a total initial outlay from $4000 to $6000, depending on whether a new computer is needed and which camera plus lens you opt for. Ink and paper costs will depend entirely on usage, but $700 to $1000 per year is not an unreasonable guess.

Virtually everything on this list was unavailable at any price in the year 2000, when I bought my first digital camera. During the intervening years I've spent far more than five grand buying and trying to make do with inadequate equipment, simply because nothing adequate had yet been manufactured.

The first even remotely affordable digital camera capable of image quality comparable to the XSi was the Canon 1Ds launched in late 2002 and costing some $8000. A friend of mine paid roughly $5000 for an Epson 7600 printer back in 2003 or so; this is the earliest printer I can think of that produced results comparable to the $1300 3800. The original Apple Cinema Display had an awesome 1600x1024 pixel resolution and cost similarly big bucks. Clearly, I should have played Rip Van Winkle this past decade and waited until now to get hooked on photography. We live and learn. ;)