ljpm
Contributor
There is a lot of good used gear on the market through Craig's List. If you can find excellent equipment that someone used only a few times before being distracted by the next shiny object. This is a good strategy as long as you meet a couple caveats. First, calculate service into the cost of the gear. How much is it going to service equipment to make it fully usable? Are you willing to be patient? It might take a little bit of a wait for the right deal to show up.
+1 There are some really good deals out there if you are patient and know your stuff. I tend to top out at 25% of the price of new gear and still picked up deals on eBay. Like Rich said, factor in service for the gear.
Deep6 is also a very good option if you want new as mentioned by a few people.