Does scuba gear often seem severely overpriced ?

[Jim Lapenta]

As others have said, yes, dive gear is expensive, but so is the equipment for many other hobbies.

I just bought a Sony A7iii camera and kit lens. After taxes, it came in at just over $3100 Cdn. For that much money, I could have replaced all of my dive gear (3mm wetsuit, BP/W reg mask & fins). I am a recreational diver, so I don't need specific gear. I would likely have some money left over to put towards a trip. And that was just for a camera body and a kit lens.

If we take into account that this spring, I switched from Canon to Sony and I have replaced all of my lenses too, dive gear no longer seems outrageous. This spring, I have bought a 70-300mm lens, a 16-35mm lens (each in the neighbourhood of $1600 Cdn). In total, I have bought a little over $6k in camera gear and I have a camera body and 3 lenses, one of which is a kit lens.

For $6k, I could have replaced all of my dive gear and spent a week on a LOB.

So, IMHO, dive gear is expensive, but it is not unlike other hobbies.

So do you have any of your Canon lenses left?

 

[Schwob]

As others have said, yes, dive gear is expensive, but so is the equipment for many other hobbies.

I just bought a Sony A7iii camera and kit lens. After taxes, it came in at just over $3100 Cdn. For that much money, I could have replaced all of my dive gear (3mm wetsuit, BP/W reg mask & fins). I am a recreational diver, so I don't need specific gear. I would likely have some money left over to put towards a trip. And that was just for a camera body and a kit lens.

If we take into account that this spring, I switched from Canon to Sony and I have replaced all of my lenses too, dive gear no longer seems outrageous. This spring, I have bought a 70-300mm lens, a 16-35mm lens (each in the neighbourhood of $1600 Cdn). In total, I have bought a little over $6k in camera gear and I have a camera body and 3 lenses, one of which is a kit lens.

For $6k, I could have replaced all of my dive gear and spent a week on a LOB.

So, IMHO, dive gear is expensive, but it is not unlike other hobbies.

Yes, but:
There is a lot more engineering knowhow and time and resources (order/s of magnitude) in multiple engineering disciplines that goes into developing and designing a Sony A7iii than likely all the scuba gear you have combined... and that is not counting any lenses yet, not even the kit lens. Those cameras and lenses imho are true engineering marvels. Scuba gear is dramatically less complex, and quite simpler to engineer and make than these incredibly densly packaged engineering wonders... - imho...
As an engineer I see pretty neat and nifty scuba gear, but those cameras and some of those lenses, those are intedisciplinary engineering marvels... I said that already, didn't I...

 

[Hoag]

So do you have any of your Canon lenses left?

Only a Sigma 15mm f2.8 fisheye (with a Sigma MC11 adapter) in a Canon EF mount. I still need a wide, fast lens for astrophotography. (Ideally wider than 25mm and at least as fast as f2.8. I am leaning towards the Zeiss Loxia 21mm f2.8)

 

[scubafanatic]

Wait till you see the price gouging on a wood casket, You'll never want to buy one.

I'd never want to even be in the casket market, period!

 

[scubafanatic]

I would not have bought them for $10 each. But I don't like SP equipment AT ALL.

The issue isn't limited to SP, it's industry wide.

 

[scubafanatic]

Reading through all these comments, I just shake my head. How can people consider the gear expensive? My gear per piece cost me more in 1989 than it did over the last 4-5 years as I upgraded. Seriously, I could put together a decent rig with a full 3/2 wetsuit included for ~$1000-$1100. What do you want, for it to be provided by government programs?

The government could crack down on the racket whereby manufacturers price fix and allow the exact same gear item to be half the price in Europe as it is in the USA! Isn't Leisurepro known for cashing in on gray market imports from Europe to the USA.? Or if you try out a European retailer like simplyscuba.com you'll often get an error message when ordering about how certain items cannot be shipped to the USA ?

 

[scubafanatic]

Bowling balls are not life supporting equipment. No need to test if a bowling ball still performs like it should just above the freezing point of water. Or at higher pressures. Replace the bowling ball with tennis shoes. Same story.

That simple piece of molded plastic and some moving parts inside, also known as 2nd stage regulator, is keeping you alive down there. It better be tested for circumstances you'll (hopefully) not encounter......

I've examined the 2nd stage innards and have yet to see a dilithium crystal or quantum field resonator within, they are all minor styling variations of 50 year old principles/'technology'.

 

[scubafanatic]

Prices seem normal to me for such specialized and low volume products. Being more aware of several concepts will help
- retail markup What Is a Normal Markup Percentage?
- product engineering and manufacturing setup costs

Using 50% markup that $450 reg cost your LDS around $225. The 50% keeps the lights on at your LDS. How much did designing a new reg cost? $75k? How much was the manufacturing setup cost for a new style reg? 250k? What is the anticipated cost of warranty returns due to either a design mistake or manufacturing error?

In a prior life a long time ago I was involved in a project where we were faced with a $50k setup charge for injection moulding of a very low volume product. We redesigned the physical product to eliminate the need for a custom mould.

Maybe one of the active manufacturers can provide some real world cost numbers for design and manufacture setup?

With respect to keeping 'the lights on at your LDS', my favorite rip off is when I place an order and it's Drop Shipped from the manufacturer directly to me! I pay the retail markup with ZERO value-add from the LDS!

 

[Scuba Doobie Do]

I am leaning towards the Zeiss Loxia 21mm f2.8)

Anyone eyeballing a Zeiss lens must seriously think scuba is cheap.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

Hey Guys,
As most of you know, I have a much different business model. I use the exact same factories as the expensive foreign brands, however, I only sell direct to divers, instead of through dive shops. So, my prices are much lower (no dive shop mark up).

However, I only sell freediving equipment. No tanks, BCs or regs. When buying the more technical gear, nothing beats the personal service, knowledge and selection you get from your local dive shop. They certainly deserve to make a few dollars for the valuable services they provide. Just my 2C.

dive safe,
dano