Camera Insurance

If you would like to post, you'll need to register. Note that if you have a BCG store account, you'll need a new, separate account here (we keep the two sites separate for security purposes).

gordon_g

gordon_g

Well-known member
Supporting Member
Member's gallery
So what is everyone doing to protect all this expensive gear they own? I know here in the states camera gear is covered (Limited) under most home insurance but not for full value and with other deductibles...

Is anyone using a 3rd party to insure their gear? If so are you happy with it? Who is it though?... I did some poking around online but most of the stuff I found was directed at Pro's.... I would love carry something to fill in the gap and have some piece of mind that if someone stole something I wouldn't have to go with a replacement.
 
Member's gallery
gordon_g said:
So what is everyone doing to protect all this expensive gear they own? I know here in the states camera gear is covered (Limited) under most home insurance but not for full value and with other deductibles...

Is anyone using a 3rd party to insure their gear? If so are you happy with it? Who is it though?... I did some poking around online but most of the stuff I found was directed at Pro's.... I would love carry something to fill in the gap and have some piece of mind that if someone stole something I wouldn't have to go with a replacement.
Click to expand...
Our home owner insurance is with State Farm, BUT, I have a State Farm "rider/endorsement" on all my camera equipment, just like I do with my golf equipment and my fishing (fly/spin-bait casting) equipment. I provide a list of items I have, include serial numbers (if they exist) and receipts/date of purchase. No deductible, replacement value (I adjust down if prices drop - ie. D500 initial to now). Premium is paid monthly - very reasonable. Ask for a print out once a year, to keep things up to date. This method provides better coverage (no deductible/broader coverage) than what I would have with my "regular" home owners insurance.
 
Last edited:
Member's gallery
gordon_g said:
So what is everyone doing to protect all this expensive gear they own? I know here in the states camera gear is covered (Limited) under most home insurance but not for full value and with other deductibles...

Is anyone using a 3rd party to insure their gear? If so are you happy with it? Who is it though?... I did some poking around online but most of the stuff I found was directed at Pro's.... I would love carry something to fill in the gap and have some piece of mind that if someone stole something I wouldn't have to go with a replacement.
Click to expand...

Similar in the UK with limited cover on many household policies. I use a company called Eversure over here, they do enthusiast and pro cover plus you can can Public Liability if needed. Not had to claim as yet but know some people who have and it was a straightforward, quick process.
 
Member's gallery
I have a Personal Property rider on my home owner’s insurance. It covers loss, damage, even water damage during use and my underwater photo gear. It does not cover items less than $100 and has no deductible. Cost about $270 per year for about $23K worth of gear. I have never had to use it to date but it will pay for itself with a single major claim if needed. I can update online and add/drop items as they come in or out of my gear bag. Mostly there for more expensive bodies and lenses.
 
Member's gallery
LL4D500 said:
Our home owner insurance is with State Farm, BUT, I have a State Farm "rider" on all my camera equipment, just like I do with my golf equipment and my fishing (fly/spin-bait casting) equipment. I provide a list of items I have, include serial numbers (if they exist) and receipts/date of purchase. No deductible, replacement value (I adjust down if prices drop - ie. D500 initial to now). Premium is paid monthly - very reasonable. Ask for a print out once a year, to keep things up todate. This method provides better coverage than what I would have with my "regular" home owners insurance.
Click to expand...
I have State Farm as well with a rider. Fairly reasonable. I need to update mine after my recent purchase.
 
Member's gallery
Capturingtheunseen.com said:
Are you a veteran? If so, USAA has the best deal on camera equipment insurance. It is limited to $3000, but it is cheap cheap cheap. I had to turn in a claim on my 200-500 due to impact damage and they paid it in full, no deductible.
Click to expand...

I have USAA for about $25,000 of camera equipment and the yearly cost is about $340, which is somewhat more than the premium for State Farm quoted above for a similar amount of equipment. I had one claim for about $1200 for a dropped D800e and attached 80-400 mm lens. which was handled well with no deductible. I wouldn't consider this premium cheap cheap, but I've been with them for 50 years for auto and home owner and am a highly satisfied customer who would not consider changing.

By a $3000 limit do you mean per occurrence or total coverage? If the former, my coverage is insufficient for my D850 with attached 500 pf lens.

Bill
 
Member's gallery
bjanes said:
I have USAA for about $25,000 of camera equipment and the yearly cost is about $340, which is somewhat more than the premium for State Farm quoted above for a similar amount of equipment. I had one claim for about $1200 for a dropped D800e and attached 80-400 mm lens. which was handled well with no deductible. I wouldn't consider this premium cheap cheap, but I've been with them for 50 years for auto and home owner and am a highly satisfied customer who would not consider changing.

By a $3000 limit do you mean per occurrence or total coverage? If the former, my coverage is insufficient for my D850 with attached 500 pf lens.

Bill
Click to expand...
Not sure about that; I entered the equipment I wanted to insure and the max coverage they gave was $3000. I haven't explored it further. I also haven't added the D5 I bought, so I will do that if I decide to keep it and see what the result is.

State Farm in my state was not an option, for some reason. That policy was not available when I last checked on it.
 
Member's gallery
gordon_g said:
So what is everyone doing to protect all this expensive gear they own?
Click to expand...

Here in Germany the household and other insurances are quite limiting regarding coverage of "extraordinary" equipment like a 5k€ moutainbike or a 15k€+photo equipment. Their limits are adapted to what "normal" people have at home ;). Thus, a market grew for specialized insurances around this kind of equipment. They are not cheap but I made good experiences. My camera with the 500 f4 slipped out of the gimbal and fell on the ground because I accidently ran into the tripod and released the knob of the clamp. They paid the repair 100% .

Some also are fairly dynamic, to keep the price down. Let's say you have normally full coverage for your full gear at home and for you home country. Then you go travelling for 6 weeks taking part of your equipment with you. Then you can extend the coverage to "EU" or "North America", "Worldwide", ... just for the things you take and just for the time you travel. This is this the kind of flexibility I would look for.

The second thing is insurance against prices for new equipment (sorry, I don't know the correct term in English). It basically means that if something breaks and can't be repaired or gets stolen, you get the money for buying the item new (some insurances only cover the value the item would currently have, which is usually less than you would need to get replacement). For used equipment that you can't buy new anymore they should have an official list with current market values of used equipment. My insurance has such a list that is is update regularly based on research in online trading platforms and it even covers oldies like my 200 f4 D Micro.

Hope this helps a little, although the situation may vary depending on the reagion of the world you are and/or you wnat to go to.
 
Member's gallery
gordon_g said:
Is anyone using a 3rd party to insure their gear? If so are you happy with it? Who is it though?...
Click to expand...
I insure my camera gear through a policy offered for NANPA (North American Nature Photographers Association) members. The organization is good on many levels but their photo gear insurance program is quite good at a reasonable cost and covers loss or damage for everything except mysterious disappearance. http://www.nanpa.org
 
Member's gallery
Capturingtheunseen.com said:
Not sure about that; I entered the equipment I wanted to insure and the max coverage they gave was $3000. I haven't explored it further. I also haven't added the D5 I bought, so I will do that if I decide to keep it and see what the result is.

State Farm in my state was not an option, for some reason. That policy was not available when I last checked on it.
Click to expand...
I am with USAA too. (over 47 years now) and have the Camera insurance as a Valuable Personal Property policy. Search for it on the site. I re-checked coverage to verify my “memory”. - $352/yr for approx $22K of gear. Love it.
 
Member's gallery
One other thing to note, certainly in the UK, is that "house" insurance policies don't pay out very quickly whereas the specialist insurers often authorise on the same day. Useful if you're on an overseas assignment, trip of a lifetime etc.
 
Member's gallery
We have a commercial policy though this company:

www.fmins.com

Frankenmuth Insurance: Business, Home, Auto & Life Insurance

Frankenmuth Insurance offers customized coverage for business, home, auto and life insurance. Contact a local agent for a quote with Frankenmuth Insurance.
www.fmins.com www.fmins.com

Full coverage for loss, damage, anything. However, I don't know if they only do commercial policies or also do private as well.
 
Member's gallery
I wonder how that works for camera bodies and or lens that I have purchased used where I don't have a purchase receipt per say? (ex. ebay purchases). Just like a car I suppose where they would provide "value at time of loss". Any thoughts?
 
Member's gallery
VStammer said:
I wonder how that works for camera bodies and or lens that I have purchased used where I don't have a purchase receipt per say? (ex. ebay purchases). Just like a car I suppose where they would provide "value at time of loss". Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I can only speak for the camera insurance I carry, but it works like this:

- You declare a total value for all unlisted items which are those under $500 each. That could total up to a lot of cash but you don't need to list out individual items
- You can also insure a list of declared items that are over $500 each and for those you provide: make, model, serial number and declared value and they sometimes want a photo of the listed gear.

You total up both lists to come up with the total coverage value.

The insurance premium you pay is based on the total coverage value declared.

So it's really up to you whether you declare full replacement value or current used market replacement value on the expensive items. I could for instance declare my 600mm f/4 G lens at Nikon retail price based on old ads but I'd also pay more in premiums. Personally I declare value for these older items based on what it would realistically cost me to replace them today, not their original sales prices. That keeps the premiums reasonable and if I'm unfortunate enough to have one stolen or have a bad accident that destroys the lens I can reasonably expect to replace it.
 
Last edited:
Member's gallery
Steve mention we have our camera gear covered with Frankenmuth. However we do pay a premium to get full coverage for our gear, there is a special rider we pay for to have it covered for full replacement cost. They also let us put Steve's computers on the policy, plus there is a line for misc items. So if it is not listed out on the main master list I can put it under that line and get it reimbursed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Member's gallery
Glad to see this discussion. It's about 02:00, I'm still up, reading this forum, found this topic, realized that I don't have specific coverage on my cameras and equipment, and just sent an email to our insurance agency asking for their input/quotes, etc.
Thanks for giving me an important tip to pursue.
 
Member's gallery
bjanes said:
I have USAA for about $25,000 of camera equipment and the yearly cost is about $340, which is somewhat more than the premium for State Farm quoted above for a similar amount of equipment. I had one claim for about $1200 for a dropped D800e and attached 80-400 mm lens. which was handled well with no deductible. I wouldn't consider this premium cheap cheap, but I've been with them for 50 years for auto and home owner and am a highly satisfied customer who would not consider changing.

By a $3000 limit do you mean per occurrence or total coverage? If the former, my coverage is insufficient for my D850 with attached 500 pf lens.

Bill
Click to expand...
I also have USAA for my camera equipment. I have no idea what you mean by a $3000 limit. As far as i know there are no limits or deductibles. With USAA, you must be an amateur photographer. The policy is void if you generate $1 of income from your photo equipment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top