Sigh.. Photography is such an expensive Hobby

It has been about 6 months since my entry into serious photography with the purchase of Canon's 400D. Naively I thought 'Get a good overall lens, a flash...that should be it'. But no, I seem to be getting addicted. Its true they say (and I agree) that use your existing gears to the best of their abilities and not get better gears to do more but sigh... I just can't help it. Sometimes it is the necessary evil. Sometimes..

My current existing equipment includes:

1. Canon 400D (with battery grip BG-E3 and kit lens)
2. Canon 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS lens (hope to replace this next year with the 24-105 f4L)
3. Canon 17-40 f4 L
4. Canon 50 f1.8 (this is on loan - planning a 50mm of my own: the f1.4)
5. Canon Speedlite 580EX
6. Manfrotto 055Pro tripod (with the 468MGRC2 Hydrostatic ballhead)
7. Lowepro Nova 3 AW (shoulder bag)
8. Lowepro Dryzone Rover (backpack)
9. Maxtor 300Gb external harddrive (for all my storage needds ;) )
   

And still I have dreams. My current wishlist:

1. Canon 70-200mm f4L IS (next target before Japan GT 2007)
2. As mentioned before, Canon 50mm f1.4
3. Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro (this has been put on-hold as a colleague has recently purchased this - but this is a fun lens to get)
4. A monopod (research not done on this yet)
5. That National Geographic book titled 'The Book of Photography' ( this is a good book on the history of how the different styles of photography evolved, I believe that to be a better photographer one has to also develop an understanding of how the entire field has evolved, for eg. how people like Ansell Adams, co-founder of group f/64, has revolutionised modern photography, etc etc)
   

Sigh.... this is where is seems all my salary will go to in the near future. Hope it ends on the wishlist...oh but then there is also that Fish-Eye lens, the Tilt-Shift lens and a bloody PC that has at least 2Gb worth of RAM and a decent monitor with at least 120Gb of space (so working on photoshop does not suck big time)......sigh.....looks like it never ends..

Singapore visitation

Made a point to visit Singapore recently due to the urgent need of a bag. Must thank Sam for letting me bunk in seeing Singapore is twice Malaysia's currency. Need to save all I can for photo equipments :) ....

Placed a booking for the Lowepro Dryzone Rover a while back from Cathay Photo in Peninsula Plaza. This place is really a photo enthusiasts dream. Cathay Photo has 2 main outlets, the other being in Marina Square. Have not been to the latter but the one in Peninsula has 5 'sub'-shops each catering for different things eg. studio, tripods, bags and accessories etc. etc. Got carried away and ended up even buying the Manfrotto 055Pro tripod (which was in the plan but the timing was early). Almost bought a ball head together with it but restrained myself.

Looks like I'll be visiting Sam again soon....fall the ball head, and to visit Sam of course. How nice of me.. :)