I'm looking for an insurance to cover my camera and lenses.. I added up the gear I've got and I was a bit shocked at how much it was worth.. I guess, given that I do a lot of landscape photography and hike in the mountains with my gear a lot, I ought to make sure it's properly insured. Total value in the region of 10,000.- CHF

I've spoken to our insurance agent for our house, and he's made an offer to add it to the household insurance, but with close to 10,000.- CHF of gear and occasionally wandering up the mountains with 6,000.- worth of gear strapped to my back, I feel that this is perhaps higher risk than the normal content in the house, so I'd like a separate insurance do that any claims aren't refelcted on our overall insurance. My agent doesn't seem to be able to offer me one. (Allianz)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

If you find something, let me know. Mine adds up to 30-40k at home, 6-15k traveling or hiking around. I couldn't find a specific policy, such as seems to be common in the US and other places at a reasonable price. AXA could only come up with some kind of "in transit" policy, that while the coverage was probably ok, the annual premium was around 1.7k p.a., or the price of a decent lens p.a. That was a couple of years ago, gonna check again soon and will post here what the latest is.

Blimey.. What're you shooting with? A Hasselblad?

Doesn't exist in Switzerland. Anyways, all camera insurances that I know (in Germany) are extremely overpriced, i.e. the expected damage is much much less than the insurance premium.

True.. But if you're carrying a bag with a 2000.- camera, and 2 lenses worth 2500.- each, and they fall down the mountain and smash, that "Over priced" insurance won't seem so bad.. An American friend of mine dropped a D3 in the river while kayaking, that's a 6000.- camera, his insurance covered the loss and now he has enough to get a D4 when it's released! Not bad going for an old camera..

It was this incident that made me think.

*chuckle*, a Hasselblad body alone is around 45k. No, just a few bodies and a few L lenses, tripods + heads, etc., adds up.

Here is how it is in the US:

http://photo.net/learn/insurance

yes, if. And how likely is it? You might want to get familiar with basic insurance economics. http://www.econport.org/econport/req...ions_insurance

the rule of thumb is: buy insurance if the potential loss will ruin you, if not, take the risk.

I'm quite interested on this myself. In a few years I plan on upgrading to a bigger Steadicam, where if I would lose it or some of the vital accessories, I'd be out of a job until I could get another $70,000.

In the US, apart from 35mm, most film and media equipment insurance is a matter of finding an agent who understands the equipment, the work you do with it, and the risks.

Professionals are fortunate in the sence that many demand that the production provide them with an insurance cert for the job, so that you onlyhave to pay yourself to insure the transportation and storage of the equipment, when there's the least risk of damage.

Insurance, another thing to re-learn....

I'm sorry. I was after some information on insurance policies, not lessons on whether or not the risks outweigh the costs. Part of my income is generated by photography, at least to the extent that the gear is paying for itself, and I'd like to build this up so I can eventually give up my day job. Can we please go back on topic? Are there any specific insurances for camera gear that specifically cover someone permanently resident in Switzerland? At whatever cost? I need something that will cover me travelling world wide, I don't care if the money goes to an overseas firm, just that they'll cover me when my home address is in Valais.

Thanks

World Wide All Risks will be very expensive without a large excess, state where your going & for how long. Short trips or long travelling, camping?

I have my insurance for "Theft outside" increased to 4000 CHF for exactly this purpose. This is also valid outside of Switzerland. I normally never carry all of my gear with me, so even if total value exceeds the insured sum, it's all very unlikely to get stolen all together.
I pay about 180 CHFs a year for this.

This is for private use, the OP want's cover as a pro photographer, very different risk.

I work for a multinational with offices in 50 countries.. Asia, Africa and South America are all on the list as well as Eastern Europe.. I'm not taking photographs as a part of my business trips, it's just an added bonus to be able to spend a weekend in Columbia or Malaysia or Kenya while travelling there on business.. I also travell around Europe on Motorbike, I'm off to Lithuania next weekend to be the photographer at my best friends wedding.. Basically I'm never at home!

Like I said, I consider myself to be at higher risk than your average Joe.. And as such, I feel that the insurance is probably going to be worth the money.. I travel with a D7000 and a 24-70 2.8 and a 70-200 2.8, total value about 6000.-. I'm saving for a D3x or a D4 when it's released and when my photos bring in enough to pay for it.. Which will bring the value of my gear up to being worth more than my car! I have no issue paying for insurance for that..

I'll judge the value of the insurance once I find one.. 1000.- or more a year is nothing compared to the cost of the camera.. Problem at the moment is finding the insurance.. I've asked Allianz, they want to add it to the house insurance, which isn't what I'm after, AXA and Generali don't appear to have such a thing either.

This is how it's done here. "Theft outside" part of household insurance is valid for any travel and as often as you like. They do not assess the risk individually.

Get coverage for as much as you carry with you and you'll be fine.
This shouldn't cost more than 300CHF/year.

I am not exactly sure of what the deal here in Switzerland would be but I think a similar experience as in the UK. I travel with a lot of expensive equipment much of the time, both cameras and computing gear.
Professional: Contact your professional body in the country that you are resident in and ask them where to obtain insurance. It should exist for photography equipment. For us in the IT industry, I have not really found any before that is not very (£1000 per year or more) expensive.
Amateur: This is easiest done through your house insurance I believe.

1000 seems a lot, but maybe not if you have very high risks. for me, after photography for, say, 11 years. 11,000 CHFs would have bought me a lot of spare camera kit and i've never had any loss/damage yet and i abuse my kit quite a bit.

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/

scnr.

fauxtograhers. love it.

yeah. there are many bad photographers around. even those that do it for a living!

but as long as clients are unable to recognise quality, bad photographers will live on.

but people just also do it for fun. we don't have to be good at it. just look at people who go to karaoke, or play golf...

We are able with our new devision to offer bespoke cover on activities and risks like these along side our growing list of professional and consumer products.

JonP I just sent you a PM about your specific case.

Cheers,
David

Forgot to add:

High value products have to be listed separately under household and usually cover only equates to a couple of grand outside the house unless otherwise increased, but generally only to a maximum of 4k under the standard household. If one is using specialist expensive AV, musical or computing equipment it is not automatically under the household policy, especially if it is used for professional published works.