As a photographer trying to survive in tough economic times, it's hard not to feel a little conflicted about the latest imaging gear. On the one hand, with so much quality product to choose from these days, including superior digital SLRs, medium-format digital cameras, laptops, smart phones, software, RAID storage and, yes, even digital camcorders that can capture high-res still images, the urge to empty your wallet on the objects you desire may be greater now than ever before.

On the other hand, all those gear purchases can really add up and when you just bought a new camera two years ago, can you justify buying a new one now—even if it does shoot incredibly clean ISO 6400 images at nine frames per second?

And what if you don't need only a camera, but you also need lenses, lighting, a computer, and all those other essential items such as light meters, gobos and backdrops to get a portrait studio up and running? And what if you could only scrounge together $3,000 to buy all this stuff?

Sounds impossible if you're looking for professional gear, right? Well, not exactly, as photographers Jason Groupp, David DuPuy and I found out when PDN offered us $3,000 to go on an imaginary shopping spree for a new digital studio. Of course, we didn't factor in the biggest expense of all—the actual cost of studio space—but, instead, followed David's thrifty approach, which is to use part of his New York City apartment as his photography studio.

Believe it or not, keeping equipment costs down wasn't as hard as we had thought, thanks to those saviors of budgets spenders everywhere: eBay and Craigslist. What was difficult was agreeing on exactly what gear to spend the $3,000 on. With the amount of affordable pro equipment available online (albeit much of it several years old or older) the product combinations are endless.

So instead of trying to come up with one master list we could all agree on, Jason decided to go off on his own $3,000 spending spree while David and I teamed up to fill our virtual shopping cart with studio gear. Here's what we came up with.


Cameras

With just $3,000 to spend, a medium-format digital camera was pretty much out of the question. (The best I could find was a used Mamiya 645AFD on eBay for $909—but that didn't include a digital back.)

Also, although many recent consumer digital SLRs are vastly better than, say, the original Digital Rebel from Canon, we wanted to stick to professional-grade equipment which meant having to find something a couple of years old.

For our camera, David and I grabbed an original 11.1-megapixel Canon EOS 1Ds on eBay for a final auction price of $1,095. Though this seemed kind of pricey for a DSLR that's now nearly seven years old, the 1Ds' still-respectable 11.1 megapixels of resolution, low-noise, full-frame CMOS sensor, and rugged overall build make this still an excellent choice, which is, perhaps, why the 1Ds's resale value remains high.

Sneaky Jason went the prosumer route, purchasing not just one, but two 8.2 megapixel-Canon EOS 30D camera bodies for $365 a piece. Though the 30D was released back in 2006, Jason says he's impressed with the quality of the imaging files that come out of that camera, noting that they're comparable to the 5D. His reason for choosing two bodies? You gotta have a backup.

Interestingly, we all chose Canon over Nikon cameras, mostly because of the fact that Nikon's recent high-quality DSLRs were way too expensive for our budgets, while the older models have not aged well.

MONEY SPENT SO FAR

David & Dan: $1,095 Jason: $730

Lenses

Lenses were our toughest decision since quality glass can be very steep. Instead of going for less- expensive, third-party lenses from Tamron or Sigma, David and I stuck with Canon, choosing the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM as our prime lens, even though we really wanted the 85mm f/1.2L. (The difference in price between the two was considerable: we found an 85mm f/1.8 for $333, whereas the cheapest 85mm f/1.2L we could find was $1,275—and that was from a low-rated seller.)

For our zoom lens, I found a versatile Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS on eBay for $879, which is not bad since that lens continues to be one of Canon's most popular L-series zooms.

Meanwhile, Jason pigged out on lenses on eBay, finding a "new" Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 for $350, and a Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens for $310. Since he was doing fairly well, so far, on keeping his costs down, Jason then splurged on a zoom lens, finding a "brand new" Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM for $1,100.

MONEY SPENT SO FAR

David & Dan: $2,307 Jason: $2,490