{my bold}
I have also met these people so they definitely exist and tend to go on one workshop after another to fill in retirement time and spend their money. I am not sure if there is a lot or tons out there though. Most workshops are pretty small groups of shooters so would there even be hundreds out there? Divide that between Sony/Nikon/Canon and the numbers go down further. Numbering in the thousands seems ambitious.
Common sense does seem to be separate though with one guy I met with a Sony 600/4 and 2 x A1 in a yellow pelican case which is just asking for someone to walk off with it. I did suggest he put the case in a nondescript soft bag but he could probably afford to buy another set.
I thought that Africa/small planes would have limited what you could bring (size/weight) though irrespective of money...?
If you're on a big enough Cessna, it doesn't really matter how much you bring, it gets divided between everyone anyway. I've only been on a 4 seater terror ride in Uganda and Suriname. It's been Caravans otherwise.
One New York store won't give exact figures, but they claim to sell between 200-300 "big white lenses" a year, obviously depends on the year, product cycles and who the customers are. The Chinese market is insane for that stuff.
Upvote
0