Your camera equipment could be a relatively inexpensive Point and Shoot that you carry everywhere in a nice little quality camera bag. One that holds your camera, cell phone, and other small electronics. A camera bag that has the proper padding to secure the small, delicate cameras. A camera that you use to take those vacation pictures, holiday photos, and other pictures as an enthusiastic photographic hobbiest.
Special insurance for that kind of photography equipment wouldn't be necessary. It probably wouldn't even be available. If a person's small, relatively inexpensive, digital camera is damaged, they just replace it. If it happens to be stolen from their car, and their deductible is low enough, they may opt to turn it in to their automobile insurance. But, more than likely, they'll just go out to the store, look at the new cameras, and buy a nice, new model.
Then there are the photographers who have long since passed the hobby stage of photography. Those who have invested considerable time and money in acquiring their equipment. Over a period of years professional photographers have put together some expensive pieces of equipment. Their camera alone can easily run over a thousand dollars, and many photographers have more than one. Added to that the lenses, tripod, filters, and other accessories needed and the investment grows to have a pretty hefty price tag. Then you put it all in a high quality camera bag that has all the features needed to accommodate this level of equipment. In fact, many professional photographers have more than one camera bag. Sometimes they may use a backpack style, and other times they may require a traditional top loading camera bag.
For most photographers, it would be a great hardship, if not impossible, to replace all or even part of their photography equipment all at once. And yet, many photographers choose not to insure their investment. Very unwise decision. You never know when something may happen. Theft, damage, unexpected breakage. You've worked to hard for too many years to just sacrifice it because you didn't take the time to protect your interest.
There are different possibilities for insuring your equipment. You may want to include it under your homeowners policy, possibly with a special rider. If you use your photography equipment for business, you may need a commercial policy, which obviously is going to be quite a bit more expensive. The best person to talk to is an insurance agent. If you have an existing relationship with an insurance agent, that would be the best place to start. If not, talk with a few agents to get as much information as you can to make an informed decision.
Once you've decided that the only sensible thing to do is protect your valuable equipment, not only with a quality camera case, but with some good insurance, do your homework. Make a list all your equipment; makes, models, conditions. Talk to friends who have their equipment insured. Get as much information as you can to make sure you don't under insure your equipment. It's not whether you should insure, it's with who and how much.
