What Are The Best Camera Insurance Companies?

Whether you are using it as an amateur or a pro, if it’s a three-figure sum, you’re definitely going to want your camera to be covered.

Camera insurance will protect you against having your camera damaged, lost or stolen.

Let’s find out how camera insurance works and how to get the best value protection for your stuff.

What is camera insurance?

Camera insurance as the name suggests, protects your camera against accidental damage, theft, loss, liquid or fire damage or mechanical failure depending on the level of cover chosen.

Camera insurance may also cover you if you bring your camera with you abroad, replace your lost or broken item for a while, cover you if it is stolen in an unattended vehicle etc.

Our trusted providers for camera insurance

We selected a few providers that propose the best camera insurance, here are their must-have features:

Do I need camera insurance?

Yes you do. Repairing your camera, whether it is professional equipment or just amateur compact camera, could quickly become much more expensive than just insure it for a few pounds per month.

We would suggest you to get equipment cover limit equivalent to your equipment purchase price.

How much does it cost to repair your camera?

Just repairing a cracked screen can cost over £100.

With over one in ten UK gadget owners saying they’ve cracked a screen recently, and almost as many saying they’ve had water damage to one of their gadgets, there are a lot of people heading to the repair shop or to buy a new gadget. And many of those people will be out of pocket. A few pounds a month isn’t much to pay to ensure you’re protected.

Here is a quick summary of main repair types and cost for cameras:

Cameras Repair Type	Average cost
Lens repair	£122
Cracked zoom screen	£149
Broken button	£121
Water damage	£200
Battery replacement	£117

How does camera insurance work?

You can an usually choose between:

• insuring your equipment only;
• insuring your equipment and get public liability cover;
• only get public liability cover as a photographer or film maker.

You’ll pay an annual or monthly premium, in return for which you’re covered in accordance with your policy details. If anything happens to your camera, you can claim on the insurance by contacting the insurer.

If you want to claim for theft, and you re covered for it, you will have to go to the police to declare it.

What is covered by camera insurance?

Type of cover needed is not the same depending on if you are a pro or a photography amateur. You'll find below which covers are typically included as standard in camera insurance policies, or available as optional extras.

	What is covered?	Basic plan	Premium plan
Accidental damage	Covers your camera if damaged accidentally, but it must not be negligence (liquid damage are included as well).	Up to equipment value limit	Up to equipment value limit
Mechanical breakdwon	Covers your camera against mechanical breakdown.	Up to equipment value limit	Up to equipment value limit
Loss	Covers your camera if lost. You probably know if you’re a ‘loser’ – if you are, this cover can be well worth taking. The same goes for accident-prone gadget owners.)	Up to equipment value limit	Up to equipment value limit
Theft	Covers your camera if stolen providing there is evidence of forced entry to or from any premises or any securely locked locker or other similar place of storage. You may need the optional 'unattended vehicle' option.	Up to equipment value limit	Up to equipment value limit
New-For-Old	Covers the replacement of your camera by a new one if it lost, stolen or damaged as long as it is not older than the number of years defined in the policy.	Up to 3 years	For life
Worldwide	Covers you and your camera if something happens overseas for X days, while you are on a tour, on a concert, or performing.	x	Included as standard for 90 days
Public liability	Covers you against accidental damage caused to someone with your camera while using it.	£1,000,000	£5,000,000
Unattended vehicle	Covers you if your camera has been stolen from an unattended vehicle.	x	Up to equipment value limit
Replacement hire	Covers hire of replacement equipment whilst yours is being replaced or repaired for a certain number of weeks.	x	£700 per week Up to 4 weeks
Loss of Earnings	Covers you in case your camera is damaged, stolen or lost or if you get injured while using it and can no longer use your camera to earn your living.	x	52 weeks cover

At most insurers, you will be able to take only standard policy and add additional extras depending on what you need. If you are an amateur playing guitar as a hobby, you may not need for instance data recovery, loss of earnings, replacement hire, worldwide cover, public liability etc.

What is not covered by camera insurance?

Here are a few exclusions to your camera insurance:

• Some insurers won’t insure your camera over a certain age, eg 6 months or 2 years.
• Most insurers won’t cover a bought outside the UK.
• You won’t be able to insure a you bought second hand, or which has been refurbished.
• And you’ll need proof of purchase to insure your camera
• You won’t be covered if you don’t take reasonable care.
• Some policies won’t cover your cameras if you use it for work. Make sure you check before you take out insurance.

How much camera insurance cost?

Depending on your model, your camera insurance price will vary between £8 to £10 per month.

For a GoPro for example, you will be around £100 per year, and for a canon reflex, you can easily pay £130 per year to insure your camera.

For example Protect Your Bubble proposes to insure your Nikon D5300 for £4.49. Ripe insurance has a special photography insurance, starting from £4.86 per month. Assetsure starts at £5.19 for a very comprehensive cover.

Camera insurance premiums per model

Camera	Device price	Repair prices	Lost	Insurance prices
Canon EOS 4000 D	£229.95	£101	£229.95	£3.49
Canon 80d	£659	£503	£659	£6.02
Canon m50	£562.32	£204	£562.32	£3.99
Nikon D5300	£569.89	£210	£569.89	£4.49
Instax mini 9	£74.99	£52	£74.99	£2.02

Camera are valuable items, and cameras' equipment either, both of them are quite an expense.

Cameras are often use when travelling where the risks of breaking this type of items are higher, that is why taking out a camera insurance for travel is a great idea when we know how much this item can be fragile and expensive.

Having a camera insurance can also be really useful if you need to replace quickly your camera, there are providers who propose a replacement within 24h. DSLR insurance for cameras are more and more used, as this kind of items are valuable emotionally.

Who is camera insurance for?

You can get camera insurance whether you are:

• a student (photographer or travelling and taking great pictures or films);
• a semi-professional (annual income related to photography < £50,000 per year)
• a photography amateur
• a videographer
• a professional (annual income related to photography > £50,000 per year).

The level of cover you need and the type of cameras and accessories you need to cover will of course not be the same depending on your level of profesionalism and the insurance premium you will have to pay will vary depending on your equipment purchase prise, public liability cover etc.

Which cameras are covered by camera insurance?

Cameras covered by camera insurance are:

	Camera model examples
Compact cameras	Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 II, Fujifilm X100V, Sony Cyber-Shot RX100 V, Canon PowerShot SX740 HS etc.
Action cameras	GoPro Hero, DJi Osmo etc
DSLR cameras	Reflex - Nikon D5300, Canon AE1
Video cameras	Sony HXR-MC2500J, Sony HDR-CX240E Handycam, Canon XA40 UHD
Camera lense	Canon EF 16-35 mm F2.8 L USM II 82 mm, Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens, Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR Lens
Drones	DJI Mavic 2 Pro, DJI Phantom 4 RTK, Freefly Alta 8

What are the photography organizations?

Being part of a photography organizations gives you access to several benefits including discount on your camera insurance premiums. Main photography organizations are:

• Association of Photographers,
• Association of Videographers,
• British Institute of Professional Photography,
• British Press Photographers Association,
• Event Photographer Society,
• Guild of Photographers,
• Irish Professional Photographers Association.

How to claim on my camera insurance?

The first thing to know about claiming on your camera insurance is that you need to strike while the iron is hot – notify your claim within 24 hours. Some insurers give you even less time, just 12 hours to make a claim.

Your insurer will have a preferred way for you to claim, whether that’s by phone, or via an online portal. You’ll need to be able to provide the original receipt for your camera.

If your gadget was stolen, you will need to contact the police and get a crime reference number (CRN) to give to the police.

Some insurers will send you cash. Others will arrange for a repair or for a replacement gadget to be sent to you – which is why they need to know exactly what gadget you are insuring. If this makes a difference to you, make sure you check the policy carefully before clicking the ‘buy’ button.

How to cancel my camera insurance?

There are two different ways to cancel your camera insurance, depending on whether you want to cancel in the first 14 days, or later.

• The first 14 days after you buy a policy are known as the ‘cooling off period’ and you have the right to change your mind. You’ll usually need to send written notice and include the documents – but phone or email first to give yourself peace of mind and find out if there are any particular requirements.
• After that, things depend on whether you have signed up to a full year or to a monthly rolling policy. You’ll need to check your policy documents. If it’s a longer term policy you may need to pay a fee to cancel early, and if you’ve made a claim, you will have to pay till the end of the contract period.

Can I take out a multiple camera insurance?

Yes, you can have a multiple cameras insurance, here are two examples of multi cameras insurances and their discounts:

• Switched On insurance offers a 10% when insuring more than two gadgets
• i-Digitals proposes 10% off if you insure 2 gadgets and 40% if you insure more than two gadgets

Some insurers offer bigger discounts the more gadgets you add.