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About this tool
Year-by-year depreciation on camera and studio gear by straight-line, declining balance or sum-of-years, plus true cost per shoot.
Depreciation spreads the fall in value of a camera, lens or computer across the years you actually use it, and this calculator runs all three standard methods on your numbers: straight line, declining balance and sum of the years' digits. All three write off exactly the purchase price minus resale value; they differ only in how fast, which matters because gear loses most of its value early. It then divides one year's charge by the shoots you do to give a genuine cost per shoot.
Open Creator Equipment Depreciation Calculator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the values you already know.
Fine-tune the options to match your scenario.
Read the result and use it in your planning or reporting.
Switch between straight line, declining balance and sum-of-years to see how much the choice changes year one.
Book value is floored at the salvage figure under every method, so the schedule stays realistic.
Depreciation, servicing and insurance divided by the shoots you actually book.
The straight-line method is purchase price minus expected resale value, divided by useful life in years. A 2,50,000 camera expected to fetch 50,000 after five years depreciates by (250000 - 50000) / 5 = 40,000 a year. Declining balance and sum-of-years charge more in the early years and less later.
Camera bodies and computers are usually planned over three to five years because sensors, codecs and software move fast. Lenses, tripods and lighting hold value longer and are often planned over seven to ten. Use the period you genuinely expect to keep working with the item, not a tax table.
It charges a fixed percentage of the remaining book value each year, where the rate is 2 divided by the useful life. On a five-year life that is 40% a year, so a 2,50,000 camera loses 1,00,000 in year one and 60,000 in year two — a much closer match to how resale prices actually behave.
No. Book depreciation is a management estimate you choose for budgeting. Tax authorities prescribe their own methods and rates — India, for example, uses written-down value on blocks of assets. Keep the two separate and let your accountant handle the tax computation.
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