HN boasts an international audience and many of us earn a lot less than $100/hour. Plus you know it is called “hacker” news, not “bought it at the store” news.

Candidate for alt HN tagline :)

Sigh.

No, you're missing the point. For one, DIY projects are great for learning. Secondly, unless you already have a way to earn money with that time, time spent on stuff like this is "worth" $0. You'd actually have more money in your pocket after DIY'ing it and spending a couple hours than you would clicking "buy" on Amazon.com and spending a couple minutes or so.

And, if you want to get really nitpicky, I'm pretty sure all those parts the author bought were also tested and warrantied by their respective manufacturers. And, show me a camera warranty that would be broken by using an adapter that's made for the card type the camera takes, anyway.

SMH.

Don't forget that some people enjoy such things. Not every thing has to be reduced to a cost / benefit analysis.

Absolutely. I value my time spent working on hobby projects and end up paying money per hour I spend on it -- as far as I'm concerned it's worth every cent!

100 USD/hour translates to something like 325k yearly. Is "average" HN reader "at least" in a senior position in FAANG?

Your calculation assumes an overly high number of hours worked (and paid, as opposed to "exempt" if it's a salaried position) per year.

You'd need to average 65 hours of work every week to get $325,000 in a year at $100 per hour. That's not healthy.

50 weeks per year at 40 hours each is normal, so rule of thumb: hourly rate * 2000 hours per year = yearly earnings.

Many photographers don't earn what the "average" HNer does (if there is an average). My comment didn't really address the HN crowd.

The warranty aspect is a great point though, if a commercial photographer did this and lost their client's work because e.g. the pins broke off, I fear their clients' response.

The answer here comes down to what the individual is able to justify to themselves, be it via a cost-benefit analysis or merely "I'm a solo/hobbyist photographer, I could build this tomorrow evening during downtime and save some money, let's do it." :-)

I have a very decently paid job here in Germany. After taxes, health care and all the other deductibles I take home somewhat around 30 - 35 Euros per hour. As overtime is included in my job (I work hard not to do too much, but still) having fun building something like that on a weekend would also be an economical bargain.

I still am totally in line with my sister comments in valuing the fun building something and understanding a few things a bit better in the process quite higher than the economic aspect. This would only be the icing on the cake.