Kernow, some good advice there, however, being self-employed you'll have to pay class 2 NI which is £2.50 per week unless you earn less than £5,315 per year and also class 4 NI which is 9% of your profit between £7,225 and £42,475 (these figures are for the '11-12 tax year).
As far as claiming for camera equipment, if you offset the whole amount of the purchase against business expenses, the equipment has to be for the sole use of your business, if you also use it for personal use, you can only offset a portion of the purchase against business expenses.
Also, the taxman will not effectively buy anything for you, they aren't that kind
. The maximum you will be able to 'reclaim/offset' is 40% of the cost, and that's if you are a higher rate tax payer. I will explain: If you imagine in the year you make a profit of £1,000 (ignoring personal allowances for my example) you would pay 20% (basic tax rate) to the taxman which would be £200. Now let's imagine that you've purchased a camera in the same year for £1,000, this wipes out your profit, your profit is now £0, so you pay 20% of this which is nothing. So you've saved yourself £200 by offsetting the cost and not the whole £1,000 that the camera cost you, you are still £800 down.
If you want a lot more useful information have a look at
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/basics.htm
Whilst I don't work for HMRC, I've been self-employed for over 12 years.
Regards
Nick