The photo above of the Olympic photographers is indeed a $250,000 thousand in the making as each photographer is equipped with at least $20,000 worth of equipment brought along by them. So the breakdown is

Total Cost: Around $250,000

• 23 cameras in above photo
1. Canon L-Series EF and Nikkor AF-S 500mm super telephoto lenses
2. Each around $5,800
3. A few 400mm, 600mm, 700mm, 800mm
4. Average of $6,000 per telephoto lense
5. That’s $138,000 total just on lenses
6. Canon and Nikon cameras
7. Average $5,000 price tag per camera
8. Grand total to about a quarter of a million dollars.
• 1,100 accredited photographers at the Beijing Olympics
1. A good low-estimate per photographer would be $20,000 minimum
2. Grand total to $22 million in professional digital photography equipment at the Olympics

via source