ever just feel overwhelmed?

After lusting for Sigma DSLR (which I don't need) I used elder Polaroid x530 with [small] Foveon sensor and zoom lens. It delivers X3F files and has something from THAT charm I know from Sigma DP.

Recently I used film SLR outfit with a longish zoom and flash grip. 36 exposures, covered two swims in a pool. Cheap as a chips, not worried by chlorine or moisture, didn't babied it and enjoyed process. Got one keeper to print.

Few days ago attached two flashes to a digital compact (8 years old) and realized it's not hard to get portraits looking very different from usual look. Dark winter evenings are too good to pass on this.

I have enough toys to keep me busy. Instead of lusting for gear I will edit and print more.
 
I am a "late adopter" they say. I buy stuff one or two generations behind the leading edge. Any APS size camera these days is better than me (although I claim to be better than some of the available lenses), so it comes down to "handle-ability" and simplicity of operation.


EDIT: I feel overwhelmed when a friend or family person asks me "What camera should I buy?" (and they look at me as if I had a clue) . . . Buying a camera for myself is much easier than that.
 
Virtually nothing you can buy today is going to become truly obsolete. Post-2006 in digital and perhaps post-1996 in film (or maybe post-1954 in film, if you're a purist), "obsolescence" has been a flimsy excuse for buying newer gear.

This morning I had a reason to compare two shots of the same subject, the Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle, both taken on the same day at nearly the same time, one taken with one of my workhorse Nikon D40 DSLRs (a low-end, 6MP camera introduced in November 2006), the other with a brand new D600 ($2100, now returned due to Nikon's crappy QC). On a calibrated monitor or in a print up to 16x20 or so, NOBODY could tell which image came from which camera. Nobody here, nobody anywhere. That's just reality: for at least the past five years, digital obsolescence has been a scam, pure and simple. There are all kinds of reasons to choose a new camera, but real-world IQ is not even relevant at this point.

So yeah, focus on making pictures. Personally, I can't wait until my Canon P gets back from the shop.
 
Hmm - a joke

Hmm - a joke

This beautiful young couple is getting married. Both in their early 20s, pretty and handsome, a great match .... He is an RFF member.
The day after the wedding, the new wife meets a friend. The bride looks exhausted. Knowingly, her friend smiles and asks about the wedding night.
"Must have been great ?", she asked.
The bride gets upset, starts to cry.
"What's the matter", asks her friend, "this should be the best day of your life ?"
The bride, weeping: "after we turned in last night, I undressed, went to bed, asked him how he was."
"And then ?"
"And then, throughout the whole night, sitting on the corner of the bed, still dressed, he was telling me how great our marriage would be."

-------

Roland.

PS: he was exhausted, too.
 
1977 M2.....1996 M6...2008-2012, using M6 mostly, with M2 and out of curiosity, and nostalgia, an M5. An X100 in 2011. An M9 in 2012. Stop. I like the Monochrom very much but will not get it. The new M doesn't interest me. It will take more than 10 years - understatement - for my M9 to become as 'obselete' as any of my film Ms, my favourite of which is 54 years old. So, No.
 
If I didn't spend all my money on mortgage, fuel, and food every month then, yes maybe. As it is I do get really excited about some of the stuff coming out.
 
back alley said:
if one had deep pockets it might be easy to cope better but needing to sell one to buy another feels stressful especially if one likes new toys!
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Not really. Having been in the computer industry for many years, the march of technology moves on. Sometimes I keep up with it, by choice, sometimes not. If the tech (gear) does the job I need it to, that's all that matters. The photo industry is nothing but a subset of the computer industry now, so it's not been a difficult transition.
 
digitalintrigue said:
Not really. Having been in the computer industry for many years, the march of technology moves on. Sometimes I keep up with it, by choice, sometimes not. If the tech (gear) does the job I need it to, that's all that matters. The photo industry is nothing but a subset of the computer industry now, so it's not been a difficult transition.
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it's only cameras for me...i have an old macbook and it does what i need...no desire to upgrade.
i buy a new watch, a good watch, about every 20 years...
my car is a 2004...

it's only the bloody cameras...
 
No. The type of person who would join Rangefinder Forum might be a gear head, but the lust would be for older film cameras and lenses. And for some of us (I'm looking in a mirror right now) we already have far more cameras than talent.
 
A very good way of putting it : overwhelmed.
A long time ago, I worked professionally, using large, medium and small format camera's. I dropped out of camera work by the time the F4 was doing wonders, and I wanted one, but I never got it. Had an f2, a mint nikkormat, my most beloved (and first) camera : a Hasselblad 500C with a chrome 80 planar, and I just loved fiddling with the Sinar and the Technica. The momentousness of taking a shot on 4x5 film is a beautiful experience in itself.
And then I dropped out and digital happened in between.
When I got the ganas back, I started looking at what was on offer, and felt a bit like the prisoner, who after a 20 year sentence, discovered escalators, couldn't stop riding 'em because of the novelty.
One thing became very clear, for a guy like me, the only camera worth having is a digital leica M. And the M8 doesn't qualify. Has to be full frame, so I can use the focal lengths I already know for what they are.
I am not a fanboy, au contraire. Proud of toting a fed2 with a jupiter8.
But the only digital camera worth having is the unpayable one. The one that would condemn me to ten year's servitude to a savings account, or worse, a luxury car worth of debt.
So yes, I am overwhelmed. Leica's were always expensive, but when I was young, they weren't worse than hasselblad, nikon and canon were cheaper, but not all that much. Now i sometimes feel that those incredibly kitschy shutter buttons and hot shoe covers, that were referenced in a recent post, are actually exactly right for what Leica seems to try to become : toys and 'man-jewelry' for very, very, rich people.
And still, the only new camera I really want is an M9, or a Monochrom, or an M240 and a couple of summicrons. Overwhelmed indeed.
 
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back alley said:
do you ever feel like your gear is just old now and out of date even though it was the 'best' about 6 months ago?
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No. There are so few cameras that appeal to me I usually am using what I think is the best for me (one is a 6 year old digital). I have to admit that I want the Fujifilm X100s (as an upgrade to the X100 I already have) even though I don't really know what it is yet (rumors). I don't feel bad though... the X100's a special camera IMO.
 
joe--great question--great pondering by all.
Recently took an F2 to New Orleans and walked about.
Had Tri-X loaded. Jumpy meter and all, was pleased with the results.
Digital was used for snaps from the tour bus.
Something about the old stuff makes you slow down.
Loved it!
Will do it again. The F2, that is.
Paul
 
Joe , no not in the least bit. I've settled on what for me works great a 35m body with a 50mm and 135mm lens and a pentax 645 with the 75 and 150 mm. I don't need or want more or less. I don't shoot wides but IF I ever do I know which lens I'll get the 55mm for the 645.
 
no, not for anything..technology,audio,cars, everything. Stop looking untill you need something - and the key word is NEED.We [anglos] have been conditioned to WANT.
 
Well...in the old days, big brand cameras were "instruments" that all came from Germany for the most part. Film was getting better every year, lenses were getting better every year and idea that either could become outdated was unthinkable. Now German cameras have fallen behind or gone out of business. Japanese camera giants are now under direct attack by the "Smart Phone" industry. Film is now fading into history...love it as we do.

I remember when if I wanted a 1 GIG hard on my state of the art Apple, with the first color monitor they made it would cost me over $1000 ! just for the Hard Drive.

Now the flash memory cards are priced at the cost of about $1-2 per GIG and sold everywhere at deeper discounts everyday....no more wet labs.

Yes the acceleration of technology is only getting faster every day. Are we there yet?
 
No, I still haven't figured out totally (or am unable to remember) what all the buttons do on the Canon 5D Mark II that I bought some years ago. So that keeps me happy for the time being, exploring the different kinds of pictures I can get out of it. There is a lot to know and remember, and I find that part of it sometimes overwhelming, such as when the modes and settings have to be changed quickly or the chance is gone forever.

Lately, though, I've been busy shooting film. I often wonder just how deep that rabbit hole goes. It seems like, with just film and manual cameras, that there's a lifetime's worth of knowledge to acquire even if one studied and practiced day and night. There's not as many buttons on the cameras, but just look at all that can be done with the old technology. It's pretty amazing.
 
back alley said:
...over new gear, the non-stop improvements in the technology, the desire for all the new, the latest and the greatest...the never ending demand on the budget?

do you ever feel like your gear is just old now and out of date even though it was the 'best' about 6 months ago?

if one had deep pockets it might be easy to cope better but needing to sell one to buy another feels stressful especially if one likes new toys!

how do you cope? or is it a non prob for you?
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a non-problem, thankfully.
 
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