Buying the same camera twice

Not all of us are immutable and fixed in time. Our tastes change.
Our appreciation of something may grow after we forsake it.
Call it nostalgia or call it wisdom...

Chris
 
I reluctantly traded my m8, 24mm elmarit, 28mm biogon and M7 to finance my M9 last year. i recently got another m7 as i missed shooting film although it is unlikely that i will get another M8, 24mm elmarit (although i still look at images i got with this lens fondly) or 28mm biogon though.
 
Let me offer a weird one: I bought a Rollei MX at an AFEX in France in 1953.

Used it heavily, and traded it in at Chicago's Central Camera Co. in 1956.

Bought a used MX at a shop in Bloomington, Indiana in 1958...

Yep - the same damn camera.

Dumb me section: I've sold and then replaced, at least six Barnacks.
 
Only with one camera,
I bought one (or should I say traded + cash) back in the earlies 80, it was an M5 with a 35mm Cron (Germany). I sold it a few months later realizing I couldn't afford it (more lenses). I didn't think about Canon LTM the time. :bang:

I just "Re-Bought" it (The same model), a little over a year ago. So I waited 31 years to have my favorite M back. This time 'round, I got one with the M6 VF frame upgrade (NOT the RF)..
All is good 😀
 
back alley said:
..But to make a habit of buying and selling identical equipment suggests to me that one has more money than sense....

believe me i have little money to throw around...for some of us THIS IS A HOBBY! is this hard to fathom for some people? due to a number of factors, i spend more time on rff than shooting...it is not my preference but it is my life.

or maybe roger, you are just an old judgemental fart looking to troll the hiways of the internet?
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I don't think so (but then, I wouldn't, would I?)

Even so, I stand by 'making a habit' and 'identical equipment'.

Many people have provided perfectly reasonable examples of why they have done it sometimes. But seriously, anyone who buys a Hasselblad 500C outfit . . . and trades it . . . and buys another . . . and trades it . . . and buys another . . . and does the same with (let's say) Nikon Fs, or Leica Ms, or Olympus OM1s; and regards this as normal behaviour, well, this strikes me as a pretty weird hobby. Again, note the words IDENTICAL and MAKING A HABIT.

Sure, trying one outfit after another, in search of what you want, makes perfect sense, as Skibeer (among others) points out. But if a Hasselblad doesn't suit you . . . or an RB67 . . . or a Mamiya 7 . . . I can just about understand going back to Hasselblad once, but making the same mistake three times in a row does strike me as mightily odd.

Apparently it strikes others as odd too. I'm also surprised at a moderator calling me a judgemental old fart and accusing me of trolling.

And to f/16sunshine, no, I don't work for any publication. I'm a freelance. Before that, for many years, I was a pure amateur. Even as an amateur, I never bought the same camera twice, though (like others here) I sometyimes bought different models of the same camera (E.g. MPP Mk. III, VI, VIII, Leica M2, M3, M4-P)). If a camera did what I wanted, I stuck with it. If it didn't, I chopped it in against something else. But if it didn't do what I wanted, why would I re-buy it?

Cheers,

R.
 
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back alley said:
it was a question roger...notice the question mark at the end of sentence?
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Perhaps not the most happily phrased question. Suppose I say to someone, "Or perhaps you're a brain-dead bigot?" To me, this suggests that I might entertain the possibility that they are a brain-dead bigot.

To be sure, body language, facial expressions, etc., are lost on the internet, and I apologize for misunderstanding you; but I think you would agree that the misunderstanding was, well, understandable...

Cheers,

R.
 
Oh God, this is embarassing. Back in the 1970s I had a Contax II, paid £30 for it. I took some of my best pictures with it. Now that I have more disposable income I thought I would relive my past and bought one, bad idea! I have spent £400 having it refurbished and it does not match my memory of what I had back then.
I used to love my Yashicamat and then my Rolleiflex Automat so I bought a Rolleiflex 2.8C. Great camera but now I hate the handling so I sold it, fortunately at a profit. I used to have a Mamiya RB67, one of the few cameras that I have bought new. Had to sell it when I was broke. Bought another 3 years ago, hardly ever use it but when I do it does everything that I could wish for. I have now completed my revisiting of old memories so I can now search new avenues. It has been expensive but has rid me of desire to relive my past.
 
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oh, don't get me wrong...i do think that you are judgemental and quite harsh about it too.

you slip little digs into your posts that are hurtful to others. i assume you think it's clever.
it really is a pity as many around here look to you for guidance.
 
back alley said:
oh, don't get me wrong...i do think that you are judgemental and quite harsh about it too.

you slip little digs into your posts that are hurtful to others. i assume you think it's clever.
it really is a pity as many around here look to you for guidance.
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Are you saying, then, that you did intend to insult me? If so, as I said before, it strikes me as strange behaviour for a moderator.

Little digs? Not exactly sly, nor slipped in: I stated my viewpoint, and then tried to clarify it.

Hurtful? There's an old saying that nothing hurts like the truth. Would you deny that buying exactly the same camera, multiple times, is something that many would regard as strange, and worth asking a question about?

Many others have given a wide range of answers, which I appreciate. As far as I can see, you are the only one to have taken offence.

Incidentally, no, I don't think I'm clever. I know I'm reasonably intelligent; I know I'm fairly knowledgeable; and I know I'm not always wise.

Cheees,

R.
 
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I have multiple copies of some items from time to time but only because I sometimes buy large lots of gear that have an item or two that I want and then I sell off the rest to recover some (sometimes all) of what I paid for the lot. For example, I once bought a lot of Jupiter-8 and Jupiter-8M lenses to get a nice one from 1957; the rest are up for sale.

The only thing I regret selling and then bought back was an Olympus OM-4T that I sold in the summer of 2008. A few months ago I bought a replacement. The more recent is actually much nicer; it's the black paint whereas the earlier one was in the crummy champaigne finish that probably began flaking off 15 minutes after it came out of the box.

I do have one exception to the non-duplication rule: My first OM was a 1N in chrome that I bought in 1983. I "retired" it to the shelf recently when I acquired a really nice black OM-1N.
 
no insult is intended...just speaking my truth.
buying and selling is the norm here, nothing strange about it at all. as was previously stated by another, some of us do not have the money to keep and compare so we sell and compare and sometimes buy again. as for being hurtful to me...don't confuse my comments with being hurt...i believe that i am about as crusty as you are.
as to offense being taken...again i am not offended personally...but i do believe that i speak for some who do not speak for themselves.

no matter..your tricks will not change...old dogs etc.
 
If I'm going to use something for work, I almost always have to have more than one of them because I need to have backup. But if I buy something and decide it does not work for me, I get rid of it and never buy it again.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Of course one can make mistakes, and one can replace kit that was destroyed, or buy a second body. But to make a habit of buying and selling identical equipment suggests to me that one has more money than sense.[/I]
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Not sure your reasoning is right here. Often when people sell something it's because they need the money to buy something else. People with more money then sense can afford to just keep stuff around they don't use often.
While I personally don't make a habit of buying and selling the same stuff I do think it makes some sense to do so with used equipment. Many used camera items hold their value pretty well on the used market so, other than the time and work you're putting into buying and selling, you aren't wasting much if anything by selling them and buying the same ones later.
 
Phantomas said:
Never. I don't like to play with cameras, I only like to use them. If a camera doesn't suit me for some reason (and that happened maybe on two occasions) I pass it on and move on. I don't sell my gear on a whim and do my research sufficiently before spending money so it has to be really unsuitable for me to sell it, after which I have no reasons left to go back.
I actually can't understand all this buying/selling/buying again business. Maybe coz I prefer shooting to playing around.
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Yeah. And as for selling it if you're not using it, only to buy it again later if you need it again - or the concept of having money "tied up" in a camera... What about the time and effort of finding it again once you decide you want to use it again? I, for one, do not enjoy that. If it suits, I keep it even if it goes unused for a while.
 
I can think of a few reasons for obtaining a lens or camera that I sold off years or perhaps months ago. Some grow tired of the digital SLR & wish to jump back into film so they go back to with what they had.

Perhaps a certain lens is sold off because they didn't like the rendering or feel it had with a certain camera, then later find out that the same lens works marvously with that new M8, RD-1, or 4/3rds camera that the former seller recently bought so they pick up another. It's in our nature...no big deal to me!
 
Olympus Epic

Olympus Epic

I sold my Olympus Stylus Epic for $30.00. And decided to go digital. Two days later I missed my OLY and I now have 3. I dont do digital anymore except for if I want to sell something. Sometimes you dont know what you got untill its gone. I bought and sold 3 digital point and shoots and dont miss any of them.
 
Pablito said:
If I'm going to use something for work, I almost always have to have more than one of them because I need to have backup. But if I buy something and decide it does not work for me, I get rid of it and never buy it again.
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In both cases, yes, sure. To clarify my original point:

I am not surprised at anyone buying a backup.

I am not surprised at anyone selling one camera to buy another.

I am not surprised that people sometimes sell something and then buy the same thing later when they realize they've made a mistake.

I am not surprised at anyone buying for nostalgia.

I am not surprised that stuff comes in lots: in order to get A, you buy B, C and D, and them sell them (preferably at a profit).

I am not surprised when people's circumstances or needs change. A camera that was of limited use in the past may come into its own for a different project.

What does surprise me is that some people apparently buy into a system; decide it doesn't work for them; sell it; buy another; sell it; buy another; and then, for exactly the same purpose as they bought their first outfit, with no real change in their circumstances, buy the outfit that didn't work for them the first time. Still more surprising to me is that they don't see anything odd in this, even when they do it repeatedly.

I am also surprised at people who assume that if they want something back, after they've sold it, they can buy the same thing again. Most of us here use more old cameras and lenses than new ones, Finding a good replacement for a good, old lens can often prove problematical, and besides, there's a simple question: why did they sell it in the first place?

There are only two answers. One is that they needed the money (and again, most of us have been there) and the other is that it wasn't actually a lens they really wanted/needed anyway.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Jamie123 said:
Not sure your reasoning is right here. Often when people sell something it's because they need the money to buy something else. People with more money then sense can afford to just keep stuff around they don't use often.
While I personally don't make a habit of buying and selling the same stuff I do think it makes some sense to do so with used equipment. Many used camera items hold their value pretty well on the used market so, other than the time and work you're putting into buying and selling, you aren't wasting much if anything by selling them and buying the same ones later.
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Yes, but why are you buying and selling?

I used to buy and sell cameras a lot, but I could only ever see two reasons for doing it.

One was to make a profit (usually, to put towards something I really wanted). The other was to try something I'd not tried before. It was never to try something again that I'd already tried once and rejected.

But I never treated the used camera market like a rental bank. The sheer hassle of buying and selling, and the uncertainty of getting something as good as you sold, strikes me as too much trouble.

Cheers,

R.
 
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I've done it occasionally. Worst was the OM-1 - I've bought one three times thinking I really should like it but I just can't stand the shutter speed ring. I dislike certain Nikkormats for the same reason.

I get tempted to replace a couple of previously owned cameras - Canon T90, Kiev 5, Bessa R - but for the most part I have moved on and the cameras I have better suit my needs these days.

OTOH, I did once have a Zeiss Ikonta that I sold a couple of years ago and after it had passed through a number of other owners, I bought it back last fall. That's a much more entertaining way of doing it.
 
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