Buying the same camera twice

I replaced a Nikon that was stolen and I do own 2 Bronica ETR's and 2 Vito B's but I don't think in 50 years of camera owning that I've ever sold and bought again.
 
Two reasons I've bought the same camera twice, or 3 times:

(1) To have extra bodies for use with other lenses---Fujica 690/670 cameras.

(2) To replace stolen cameras---Nokkormat.


Texsport
 
Back in the Philadelphia photo retail days, '81-4, we had a customer we named "Doctor Switchit" because he would periodically arrive to trade in high end 35mm and 120 equipment and then buy it back within a week or two and make a $500 to $1000 loss on the transaction. When he traded his R4 in it was sold before he had the chance to buy it back (but not to me....) we concluded he must have a mistress and needed "untraceable money" because his wife could identify purchases made at the camera store as being innocuous enough.

His M3 was the one that set me on a search for a Leica I could afford. Only took 18 years

David
 
I have bought more than one camera twice. I guess I just missed them. Among these would be my Widelux, Certo 6, Contax TVS III.
 
I suffer greatly from this seller's regret. I had bought and sold Plaubels through the years and finally kept my W67 and won't sell it again. I rebought a Canon T90 and 80-200 f4 L lens, one of their best ever, but am selling them shortly. I just rebought a Contax RTS III and am looking for the legendary 35-70 f3.4 zoom. Those will be keepers. I have regretted selling my M6, but am enjoying my M8 greatly, so not sure I'm gonna replace that one with another M6 or M7. Not sure where the fondness comes from. Perhaps it is nostalgia and a linkage to images made with the old cameras and lenses. I miss my old F2AS, and had replaced it years ago, but doubt that it will find its way back into the fold.

Just bought an old 1975 Honda CB400F to go with another older bike I have. I think nostalgia runs very deep in my blood and bikes and cameras are a big part of it. Just a theory and my 2 cents.

Cheers,

Joel
 
Remembered that I purchased twice :
- Minolta MC/MD 85mm/1.7
- Tamron Adaptall SP 90/2.5 macro (52B and then 52BB)
- Minolta M-Rokkor 90/4.0

I Still have Tamron and M-Rokkor. Will have I a third Minolta 85/1.7 ?

Interesting : all are 85-90mm, it seems an usefull range.
 
An interesting thread. I am currently buying (pretty much) two cameras I used to own.

Firstly, a Minox PL a friend no longer had a use for. My first Minox was a PL, and I've had one ever since (currently a GL). I didn't sell the PL, however, it was knocked from my hand in the street, and smashed against an unfortunately placed lamp post.

Secondly, I've bought an Olympus. My first ever camera was an OM-1, and I was sorry when it went (I think that was lost along with my Fuji GS645S, a Minox 35GT and various others when we were burgled nearly twenty years ago). I went off SLR photography, buying a DSLR when I was made redundant which never inspired me. But I've been using a Minolta and a Canon film SLR (the latter from the charity shop), so I looked for an OM-1 online and struck lucky with an OM-2SP, which is what I aspired to previously.

And, in buying a rangefinder, I considered going back to a Kiev, with it's lovely long-base RF before plumping for a Yashica Electro 35 GS, which is a camera I've never tried before.
 
I love it when an old thread gets resurrected.

Having read the whole thread, I confess that over the past forty years I have in fact bought and sold pretty much the same kit now at least three, and maybe four times. And each time it was Leica. And each time it involved one body at a time and at least a 35-50-90 combo. I've had two M3s, an M2, an M4-2, M4, and now an M8, M9, and M4-P with eight lenses and a Visoflex III.

In between and concurrently there have been other systems: Canon EOS film, Hasselblad, Kiev 88CM and Olympus digital (plus a slew of individual bodies and lenses I bought and sold cheaply just because I wanted to play with them to see what they were about.) I also played with FSU rangefinders and lenses, but frankly that was mostly for fun as the bodies are klunky and difficult to use (IMHO.)

And now for why...

The past 40 years in photography have been unlike any other time in its history. From the development of the wet plate to the development of the M4, Hasselblad 500c, Nikon F, and Canon F1 cameras just hadn't changed much. Photography hadn't changed much. Negatives and cameras got smaller and more refined, but the technology remained similar. Pioneering 19th Century wet-plate photographers could have picked up an M4, F, or F-1 and been making images in minutes.

The world changed with the introduction of the Canon EOS 650 in 1987. Electronic cameras took over the world. The computerization of cameras and then digital imaging has turned the world of photography upside down. From the 1970s through the 1990s automation improved and auto features improved so significantly that sometimes auto focus and auto exposure could actually respond faster than I could. I sold my M4-2 kit and bought an EOS1 kit and didn't look back for over ten years.

Around 1998 I got out of the business. I sold my Hassy system. I sold most of my EOS system. I kept one EOS 1 and a couple of lenses. I just wanted a family snapshot maker, and returned to Leica and bought an M4... and the 35-50-90 setup.

Digital made it's debut... and started taking over. I got back into the business with Olympus DSLRs in 2003. I sold the last of the EOS1 gear, but kept my M4. After another year, and now being heavily invested in Olympus digital gear, I knew I'd never use the M4 again, and there was no sign of an affordable digital M on the scene, so I sold the kit. Big mistake as it turned out.

Now, another ten years has passed and digital has matured. Leica is in their third generation of digital. New ancillary technology is emerging. EVFs on mirrorless cameras are becoming the dominant market share. I've found that I don't like EVFs, not at all, and for a variety of reasons. Olympus is going down that mirrorless road now, and I suspect that their next flagship pro model may likely be mirrorless with an EVF. Further, Olympus had dropped most of its pro accessories; flash battery packs and other pro-only gear, so it's likely that their next "Pro" model would be even less "Pro"- oriented than the E-5. So, I was faced with a decision: a) play the waiting game until the current gear I had was hopelessly outdated in the digital world and lose my shirt if I liquidate; or b) stay with Olympus and potentially have to use a body I'll likely detest; or c) just sell it all and get out while the getting was good, my equipment still held value, and the Olympus pro-E line was still static. I chose plan c).

After evaluating all of the choices available and recognizing my life-long comfort with Leica M, re-buying my Leica kit in digital seemed like a reasonable option.

So, here I am again for the third or fourth time. It's like deja-vu all over again... and again... and again. This time, though, I'm a lot more mature, there isn't the market change we had twenty years ago looming on the horizon, and the technology has matured. I think I'm here to stay.
 
I keep buying prakticas, get disappointed with their freaky shutters, sell them and then buy more. My first camera was a Praktica BMS so I have a soft spot in my heart for Prakticas. Pity about their fragile shutters. I have a LTL3 at the moment that looks and sounds like a well made camera.
 
Going through a digital phase and just sold my SWC/M :
So will say for the record that I'm reasonably certain this will be one I will regret selling and end up buying again in the future.
 
The only camera I've done this with is a Nikon FM2. Bought one, sold it, regretted it when I was looking for a "throw in the bag and don't worry about it bouncing around" camera for a cycle trip so I bought another. I've since sold that but could be tempted to get another if I saw one cheap enough.
 
I hoard enough that I haven't re-bought something after selling it. I probably should cull more aggressively as it would be healthy.

So far my only duplicate purchasing:

- Lynx 14, picked up a nicer one to replace a user I had. User has since been sold.
- Minolta 7sII. Turned the first 2 into a single working camera. Loved it, finally found a working one in nice condition. Sold one, used the other. Then found a black one for cheaper than any of the first 3. Still need to finish a roll in my silver one before listing it here.
- M2, purchased one as a backup while a camera was getting serviced, ended up purchasing a second when a very nice upgraded one came along.
- Medalist II. Picked up one which needed work, found a cheap one to use before deciding if I wanted to have my better condition one updated to work with 120 while getting serviced. Still on the fence.

I've spent a day taking pictures and collecting notes for a bunch of gear to sell here. I need to just list it and field questions rather than describing everything so completely up front. 🙂
 
The only camera I've sold and then regretted and replaced is a Rolleiflex.
I trained as a social photographer on a Rollei 2,8F kept the camera when I bought a 'blad to replace it. Then a few years later I sold all my film cameras (including the Rollei to a friend who always wanted it) and went totally digital.

Five years later I re-bought another Rolleiflex and was given an M4P and Sinar 4x5; now I'm using the 'flex as my go to camera.

We all make bad decisions, mine was selling the 2,8F.
 
Photo_Smith said:
The only camera I've sold and then regretted and replaced is a Rolleiflex.
I trained as a social photographer on a Rollei 2,8F kept the camera when I bought a 'blad to replace it. Then a few years later I sold all my film cameras (including the Rollei to a friend who always wanted it) and went totally digital.

Five years later I re-bought another Rolleiflex and was given an M4P and Sinar 4x5; now I'm using the 'flex as my go to camera.

We all make bad decisions, mine was selling the 2,8F.
Click to expand...

I have done this, I got a 3.5E, it did not work out for me, probably because at the time I had loads of cameras and it just never seemed to get used. I sold it, and after selling loads of other cameras, I decided I wanted to try again, and got a 2.8GX, very happy with it now.
 
I've done this more times than I can remember. Buying gear and using it has led me to make more images than I would have otherwise. Testing lens and camera perspnalities eventually led to personal vision. It has been my grad school. As I evolved, I would reach points where I knew just what gear would take me where I needed to go, and each time I made new images I could not have imagined the first or even second time around with the same equipment. I have just come to accept it as my crazy way of moving through my photograhic education. I recently picked up a Rolleiflex 2.8C, after owning a T back in the 70s, and can't wait to see what new things I will discover this time, as soon as it gets back from Harry Fleenor with it's new Maxwell screen.
 
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