kossi008
Photon Counter
Yes and yes. I own exactly five operable cameras, not counting my cell phone. And I do care, because for me, too much choice tends to paralyze me.
I know, and not just that, there's also a glaring hole in my collection: no Hasselblads!
Too many, it has seemed at times, but frequently difficult to thin them out.
At the moment, there are 7 cameras between my camera bags and a camera shelf, although seeing as they straddle 3 formats (35mm, 6x6, digital), I'm not too unhappy.
I always find it difficult to sell a camera for €100 or less, given the hassle involved in selling, and for this reason my Rollei 35T and Rolleicord II have survived the chop.
Dear Damien,
That's precisely why I have so many: probably 70% of the cameras I have are not worth selling. On the desk in front of me there's an Ultra Fex Himalaya (bought as a superb piece of design), and on my desk upstairs there's a fixed-lens non-RF Foca (bought for a 'classic cameras' piece) and a Zeiss leaf-shutter SLR (a gift that arrived unexpectedly in the mail, along with a Kodak point-and-shoot).
Next there are cameras I don't use often any more, such as my Nikon Fs. Mostly, I use them just with a 200/3 Vivitar Series 1. I think I have 5 Fs, dating from the 70s and 80s when I used them more, along with probably a dozen lenses and even a Polaroid back. Frances used to use Nikkormats, and they're not worth selling: I think we have a couple left. And so forth.
Then there's sentimental value: I still have the Kodak box camera that my father bought in 1947, along with a KowaSIX (very usable!) and a Graflex Super RB that belonged to my late father-in-law...
There's also the point that in professional use, it's quite common to find that you need a particular camera less and less -- I shoot far less 4x5 than I used to -- but you keep the camera 'just in case' and then realize you've not used it in half a decade.
On top of all that, there are cameras that are only occasionally useful, but that are very useful when you do need them, like the 10x8 De Vere monorail that I'm using for the Ilford Direct Positive paper.
Cheers,
R.