Do you know where your cameras are?

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Roger Hicks

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Not necessarily all of them; just the more important ones? I just wondered where the M8.2 was, and thought, "I must have left it on the sofa downstairs." (Fortunately I had, but there have been moments when it has taken an unconscionably long and nerve-wracking time to find something valuable.) What's your worst story of mislaying something, then finding it again?

Or do you always put your cameras away in the same place? Just idle curiosity, killing time before we go to hospital for a cataract operation for Frances, who has just been talking on the phone to her 95-year-old namesake in Rochester, her mother's first cousin. Back Tuesday, ish'Allah.

Cheers,

Roger
 
At home my two Leicas are on my desk. At work they're secured when I roam the bldg. My MF gear is in a Lowepro mini pack ready to go. Otherwise, I dont set my Leica down least I'll have a brain freeze and leave it behind.

Wishing Frances buena salud.
 
I try to always put them back in the same place on the foot stool or the dining room table. My brain has gotten to that stage where I'll walk by something three or four times and still not "see" it, then suddenly there it is right where I thought it was. Frustrating!
 
I store my equipment and supplies in the same place; after use, the stuff goes back to its 'place' again. It makes finding what I want to use a no-brainer. That said, I married a lovely wife from Hungary and I have found sometimes that she works to undo this simple order by moving things around almost randomly. Where this tendency is most brutal, however, is within her own kitchen. It can take me a few minutes to locate a spatula.
 
Most of my backups are in a cabinet in my dining room. The ones I use are in camera bags in the closet. Well, one that needs repair is sitting on a desk, but it will likely go back in the cabinet until I get it fixed.
 
Last year I drove home from where I was shooting, which was a somewhat derelict and seedy part of town, about a 20 minute drive. The moment I got home I wondered to myself, "Where is my meter?" It's a little Sekonic 308 that I depend on greatly.

All at once it dawned on me that I left it on the back of my car as I was taking one last shot and I drove away without grabbing it. Damn! (also sitting there was a dark slide from my Bronica.)

I knew the exact spot where it was and drove immediately there. Alas, no meter, no people around, nothing. 🙁 I doubt someone who may have picked it up would even know what the heck it was. I wonder if it just got tossed in a dumpster somewhere.

PS. So if anyone has a Sekonic L-308s with a red strap that says Kansas City Cancer Center on it, please let me know! 🙂
 
Seemingly unlike a lot of people here, I only have two cameras* (three if you include my phone), so yes! 🙂

*Leica M8 and Certo Six. I know, a strange pair - I bought the latter on impulse after seeing Lee Miller's house (she shot 6x6)! I haven't used the Certo yet: first, I need to get my head round the concept of film, which I've never used before! Using film seems a bit complicated, arbitrary and long winded compared with digital, so I keep putting off trying it...
 
I keep most of them in a couple of large glass cabinets (not especially elegant but at least I know where they are). Most of my digital SLR stuff stays in a closed cupboard in another room or in camera bags ready for use or on my computer desk. A few lenses tend to get confused all over the place. I do have moments wherev I imagine I either own a particular camera or lens which I don't (maybe never bought it, maybe sold it) and moments where I think I don't have things I do (must be careful not to buy the same again).

One thing that bothers me more than the clutter of the stuff is keeping good useable equipment in boxes and not using it. I've decided when I go to my house in Italy next week to take my mamiya 7 and lenses with me and keep it there, instead of in London. That way I hope to use it every time I go there, often instead of and sometimes alongside a DSLR, but always alongside a 35mm RF. Otherwsie it just would not come out of the box which is a shame as it is a beautiful camera.
 
In bags ready to go, or in my equipment cabinet if it's stuff I don't use every day...old cameras, Pocket Wizard's, strobes, etc. I do keep an M6 on a table by the front door, though, for the occasional grab shot. I've never forgotten equipment anywhere, but like Nick, I sometimes think I have something I sold or traded long ago. 😉
 
While in Rome the first time, I carried a good size Domke bag with some travel documents, my FE2, my Leica with three lenses, some traveler's checks, + film-- some exposed.

At dinner, the waiter evidently pushed it under the table which had a table cloth to the floor, and I left without it.

About midnight I started looking for it, -- it took me until the next afternoon to eliminate all the places I could have left it, and I called the restaurant. They had the bag hanging on a hook in the coat room. I gave the guy $20 for taking care of it, (it was 20 years ago, he was quite happy, and a cheap price for my lapse in memory), got a taxi to do a tour of Rome in 30 minutes (for Rome taxi drivers, traffic lights are decoration), and returned to the hotel.

When I am on a travel day, I try to limit the bags, and remember the number of them with me at any given time so I can limit my memory and physical losses. Much easier when traveling with friends.

Around the house I have things I have looked for now and again for 20 years ;-) I know there is a rare print somewhere in the attic made by my Uncle Semo of Irina Baranova in the 1940's, , and now, those negatives of a couple of my better shots?

I have enough camera bags, many acquired in various trades or actually quite nice freebies from the junk bin at my long time camera shop, -- to keep certain kit together, such as my M8 and the preferred lenses of the moment, my Contax G series bodies and lenses, wedding kits, or the Xpan. It gives me a bigger target to look for, and confusion to any burglars ;-)

I used to put my name on Dymo tape inside of the battery compartment of some equipment, and got a light meter and calculator back that way. A sharpie to write your email on a battery today might enable someone to return lost equipment, perhaps a dymo label inside the bottom cover of a Leica? Perhaps the first shot on every memory card should be of you holding a sign pleading for the camera's return, or I suppose an identity file in its own folder.

I used Kodachrome, posted to Kodak labs at one time all over the world to be home when I got there, but put printed stickers with my address on each cartridge before I posted them. ;-)

My friend found an M3 on the bench at an airport, left his name with lost and found, -- no one called, so he could keep it with a clear conscience.

Another category is the lens you put down after changing to another while shooting something of interest.

Finally, I never looked for any of the idiots who engraved their SS# or names in the top covers of any Leica equipment I may have acquired.

Regards, John
 
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Good story about Rome (and lucky too)

Reminds me last year I was checking out of a hotel in Bangkok, off to Burma. I had packed everything carefull, especially my 5D Mark II and all its lenses, which I had stuffed in the room safe.

What I forgot was the little M6 and Summicron lens, tucked so far back in the dark part of the safe. I had just finished checking out and was leaving when reception told me the cleaner had discovered I had left a camera in my room. When the receptionist saw the camera (he must have know what it is) he scalded me and told me if I really did not want it he would be very happy to have it.

Since then I have shown it more love
 
I always know where my cameras are. My Hasselblad kit is in my Lowepro backpack, my M6 is in my Fotima bag and my digital camera ( dont have one at this momment but will get another one next week) is most of the time next to my computer. My lightmeter on the other hand is a gadget I´m always looking for, never lost it for longer then 10 min though.
 
Well I spent a good half hour looking for a protractor type square the other day, not photo related, so I tend to have no idea where that kind of stuff ends up. Never did find it, but found another tool that did the job, albeit less easily.

Cameras are always in the same place, filters too even. Studio stairs has shelves for all of it, and filters are in boxes at the darkroom desk. I am about to get a cabinet delivered that will get everything into one place and will allow for some humidity control, something I've been wanting to do for a while now.
 
I once left a lght meter in a winter coat and didn't find it again until the following winter. Nice surprise, like finding $20 in your pocket you didn't know was there.
 
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