Excess cameras

The old digital will go to soften the blow to my bank account from buying new camera :)
Some old stuffs that stay might get lended to friend under the simple term that they will return it when I asked.

Usually selling them in local classified website and always try to meet the person directly.
Less bad reps if they can check it personally.
 
I'm about to trade one to my local shop for credit towards something new... The best thing I did with a camera was give it as a tip to a guide after a two week trip. That was in 2010 and he's still using it. Makes me happy that it's being used and enjoyed!
 
I refuse, point blank, to own more than one DSLR at any time. I started with a D70 and, via D200, D300 and D700, I've now got a D800. I use it occasionally. Personally, I doubt whether any digital camera, DSLR or rangefinder / 4/3rds or whatever will ever be deemed to be a "classic". I love using my D800 but I find what digital cameras produce is too clinical for my tastes.

Conversely, I have a Hasselblad XPan + 3 lenses, Hasselblad 500c/m and 500el/m + 3 lenses, Rolleiflex 2.8e, Nikon F, F2, F3HP, F5, F6, FE and FM3A, Exa IIa, Olympus Trip 35 and a number of other small point and shoots - and love using them all.

Occasionally, I'll trade one for something else. I've owned Leica's and Mamiyas, Edixa, Pentax and even Canons down the years. It's fun to play with these toys and, relatively speaking (other than the XPan) the gear is relatively cheap.

Digital will, I'm sure, continue to "evolve" but there's very little I can think of that would make me want to "upgrade" from my D800. 36MP and great low-light performance (for what I want) is plenty - at least for now. I (very briefly) considered the Df but £2,750 for a hobbled D4, packaged with an f1.8 lens didn't take me anywhere I want to go and there's no way I'd spend that much on any camera - all of what I buy these days is second-hand.
 
I have 14 cameras, 2 of them digital. All of them work and most have had recent servicing and they all get used. The least used are my Canon G2 digital, only used for eBay pictures and email descriptions and the folders.
I have had to fund upgrades over the years by selling one and buying another and have traded, classified and more recently eBayed them away from me. i regret some passing but remember the thrill of having their replacement. Highlights were: An M2 in 1973, a Nikon F2 in the mid 70's, an R3 and M6 in the 80's and more recently 2 Zeiss Contaxes. eBay has been the most successful medium and provides a 'once only dreamed of' selection of items and audience of purchasers. I try to keep the maxim "if in doubt, leave it".
I no longer have to fund one with the other and yesterday visited the Leica retail outlet in London to get a replacement rewind knob for the M6. I looked over the current range and the displays of skeleton cameras. Shocking was the contrast between the plastic and silicon of the digitals and the metal and glass of the film cameras. I may go for one last Leica before I pass on, it will not take digital pictures. My wife compared it to the differences between a Swatch and a chronograph. The Swatch is probably more accurate, but it will be in the bin in a few years time while your Patek Phillippe is on the wrist of your great grandson. Go analogue young man.
Kevin
 
So-called horses, apples, and oranges

So-called horses, apples, and oranges

The one experience that is shared by 99% of the people posting at RFF is that there is no one camera that meets each individual's specific habits, needs, and desires.

I wouldn't be surprised if the two most widely repeated metaphors on camera fora are "horses for courses" and "apples to oranges".

Once you really get into making your own images, it becomes very difficult not to want specified tools. i.e., different horses for different courses, and different fruits for different seasons.

The thing is by nature excessive.

And then, if I were to get started in a philosophical mode about images and their place in modern societies, I'd say that excessiveness is exacerbated to the max.
 
No real excess here..

My main camera is a Fuji X-E2, For film, a Nikon FE, or a Konica C35 (but needs new seals right now), and 2 small Digital p/s's that can go anywhere, or my Son or Wife can use them also.

I have a Contaflex I with a 45mm f/2.8 Tesser that was owned by Dad as one of his 1st SLRs.. That I am on a waiting list to be overhauled by Henry W. Scherer. A family heirloom for me.

But, if I sell, here, or few other photo forums 1st, or eBay...sometimes CL... but, too many buyers want to pay way below the known used value, and they do know the value!!
 
I currently have more excess film cameras than I have digital, but I don't have plans to get rid of any of them. In terms of digital I tend to skip one or more generations, so currently I have one APS-C (7D) and one FF DSLR (5DIII), an old Canon A630, and a Panny G2 that mostly gets used for playing with legacy lenses. Oh, and I still have my first-ever digicam, a Fuji A101 (memories...) but it's not in regular use any more.

As far as "obsolete" digital cameras... I put together almost all my m4/3 gear (G5, GX-1, lenses) and an LX-7 and sold it to KEH. I know I could have (maybe) got more selling them individually but I honestly could not be bothered with the hassle for what would be a relatively small difference - plus I've had some bad experiences with "tire-kickers" in the past that really put me off.

When I upgraded to the D300 I gave my D70 + 18-70 to a friend who still has and uses it. When I switched to Canon a few years later (long story) I sold the D300 + 16-85VR to his GF (she still has it too). I found it very satisfying to see both kits go to good homes as I had a fair amount of sentimental attachment to both (those cameras went through a lot!), unlike the D700 which tanked in value for a while after the D800 got released and ended up going to KEH to help fund the Canon switch. I really ought to have kept that one :(
 
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Courtesy of the Great effin' Global Financial Crisis, my primary digital cameras are what most people (from what I can see) would regard as obsolete digital junk (a Canon 5D original and a Canon 50D). I've not held secure employment since the GFGFC, and so have not felt comfortable paying money I might need (and have, on occasion, needed) for the better, faster, flasher, versions of either of those cameras even though I occasionally lust after them. Nor have I bought the digital Leica M I would like but feel I can't afford. (I'm hoping that changes Real Soon Now, but I won't be buying the latest and greatest even if I do buy.)

I do have two older Canon DSLRs that get little use - a 300D and a 30D. Neither has a resale value that makes it seem worthwhile selling them. While they're of marginal value to me, the small amount of money I'd raise from selling either is actually below that marginal value. The 30D sits locked in my desk drawer at work, awaiting the occasional walk-around at lunch time, team lunch or after-work drinks session at which I always end up as the "official" photographer simply because I have a camera other than a cellular phone.

The 300D gets lent to the occasional family member or friend who wants to borrow a "real" digital camera for some purpose or other. Or not: often when it is offered (for free; use for as long as you want) it is considered too out-of-date, inferior etc. etc. for anyone to actually use it. Which makes them go bug someone else - which has value to me all on it's own, even if the camera doesn't get used. I've also used it to make a rhetorical point: taking a photo with it and printing it to A3+ size and only later noting it was printed with an "inferior", "too cr*p to use" only-6MP camera.

...Mike
 
It takes me a long time to figure out what I don't need any longer. I switched to the Fuji X/Sigma Merrill system within the past 12 months and the Nikon D3 cameras and lenses are sitting in the closet. If I haven't used them in the next year I'll find homes for them. On the other hand, my Mamiya Super 23, the M6 that I bought at the Leica Schule in 1986 and my Plaubel Makina 67 are not at risk of disposal.
 
I almost never sell film cameras. I use them all if film is still available. If no film is available, they are basically shelf queens.

For digital, I pass my old cameras down to my sons.
 
I bought a Nikon D300 a few months ago to try out 'that side of the fence.' It's now on ebay and will soon be followed by my Canon 1D Mark IIn, which has been superseded by a 1D Mark III.

The only other digital camera I have is a Canon Powershot, which may also follow in the footsteps of the others.

I just don't find digital cameras as interesting as their film counterparts.
 
Maybe this is one of the reasons I still don't have any digital camera - still waiting for the right one, being afraid the pace of the technology will make any purchase obsolete in 2-3 years... In fact, I have excess film cameras. I have just counted 37 - 12 SLR, 6 RF, 4 MF, 15 P&S. In my defense I have to say I also have sold or donated about 30, so maybe I am not hopeless...
 
Old digital cameras I used to let my wife borrow. A Canon digital was once stolen in a hotel room, when she left it there during breakfast. But now she uses her Iphone for photos. She never borrows my cameras any longer.

My Leicas (M2, M4-P, M6, M9 and CL) I will try to keep. I also have a 500 C/M with three lenses, a Rolleiflex 6x6 and some old point-and-shot which I plan to keep.

These old film cameras are like art, I think they are beautiful and I love to use them.

The old digitals I think I will just keep them as spares, I guess the value of a three year old (or older) digital camera is so low that it is no point in selling them.
 
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