Hardest camera/system/lens that you let go?

100/2.8 Planar

150/6.3 Tessar

That's it, probably. They were easy enough to sell at the time. It was only later I regretted it. I've never sold a camera or lens that I used regularly, and would find it hard to live without. Why would I? It's easy to look back with nostalgia on (say) a Technika 70, and some of the great pics I took with it, and forget WHY I sold it -- until I think how big and heavy it was...

Cheers,

R.
 
Without question a 35mm Summicron / M6 classic. The M6 I didn't miss immediately but the 35mm lens, I did. (The M6 was a pig to try to load quickly with my mitts - so I sold it. I now have another and an M4-2. Expensive mistake. Can't afford a replacement 35 'Cron just yet but maybe next year....)
 
I have sold a lot and some items I occassionally miss.
But there is no item that I really and deeply regret to have sold.
Perhaps because there is still so much left, perhaps I did not have a strong connection to those pieces... I don't know.
The things that I really like are still here. 😉
 
I don't even like thinking about all the mistakes I made.

About 5 years ago I decided to pare down my duplicates and extras and I sold a huge number of Leica lenses and bodies. This was precisely JUST before the wild run-up in Leica prices started. I sold many lenses for a few hundred dollars that are going for thousands and even ten thousand today.

But that all pales before the mistakes I made with watches. In hindsight, I must have been insane. I sold an 18K gold Rolex Sea Dweller years ago for practically the scrap value. I've never seen another. It would sell today easily for enough to buy a house.

I sold some original 18K bubble backs, pristine with 18k bands for joke money. I dumped a few Pateks for moronic prices. Military Watches have gone into the stratosphere.

The big problem is buying now for prices that you know are crazy if you have been buying for a long time. It feels nuts to buy a lens for $4000 that you know you could have bought for $300 a few years ago. But you can't go back. You have to buy at the new price, and be confident that the prices will continue to rise.

A decade ago, the Japanese bought everything, now it's the Chinese with big money. There are billion and a half Chinese, and the upper middle classes are exploding. The supply of old cameras and lenses are not getting bigger, and the internet is fueling demand. It will be good for sellers.
 
My Plaubel Makina 67. Made a lot of money on it, but got rid of it to cover grad school tuition in 2005. I should have just gone into extra hock and paid the interest. What a camera.

I have owned several Leica Ms and gotten rid of them at various times... currently waffling between keeping either an M2 or M3. Whichever one stays is the last one... I promise... uh...
 
CV 28/3.5. It was a little too small for my fingers and I did gain an extra 2/3 stop with the Biogon, but it sure took some lovely pictures, and it made the Bessa very pocketable.
 
Depends on the mood I'm in, if I'm sick of scanning, then I miss my old Sigma SD15, it's an black, plastic SLR, but the images were outstanding.
When digital annoys me, then I miss my Fuji GF670.
 
What JS said
I've used and sold kits by Leica, Zeiss, Contax, Mamiya, Fuji, OM. All of them awesome and have given me photos that I love, but at the end of the day they're just cameras. Whatever makes life easier.
 
I sold an Olive Bessa R2, CV 15, CV 35 2.5, and all the accessories on this forum when I had my first child and thought I wouldn't use them anymore. Still regret it to this day!
 
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