Here's What I'm Thinking (total gear switch thread)

I'm rather preoccupied over here with tonight's radio-station format changes, but I'll tear myself from this predicament to say this:

Dave: Do NOT sell the M7. Okay? Also, try to hang onto the 75 for just a bit while you mull this stuff over.

I grok your being jazzed with the TLR and all, but...the M7 is still a film burner, and a good one a that. Last time I made a violent sea-change, gear-wise, I threw my entire (film-based) AF SLR system overboard for my current Hexar RF setup, but I had a thunderbolt-revelation that was months in building-up. The trigger was the Hexar autofocus I'd been using the previous five years alongside my Minolta 9xi SLRs. Haven't had a single regret.

Somehow, I'm looking at your situation a bit differently (only human, and all that). I think you can expand into the MF universe without a huge change-up in your present 35mm setup. Get something like an M2? Sure...worked for me! But my Hexars are staying. The one "radical" thing I'm planning right now is downsizing on the digital end with just one camera, possibly a Nikon P6000. The rest are film burners, all but the M2 (Oh, and the Holga 135) with built-in meters, mostly automated. But I can go manual with any of them, and follow the meter's advice or cheerfully ignore it.

Just go forth and photograph, man. 🙂


- Barrett
 
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Sell it all and get a better Rolleiflex, doh. A restored Rolleiflex 2.8C (rounded aperture, better bokeh, better build). Having only one good camera will clarify your vision and make you a better photographer. Once you master the Rollei, return to Leica. Or try something else. But one thing at a time is my advice.

They are only objects, it is silly to form such an emotional attachment to them, even though worn German cameras are so great to fondle. And hug. And take to bed....

How I like to think of it is that there is this pool of money -- could be a couple of hundred or several thousand -- and you work within it. If times are tight, you can shoot great stuff with Canonets and YashicaMats and Lomos and Graphics. When you are flush, M-bodies and ASPH lenses, Rolleis and Linhofs ;-) But the main idea here is to be disciplined and stay within that budget and make it part of your working process, a constant. It provides you a framework to rationalize and decide on your equipment purchases.

Personally I sell all my stuff every once in a while when I need a kick or a challenge or a revitalization. It is very liberating and I end up producing good stuff as I adapt to the new gear. It also keeps me learning and helps prevent Alzheimer's ;-)

I've shot good stuff w LTMs and at one point I went and used them exclusively. But they are a tough road to follow, they offer a lot of the pain of large format (you miss a lot of good shots) and I load them wrong or I can't see the RF well enough or something... mixing LTM and M is really hard. If you stick with M, why not let the modern lenses go and use classic LTM lenses on a nice M2/M3?
 
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Dave,

my photostore owner and I agreed he holds gear for me while I consider selling it. If the itch for the gear returns, it's still there and I get on the bicicle to pick it up. He holds gear for more people like you and I.

My list of gear I regret selling is too extensive. Even though some sold stuff helped to fund gear beloved nowadays, I still sometimes wonder if I would have managed as well otherways.
 
It's simple.

Put all existing gear in a box.

Buy some sort of III plus 50 Elmar and 35 Summaron.

Use and enjoy hugely for three months.

Re-discover what you put in the box and go back to using long term. You'll notice a difference!

Michael
 
Hm. I thought my approach was a good one, but Frank, I like your approach as well.

OTOH, that might be because I'm tight on cash (need to fund college tuition, this teacher's going back to school). I sold my M8 last week and am back to all film. I can already notice my shots are more deliberate, but selling off more gear gets me nervous, maybe it needs time with me...?
 
For many years, I've believed that far too many photographers buy the same camera again and again, with minor variations: from one M to anothers, one SLR to another, etc. I much prefer the idea of a range of different cameras for different uses, and changing between them as the mood takes you. There's a piece about this on the site, called 'How many cameras do you need?', though it needs to be updated as it was written before I got the M8: http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/howmany.html

Cheers,

R.
 
back alley said:
clearly, you look to me a a mentor...

buy the canon p/50 that is in the classifieds now and use it when these sort of fits hit again.
Click to expand...


Better yet, buy THREE Canon P's. But skip trying to own every Canon 35 made. The 35/2 and 35/2.8 will do. Then get a Canon 50/1.5 and Canon 85/1.8.

All I had to do was wait for the RFF runup in Canon P prices to subside. Joe flooded the market.
 
Wow... you guys really took to my question and, to be honest, I guess I half expected nothing less from you lot - all of your answers so far are greatly appreciated.

There have been many good suggestions - I believe Frank Petronio thinks along the same lines as I do when it comes to this stuff.

For the first time, personally, I'm "excited" again about shooting. I don't "owe it" to having the Rolleiflex but it certainly makes me see differently and as such, I want to dive in with it but still want to have something in the 35mm film camp too.

As Frank suggested, there's a limited pool of resources when it comes to buying more gear. I personally don't like having a "lot" of gear hanging around for personal use. My DSLRs, while perfectly useful and awesome are, to me, "work" cameras per se. I use them so often during the year for weddings and events that, well, in the off-season, I want to "expand my mind man" 😉 and continue to see how I can improve my photography overall. To me, the gear has always been a means to an end and not an end in itself (as much as it may seem the other way around). 😀

I really like the thought of having and keeping the gear but at the same time, if I'm not really putting it to good use, it's time that it does get put to use and that, for me, means time to sell it and "feng shui" the gear closet. 😀

Of course, all of this doesn't mean that I've stopped mulling . . . 🙂

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. Joe and Brian - you guys and your Canons... 😉
Rover - you either stayed up way too late or were up way too early . . .
 
I find the experience of using (say) a Mess Ikonta very different to using an RF which is very different to using an SLR. I'm not sure that you'll find that the joy of the manual TLR transfers to using a manual, meterless M. I really like my 35mm cameras to at least have a meter, and preferably to have AE. I don't care in larger formats because part of their value is precisely that they make me slower and more thoughtful - neither my Ikonta or my Rolleiflex have (working!) meters and it doesn't matter.
 
You'll always be able to buy that lovely old Leica again later in life, at least as long as you don't need a specific rare model. I figure that I'll probably get one for my nursing home hospice period, partially as a way to shield some funds and also to give me something to do -- sort of the ultimate photographic project send-off!

Imagine if Gramps handed you a Leica and a brick of exposed film while he's on his deathbed -- that's got book and movie rights written all over it!
 
Keep the M7 ... ignore the meter!

Buy some LTM retro lenses and M adapters to use with the M7 and enjoy the flare etc until it annoys you and you feel like returning to quality optics with modern coatings.

Or not! 😀
 
"The way I understand it, a photographer's relationship to his medium is responsible for his relationship to the world is responsible for his relationship to his medium". Garry Winogrand.




In this world it is hard to see the blindness, likewise it is hard to find the silence.

Different cameras take different pics, that's the joy of it! Get a lomo, a pola and a chamber if you can afford it, my 2 cts.
 
Dave,

I may be thinning my LTM lens inventory to fund a Hasselblad. Give me a shout if you're in the market for a nice LTM lens or two. I have a C/V 75/2.5 that has seen very little use.

Cheers!

Wayne
 
while experimenting, I would try not to sell gear that is hard to find again down the road.
M7 would go first, then the 75...
That being said, both the M2 and the IIIf are really brilliant and a joy to use.
I use the IIIf with a 50mm finder (currently with a 50mm canon) and the M2 goes with everything (lately, a lot of Hexanon 28)
The III's may need some work (dim splitters, curtains etc.)
The good thing about a III is that if you want, one day to carry a really small camera, stick to it a collapsible of your choice, or a cv 2.5 and here you go...
Good luck
 
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