How Addicted to Buying Gear Are You?

How Addicted to Buying Gear Are You?

  • I have one camera and a couple lenses. That’s all Cartier-Bresson needed

    Votes: 23 6.3%

  • I have a small collection (<=3 bodies, <=10 lenses) and I am content

    Votes: 75 20.4%

  • I have a large collection (>=4 bodies, >=10 lenses) and I am content

    Votes: 105 28.5%

  • The addiction is broken… I am looking to reduce the size of my collection

    Votes: 46 12.5%

  • I frequently scavenge eBay or Craigslist for a misspelled or misplaced gem

    Votes: 55 14.9%

  • I do a LOT of looking, but I rarely actually buy.

    Votes: 103 28.0%

  • When I buy new gear, I often sell something at the same time.

    Votes: 65 17.7%

  • I own several versions of the same size (e.g. 50/1.4 or 50/1.5).

    Votes: 76 20.7%

  • Buying a new piece of photo gear satisfies me for less than two months

    Votes: 81 22.0%

  • I moved beyond 35mm gear, into buying MF, a whole new realm.

    Votes: 64 17.4%

  • My addiction transcends cameras into developing/enlarging equipment.

    Votes: 26 7.1%

  • I have spent at least $4,000 on ONE body or lens.

    Votes: 54 14.7%
  • Total voters
    368
If I tried to stop buying camera gear I'd probably find myself smashing and stumbling though the window of some camera shop in the middle of the night like Jack Lemon going through a liquor store window in the "Days of Wine and Roses".
 
I started with a Nikon SLR, and went with a second mechanical body and a digital SLR. I collected the nikkor Ai primes, they were affordable and seemed more reliable and better than modern zooms. Wides, telephotos, macro,.. I thought I had about everything. Two SLR's offered great convenience for when I need 2 lenses or 2 different films.

Then I went Leica and discovered their super contrasty lenses. Since I got my M2 last year, I only bought 2 excellent but very expensive lenses. Less is more: for wideangle-standard perspective, the M system is better for me than SLR. Also there's the convenience of smaller and lighter equipment.

Probably I'll buy myself a second M body later on, for using 2 different films or the 35mm/90mm combination. I'll keep my Leica for for the daily shooting, dump my mediocre lenses and keep SLR for telephoto & macro work
 
Feels good to be over it!

Feels good to be over it!

I bought and sold over the past three years to get to where I thought I needed to be to attain my photo ambitions. I'm keeping 2 MF cameras and 3- 35's plus 1 advanced digi P&S. I have the equipment I want now, but.....

It seems I'm still blasting through the cash for film/paper/chemistry. Just received a $200 order for supplies + another $50 for mounting board. I still need neg and print storage supplies :bang:. The worst part of all this is that I'm not paying for it by repairing/cleaning up/testing old cameras as I did when upgrading the equipment!

I keep telling myself that you can't get paid for the results until you have the raw materials. Sure hope that works out!

Jo
 
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I just got off eBay where I bought a Zeiss 25/28 VF, using my 10% Paypal Valentine-voucher. Would have been a shame not to use it...
At least my wife does not mind my GAS eversince I bought an extremely rare Leica for cheap and sold it for a fortune few days later.
 
I'm hovering on the edge of buying a used Bessa R2, but I know I wouldn't be satisfied until I have a Leica... :(

currently own 2 Electro 35's, a Hi-Matic 7s, & a Canon AE-1 Program
 
When I first decided to try the rangefinder thing, I went to a camera swap and bought a Petri 7S, since it was less than half the price of a Canonet. Since then, I have tried to get something a little better each time I buy another camera. That doesn't stop me from buying an interesting camera for display if it is only a couple dollars. Also from time to time, people give me boxes of old cameras when they clean out their closets. From that I have acquired several Brownies, 3 Argus C3's, and a Petri V6 with a telephoto lens and several filters. I am more of a technician than a photographer. I like taking things apart and making them work again, especially things that have been dicarded by people that don't have the knack.
 
I'm addicted to gear at the moment because I am trying to find the gear that I feel most comfortable with. It's probably true that if I had one camera and learned it well, it would not matter what it is. I have a pretty well sorted canon EF system which I use with a 35mm film body and DSLR, so I'm definitely keeping that lot unless I switch to nikon for some reason (it could happen). My other film cameras are very random, though, and I have not found a RF system that I like yet. Looking to try out a Bessa R2M in the future.
 
I purchased eleven 50mm lenses before realizing that the 50 Summilux ASPH was the only 50mm I'll ever need. I've since purchased two more 50's just to confirm my findings. :)
 
My gear acquisition is at an all time high, partly because of RFF. But like Bill, I don't think that's a bad thing. In the past, I've collected well designed objects such as vintage cigarette lighters and watches. I get a kick out of finding a 50 year old camera, repairing it and putting it back to use. It sure beats buying the latest built in obsolescence digital camera every year.
 
The most stable artifacts in my gear collection are the 50mm f/2.8 El-Nikkor enlarging lens that I bought new when it first hit the market in 1962 and the Omega B-22XL enlarger I bought new a couple of years later. Just about everything else in my darkroom was bought second hand decades ago. Hell, I've got dirt in there that must date back to the sixties. Maybe I should head over to the lawn and garden department at K-Mart and pick up a sack of new dirt?

As far as shootin' stuff goes, it's mostly picking up a yard sale bargain here and there. Three M bodies and a CL is enough, and the Bessa L makes a great rear cap for the 15. The last camera that I'd lusted after, from way back in the sixties, was a Brooks Plauble Veriwide 100. A few years ago I got a great deal on a clean one, picked up a brick of 120 film, and soon concluded that it wasn't for me. I fed the 120 film to my Minolta Autocord. I don't need image stabilization, auto focus, auto exposure, or a motor drive. Multi-coating doesn't intrigue me. No GAS here.
 
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