How many cameras do you really need?

Overcoming craving is one of the hardest things to do, but leads to bliss, an indescribable freedom.

My bliss is being left alone by people who think they have found a better way and want to share it with me, with or without my consent. Bugger off, is my usual response.
 
"need"?

one.
and unfortunately that camera is very far from being an rf cam.
needless to say it's one of those that can't be fitted with film
 
And recordings, Chris...don't forget about the recordings... 😀


- Barrett

Not for me. I have less than zero interest in popular culture. I don't listen to music, don't own a TV, and haven't gone to a movie in over a decade. Everytime some friend has tried to get me to watch something on television, I can't stop myself from thinking how i'll never get those minutes back that could be used for studying history, improving my ability to speak Spanish (my grandmother was from Spain), reading Russian literature, and most importantly working on my artwork. As for music, it grates on me. The crap that's been produced in the last 100 years is absolutely intolerable.
 
there are many types of cameras. funny how i like every single kind. my saving grace is that i stop short of buying them in every format. i don't think i'll get any of these:

large format rangefinder
large format tlr
35mm tlr
35mm panoramic
medium format view camera
medium format technical camera

see, i'm not out of control. 😀
 
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I have decided that I like you Chris. 😀

I have a Contax rangefinder that is for my personal interests - and a simple digital P&S moulded in plastic by Olympus, that I have used to illustrate several magazine articles and has payed for itself many times over. Make of this what you will.

On the shelf I have consigned a number of battered old cameras that are broken, beaten to hell, lame or insane.
 
Really? Stravinsky? Ravel? Satie? Ellington? Davis? Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre?

Music grates on my nerves, if played loud enough that i can hear it. Part of the problem is my hearing is very poor except in certain tonal ranges which tend to hurt my ears. If someone is talking behind me, I often cannot hear them at all, or can just hear noise without understanding the words. Even when someone is talking directly to me, I stare at the person's face to read lips because although i can hear the sound, I have trouble understanding the words. Its gotten worse as I have gotten older. I played Saxophone in the marching band in high school and enjoyed it but my hearing by the time I graduated was already bad enough that I couldn't tune my instument myself anymore. Even if I didn't have my hearing problems I would want nothing to do with 99.999% of music available today, most of it (judging from the lyrics I have read or been able to hear) is cultural trash. Stravinsky and Ellington made beautiful music, the others you list I have never heard of.
 
Really? Stravinsky? Ravel? Satie? Ellington? Davis? Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre?
Love them all, and then some. But, again, we're all different.

As a quick aside, I did ditch the TV over two decades ago and haven't missed it a jot. I've been a little too creatively restless to deal with that medium. It took away more than it gave.


- Barrett
 
One camera, good (watertight) shoes, light and time. 😉



regenzeitpr7.jpg




Merry Nikolaus!
 
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Chris,

Sorry to about your hearing loss. I can somewhat sympathise, I have suffered a good deal of hearing loss due to working around high-speed machinery with proper protection, back in the good old days. But music is very important to me, but I agree with you that most of the popular music is not all that inspirational.

I am the father of 4 children and I spent the first 30 decades of my life without TV, radio, or newspapers, instead surrounded by arts, crafts, literature and music. About 12 months ago, I took the very unpopular step of ridding our house of TV and radios. It is the best thing that has ever happened to our family.

As for the number of cameras I need...

I need all of them, or at least that is what I tell my wife!
 
Looking back the last 20 years, all of my keepers had been shot with focal lengths from 28mm to 90mm. So I guess I should just get the R zoom of that range plus an R9 and then an M7 with 35mm Summilux and I am done with it.
 
Depends on what you do for a living.

If I can buy a strange old camera for 10-50€ and write an article about it that earns me 150-300€, that comes close enough to 'need' for me. As a result I have lots of strange old cameras; I've been writing about old cameras for close on 30 years, and I haven't got rid of all of them.

When Frances and I did our book on the American Civil War, two each seemed about right. Any professional who relies on one camera and one camera only is playing with fire.

And if I'm working on a book about photography, involving multiple formats, I'd better have multiple formats.

If I had no cameras at all I could still earn a living as a writer, but I wouldn't enjoy it as much as being a writer and photographer.

Cheers,

Roger
 
Chris,


I am the father of 4 children and I spent the first 30 decades of my life without TV, radio, or newspapers, instead surrounded by arts, crafts, literature and music. About 12 months ago, I took the very unpopular step of ridding our house of TV and radios. It is the best thing that has ever happened to our family.
You must be pretty old, now! 😀......and..er..do your family still live with, and/or speak to you? 😕
 
I need every single one of them. OK, maybe not! Problem is that I use all of them. I am amazed you found somewhere still teaching wet processing. Kudos to them. If I ever get anywhere with my photography I will be very happy to give my time, rather than the cameras. That'd be a lot of fun.
 
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