Peer Pressure Ego inducing... I like cameras as much or more than taking photos?

[Field]

There happens to be no shortage of those who make out the importance to be on actually taking photos...

But why do I enjoy reading about cameras, knowing about cameras, and hunting cameras in thrift stores/antique stores/etc just as much if not a little more than taking photos?

How weird is that? If I am going to take a photo I want to make sure my equipment is what I want to be using. I am anal about it.

The ego peer pressure part... for those that want to criticize the fact that I enjoy the equipment so much... I have always been like this. What I never understand is why, especially since it makes everything in life sooo.... not gratifying because there is no real build up and climax, it just is... boring but consistent. Well actually I find almost nothing gratifying, but I know others get sooo much out of the whole thing.

Do any of the rest of you ever think about this?

 

[BearCatCow]

Well I think many people can relate to enjoying the fun of finding treasure and of playing with toys, especially nice ones!

I don't understand what you were saying about the buildup and pleasure though. Are you saying that your quest for cameras and choosing the right one isn't pleasurable?

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Not weird at all. I think I'm like you. I like hunting for classic cameras at flea markets etc. I like reading and learning about them. I like seeing images made by them by other photographers.

If I happen to take a good picture with any of my cameras that's just an added bonus. 😉

 

[Field]

Well I think many people can relate to enjoying the fun of finding treasure and of playing with toys, especially nice ones!

I don't understand what you were saying about the buildup and pleasure though. Are you saying that your quest for cameras and choosing the right one isn't pleasurable?

Going to an event and taking pictures to get results back later... (film)

Digital is less entertaining because it is instant "gratification" - if you want to call it that since the value on it can be so reduced to you with its absurd availability.

The pleasure of choosing the right camera just makes me feel as though I am not a total tool. That only holds a small personal note of feeling competent; which to me is far from being all that interesting. The people that are thrilled, are picture takers, not gear nuts.

Would you rather feel competent in camera equipment of have a big show in New York that made you internationally famous because everyone loved your work and basically threw money at you to continue? One opens doors, brings security, builds serious self confidence to pursue your ideas, gets you laid, but the other just makes you glad not to be the idiot taking extreme back-lit pictures because his camera is on auto, and there is no flash to be seen.

Sooo what if you get minimal returns in a sense, but do it anyways; like only being interested in gear? It makes little to no sense but it is happening.

 

[Brian Legge]

I enjoy both, but at least all the stuff I've picked up so far and kept I've used - or at least that is where I've drawn the line for myself. Anything that doesn't get used just takes up shelf space and mental space from the cameras which I enjoy using.

...repair projects - cameras I hope to use in the future - are a huge exception.

 

[rxmd]

There happens to be no shortage of those who make out the importance to be on actually taking photos...

But why do I enjoy reading about cameras, knowing about cameras, and hunting cameras in thrift stores/antique stores/etc just as much if not a little more than taking photos?

Because cameras are your hobby. It's a perfectly fine hobby, nothing wrong with that.

Do people have a problem with it and tell you your hobby should be photography instead? Well, then they're obviously the kind of person who tells others what their hobby should be about. Don't take them seriously.

 

[L David Tomei]

This morning I loaded up my 90 year old Kodak Vest Pocket that still looks like it was new. I'll shoot some pictures, as I have before with other vintage and classic cameras in the collection, but the film will likely be stored along with the old camera. I love the look and the feel of an old Leica II with the worn nickel lens, brass showing on all the high points. It's the beauty of the camera, not the image that it can produce.

Then, I love photography and always have. To me, this means making images and in this case the camera is a tool. In fact, I rarely record which camera, lens, or exposure I use, or even whether it was digitized or shot with my "old" D70. It's the image, not the camera.

Then it comes together when I make images of vintage and classic cameras showing their many and varied design and shapes and recalling the history of the times in which they were made, the people who struggled to make them, the families who used them to record their daily lives long ago. I put them in my RFF album "Old Cameras" right beside albums with images of flowers and people made with modern photographic tools - a digital camera and Photoshop. I have no idea why I do this although I had spent my entire career using fine precision optical instruments - perhaps that's why. Anyway, no apologies offered or accepted.

 

[konicaman]

As stated - it is a hobby (or a passion), nothing wrong with that. You are in good company here, if you hadn't already noticed 😉

A friend of mine has 2 old Norton motorcycles. Every year he takes them both apart and gives them a good CLA. I think he only rides them a couple of times a year, but he is having a great time

A colleague of mine sits for a couple of hours every weekend watching 22 guys running around on a lawn trying to kick a ball into a net. I don't see the point in that, but he is enjoying himself, and that is what it's all about.

Have fun with your collection - and never mind what others say!
Henrik

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I'm that way with guitars. Collecting guitars and old tube amps is fun. Actually becoming a good guitar player is hard work. So I "acquire" guitars. Not a put down by any means. I think it's very human.

The problem with photography is that you have to be there to shoot photos.

 

[thegman]

I'll admit to liking the cameras as much as the photos. I think more about cameras than photo technique, but most of all I think about the nice places I can go to take photos.

I think some people can wax lyrical about how only the image matters, but how true that is will depend on the contents of their camera shelves.

 

[bobbyrab]

I think it's a male autism thing, it usually also involves numbers, 1.4, .95, V8, spinal taps 11, and and of course some slick terminology, floating aspherical full frame solid brass titanium bodied multi spot super charged tool. Better still if you can use shorthand, this shows your so knowledgeable you've gone all casual, RF,LF,MF, 35 mil, fast glass and a brick of film.