satisfaction?

Age also works magic on lessening the load. . . Pictures always come out better when the load is light!

Hard to argue here -- unless you have a pick-up truck and assistants/acolytes in the Ansel Adams fashion.

Certainly, as I get older, I care more about content/composition. I still appreciate technique, but more and more of it seems empty to me, even in AA's pictures.

Cheers,

R.
 
Joe,

It may just be that you have tried so much equipment over the years that you finally ended up with as close to what you want as you can find.
 
Joe,

It may just be that you have tried so much equipment over the years that you finally ended up with as close to what you want as you can find.

what i have i really enjoy.
this morning i was shooting in the market with the cle/grip/wrist strap and 28 rokkor...what a sweet kit.
 
what i have i really enjoy.
this morning i was shooting in the market with the cle/grip/wrist strap and 28 rokkor...what a sweet kit.
Joe, it's pretty clear that the CLE kit is quite interfering with your more complete enjoyment of the Zeiss kit... I would be glad to sacrifice some funds and lighten your gear load some... you know my number :)
 
We went to the local Gardens for a Picnic and a walk today. Cherry trees in bloom, and many other flowers as well. A lot of people were carrying cameras and some engaging in "gear-talk". I saw Nikon D3's, macro-zooms, Canon's with 300mm lenses etc. I had the Canon VI-T with CZJ 5cm f2 in the J-8 mount. Didn't even think to bring the Micro-Nikkor 70~180 Zoom.

I'm not using the "ED" designator on the Nikkor-Zooms anymore. Prevents them from being fully extended.
 
Sounds to me it's time to buy a Bessa to carry around.;)

This is certainly in my mind. At the moment the M3 with collapsible Elmar 50 f2.8 is still OK. The 35 and 90 are not taken out too often. I am awaiting deliveries of a few Agfa silettes, two with CRFs with Apotar and Solinar. Hope they will do the trick.

A few weeks ago I and some friends tested a Silette with Apotar (without RF) against many other cameras including a Rollei 35 Tessar and Rollei Sonnar and, surprisingly, the Apotar beat them all at f5.6 onwards. That led me to selling the Rollei Tessar two days later. Will be comparing them with the Elmar soon. I can expect a drop in performance. But if the drop is not too significant, I may be prepared to compromise this for the lessening load. I have already written about this in another Thread.
 
Satisfaction? Yes, I think I get where you're at joe.

I realized recently that one of the sillier things I'd done over the past couple of years was sell my Kiev kit and invest heavily (for me at least) in a Bessa R & LTM lenses. I really missed the feel of the mid '70's Kiev 4a & collapsible Sonnar that I'd had. So I sold the whole kit (minus my FSU LTM lenses that went in trade to Brian) for just a tiny bit of a profit & got a really nice mid-70's Kiev 4a with a Jupiter 3 50/1.5.

Then a couple of weeks ago I see a "as is" auction on ebay for a collapsible red T Sonnar. I bid silly high but got lucky and got it for even sillier cheap :) (Turns out to be a 1942 lens that's one of the first production batches of 50/2's that got coated. Good giggles there for me.)

But the real bit is that I'm enjoying shooting that Kiev & Sonnar more than the Bessa R. Even with a superb lens like the 35/1.8 or 50/1.8 on it, it just wasn't as pleasurable to shoot for me as a well working Contax or Kiev. To be sure I have a few things to sell & a couple of lenses I'd like, but tonight I find myself closer to that mythical state of "Done" than at any other time since I joined RFF.

A small bag with a J-3 & a J-12 in it, some film & one camera mounting the collapsible. Or just the camera with the collapsible & some film in my pocket. Yeah, I really am closer to "Done" than I really ever expected to be.

Don't know if this helps you at all, joe, but I'm having fun and that's all I've ever wanted.

William
 
Roget Hicks suggested maybe it's age related. Perhaps. It could also be that we haven't really pulled out from a really long winter yet. I am not sure.

I look at my modest acquisition of 35mm and medium format cameras and realize that I may have arrived. The only thing I want now is film, and I'm grateful I can still get it.
 
It's kind of nice when you try something different, realize it's not for you, sell the camera and can then put it in the "nice gear, but not for me" camp. That recently happened to me with a TLR camera.
 
I've had three periods in my photographic life. Period one began in 1974 when I bought my first camera, a Yashica TL Electro slr just as I was heading off for what ended up to be 7 years travelling the globe. This one camera with it's 50 lens went with me every where and I learned how to use it so instinctively I didn't ever imagine wanting anything else. When it died after 10 year I entered period two with Nikon slr's, firstly a FA then adding a FM and building a set of 5 lenses between 28 and 200mm. I was so completely satisfied with this kit for the next 18 years I never even looked at mags. etc. to see what was new. Period three began in 2003 when I walked past a camera store in the Adelaide Central Market and saw a Hexar RF outfit in the window. I stood there with my mouth open and a few days later came back and bought it along with the 28 and 90 M lenses. Since then it has grown to include a long dreamed of M6ttl and 18, 21, 35 and 75 lenses. I think satisfaction has entered it's final phase. I'm so enarmoured of this outfit I can't concieve ever wanting to move on from from here. But I'm 56 next month so maybe it's an age thing. Or as I like to say, you only get old and wise by being young and stupid.
 
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