Thinking of taking the one camera, one lens plunge.

As for the general issue of x bodies and x lenses VS viceversa, it all depends on the shooting situations you are going trough. Next months I may be taking a small vacation at the Turkish shores - I will be a simplistic minded folk if I was to approach it with the same simplistic gear like if I was at my city doing street photography, Right ?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Matt:

Go for it! I have recently decided to go down the same road - one camera and one lens. In my case, a Leica M6 TTL with a 35mm Summicron ASPH lens.
 
Matt

1/1 is a grreat way to go because you end to see images first, then raise the camera to take them. With multiple lenses or a zoom I can get caught up in re-framing and tweaking the frame until I lose the original idea.

My favorite 1/1 was my Leica CL with a Voigtlander 25mm and optical viewfinder. Small abd unobtrusive. It was my carry along camera for years.

But don't sell any film gear at this point . Put the gear proudly on a shelf and keep it clean and maybe one day you'll need it for something and you'll have it.

And 1/1 is romantic. Its the stuff of Cartier-Bresson legend.

But what the hell, romantic is good.

Hawkeye
 
Matt -

I understand perfectly... It's like you're torn. The cameras you own aren't getting enough use, and the ones you really like you don't use as often as you want... My collection.

Fujica Compact Deluxe - favorite all-time camera. Just love how it paints images... Would use this more often but there are others...

Lynx 14 - I love this camera too. Big, but 1.4 lens - all manual

Konica Auto S3 - small and great "street shooter". Also a great lens. Leica quality shooter. Same applies to the Yashica CC. Plus both are rare-ish... I know I would regret selling either.

Zorki 4AM w/ Leica Summar - love how the Summar lens paints images...

Plus I have a digital P&S, a Kiev 60 I seldom use these days, and an Iskra which I also really love...

But ultimately? I would be happy with the Iskra for medium format, the Fujica, and possibly the Lynx. The SLR my dad gave me so it has sentimental value and use it for portraits and wide angle. So, ultimately, I would never own just "one" camera...

Shoot with what you like. The cameras don't care if you prefer one over the other. In my case, I wouldn't get that much money for them since they're decidedly on the lower end of the cost scale - all of them.

Or - what I might do, rather than go balls to the wall and sell them all, sell only one or two that you don't think you would miss. In my case, it would be the Kiev 60 (I always reach for the Iskra when I want to shoot medium format) and the Zorki 4AM with the Summar (which I would miss...) "Thin out" your collection. Do it in phases till you get down to "the one" or "the two".
 
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I go through minimalist phases (I'm in one at the moment), and I do benefit from taking a one camera/one body approach from time to time, but I'd never do if for good and sell all the rest of my gear.

At the moment I'm in Thailand with one body, two lenses (35 and 50), and B&W film and will be here with just that kit for a couple of months, and I'm very happy with it - I've only used the 35 so far in the week I've been here.

But I've also been doing some work on some past scanned images, and came across some colour shots I did with a 21mm lens. And having looked at them again, I could never sell the 21 - I know I will have a wide phase again in the future and will use my R4A and 21 for a while.

So my approach is also pretty much the "kit" approach. I'll choose a kit that I want to use for a while and pretty much stick with that - maybe M6 with two or three CV lenses and Sensia, maybe the M2 with 35/50 and APX or Tri-X, maybe the M2 with the wonderful little CV 28/3.5, maybe the R4A with a couple of wides, maybe (gasp) an SLR with a zoom.

So I'm a serial minimalist, and what kind of minimalist depends on my mood.
 
minimalist

minimalist

I did it already..a few years back now..

I was ferstooned with camera gear. I think i had three nikon bodies, eleven lenses and a couple of minoltas kicking around.

It became more of a 'how do i do it' rather than 'what I am doing' thing...

I devolved. I eventually ended up with a Nikon and a 50mm and a 35mm lens. Which sat unused, becasue I bought a little Olympus fixed lense rangefinder. Suddenly I felt like I knew what I was doing again, I was focussed. The "how' wasnt important, there was only what I had, so the reason why I was going out became most important. I think it was the same model that they all rave about amoung the fixed lens RF people. Wish I knew what I did with it...

Let me quote CB here "economy of means leads to simplicity of expression.' I have always been a simple person and the gadget side of photography got in my way.

After doing film making and oil painting for several years I have recently returned to photography. I have bought a Ricoh fixed lens rangefinder. I think it will do well. It is a little camera for photographing only a small part of the world - my little corner of it.
I too intend to make further personal photographs, and I like the fact that you have written clearly that you take pictures due to your interest in the world around yourself. For that, I believe minimal equipment is not only desireable but necessary.


(Mr Cartier Bresson did not limit himself to a 50mm or one camera - one must remember that he was a proffessional photojournalist produceing photoessays for magazines. But generalisations about ones work can be made in older age, and if speaking about his more personal photo's - his surrealist images - then he may have been correct in that generalisation. )

There are no limits to creativity, but you can confuse it with critical thinking about what you are able to achieve with different bits of equipment. I know that for a fact. I dont see it as limiting your options - your options become aligned with whatever it is you are working with, this is how the mind works.
Have a look at Rembrandt, a great many of his paintings utilise only four colours, and then only sparingly of the fourth...
 
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One body and one lens is classical combination. B + 50mm and you are the king of the streets and candid photography. However, myself I still contemplate between B+35mm an B+50mm for my own stuff photography. I never carry two lenses, just because it doesn't mach my philosophy. When I do weddings or newspaper assignments it's very simple: DSLR + standard zoom.
 
Matt(1pt4) said:
My RF collection is fairly modest (2 Hexar RFs, an M6TTL, 28, 50 & 90 Hexanons, Biogon 35 F2, CV 35 1.4 SC) by some standards, but it's all starting to seem like a bit too much. I can't remember the last time I used the 28 or the 90 to any good effect, and ever since getting the M6, the 35s just aren't as comfortable to use (I wear glasses and can't really make out the 35mm framelines with the .72 RF). I've always felt most comfortable shooting with a 50mm, so I'm thinking of selling off everything but the M6 and the 50 Hex. I've gone for long stretches before with just a 50, and I think it might do me some good to so again.

The kind of photography I'm interested in is a bit hard to describe, but I'm not a generalist; I shoot B&W photos that help me understand the world around me, and I expect I can do that better with one camera and lens than with many. As it stands now, I rarely carry more than one lens, as I find doing so just results in a lot of lens changing. Even knowing that the lenses are sitting at home on the shelf is an occasional source of metaphysical doubt. I'm not sure I need that in my life.

If the one camera breaks, I can always use the money from the sale of the rest to purchase a new one. There's nothing that I do anymore that really requires a backup camera.

What do you think, would I be a fool to part with this abundance of equipment? Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

A few weeks or months since you posted this, what have you decided? Curious how you worked this out.
 
Go for it

Go for it

First let me say that I'm a big fan of your blog and you're pictures. I see what kind of photography you do, and i would stick with the M6 and the 50mm. They don't break often enough to have to worry about it, I would look into taking the money you make off of selling the gear and buy yourself a nice 50, like a Leica 50 lux ASPH (not that their is anything wrong with the Hex) and you're good for a long time. You'll have a combo that will never need upgrading, and at most a CLA after a couple of years...

HCB once said in a conversation that the films were fast enough (he used ISO 100) and the lens' were sharp and fast enough (he used a 35 summicron). For years, all he used was an M3 and the Cron. For 6 months, i've used nothing but a 35mm. A 50 is just as versatile.
 
A slightly different approach?

A slightly different approach?

Matt,
First, regarding your problems wearing glasses. I struggled with the same problem.. finding a camera with framelines I wanted and could see. I finally found it in the Zeiss ZM. I wear eyeglasses and the 35 framelines are just exactly at the edge of my view... perfect. And the 50 framelines are nicely floating in the middle of the view but not too small... very nice. I had tried all the Voigtlanders and couldn't find one that was comfortable... but the Zeiss does it.

Regarding trimming down on equipment... I've gone through the same thoughts, and have bought and sold a lot of stuff over this past year, trying to find the right kit. I've finally come to the conclusion that what I've been looking for was a kit that gives me a different learning experience, depending on what I take out with me. I usually only take one body and one lens and let this combination guide my approach to the world that day. So... I've tried to assemble a kit that gives me a maximum number of different experiences with the least amount of equipment. I now have the Zeiss ZM body with the Biogon 35/2 lens for what I'd call my "normal, contemporary" kit. I also have an old Jupiter 3 50/1.5 for the older, soft wide-open approach, a CV 75mm when I want to go out and isolate things in the landscape or on the street, and a CV 28mm for my "wide-angle" days. And I have a Leica IIIc body for days when I just want to go back to the "Sunny 16 rule" kind of approach... minimalist, trust my judgement kind of a day. Oh.. and for days when I really want to mix things up, I go out with my trusty Holga. :D
 
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