too many cameras

[FrankS]

Thanks Joe.

That's really what this thread was about: looking at the gear we've got, thinking about and then articulating what and how we feel about it.

 

[zuikologist]

I edited down my collection after acquiring an M2 and IIIf, selling all my fixed-lens RF's and my FSU cam. But I found I missed them so have since picked up a QL17 GIII and Electro35. I prefer them to my Leicas as everyday carry-around cams. But I agree, too many cameras creates a juggling act. A fun one, though 😀

Gene

Frank and Gene

I find I am going back to the fixed lens cameras, although I have picked up a few (too many) lenses for the Bessa recently. I do not have to worry too much about a Canonet or Oly SP and that's really the point of having a camera - using it. The recent HCB inspired contest has me thinking that I may just go to one or two fast, fixed lens cameras and purge everything else. But that would spoil some of the fun wouldn't it.........

 

[back alley]

Frank and Gene

I find I am going back to the fixed lens cameras, although I have picked up a few (too many) lenses for the Bessa recently. I do not have to worry too much about a Canonet or Oly SP and that's really the point of having a camera - using it. The recent HCB inspired contest has me thinking that I may just go to one or two fast, fixed lens cameras and purge everything else. But that would spoil some of the fun wouldn't it.........

why not, really?

my history shows i use a 35mm lens most of the time, so my oly 35rc with it's 42mm lens would likely be fine most of the time also. or a canonet with it's 40mm lens and i always wanted to try a minolta 7s2!

 

[ErnestoJL]

Most of my RF cameras have fixed lenses (of course 50 mm!), and the only two with Contax mount don´t have any lenses other than 50mm...
´feel I never needed anything else... so... what should I still keep all those SLRSs?

Ok, I know what for... but It makes me feel OK, and that´s it.

It´s irrelevant if you have what you want, but it´s important that you want what you have.

Ernesto

 

[zuikologist]

why not, really?

my history shows i use a 35mm lens most of the time, so my oly 35rc with it's 42mm lens would likely be fine most of the time also. or a canonet with it's 40mm lens and i always wanted to try a minolta 7s2!

My thoughts also. 35 - 40mm seems about the right focal length for most general shooting and fixed lens rf's seem to have closer focusing distances than most of the lenses I have. A Yashica 35CC awaits when 35mm/low light is needed.

 

[PetarDima]

While one can never have too many 50mm lenses (IMO), one can have too many cameras. Some just sit and hardly ever or never get used. Some have film loaded of some long-forgotten type. In order to simplify this aspect of my life, I've recently sold off my FSU cameras, 2 Kievs and a Fed. Why shoot with a Kiev if I have a Contax (and another on the way) or a Fed, if I can choose from several Leica cameras? Why bother owning these expensive cameras and shoot with the FSU cameras? A couple of years ago I did a similar purge on fixed lens rangefinder cameras in favour of interchangeable lens rangefinders, though I still have a few of those because they may be smaller or offer auto-exposure modes.

Can one have too many cameras?

Yes, if one have enuff money...I have one Kiev 4-one week ago, Zorki 4 arrived(because I thought- something's wrong with Kiev camera, but camera is OK, I am wrong) and I have zero rezults in shooting...I allready wrote about low-light shooting, it's my main theme- but I know that ( yes, I will be photo-begginer for a long period)I can't know which camera is best for me... When that day came, I will stop with daydreaming about Bessa(R3M+50mm,f:2 looks fine).Regads!

 

[Honu-Hugger]

More than twenty Alpa bodies and around twenty Contaxes -- I definitely feel as though it is too many. Last week I started the slow process of weeding through this stuff and selling first the duplicate bodies and lenses, then I'll move to making the more difficult decisions of letting others go. I'd like to get down to around six cameras and the lenses I'll really use as opposed to collecting.

 

[back alley]

More than twenty Alpa bodies and around twenty Contaxes -- I definitely feel as though it is too many. Last week I started the slow process of weeding through this stuff and selling first the duplicate bodies and lenses, then I'll move to making the more difficult decisions of letting others go. I'd like to get down to around six cameras and the lenses I'll really use as opposed to collecting.

wow! lots of gear but that would be so hard to edit down.
did you see yourself as a collector and now no more?
i struggled with the decision to break up my small canon collection and i can't imagine how hard this is for you.
or maybe i'm just projecting?

joe

 

[raid]

I am not a collector, but I have accumulated a large number of 35mm cameras and lenses over the past twenty years. I actually have used and am using all cameras. I wouldn't know where to start ...

SLR Systems:
Nikon FE, FE2, F2, Nikkormat, FM
Canon T-90 (2), F1N (2), F1n
Rolleiflex SL35 (3), SL2000F Motor
Zeiss Contarex, Contaflex
and many many excellent lenses for the systems above ranging from 7.5mm to 500mm.

Rangefinder Systems:
Leica M3, CL, Standard,
Canon P, IVsb
with many lenses (from 25mm to 135mm).

Then I have the folding cameras in 35mm and medium format, plus a Linhof 4x5 camera plus medium format SLR and TLR cameras.

My wife is patient ... 🙂

 

[hiwatt]

Can one have too many cameras?

Can one have too many wristwatches?

The only difference I see, is that it takes me some months to get used to a different camera; and by getting used to it I mean to the point where the camera doesn't get in the way between me and the picture.

There must be something in the XY chromosome that's responsible for GAS... 😀

 

[John Camp]

I think it's possible -- and in the North American/Western European cultures, even likely -- to have too much of everything, but maybe not to have too much of one thing. If you have twenty cameras, that's okay; but if you have 20 cameras, 20 guns, 20 knives, five cars, four Ipods, three cell phones, and seven days-of-the-week $500 fountain pens, then you're not a collector, you're just an accumulator of expensive crap. The idea is to get rid of the crap and keep the essential stuff. So, I don't think you had too many cameras, as long as you also don't have a tide of crap floating around your neck. Maybe the way to look at those cameras is not that you have too many, but that you've been **storing value** to be cashed in at some point for other cameras. Or other essential stuff. 😎

JC

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I periodically make up several lists of cameras. Some of the list titles are Sell, Keep, CLA, CLA and Sell, and Buy. It seems like the Buy list is always on top. I really should send several to good homes where they will be used like they should be.

The one annoying thing about having several cameras is forgetting what film is in them. Try exposing a roll of 100 ASA slide film with a yellow filter thinking it is T-max 100 in the camera some time and see if you like the results. I don't.

Actually, the more I shoot medium format and large format film the less enchanted I am with 35mm. I think I will have a great spring purge sale in mid-April.

Wayne

 

[raid]

I like my cameras too much to sell them, unless I have multiple copies or I find a better looking or more interesting or .... one.

 

[John]

If you appreciate your cameras and are taking good care of them, I don't think you can have too many. Who knows how many cameras have been manufactured? Is it 100 per person? Is it 1000 per person? The dump is full of the junk ones and the unappreciated ones. If you take good care of them chances are someone somewhere will appreciate them too. 🙂

 

[Rich Silfver]

I have about 30 cameras that I simply hardly ever use anymore.
Many of them are fixed rangefinder cameras in excellent condition and works great.

I did a quick estimate some time ago and figured that I have about 2,000 dollars tied up in cameras that I never use. I am in the near future thinking about selling all of them and putting the money towards a Leica MP.

The cameras that I will never sell are: Leica M3, Leica III (F) and Hasselblad 500C/M

 

[Nick R.]

I haven't been able to sell any camera gear lately, which really bugs me because my motto has always been: "bulls and bears make money; pigs make nothing". That saying has kept me from hoarding stuff in the past but now I'm hooked. I'm going to a camera show tomorrow. I'll bring some gear and see if I can swap it for other gear.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I bought 36 rolls of Kodak B&W C41 film today.

That would be enough film to load each of my interchangeable lens RF's. Once.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Like many here I too find myself quite conflicted about this.

I believe my photography would improve if I limited myself
to using just my Contax T and Fuji GS645 cameras.

Yet still I keep all the Pentax gear, and I am forever searching
for the "perfect" 35mm RF camera...

"Excelsior, you fathead!"
-Chris-

 

[ch1]

I think so, I go through periods (just recently in fact) of accumulation, then realize I am not using some of my old stuff enough, and sometimes some of the new stuff and find it's time to purge.. My only problem is I hate getting rid of anything so sometimes the purging takes a while 😀

It's funny you should mention the never having too many 50's thing. I guess it was your post I read several months ago when I first joined the forum. At the time I thought you might be crazy 😉 I now own 4 50's and want more :angel:

daniel,

As fellow NYC'er, we should shoot together sometime.

As to Frank S's posulations....

I agree that one could get too many cameras for the time at hand such as needing to do a the "purge" that you suggest.

But I have an alternative for you to consider. Get a weekend place upstate as I have! More space to put more cameras!

Then, when that space runs out - you will be older and wiser, and realize you need a place in AZ (or FL if you like humidity) for eventual retirement. By chance, this place will also be one wherein you can store more cameras!!

Now as to 50's - I keep thinking of Gene W's (?) comment about "walnuts" rattling around in his pockets! I now have three Nikkor 5.0cm's, the Sonnar 5.0 for the Contax and I just got a Kiev 4AM that has a 53mm Helios attached!!! 😱

My walnuts are growing faster than my originals!!!!! 😀

OOPS - forgot - I now have 4 Nikkor 5.0cm's!!!!!

 

[egpj]

I think that you can get too many cameras. I bring with me 2 MP bodies almost everywhere and that is really helpful because I can do the obvious stuff like use different film speeds and the like. But now I have a Leica threadmount and I want the MMMMM3333333! along with a collapsible 50 Summicron of the same era. It would be nice to have a 35 summicron version 4 as well. It just goes on and on really. The other day my boss told me I was get a bonus. I told him how much I needed for the M3 with collapsible 50. He was strangely silent.