When is too much, too much?

[tunalegs]

I have a few cameras I collected because I wanted to use them (and use them every now and then).
I have a few cameras I collected because they look cool, and they're on the shelf.
I have a few cameras I collected because they go with cameras I like and they're collectible.
I have a few cameras I collected in the course of collecting but which are worth so little it hasn't been worth my time to try and sell them off (I made two small lots of half of these last year and ebayed them away finally - a few more linger on though).

That leaves me with about 25 cameras in the house. About four of which are usually loaded with film/or constantly used.

I'm planning to prune the collection and get rid of the rest of the "worthless" ones this year.

 

[noisycheese]

Some people are photographers; some are camera collectors. Messr. Eggleston is obviously both. Nothing wrong with that IMHO.

However, I would not carry around a case of 19 M camera bodies as shown in the OP's link on any shoot or trip. Less gear, more photographs, less shoulder and back pain - that is my photographic style these days.


Regarding camera inventory, I have "enough" Nikon gear. I have "not enough" Leica M cameras. I would like to acquire a chrome M4-P, an M5 and an M3. Then I will have "enough" Leia M bodies. I already have "enough" M glass, although I have always sort of wanted a 21mm and a 135mm M lens.

 

[mfogiel]

My take on cameras is fairly simple:
1) Buy or rent all TYPES of cameras you might ever need, and try them out
2) Narrow the scope to what you actually need
3) Refine the search for the best camera/lens in that particular solution line
4) If you can afford it, keep other types of gear for occasional needs, if not get rid of it and rent/borrow as necessary

In hobbyist practice, my essentials would be:

- RF+25mm
- RF + 50mm
- SLR + 85mm
- MF SLR + 55-60 mm equivalent for portraiture

In concrete terms these are:
Bessa R4A+Biogon 25
Leica M7 0.85x + Summilux 50 pre ASPH
Nikon F3+ Planar 85/1.4
Contax 645+Hasselblad Planar 110/2 (on Hassy adapter)

but I have kept lots of other cameras just in case...

 

[Chris101]

I don't fancy myself much of a camera collector. And right now, I own only two that I use all the time.

Instead, I am having an issue arise that I thought would never happen to me. As I get older, for some inexplicable reason, I have suddenly become style conscience. I find myself thinking more and more about how my cameras look, what color of camera should I get, and so on. I mean, it really is weird. My wife thinks I am losing my mind. In the past few years, I have owned a brown Panasonic G3, a red Panasonic P&S, and I currently own a white body Panasonic GF-1, which I certainly did not need (I already owned a black GF-1), but I just had to have the white body.

I have also found myself becoming concerned about how stylish I am in my dress. I am dressing much nicer than I ever have before, I am obsessed with nice looking, high quality shoes, etc. In the past I was always a casual dresser, but not any more.

Pair this with my weird fixation on stylish cameras and I am starting to wonder if my wife is right.

Right now, I have my eye on a metallic green Ricoh GR, with an ebony grip.......😎😕

Heh! You crack me up Rick. But I do get it - I've been enamored with colored cameras for quite some time. I once painted an Olympus Auto-Eye sky blue, and the yellow skin for the Leica T tempts me mightily.

Unfortunately most of my current cameras are plain black, but I am really considering red leatherette for my OM.

 

[btgc]

Colored cameras? How about a set of Konica C35 EF3?

http://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/konicaminolta/history/konica/1980/1981.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Lg1tJHQTYkk/TGynaKSsJQI/AAAAAAAAAhY/nXY9dFIkpB4/s1600/p272685027.jpg

 

[Spanik]

Ask a cabinet maker how many hamers, planes and chisels he has. It are tools with a specific use. Just like cameras.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

Heh! You crack me up Rick. But I do get it - I've been enamored with colored cameras for quite some time. I once painted an Olympus Auto-Eye sky blue, and the yellow skin for the Leica T tempts me mightily.

Unfortunately most of my current cameras are plain black, but I am really considering red leatherette for my OM.

Thank God, I am not the only one, Chris.😀 I really began to think I was having a late-life crisis.

And I agree, when first saw that Leica T in yellow, I thought, "Wow, how cool is that...."

 

[Kent]

I have bought a lot of stuff and tried several different systems.
But some time ago, it all began to be too much for me. I felt like not mastering that great variety any more. So I started to sell ... a lot.

Now, for what I regularly use, I am down to an M8, an X-E1 and an X-T1 with altogether 8 lenses, good ones.

I still have some other cams, but mainly to play around with (digital) or because I think they look gorguos in the cabinet (film). Every now and then I use each of them, to make sure they are still functional.

On other words, it's "too much" when it stopps being a pleasure and starts being an obstacle or a burden.

 

[hepcat]

Thank God, I am not the only one, Chris.😀 I really began to think I was having a late-life crisis.

And I agree, when first saw that Leica T in yellow, I thought, "Wow, how cool is that...."

Rick, cuff links are a lot cheaper bling. 😉

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Every few years my life seems to force me to cull the herd down to one camera and lens for a while. That camera is my M4 and the lens is my DR Summicron. When I have other gear, I tend not to use the Leica as I prefer medium format or if I'm carrying a 35mm camera, my little Kodak Retina IIa.

Right now I'm at the point where if I sell anything gear-related, I won't get enough money to even make the sale worthwhile. That's where I like to be.

One digital Nikon body with a bunch of AiS lenses.
One Nikon FM that was given to me broken and I fixed, then gave to my GF who used it for years then decided she wanted an auto camera so I traded her an FG for the FM back. That's my backup to the digital with a few rolls of fast color film.
One Mamiya 6 body with all three lenses in the system (though I would like to have another body so I can stop changing lenses.)
One tiny 35mm Retina IIa folder.
One Leica M4 with DR 'Cron. (I'd really like a 28mm but that's next year.)

All that gear is USED and is worth more as a set of tools than ever selling. I suppose if I need to feed myself again by fire-selling my gear I'd get a little from it but I really don't think it would be worthwhile at all.

As for when too much is too much; I'd say maybe five or six years ago when I was shooting with a few Leicas, had seven 50mm lenses and probably as many 35mm lenses. It was a bit egregious.

Phil Forrest

 

[Rick Waldroup]

Rick, cuff links are a lot cheaper bling. 😉

You know, I never gave much thought to cuff links, but now that you mention it......🙄

I'm off to take a look on ebay......😀

 

[Richard G]

I think it's good owning cameras and lenses, with no limit.
It teaches a lot about a really important thing: what's good for what, and what to carry when... Lots of bags too, new and hand made by myself...
I'm not a collector in any way, and I haven't counted them, but I may own close to 100 cameras and lenses I use all the time, in 35, MF, LF and digital... In no way I feel it's too much... Indeed I feel it's just a basic set...
Curiously, I've never sold any piece of gear, but I've made a couple of gifts...
And certainly I can think of 20 other things I'd like to buy right now in a second if I could...
Cheers,
Juan

Juan, this is great. You've cheered up so many of us. Like you I never sold anything. Adorno said of something much more serious that it was "too much, and not enough." I started with an M2 and a 50, and I have this strange suspicion that when my M9 and Monochrom are defunct and the Leica M Type 1371 is unapppealing and the X100s is discontinued and the Hexar shutter button thing recurs once too often I'm going to end up back with just that original combination. Maybe that's why I've kept the boxes for all these lenses.

 

[Red Robin]

I'm at odds with my self on this issue. Having spent years "saving" older cameras from oblivion as found in second hand stores I feel I have by far obtained more than I need, more than I use and certainly even I want to use. Sadly most are not not "worth" the price of postage. My users cameras are my LTM Canons and lenses, and a few SLR's.🙄 Three weeks in hospital on my back with COPD, diabetes, along with a bad case of congestive heart failure gave this old bird a lot of time to re-access both the "stuff I own as well as the "stuff" I do. My new lifestyle Is all about changes I can "live "with. Still home-bound after nearly 4 weeks a "big" day trip is now an unassisted walk in the back yard to my chair . All that said my medical team tells me to "take my med's do my exercises and to be patience. All kinda neat really, all I need to do is treat it like a new camera: read the manual, and then follow the directions.😀 Oh yeah, I've dropped 75 pounds. so far. I'm shooting for another 65. Who knows if I can make my goal maybe it'll be easier to carry my gear.