why are we addicted so badly?

[thegman]

Why are we addicted so badly? Hard to pick out any one thing, I guess we imagine ourselves using the kit, and it feels good. Having said that, I'd really like an Alpa SLR, even though I hardly use 35mm and would only use it occasionally I think. So it's not all about using the cameras.

I get the same sort of GAS with computers, although that can be easier to keep in check, as often cool ones are too big just to put on a shelf, so logic can play a bigger role. Also, as they devalue so fast, you can't convince yourself with the 'investment' argument.

So maybe it comes down a few things, we imagine ourselves using the gear maybe in a favourite location, and feels good. Many cameras are also just beautiful items, and wanting to own nice things probably goes back to caveman days, wanting a great spear or whatever.

Like Keith says, GAS is OK, but you can't let it all be about the GAS, you've got to let it in and out of your mind. I'm out of a GAS phase at the moment, and spending more time looking at sunrise time in Hawai'i and thinking about my trip there, and the photos I'll take, my gear is settled, I'm not buying anything else, I'm just looking forward to taking some pictures.

 

[oftheherd]

I can stop any time!

Me too!

Any time I want. I really can.

I thought I had until I saw that 6x9 folder with extra film holders. Oh, then there were some roll film holders so I could use the odd film size of the roll film holder. Then there was the inexpensive aux wide lens for the Rolleiflex. Then ...

I just like being able to talk about some things from first hand experience. I don't know where that came from. I used to be quite happy with my Fujica ST 901 and Super Press 23. I just don't know.

 

[Mcary]

Guess there must be different types/degrees of GAS as I simply don't see how someone can suffer GAS to such a degree that it effects their shooting/taking pictures.
Sure there are some lens I'd like to own and a new M sure looks nice but wanting them is certainly not going to stop me for shooting with and enjoying the gear that I currently own.

 

[thegman]

Guess there must be different types/degrees of GAS as I simply don't see how someone can suffer GAS to such a degree that it effects their shooting/taking pictures.
Sure there are some lens I'd like to own and a new M sure looks nice but wanting them is certainly not going to stop me for shooting with and enjoying the gear that I currently own.

I'm not sure how much it affects actual picture taking, it's probably not very much. I do think that many people, myself included, probably have spent so much time considering gear, that time spent actually taking photos, or thinking about the photos you want to take can be marginalised a little.

Many of us here will have driven 100 miles to pick up a new camera, but how many of us travel that far just to get a great photo?

 

[HuubL]

Russell, reading your post made my cry in shame...😱

 

[squareshooter]

Speak for yourself. I do not collect camera gear, I rescue it. There area lot of scraggly orphans out there. How many people are going to shoot sunsets with a Bilora Bella 66?

 

[dave lackey]

we make fun of each other...we tease each other...we crave the new toys and that's what it seems they are to many of us...toys!
we are always reading up on that new body or lens...checking out those first images and reviews and then waiting for the follow up comments and start checking the classifieds to see how soon the first used ones appear...

GEAR!!! we want it...no matter how serious we might be about photography and image making...we like the gear!

...and before you come down on my head about how you are not like this...check your inventory...

We are a select group of people where photography and the tools we use are part of our soul. If living the life according to our being is an addiction, then let me be forever drunk from the joys of these tools of light.:angel:

 

[icebear]

... the joys of these tools of light.:angel:

Love that !

Since I got the MM last year, I only bought 2 B&W filters , yellow and orange.
That's it, the only craving I now have, is to have more time to use it 😀.

 

[gb hill]

It's in our human nature. But right now I desire nothing photographically. I'm going to go buy a new fishing rod & go fishing.🙂

 

[ray*j*gun]

And then there are watches..........hmmm

 

[MikeAUS]

...and before you come down on my head about how you are not like this...check your inventory...

Sony RX100 - Check! That's all for now. But - still looking and trying a few cameras, if I don't like it I sell it straight away ... Hope to end up with 2 or 3 cameras I like ...

 

[slm]

Now I'm jonesing for shelving.... 🙂

Steven

 

[Al Patterson]

I can stop any time!

Just one more for the road...

 

[Margu]

The only way to cure GAS is not to hang around with other GAS addicts, the same way that if your friends are heroin addicts, even though they're your friends, in the end of the day your life is more important.

 

[rluka]

GAS shouldn't be mutually exclusive with "get out and make pictures"

Personally...
1. To explore the yet unfamiliar tools. And as for new digitals, it's like wanting to be among the first to put your footprint on the fresh snow.
2. Wanting that spark of inspiration, exploring the same thing with a new "eyes". Or in short: I'm bored and I want new stimulation. The same logic as thinking the only way to fix town is to burn it down and work from clean slate also applies.

 

[willie_901]

Well life is short... and then there's this:

“Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane.” ― Thomas Pynchon, V.

Diversion is one of the more effective ways to maintain sanity.

 

[--]

Money makes the World go around...

Money makes the World go around...

we make fun of each other...we tease each other...we crave the new toys and that's what it seems they are to many of us...toys!
we are always reading up on that new body or lens...checking out those first images and reviews and then waiting for the follow up comments and start checking the classifieds to see how soon the first used ones appear...

GEAR!!! we want it...no matter how serious we might be about photography and image making...we like the gear!

...and before you come down on my head about how you are not like this...check your inventory...

Addiction is not a good thing I gather and I too crave for new (or used) gear. But I never spend more than I can afford. And what I have surplus I give away. I am not quite sure I understand why lusting for new is a bad or even a neutral thing? Whenever you buy something (new) you support people who made it (usually people who depend heavily on these jobs and support families and communities with their income), then there is the shipping line that move it across the Earth, and the people selling it. Not to forget the people delivering it to you. And that excludes all the other people benefiting from it.

Obviously there is the strain of resources on Earth and we should probably all do with far less. But until we all see the light the World would run amok if there was no economic activity. Just look to the havoc in Southern Europe with relative small declines in GDP. I am not trying to diminish the plight of ordinary people there (or anywhere for that matter - I would be one myself if my country were hit hard). But as long as you do not spend more than you can afford why is it a problem to buy new things?

I use my gear far too little due to illness, but I am grateful that I can buy what I buy without incurring debts. And I get enormous enjoyment from the pure fact of owning something like the Voigtländer 25mm f:0.95 that I bought on the cheap used. Just to have the ability to use anything that fast is a treat. The sheer amount of glass inside. Looking through it wide open 😀

Don't sigh - buy :angel:

Cheers
Xpanded

 

[noisycheese]

we make fun of each other...we tease each other...we crave the new toys and that's what it seems they are to many of us...toys!
we are always reading up on that new body or lens...checking out those first images and reviews and then waiting for the follow up comments and start checking the classifieds to see how soon the first used ones appear...

GEAR!!! we want it...no matter how serious we might be about photography and image making...we like the gear!

...and before you come down on my head about how you are not like this...check your inventory...

Q: Why are we so addicted so badly?
A: Marketing

A friend of mine was once a professional salesman. He said his boss was always preaching to he and his fellow salesmen: "Create a need - even if one doesn't exist."

That is precisely what the marketing departments at Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Leica and all the other camera & lens companies work 24/7/365 to do. Their job is in essence to make photographers unhappy with the gear they currently have.

We allow them to get their hooks into us with the lie that if only we had this camera or that lens, then we would be able to make outstanding images that others would appreciate/love/buy.

Marketing departments tell us that if only we had this new camera or that new lens, we would finally be able to be a "professional" (whatever that means) photographer. We would finally be able to be "successful." They plant the thought in our heads that God knows you can't be a real professional photographer with that laughable, outdated, scuffed up, dusty old camera you have! Their clever marketing campaigns are laced with the undercurrent message of "Make arresting images with visual impact and relevance using your scratched up old Nikon F3hp?? LMAO!! Have you lost your mind?!?! You need at least a new D800E, if not a D4 or a D3x! Those are the cameras that real professionals use!!" 🙄

Of course, cameras and lenses are great. They are neat. They are fun to buy, own and use. Photographers love their cameras - nothing wrong with that.

We have to beware of the trap, though: The trap of allowing the marketing department of _____________ decide for us which cameras and lenses we "need" rather than making that determination ourselves.

Photographers are by and large an insecure lot. Marketers know this. They prey upon our insecurities by creating a "need" for a new camera or lens where in reality no such need exists. That is their job. It's what they get up and go to the office every day for. It's how these people pay their mortgage and keep the electricity and water turned on at home.

If we can learn to deal with our insecurities and keep them in check when it comes to buying new photographic toys/tools, we will have taken a giant leap forward in breaking our GAS affliction.

We also have to learn to buy what we want and/or actually need, not what the marketing department at __________ wants us to buy.

 

[semi-ambivalent]

I think, the overall reasons are two:
- There is always something that you "might need to have", or that is "better" than what you have aleady
- You spend too much time browsing the forums and classifieds and too little time with a camera in your hand taking pictures

I have solved point 1 quite easily: I only shoot B&W and I dislike digital B&W, so I bought ALL the film cameras and lenses that I will ever need to use, last year. Since then, I have no more GAS, because I already have everything. I am still working on solving point 2...

This is excellent. Not because it's this or that, but because you have a plan to actualize (and because I'm thinking similarly. 🙂 ).

I fell in love with Leica relatively recently. Enough that I have turned my back on all my Nikon stuff that I have used since getting in to Photography a long time ago. I'll be getting an MP soon enough to augment/replace my M3 and I've decided at the same time to just get the lenses I want to round out the glass I have, and be done with it. A 21 SEM, and a 2.8/35 Summaron.

That's it. Six lenses and two bodies. I could even lop off a lens at either end (21 and 2.8/90) if my shooting habits remain unchanged from my Nikon days but the price history of Leica glass always supports buying now (how convenient).

Step 2 is to drop off the internet for a month; it's a horrible, beautiful time sink. I should be in the darkroom (like, right now) many times when I'm perusing some pointless website at 2AM. So my plan post-MP is not one lens, one film, one year, but no internet for one month. See how it goes because I habituate quickly. Then try to just leave it.

Good luck to you with #2! Yours is a good idea. As for everybody else in this whole GAS thing, do what you want and be grateful for the chance to do it; cameras are such lovely things, and they do magic.

s-a

 

[Kenj8246]

Hi, my name is Kenny and I just bid on ANOTHER camera I don't need. It's a lovely Nikkormat, though. 🙂