Your biggest regret.

[Eric T]

I mostly regret buying too many cameras/lenses/accessories but the one system that I regret buying into is the Pentacon Six.

I couldn't agree more. I bought a Kiev 60 once trying to do medium format on the cheap. It's frame spacing was never right. I sent it off for repair and was better but still not quite right. I bought a few lenses for it and they were mostly fine. The Kiev 60 and all but two of the lenses are sold now. I did find one unexpected gem in all of my Russian/Ukranian MF stuff: a Mir 65mm f/3.5 lens. A couple of years ago I tested all of the lenses I had that I could adapt to a micro four thirds camera. And this Mir lens was by far the sharpest. Just an incredible lens. I still have it but now I regret that I don't use it more.

 

[taskoni]

Not gear related, but I regret only the missed opportunities of taking shots with better light and composition due to my inpatient nature.

Regards,

Boris

 

[cosmonaut]

Selling my Nikon F4S, in fact sold all Nikon AF gear but the F4 was a total mistake. When ever a nice one comes up I never have the funds.

David

I bought one from KEH and love it. I have had it a couple of months now.

 

[Spanik]

Strange how many seem to regret the P6/Kiev60. Have both with a load of lenses and I still think they are great. These days I more use the Mamiya 645 (I prefer 6x4.5 over 6x6) but I really prefer the Arsat shift lenses above my Mamiya one and the 180, the flektogon 65mm and Arsat 30mm are without equivalent. To each his own I guess.

 

[msbarnes]

Strange how many seem to regret the P6/Kiev60. Have both with a load of lenses and I still think they are great. These days I more use the Mamiya 645 (I prefer 6x4.5 over 6x6) but I really prefer the Arsat shift lenses above my Mamiya one and the 180, the flektogon 65mm and Arsat 30mm are without equivalent. To each his own I guess.

I admit that the P6 isn't thaaat bad, it is just that I would always worry about loading it incorrectly, it failing on me, and things like that. The camera felt flimsy and the flare on my 50mm/80mm was awful. The only lens that I miss is that 180mm f2.8 Sonnar but the MFD is a tad long and the camera lacked MLU and so I saw no reason for keeping it! For now, I just have my Rolleiflex for 120 (or well 4 of them 🙂) and I am fairly happy with that. If I were to get another 120 camera then it would be a Hasselblad.

 

[John E Earley]

My second biggest regret was that I sold all my large and medium format equipment to partially finance my divorce from my first wife. My biggest regret was that I didn't do it sooner.

 

[nikon_sam]

At the time I've traded gear I may have gone home and had trader's remorse but right now nothing sticks out as a really bad deal...so, maybe I have no regrets at this time...

 

[skibeerr]

Selling my Technikardan 45-s with lenses and a Durst Laborator 1200, in short getting out of 4x5. Sad thing was I needed the money.

A time where I was going somewhere in photography came to an end.

 

[gb hill]

Not buying a Bronica MF camera even after the wife said to go for it.

 

[ornate_wrasse]

Now that I look back, one of my big regrets was not buying a Nikon F2 when I went shopping at the Ft. McNair PX in Washington, D.C. in 1972. I could only afford a Mamiya Sekor 1000 DTL which, at the time, cost less than the F2. In a few years, the camera stopped working and I couldn't afford to fix it. I would have been much better off buying the far more durable F2.

Ellen

 

[alan davus]

Drowning my Leica M6ttl (bought new) whilst crossing a flooded creek at the beginning of a 13 day hike in New Zealand a few years ago. I not only didn't bring one photo back from an incredidbly beautiful trip into a varely visited region but the metering system was totally destroyed and the camera is now little more than a shelf queen. Lesson learned now is never venture near water without the camera safely stored in a roll top bag.

 

[Archiver]

My biggest regret is not getting an Olympus XA, XA2, or similarly small and silent camera to document my teenage and university years. I've only got two sets prints from when I was 13, and almost nothing from 14-26.

This is a scenario I have mentioned a few times. Had I the knowledge, I would have got an XA or XA2, loaded it with Fuji 400 and/or Tri-X, and shot at least one roll per month throughout my teenage years and university. Concerts, orchestra rehearsals, music trips, school camps, friends and family, my final years at school, my first date, my first girlfriend, music gigs and competitions, overseas travel, everything.

Now I carry at least two cameras everywhere I go, and I've made personal documentary a way of life. My current everyday camera, the Ricoh GR, is perfect for my purposes, and ought to last at least the four years the GRD III was by my side. But I so, so regret not having stepped up my photography when I was young and documented everything I could.

 

[stillshunter]

I was going to say something about so or so camera I sold too quickly, or one I didn't buy quick enough etc., but these pale in comparison. Archiver's call below has hit a raw nerve. You are dead right mate, I really wish I, too, had done the same. 🙁

My biggest regret is not getting an Olympus XA, XA2, or similarly small and silent camera to document my teenage and university years. I've only got two sets prints from when I was 13, and almost nothing from 14-26.

This is a scenario I have mentioned a few times. Had I the knowledge, I would have got an XA or XA2, loaded it with Fuji 400 and/or Tri-X, and shot at least one roll per month throughout my teenage years and university. Concerts, orchestra rehearsals, music trips, school camps, friends and family, my final years at school, my first date, my first girlfriend, music gigs and competitions, overseas travel, everything.

Now I carry at least two cameras everywhere I go, and I've made personal documentary a way of life. My current everyday camera, the Ricoh GR, is perfect for my purposes, and ought to last at least the four years the GRD III was by my side. But I so, so regret not having stepped up my photography when I was young and documented everything I could.

 

[Ruhayat]

A bit morbid but... I regret that despite having so many sets of lenses and so many cameras, I never used them to take photos of me with my parents. Both of them have passed on now, my mum just over 2 weeks ago. Still, I have some photos of them which I had taken, including my mum in her hospital stints.

New resolution going forward: I have enough kit. In fact, more than I need so I have been culling the contents of the photography cabinet. Time to just use what I have, and use them more.

 

[CliveC]

A bit morbid but... I regret that despite having so many sets of lenses and so many cameras, I never used them to take photos of me with my parents. Both of them have passed on now, my mum just over 2 weeks ago. Still, I have some photos of them which I had taken, including my mum in her hospital stints.

New resolution going forward: I have enough kit. In fact, more than I need so I have been culling the contents of the photography cabinet. Time to just use what I have, and use them more.

I read this story on Reddit recently:

One time I found this old home movie my grandma made of their visit to the Grand Canyon back in the 50s. She's filming the scenery and a couple times you can barely see my dad and uncles run by. We're watching this in the mid '00s - 50 years later, near the end of her life. She goes "Why didn't I point the camera at them? I don't care about the Grand Canyon."
That's when I quit taking pictures without people in them.

 

[danielsterno]

slight regret: I bought my x100 used. works excellent BUT love it so much that I now wish I bought it new because it would have a longer life span- wonderful camera….

 

[Ruhayat]

I read this story on Reddit recently:

I feel the same way now. I've been going through my hard disk looking for photos of my parents and I found quite a few which I never bothered to process before because they were not so good technically. But now that they have special meaning, I don't care if the photo is blurry, tilted, whatever... I'm just thankful it has my parents in them. Good thing I never throw out anything.😱

 

[noisycheese]

I regret parting from my Hassy XPan (and actually the 500cm too). Not that I'd use them often now that am so addicted to M6 and GR1, but still it feels like wrong.

Thanks for relating that. Every now and then, I take leave of my senses and consider selling my XPAN kit to buy more Leica gear.

It has not been a serious temptation, though. Whenever the thought arises, I go look at my 24" wide XPAN prints until the the idea is kicked out of my head by common sense... 😀

 

[aizan]

i regret buying so much gear, period.

 

[jim sparx]

My biggest regret is constantly saying I'm too old to do something and now 75 years later I'm remembering all those things I could have done.
And I regret having to remember this crap.