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funny thing ...

Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
I've made my decisions now. I'll be working with Leica RF and Nikon SLR gear, both film and digital, mostly with Leica and Nikon lenses of all ages. I'll be working with the Leica X typ 113 digital camera. I'll shoot with Hasselblad SWC, a couple of Polaroids, and a nice old Voigtländer Perkeo II once in a bit for the different view of the world they offer.

Everything else in the camera closet is marked for sale.

As my thoughts turn more to photography using this equipment, I am finding much of the great debates on this and other camera forums of less and less relevance. Yeah, I can still get a jones going for a particular lens or other gizmo, but by and large I am finding it hard to think of further equipment I'd like to buy. What I've got in the list above is good enough, is so satisfying to use and to make photographs with there's just not much point to buying more stuff. It's more interesting to me to figure out how to organize my work and home schedules to create more time to go shooting.

"For the moment" ... perhaps. Yeah yeah.

Now to get off my butt and sell all the excess stuff in the closet ... :)

G
 
4season

4season

Well-known member
Godfrey said:
I am finding much of the great debates on this and other camera forums of less and less relevance
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You and me both, Godfrey: I enjoy new-camera novelty as much as the next guy, but my attention span is limited. And the photo-related toys which actually make genuine and lasting contributions to my photography are relatively few and far apart. And they often seem to be unglamorous things like a soft box.
 
Jorgen Udvang

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
4season said:
You and me both, Godfrey: I enjoy new-camera novelty as much as the next guy, but my attention span is limited. And the photo-related toys which actually make genuine and lasting contributions to my photography are relatively few and far apart. And they often seem to be unglamorous things like a soft box.
Click to expand...
I'm more or less in the same camp, but with Nikon only plus some medium format film when I have time, which i don't very often. Still, there's the choice between MF or AF, prime or zoom... all these headaches, and now the AF of my trusty, old 80-200 AF-S seems to be giving in. What to do, what to do.
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Godfrey said:
I see the brown truck is due to deliver the D750 today.
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The D750 arrived last evening. No time to use it right now, but I checked that everything was included and put the battery on charge. It's just a little lighter and a little smaller than the F6, has a similar feel. Nice.

I suspect this is the last camera I'll be buying for quite a time, other than the one other Leica RF body ... And whether I do that is still up in the air.

Most of my online time has been spent looking at photos. :)

G
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
4season said:
There, fixed it for you.
:ROTFL:
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LOL! I fixed it even more. I cancelled the pre-order for the MM246. They're still just dribbling in anyway ... I figure if/when I want one again, they'll likely be more available anyway. :)

Started figuring out the D750. Compared to figuring out the X or M-P, it's like trying to figure out a starship based on using a rowboat. So many buttons, knobs, dials, controls ... It's amusing.

G
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Had to laugh at both myself and the Nikon D750 manual ...

I was trying to set Auto ISO for Aperture priority mode. First off, the ISO Sensitivity chapter in the manual doesn't appear until page 134 (!!) ... One of the most basic and essential settings for a photographer and it's not presented until way after a bunch of non-essential stuff like making movies, and seventeen different automation modes.

Then I read how they've implement it for A mode ... No wonder I was confused! They don't show "AutoISO" in the UI unless you're in idiot mode with a CPU lens, it seems. You set a menu option to enable auto ISO in PASM modes, set up the max limit and the min shutter speed, then it will reflect whatever minimum ISO you set, and warn you when it raises ISO. It's an utterly different UI convention from anything else I've used in the past decade. LOL!

I understand the logic, now that it's been explained, but wow ...
I'll get to Talos 4 eventually. I'm just looking for the oarlocks at the moment. :)

G
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
JohnW said:
This sell-off still leaves you with a heap of gear, at least by my standards. Way more than I could cope with. But I realize we all have our unique thresholds and ways of working.
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Yes, indeed: It's still a boat load of gear. But it amounts to a fifth of all the equipment currently filling the closet. What I want to see is four sparsely populated shelves of gear and the rest free space; I'm comfortable with that.

JohnW said:
...
There's definitely an inverse relationship between my quantity of gear and quality/satisfaction from photography. So I'm definitely with the spirit of your initiative.

And isn't it true that once you arrive at this perspective, the endless discussions of equipment and the NEXT BIG THING begin to sound downright silly? Few things are more satisfying than going deeper into the creative and personally expressive dimensions of this wonderful hobby.
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Hobby, career, avocation ... whatever you call it, it is immensely rewarding once you let go of all the shiny-new-glittery-object-ness part of it and get into the story telling, the visualization and rendering, the aesthetics, and so on. Yes indeed again. :)

G
 
4season

4season

Well-known member
When it comes to dieting or gadget-buying, I think will-power and rationalizing only work up to a point! I'm not at the point where shiny new toys genuinely don't interest me, but at least I'm starting to recognize familiar thought-patterns and realize that a lot of what I'm after isn't the thing itself, but the state of mind I get when I think of all of the wonderful things I might experience as the result of buying it.

If only there really was a proverbial "It" product or brand that would keep me satisfied for keeps! But one look at the For Sale forum tells me otherwise. :LOL: Much of it probably someone else's old dream setups, some of them still the very latest models.

For now I'm satisfying some of my new-camera urges by buying old film cameras: Steering clear of the still-pricey dream machines like the Nikon F6, various Leicas, Nikon SP rangefinder, Hassy Xpan, Plaubel Makina 67 (higher price = higher expectations after all) and focusing on cheap 'n cheery stuff I mostly missed the first time around, stuff that can be had closer to $50 rather than 500 (or heaven forbid, 5000). And one thing that I'm playing with right now is half-frame 35mm. Not the obvious (and also larger and heavier) Pen F or FT, but rather, Canon Demi, the scale-focusing Olympus Pens, and so on. It occurred to me that a Pen D Mk I might be fun: Fully manual camera with uncoupled selenium meter, how easy is that? No need to carry a separate meter, spare battery, maybe not even a second roll of film! I had not seriously considered traveling with a film camera for quite awhile, but when it becomes so small and hassle-free, why not?

Mistakes/wrong-turns: By sticking with lower $$ purchases I hope to be able to experiment much more freely than if I had hundreds, or thousands of dollars on the line, maybe earn some lunch money reselling the bits that didn't charm me as much as hoped.
 
Tim

Tim

Active member
I've got a bit of a different angle. I am staying off the bleeding edge.
I bought and played in the Sony A7xx for a bit but for my output the price to output ratio is too poor.
I can't justify the AU$4K A7rII as much as I like the output.

so... to retain some sanity in the money I am spending I've picked up a new but bargain priced cashback X-T1.
But only one lens for now, maybe add another when I need it.
Its 18 month old tech but nothing wrong with it. I feel better about having not paid full release price.
Right now its about bang for buck. If my prints don't go over 11x14 will the Fuji be enough?

I've resisted the GR II as the GR I have still yields me images.

I also have been looking at images a lot more than gear lately.
I spend more dreaming time considering creative ideas rather than gear now.
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Ah, Sean Connery was a sharp-looking young man in that photo. I remember seeing that movie in first run... !

The reality of modern DSLR cameras comes pounding down on me as soon as I pick up the D750. The F6 and M-P really are complex enough for me, the D750 has so much STUFF in it; it takes a while and some familiarization for it to become simple again. I'm making headway, but I may have to produce a version of the instruction manual organized around what I need/want to use rather than this 500+ page long tome that drifts off into several dozen ways to slice a carrot into five round chunks.

My mind flits back to Brad's Leica M Edition 60 body ...

G
 
4season

4season

Well-known member
My original camera-buying plan for 2015 was that the 90mm Sony FE macro lens would be the big buy of the year. And I still think this is a fine idea, as I had been wanting such a lens long before the FE was even a rumor. Tentatively planning on picking it up at the next tent sale event at Mike's Camera (Oct? Nov?). I tend to be in a more of a gear-buying mood in the colder/darker parts of the year.

Sony A7R Mk II sounds swell, but doesn't seem to address anything that I was really needing addressed with my A7 Mk I. And in any event, it'll be superseded by something else soon enough. I think it's a safe bet that some familiar names will be preordering that thing as soon as it's announced: How did they ever manage to live with the Mk II's shortcomings?
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Amin said:
Back when I used to smoke, I noticed that right after a cigarette was when it was easiest to imagine myself quitting ;).
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:) I never smoked, but I've heard the same from other friends.

The Nikon is quite a beast of a machine. I suppose that having all the options beyond what the F6 has is a good thing, ultimately, but I'd be satisfied with something a bit simpler. No matter, I've been too busy to put much energy into it as yet. The little that I've learned about it so far convinces me that it does what I wanted and I can simplify its use for my purposes by ignoring the bits I don't need, once I know enough. Must get through this week's deadlines, then things will lighten up a bit.

And at that point, I can restart The Reduction sales program. I'll carry through on the plan and put all the excess out the door, put the money in the bank. Leica RF and Nikon SLR, a couple of specialty film cameras for fun. It'll work. :)

G
 
Jack

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Lots of great points here!

Firstly for me, it is all about the image -- and of course that is mostly about content and composition not technical prowess. Granted, I run a photo forum so need to try out cutting edge tools, but end of day many of the newest-latest-greatest gear leaves me yawning. I like digital convenience, but sorely miss my view camera(s) ability to allow me to compose seamlessly...

Godfrey mentioned using gear that is "satisfying to use," Tim mentioned staying "off the bleeding edge" of technology, Jorgen older glass --- there is a strange and welcome comfort in all of that for me...

Good thread, got me thinking about photography as art again!
 
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