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Selling up and moving on

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I would take the other side and say do it. Sell! If you are not happy using the gear, there is no point hanging onto it. There is of course a period during which you need to get accustomed to gear before you know if you really like it, but it sounds as though that period is long gone for you. If it is a struggle to enjoy it and get the results you want of out of it, there is no reason you should keep trying to push that boulder uphill. You have the M9, which is a wonderful camera capable of producing excellent large prints, as is the Mamiya 7 and the Toyo 4x5. I can't imagine their quality not being enough for any standard application...I am not sure if you are a working pro or not, but if not, the client side of things should not be an influence. Just go with your gut...
 
...For myself I've really started to question the labour saving of digital capture and whether or not the convenience is real or imagined...
Robert this is so true, at least for personal work, I often take an M6 or Mamiya 7 and bunch portra. When I get back, take it to the lab (which is convenient here in HK), go for good value lunch at a little restaurant around the corner called Il Miglio, couple of glasses of wine, spend time with my wife and afterwards we have a bunch of beautiful C type prints (plus a CD) to enjoy over a coffee and select a few enlargements from. No messing around with colour editors to get skin tones looking good ... Now that's what I call enjoying photography!
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Robert this is so true, at least for personal work, I often take an M6 or Mamiya 7 and bunch portra. When I get back, take it to the lab (which is convenient here in HK), go for good value lunch at a little restaurant around the corner called Il Miglio, couple of glasses of wine, spend time with my wife and afterwards we have a bunch of beautiful C type prints (plus a CD) to enjoy over a coffee and select a few enlargements from. No messing around with colour editors to get skin tones looking good ... Now that's what I call enjoying photography!
:OT:
Can you recommend a good lab in Hong Kong? I'm only there occasionally, but the need may arise.
 
I would take the other side and say do it. Sell! If you are not happy using the gear, there is no point hanging onto it. There is of course a period during which you need to get accustomed to gear before you know if you really like it, but it sounds as though that period is long gone for you. If it is a struggle to enjoy it and get the results you want of out of it, there is no reason you should keep trying to push that boulder uphill. You have the M9, which is a wonderful camera capable of producing excellent large prints, as is the Mamiya 7 and the Toyo 4x5. I can't imagine their quality not being enough for any standard application...I am not sure if you are a working pro or not, but if not, the client side of things should not be an influence. Just go with your gut...
Stuart, that is precisely my sentiment. My main income is not from photography, but I do some jobs. One of my businesses is a large format fine art print lab so repro work features in that.

There's more to this story. I was sold 2nd hand gear as new by the local dealer and very very poor service until Alpa HQ stepped in and sorted it out. Almost all photography dealerships in HK/China seem to be run by Clowns'R'Us international Ltd. Pulling out all the packaging from storage yesterday, I realise I never really got over it all (or maybe knowing this has cost 1'000s of $ rekindled the flames), I still feel very bitter.

I now have some trusted dealers overseas, so pay more and ship everything in. Without a good dealer this gear is a minefield and has cost me far more in the long run. My main point here is find someone you can trust, or just stick with the good guys who have earned a reputation. It's hard for small companies like Phase or Alpa to know what's going on in the world, so the dealer is critical. Select him/her as you would an employee because they're like an extension of your business and could easily ruin it for you.

All said and done, it took at year to learn that hard way what is right and wrong for me. In the end it comes down to that. That's why I post this here, in the hope that it might help someone thinking about technical camera's can benefit from the mistakes I made.

Phase One are one of the few who have a presence in HK (most companies use distributors). I hope I can conclude this by sticking with my IQ160 and switching to a large format camera with sufficiently accurate movements. And hopefully Phase/Mamiya will come out with their new SLR soon.
 
:OT:
Can you recommend a good lab in Hong Kong? I'm only there occasionally, but the need may arise.
Yes, absolutely:
For large format fine art output - My company - the best in HK :) haha, I apologise my website is being rebuilt right now.

For labs:
- C41 and small C Prints: (1hr to CD, about 1.5hrs for 4R/5R) Dot-Well Photo Workshop
- Slide/C41 (up to 4x5) East Asia Professional
- Slide/C41 (up to 4x5) their website seems to be down: Flat B, 5/F., North Point Ind Bldg., 499 King's Road, North Point, H.K. (852) 2889 0171
- Slide (up to 4x5) and lambda output: Color Six (but recently they cannot process in the same day, don't expect any kind help)

There's another bunch in Wanchai near east asia pro, but cannot remember their name, email me if you need more.

To be honest I use dotwell all the time and haven't shot 4x5 for a year. A friend has borrowed my Toyo and I believe he's shooting slide only and processing in Colorsix or East asia pro. I used to shoot portra mainly on my 4x5 and used christco.
 
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