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Things Change - Equipment Is Transitory

Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
I had my E-5 out for the first time in three months or so, doing some testing with the Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 that I purchased recently (for use with the GXR and A12 Camera Mount, when it arrives) and comparing it to the Olympus ZD 50mm f/2 Macro. What a brilliant old lens the Nikkor is, and what marvelous camera the E-5 is! I don't really need it any more, my photographic goals and shooting needs have changed so radically this year such that the work I outfitted myself with the E-5 kit to handle doesn't exist.

So do I sell it off or keep it for that very infrequent use? It's lovely equipment ... the body is superbly responsive, produces outstanding image quality, the lenses are equally superb ... but it seems silly to have what amounts to $5000 or more worth of excellent camera gear sitting in the closet unused.

It's the Photography which endures, not the equipment.
 
Jorgen Udvang

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Interesting viewpoint, Godfrey, but people are different. I love to move back and forth along the timeline; Nikon today, film tomorrow and maybe m4/3 after that, and sometimes I explore the same motive with different gear, getting fundamentally different results. But I'm a child, a very old child :)
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
:)

I like to do the same too, but I find myself accreting way too much stuff and my other personal aesthetic kicks in ... I hate clutter: it confuses me. Too many choices means too many decisions to make. So I go through cycles of acquisition then pruning.

I'm not ready to sell the DSLR kit just yet. But I've ordered this year, lessee, GXR plus two camera units that I've been using, for M-bayonet six-seven lenses plus the new camera unit and an M4-2 body. Next year, an M9 too. That's more than doubled the number of things in the equipment cabinet I need to manage and think about. A pruning will happen ...

Creativity blossoms in an environment of constraints, for me anyway.
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
As I said, it invokes more decision making, which often distracts. AND, it requires more storage space and management.

Others differ .. They never get rid of anything .. but I prefer to keep the things I need to deal with to a minimum. :)
 
Jack

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
My happiest days gear wise were when I got down to just a few minimally complete systems. For me, having too much gear is an impediment to my creativity -- but it took me several years to understand that, and then a few more to embrace it. Having fewer choices forces me to focus on compositions I know I can make with the gear I'm toting. Another benefit is I don't waste shooting time thinking about, "If I had only brought my XXX body and YYY lens, I could have got THAT shot!" And of course using less gear more breeds enough familiarity to using it instinctively, and when that happens "the gear" gets out of the way and my focus is fully on vision, creating and capturing.
 
Jorgen Udvang

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
When I travel, I mostly bring 3 primes and a WA zoom, and nowadays I bring one film and one digital body, but I only use one camera/one lens in the morning and another camera another lens in the afternoon. Mostly, I'm so concentrated around what I do that I don't even remember what else is in the bag. What I left at home? Never ever think about it. The day I do that, it's because I've lost interest in photography and become a camera collector.
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Jorgen Udvang said:
Better concentrate on Olympus OM then. Except the OM-1, and mine is sadly beyond repair, they all use the same batteries, and they are tiny with no charger. Those were the days...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KODZtjOIPg
Click to expand...
I love that song. Ironic to think she was singing it when she was so young.

My solution is to go totally retro on the "spare" camera: a Leica M4-2 body as backup. No meter, all mechanical, no batteries at all. And stick a Kodak Pocket Photoguide in my bag for exposure estimating with the cardboard calculators.

It feels like that's going to be a great complement to the GXR + A12 Camera Mount.

;-)
 
PeterA

PeterA

Well-known member
I believe one cant have enough camera gear - but I also would have no problem with one camera and one or two lenses- been there done that. So default for me is to sell nothing.
 
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