May be the heat but I'm tyring to ratinalize my collection

[Anonymous]

I have accumulated a healthy number of classic cameras. I am not getting them all out and running film through them. What is happening sometimes is I am taking out a most reliable camera - Pentax PZ-1 1991 vintage AF SLR to make sure I get the shot.

So while listening to the hum of the air conditioner here in Ontario and sneaking a peek to see my lawn turn brown and ignite. Outside watering ban been in effect for awhile here. Although I had a word with my neighbour who comes up from the city on the weekend and waters his lawn and actually was hosing down the vinyl siding of his place on Sunday before a thunderstorm came through over night. He wanted to make sure to get the dust off his white vinyl. I kid you not.

I contemplate my situation. Sell off some cameras. Or come up with some kind of strategy.

I have some agreeable duplications to contemplate. 1960s vintage nonreturn mirror leaf shuttered SLRs Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super and a Voigtlander Bessamatic (3 lenses each) - keep both, shoot both, sell one. Hmm.

They are reliable. But sometimes I just want to take the easy way out.

Does anyone have a rigorous schedule or logically driven strategy for using most of their gear on a regular basis?

Any rules on if not used then sell off the gear notions?

Any helpful suggestions, welcome.


In some ways, I keep coming back to the notion that I should have stuck with the first SLR I ever had, a Pentax Spotmatic 1000.

I have tried using a M42 to K adapter and shooting old lenses in stop down mode on the PZ-1 - seemed to be reasonable results.

The other strain of the disease for me includes Nikon MF SLRs and AI lenses and a few non-AI lenses that go on a F2 and an FM with the AI tab doo hickey flipped out of the way for using the non AI lenses.

It really isnt that big a problem, the cat just yawned to underscore that.   But some ideas would be appreciated.

[Alan Gage]

I tend to binge and purge. I try to stay realistic about by stable of cameras (I try not to call it collecting because collecting is too expensive ;-). I know that when I buy old cameras it's with the intent of using them, not looking at them. I do a good job not getting emotionally attached to them.

Anymore I kind of use my cameras as a savings account of sorts. I usually only buy cheap old cameras that I get pretty good deals on. I end up using most of them for one or two rolls and then that's it. Most just can't hold my attention. So then after I accumulate I bunch of them I decide to sell off all the ones I know I won't put to good use. Then I take that money and use it to buy something else. Like right now I want a Epson scanner, so I'm selling off some cameras and they should help pay for a good portion of it.

It's a win all the way around. I bought the cameras cheap, got some enjoyment from them, learned something from them, and when I sell them I usually break even (that's why it's like a savings account) and when things are going real good I'll make a profit on some.

I try really hard to not buy more cameras, epsecially when I know I won't use them, but when I see a neat old camera with a cheap price tag I just can't pass by. They just look too cool! Funny though, I never have a problem selling them off again, even for the same price I paid (or less at times). I guess it's just the thrill of the hunt and knowing that I sold it to someone that will use it.

Instead what I try to do is come up with a few cameras that just plain aren't going to be sold. These are the cameras that I shoot with on a regular basis and that I want to know very well and be very comfortable using. The other cameras I buy might be interesting for a roll or two, but are then sold again. I try to keep my number of "keeper" cameras low because I want to be very familiar with them.

Alan

[Andrea]

Been thinking similar things. I have lots of old cameras that I don't use very much or like very much in fact. I have decided to get rid of the ones with inferior lens' and ones that I just don't like keeping the nice boxes [Houghton & Butchers], the folders [Voigtlander, Franka & Zeiss] and a couple of 35mm [Retinette]. Then I might have room for a nice TLR :-)

[connealy]

I'm assuming that was a typo in the title, but retinalizing would work too.
My decision process for which camera to use is simplified by the fact that I'm too cheap to pay for CLAs.  So, at any given moment, I've only got a few cameras in good operable condition.  Just retuned the shutter on my Ikonta 6x4.5, so have film in that again.

[Gene M]

Rationality ? What the hell is that ?

[Graham Serretta]

"Rationality ? What the hell is that ?"

It's the excuse some use to justify irrational behavior....

Me, I just like to hunt down old cameras in the charity shops (it's half the fun) make 'em work if they don't (more fun on cold winters nights) and shoot film with them once in a while.  No schedule, no system, just use what takes my fancy on any particular day.  That's the rest of the fun.  I say hello to them all once a week when I trip the shutters, like old friends.  If I wind up with two of a kind, I usually wind up giving one away to my son or my photog daughter, or I'll trade for something else.

[Conrad Hoffman]

Camera collecting is not entirely rational, so attempting to rationalize it is probably an oxymoron. I'm not a big collector, but I've got maybe 15 or 20 different film cameras. I regret almost everything I've ever sold, so I rarely trim the collection. I am pretty selective in what I buy. I can't afford perfect examples of anything, but try for decent cosmetics. Usually I get a good deal because of some problem that isn't cost effective for the seller to fix. Cameras catch my fancy if they're a format I don't have an example of (2x3 Graphic), or if they have a unique design feature (the rotary shutter of the Mercury II, interchangable lenses on Mamiya TLRs), or if they're a classic model that had a wide influence (Argus stuff, vest pocket Kodak), or if the quality was superior to others (Nikon F series), or if they were free (the Minolta X-370 a friend gave me). For whatever reason I don't have any of the nicer Japanese RFs. As you can see, almost any reason is good enough for me to buy something, and I try to run a roll/sheet through everything at least once a year or so.

[nelsonfoto]

I sold three cameras recently. Iskra, Oly 35RD, an XA... I miss the Olys pretty badly, but the XA VF/RF was impossible and I couldnt adjust to shooting it blindly. The RD was/is a babe, but I got canned and needed the cash to survive July while looking for work/waiting on UI. No regrets, I do miss them tho.

Still, I've plenty of cameras, more than I need. On my desk now is my remaining Chinon CS - the GAF L-CS I parted with, donated to a guy with growing family who needed something manual for nightskies. I've got my Kowa 6, my FEDs (two 3s, a 5b), the Kiev 4A I got from Kovacs in exchange for my Moskva 5,, a Nikon N80 (need a decent lens, the 28-80 toy is piece of crap), a minolta XG1 with short lenses (had to dump the gorgeous 58/1,2 I bought for a song), a pair of AGFA Isomatics, a Reflekta, some other stuff. h, and my trusty Fuji S5000.

I suppose I suffer from GAS badly enough.

At any rate, I try to shoot them regularly enough, but my maintstays seem to be the Kowa, the Chinon and Minolta, and my S5000 digital. Trying to shoot them all, consistently, frequently, would probably be on the order of some other psychological malfunction, and I got enough problems at the moment.

[Jerevan]

Well, compared to almost anyone, I am by no means a collector, but I got enough to make me feel I have too much stuff...

I got a Nikon F3, a Pentax Spotmatic, two 'Cords (Ia and IV), two Kodak Retinas (117 and 013), a non-working Rollei 35, a Zeiss Ikon Nettar (515) and a lot of assorted junk... None of it worth any money, and too little time to actually use it all. Mostly I have used the Spotmatic and I just love the f1.4 50 mm I got...

Strangest part of equipment I have is a Turner Reich Anastigmat in an Ilex shutter which weigh about as much as my MD4-equipped F3... Don't know when I'll use that one...

Been thinking of putting some of it up for trades or something.

[nelsonfoto]

I would certainly like to own an F3. I dont think I have anything worthy of trading however.

Nice camera.

[OleTj]

If I had an F3, I would have suggested trading it for your Turner-Reich

[Jerevan]

Okay, I'll have to put up a WTT ad, dudes...  

And what would I do with a second F3?
 :wink:

[Anonymous]

thanks for posting comments - I have a new approach in mind and will sketch it out, cogitate, refine and present it here soon.


One thing I am going to think about is lens quality or personality....one specific example being a Leitz Elmar 5cm f3.5 lens.  I had some unusual and very pleasing results from this lens with NPH.

What I think I may do is get past the hurdle of the awkward film loading of Leica IIIf (including cuttng the film leader) and put the lens on a Bessa R.

In a similar fashion, use some of my M42 Super Takumar lenses on the PZ-1, to get the personality of the old lense on a more modern, more reliable body.

Anyway that is part of the strategy sketch, when I have thought out more, I will post something new.

[bruce]

By trade I am an ICU nurse. Frequently I have to deal with people who are F***ing Nuts, ( professional terminology). You find yourself trying to rationalize with someone who is completely irriational, and guess what, it never works.When I find myself going down that slippery slope, I have to remind myself who is truely being rational and who is not. Buying and using old cameras is not an exercise in rationality, so don't try and rationalize it.
 I have more cameras and stuff  than anyone could possibly need. The advantage to that I find, is that I can jump start my creativity by switching gear.I find that I work and see differently when I use different stuff. So when I get in a rut, I'll change up format, go from tlr to rangefinder, whatever. It can give me a kick start.......
 But really that is all rationalizing B.S. Lets face it, I just get off on cameras and what they can do. And its cheaper than a meth habit.

[Dan Fromm]

Does anyone have a rigorous schedule or logically driven strategy for using most of their gear on a regular basis?

Any rules on if not used then sell off the gear notions?

Bill, I went through a spell of acquiring macro lenses (lenses made for photographing at magnifications >= 1:1) in large numbers.  Nearly 60 of them, I fear.  I bought so many because they were inexpensive, I thought I could sell them profitably or at least not at a loss, and because I didn't know which I should use.  Well, after a lot of testing I've decided which ones to use.  I've sold some of the ones I've decided not to use, and more will go to eBay real soon now.  Its time to thin the herd.

Unlike many compulsive accumulators, I've resisted the temptation to buy into more than one proprietary mount system.  Nikon F is plenty good enough for me.  I see no need to invest in other SLR systems.  This isn't to say that Nikon is the best, just that it and, in alphabetical order, Canon, Contax/Yashica, generic K-mount, generic M42x1, Minolta, Olympus, Pentax, ... SLRs all are much the same.  No one is overwhelmingly superior, that's why so many have coexisted for so long.  

And that's why I don't understand the people who compulsively acquire nearly identical 35 mm fixed-lens cameras.  What one can do, all can do.  What one can't do, no other can do.  

One is enough, unless the accumulator wants to be able to shoot the same scene with more than one emulsion.  That's why I carry two Nikons.  Another reason for carrying more than one is to have a backup in case the main camera dies.  I've always carried a couple of backup S8 cameras when filming seriously, and every once in a while my main camera has died on a shoot.

I've also acquired entirely too many lenses for my 2x3 Graphics.  Same story there.  I've been selling off the ones I've decided not to use.

Now, if I could just bring myself to sell the S8 gear before S8 vanishes.  But Beaulius are such lovely artifacts.

And there's a complication.  I have a 700/8 Questar.  I used it yesterday.  Its a great lens, also, like all long lenses, very hard to take a good picture with.  If I had any sense, I'd sell it and get something shorter that by god worked consistently.  But, again, the Q700 is just too lovely to part with.

Cheers,