Gear Fatigue: A Declaration

At the moment I'm adopting a policy that if I see something I like (Fujifilm GF670 is current winner) I wait a couple of months for GAS to wear of and decide if I still want it. As it turns out, while I still want a GF670, it's not a burning desire any more and I can wait a bit and see what happens.
 
maclaine said:
In the last six months alone, I have bought, sold, and traded the following:

- CV Bessa R3A (traded, definitely regret this a bit)
- 40mm Nokton Classic MC (sold)
- Leica M4 (acquired in trade then sold)
- Leica 50mm DR Summicron w/ eyes (bought then traded)
- Leica 50mm Summicron tabbed 4th version (bought then sold)
- Leica 90mm Elmarit-M (bought then sold)
- Leica 40mm Nokton Classic (reacquired in trade then traded again)
- Nippon Kogaku 50mm Nikkor f/2 in Leica screw mount (acquired in trade then traded again, probably going to regret this, too)
- Zeiss Ikon (bought)
- Zeiss 50mm Planar ZM (traded some lenses and made up difference with cash)
- Canon Canonet QL17 GIII (acquired in trade)
- Olympus XA (bought)
- Mamiya M645, 45mm, 80mm, and 150mm lenses + accessories (traded)
- Mamiya C330 Professional w/80mm lens and a longer focal length that is basically junk but thrown in for free (acquired in trade)
- Sinar F 4x5 view camera (bought)
- Caltar II-S 135mm f/5.6 lens for the Sinar (bought)

I'm pretty sure that's it. That also doesn't include all of the gear I had prior to this latest intense round of GAS. Today was the day I traded in a couple lenses for the Zeiss Planar, and I plan on selling off a bunch of other stuff this weekend. I'm realizing that 95% of the shooting I do is with a standard lens, and if that's the case, then I'd like to get rid of everything that is extraneous to a one camera/one lens setup. This means I'll be down to the following:

- Zeiss Ikon with 50mm f/2 Planar
- OM-10 with Zuiko 50mm f/1.4
- Mamiya C330 with 80mm f/2.8
- Sinar F with Caltar II-S 135mm f/5.6

One camera, one lens per format. I do the bulk of my shooting these days with a rangefinder (the whole reason I'm here posting this, obviously), and I can foresee the day where I end up with one wide and one long lens, but that is a ways off. My brain is so totally fried from discovering, researching, and obsessing over new gear. I would literally find out about some new lens and swear that THAT WAS THE ONE I NEEDED, then learn about another one the next day and think the same thing. I'm not promising I'll never have a GAS attack again, of course, because I know that's not realistic, but I really need a break where the only thing I worry about is taking pictures.

I'm sure other people have come on here and posted similar rants before, but I needed to vent a little bit and put the exhaustion I'm feeling at the moment into words. Let's see how long I can stick to this promise.
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Did you have time to do any actual photography. If not then you just have to accept your hobby isn't photography. It's shopping. Are you female?
 
I get a bout of GAS regualrly. In the past months I've bought

CV15/4.5 heliar - my widest option. Used a few times but only when wide is the only option.
CV28/2 Ultron - seems to be my standard length on my RD1 and the one chosen most often.
CV28/3.5 color-skopar - bought as a smaller, lightweight option to the Ultron - used twice
50/2 Hexanon - bought for the occasions when I need that longer option - used once.
CV40/1.4 Nokton SC - bought just a couple of weeks ago. Wanted to try the speed of the 1.4. Great lens but I'm having framing problems using the 35mm framlines on the RD1. I know this is a popular lens with RD1 users but so far I'm not warming to it.

Based on the above it looks as though the 15 and 28 could do most of what I shoot, so why do I keep spending? I reckon I should shoot more and this woould help me to recognise just what I 'need' as opposed to what I want.

Along with the above I also bought a Canon G11 to replace my Oly e-420 (another camera that was barely used) and a Ricoh GRDIII for the pocket option having replaced my LX3.

And don't get me started on bags!
 
I used to want to try everything and would buy and sell regularly. Ever since I set up my darkroom and started printing I've thought less about new gear. Of course, now I think about stocking up on film and paper!
 
I found the best way not to buy stuff is not to look at stuff. You can always "justify" something you see in a catalog that you would never have considered if you were not "looking." (Catalog companies know this.)

However, collecting is a hobby were you do buy and sell items. So this is really normal behavior for collectors.
 
percepts said:
Did you have time to do any actual photography. If not then you just have to accept your hobby isn't photography. It's shopping. Are you female?
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I've had time to do plenty of shooting in the last year or so. Probably more than at any other point since I started taking photography seriously, but too often it would mean acquiring some new gear, shooting with it the next time I was in a situation I wanted to photograph, and being dissatisfied, which lead me to more gear buying and the whole cycle would begin again. I would never get a chance to learn or fully exploit the gear I was using, and would often come to resent it for not delivering the results I wanted.

And I assure you I'm quite male.
 
After embarking on this new hobby for the last 6 months, I found the following to be true:

* I shoot quite a fair bit of film (for a hobbyist), and since late Jan, I am into my 67th roll of film development, which averages to about 5 rolls a week.

* Unfortunately, I also collect quite a bit of gear. Although I try to rotate the lens/camera on a weekly basis, I find certain lens and cameras to be under-utilised.

* I seem to have a noah-complex, I have the following in pairs: SL, CL, IIIx and the Elmar 90mm.

* My last Great Promise was yesterday after I saw my latest CC bill, having received it as the same day as my Elmarit 135mm R.

Having kicked the smoking habit for the last 6 years, I think this Gear Acquisition Syndrome is proving to be quite a challenge, afterall, I can quit smoking and avoid cigarettes, but I can't avoid looking at camera gear if I am seriously into photography.

raytoei
 
Once I found my photographic purpose I ditched all the equipment that wasn't absolutely necessary and now just concentrate on taking pictures with one of the three cameras I kept: an iPhone, a Panasonic G1, and a Leica Dlux-4 which I use 99% of the time.

/T
 
Roger Hicks said:
This is a song I've been singing for a long time. You spend your money on "what you can afford" and on "bargains" and on "things that look interesting" and you end up with a load of second-rate kit, some of which you never actually use at all and much of which is used very briefly then put aside. You also end up without the money to buy the kit you really want.

It can take years to come to this realization -- it certainly did in my case -- so it's a phase that most of us go through.

In all fairness, it can also take years to find the equipment that's best for you, and there's always the possibility of an unexpected and handsome profit: my 90/2 Summicron, new, was a straight swap for a tri-lens turret for which I paid £100, and a black M3 for £200 got me a new M4-P. I suspect that these profits are a lot less common than they used to be in the days when there were many, many more camera shops with well-stocked second-hand sections: both the Summicron and the M4-P were deals in the early-to-mid 80s. But buying and selling new kit is a short cut to losing a LOT of money.

I tend not to buy anything new unless it does one of two things. Either it must do something I couldn't do before (digital, Thambar) or I must like the look it produces vastly better than what I had before. Of course 'vastly better' is subjective but it's why I replaced my 50/1.2 Canon with a 50/1.5 C-Sonnar: I just like the look much better.

Cheers,

R.
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I can't really disagree too much with this, Roger, but there are a couple of things in my case that relate to this.
1) The initial cost for "first rate gear" is relatively high and I decided that I wanted to take photos sooner rather than later. So I did start with FSU cameras. They were--and are still, really--good enough for me. I have churned through a bunch of cameras but haven't hurt myself financially along the way and have gotten a reasonable pile of images that I'm pretty happy with (and a few that are hanging in friends' and family's homes).
2) the churning through the cameras was in and of itself fun for me. After something like 10 years of pursuing this hobby, I do now have a pretty good idea of what works well for me and I don't think I could have got to that point except by trying out the cameras I have used.
3) To be honest, though, if there had been a brick and mortar store where I could have shopped, I would not have bought all of the different cameras I have owned--there have been several that, on paper (or in pixels!), seemed like something that I could use. Once I got 'em in my hands I figured out pretty quickly that they were not a good fit for me and so I sold 'em or traded them for the next potentially useful camera.
So, I suspect that for most people, that process of learning just what does work best for oneself is a process of trying as many different cameras/lenses as one can. Some of those people clearly enjoy the hunt as much as( or more than) the photography. More power to them, I say.
Rob
 
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