Fighting GAS with the honesty of viewing a camera as a tool.

So I've been gradually selling off gear with the intention of just having what I "need".

W/re to my Nikon gear, I have very sweet F, F2s, F3s, F4s and F6.

If I am honest with myself and need to pick a camera that will be used for a specific money generating job, when I look at that list it really seems the go to cameras would be the AF ones that have multiple metering options.
Back in the day when the F was the thing, yes it created (and still does) killer images.
Same for the other non AF versions that came after it.

But the reality is that modern AF cameras ARE so much better, that with the mechanical cameras apart from the nostalgia and feel good factor - which has zero bearing in a money making gig - I wouldn't use one. For model shoots the F4 and F6 just nail focus in an instant, and the metering systems are very useful. No manual racking of focus getting it just right. No futzing around when time is money. Because models need to get paid..

And yes, fondling my F, in it's beat up imaginary war correspondent glory, does scratch that fetish itch. But I find rangefinder cameras so much more pleasurable to use when I can afford the luxury of slowing down that I wonder if I should just keep the rf cameras for the "me" time, and just use the AF Nikons for the "need guaranteed results" time.

Because this is not like shooting digital where I can fire away and delete miss-focused/exposed images. Film is money.

My problem is I just appreciate fine mechanical pieces. Which is a kind of fetish. Hmm.

(As for peeps saying the advantage of mech cameras is not needing to worry about batteries - well if you can make sure to pack enough film, batteries are not an issue)

I wanted your Nikon rangefinder, but someone beat me to it. Otherwise I'm just annoyed at your selling stuff because... well, I don't need a tartan Pentax, as I have nikon glass here, but I really want to buy it anyway. A lot of your cameras are pretty cool. Maybe you'll sell me something else cool, but I do NOT need anything.

It's a thing man. I bought 6 cameras this year, and I need... one 35mm. Maybe 2.

I had an idea to try several of the older Nikons and keep what I liked best. I meant to get an F2 and FM2N, but it didn't work out that way, I now have two F3s (I had intended to give one away but wasn't done trying it so I bought as second one from a member here) an FM3A, an FA. Though I'd intended to get an all mechanical body I stopped looking. Otherwise I'll end up with one of everything and, frankly, the only reason to have more than one body for me is so I can have color and B&W loaded at the same time.

I have also decided what I have, well maintained, will last as long as anything else. If things are not reparable it'll be lack if parts, and a major reason I shoot 35mm SLR is the built in meter and the ease of it all. If the electronics die, well, why bother with the lower resolution of 135? I might as well haul around a medium format if I need an external meter.

Really, my F6 does what it does so freaking well, it replaces all the manual focus cameras I have. It has the spot like the F3 the centerweight like the FM3A, the matrix like the FA. I am not married to A or P if I want to go manual exposure, and will even use VR glass if I want to buy a stop handheld. I got an F100 for a decent price, less than the FM3A, and it also meters spectacularly well in any mode. The F100 will die first, probably the metering mode switch, and when it does, oh well. I rented it for $300.

When it comes to auto electronic whatever, I bought your N75 for a friend and was tempted to keep it, too. It's a "toy" that does everything REALLY well, and she loves it so much. Shoots aperture priority most of the time and gets good shots. Who cares if it's your mom's camera if it meters great and you get a great negative?

Autowind/focus/program Auto doesn't make it digital for me. I shoot way fewer film images, even with the F6, than digital, and I shoot differently and different subjects. That's the nature of film. I don't see any magic in fully mechanical, personally, or anything wring with it. I'm fine with batteries, I need a meter anyway. I'm also fine with fully mechanical, but...

I really just want to take some good photographs.

I like the character of FP4 and Velvia in a way I can't quite replicate in digital, else I'd have stopped this film thing 8 months ago, so I'll say "I just want to take good film photographs" I guess. But I never have a problem turning off autofocus, switching to manual, using spot, or anything else to get what I want, and if I don't embed the exif nobody else will know if I shot in P with autofocus. Nobody will care.

For myself, I've never thought of photography (especially using film, since about 2000) as a money making gig. I use film cameras because I enjoy the whole process, from bulk loading 35 film or refilling 16 mm cassettes to threading backing paper, getting spools to mesh, setting the start arrow or winding to "1" in the red window, metering manually, setting exposure, cocking the shutter, focusing, exposing, unloading at the end of the roll, putting the film into a tank, processing (the smell of the chemicals, one of "my favorite things" since before I saw Sound of Music), looking at the film hanging to dry, making prints...

I never took to digital, and never had any real love for automatic stuff on cameras.

Probably the only part of the whole process I don't like (as much) is loading 4x5 film holders; I have a terrible time making sure the film is under the guides on both sides, with the result that the last couple times I've had about one sheet in four that wound up sticking out after reinserting the dark slide -- but Grafmatics seem to have solved that for me (for some reason, the septums are much easier to load, probably because I can feel that the film is correctly inserted in the septum before loading it into the magazine).

That said, I should probably work on reducing my duplication -- but that would mean getting rid of favorites that I just don't use as much (and the point and shoots, which I wouldn't miss much, won't bring anything anyway).

As a retired JP seem to be that best camera for just shooting is a recent SLR that can worked on, has high quality fast lens, decent metering, so a F6 or Canon EOS 1V, 3 primes, wide normal, short tele (85 to 105) and along fast zoom, 70 to 200 2.8 if you shoot action or wildlife a 300 or 400 2.8 to 4. Then a rangefinder, current Leica, a 28 or 24 and 50. Then one as I would take it as my anywhere camera in the Nikon family would be the F80, a 50mm and couple of shot zooms.

In my case my top of the line AF is a Minolta 9, although I generally take the 800si as I like the readout in the viewfinder better, 24 to 135 primes for action a 200 2.8, 400 F4 and on the way a 100 to 400. Don't have a Leica so I use a Konica S 2 or 3, for travel I take the 9 as it is WR, or the 600si with a 35 to 70 F4 and prime. I do have digital bodies, the Sony A bodies I have will work with all Minolta A mount lens.

I also shoot MF and LF, more in the winter when I can hike in the desert.

That being said I still like to shoot my Konica Ts, Pentax, Kowa and Petri just for fun.

F6. I just got back from the park. Leica M2, Cosina Voigtlander 50 1.5. Ektachrome, sunny with big fluffy clouds, light changing constantly. I have F5s, still need a F6. When I shoot chrome with F5 I auto bracket. Wonderful feature.

If you intend to shoot chrome, there's only 1 camera that will work in changing light.

I don't shoot film for money, just for the enjoyment and documentation of family. For shots that count and make me money I roll out the digital.

There are so many cameras to try and not enough time or money. Same goes for film.

Cholentpot said:

I don't shoot film for money, just for the enjoyment and documentation of family. For shots that count and make me money I roll out the digital.

There are so many cameras to try and not enough time or money. Same goes for film.

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Absolutely true. I love to develop film. Otherwise, crazy. E6 is fun but crazy expensive.

For 'fun' I much prefer a Leica M3 to a Nikon F. An M4 to an F2. An M7 to an F3. Even though of course all can make superb images. Or not.

I don't find the F6 'fun'. The F4 is a bit more fun because it has knobs and is less complicated, but still not exactly fun. But they - along with so many other AF slrs (N75, F80 other brands too) - just give such CONSISTENTLY great results, they really are more tool-like.

I love tools, I have 10 different drills alone, all have a purpose.....you can not have enough tools.

I love cameras; as a tool and as portable, functional art. I like looking at them, working on the broken ones and occasionally shooting with them; they make me feel good.
I have a lot of them and I won't apologize for having them.
Do they make me a better photographer? No.
Do I expect them to? No.
I have given away many cameras to young people who express a genuine interest in film photography; people who I feel will pursue at least a reasonable attempt at learning and using said camera.
Tools can be works of art too...

Kino said:

I love cameras; as a tool and as portable, functional art. I like looking at them, working on the broken ones and occasionally shooting with them; they make me feel good.
I have a lot of them and I won't apologize for having them.
Do they make me a better photographer? No.
Do I expect them to? No.
I have given away many cameras to young people who express a genuine interest in film photography; people who I feel will pursue at least a reasonable attempt at learning and using said camera.
Tools can be works of art too...

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I love cameras too! If something is a burden get rid of it.

The way I look at it, there are users, collectors and user/collectors. I'm in the user/collector category. I don't need to have all of the equipment I do but I enjoy using it and just having it keep me company. By now I take more digital photos with my cell phone than with other digital cameras but most of my picture taking is still with film. Yesterday I picked up a processed roll of Fuji 400 color print film. I shot the roll with a Yashica FX-3 with a 50/1.4 Yashica ML lens which I recently got. Last week I shot a test roll of Fuji 200 color print film with a Konica FT-1 and a 105/4 Macro Hexanon with the Auto Helicoid. I now have three of the 105 lenses and two Auto Helicoids. The camera I used before that was a Canon New F-1. I have a Nikkormat FT3 out for an overhaul and I hope to pick it up by the end of the month. Do I have too many cameras? That's for me to decide. I don't agree that a Nikon F5 is needed to shoot slide film in changing ight. A Minolta X-700 (1981) does a fine job with that.

“It’s (just) a tool” is one of the most overused, misused and empty idioms in the English language today.
Together with others like “build like a tank” and “room filling sound” to mention two others from the tech realm.

Tools is one of the most defining and important aspects of being a human.
Possibly the most important.
If mammals are tinkerers, we humans are master tinkerers.

Tools are extensions of our body and mind, in the most visceral and profound way imaginable.
The tools we use, turn right back and shape us. Both in the second and over millennia.

It’s part of the symbiosis and synergy that we should have strong emotional bonds to our tools. Have some with much social status and “amenity” value and others that are prosaically produced and used for a single job and maybe never.

It’s quite evident and canonical in stone tools.
Some axes took weeks to make, being polished masterpieces of stone knapping and grinding.

While other tools where just plain utilitarian scrapers and planers, that could be produced by a child in seconds.

Huss said:

For 'fun' I much prefer a Leica M3 to a Nikon F. An M4 to an F2. An M7 to an F3. Even though of course all can make superb images. Or not.

I don't find the F6 'fun'. The F4 is a bit more fun because it has knobs and is less complicated, but still not exactly fun. But they - along with so many other AF slrs (N75, F80 other brands too) - just give such CONSISTENTLY great results, they really are more tool-like.

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When working I never thought of a camera as fun, I wanted the best tool, given that it something came down to which system my employer used, (Nikon) and support and repair world wide. Reason, Canon, Minolta, Pentax all made very usable cameras with great lens but at the time Nikon had best support network. In the end it comes down to the image. When I was showing and sell collectors rarely asked what camera or lens, it was the image that all that mattered.

awty said:

I love tools, I have 10 different drills alone, all have a purpose.....you can not have enough tools.

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This is the post that needs an upvote button.

Huss said:

I don't find the F6 'fun'.

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I can see that.

I don't really have enough interest to find the Leica price difference to match the fun difference, though. But there is a certain something sometimes, like how the FM3A has a needle meter that I find REALLY easy to understand, so when I'm experimenting with exposure I know how much I'm going one way or another. Handling things that make a difference.

Rangefinders are smooth as polished glass when you press that shutter button. Something satisfying about it. Leicas handle beautifully all around.

But, again, I dropped out of film in the F4 days and didn't drop back in until last November. 15 years of digital nikons, setting my aperture via dial vs knob doesn't mean much. I find it fun, and familiar enough that the camera gets completely out of my way. Much of the fun for me right now is when the film is developed, more than handling the camera itself.

I suppose if I'd been shooting leica for a couple decades I'd have a different perspective.

GAS is pure nonsense but i found that if i accepted that i am a degree of vain and shallow then buying crap became guilt freeish

Other times when I am deep into "making images" and "printing" then the GAS goes away and i feel slightly embarrassed for being so shallow.

But it's hardly like youre mainlining smack and gambling the kids college fund though when you buy another pointless camera and these days you always get your money back if not more so... its relatively benign if a bit unconstructive for actual photography. it can still be educational in appreciating the history of the design of cameras though which are works of art in themselves.

mshchem said:

Absolutely true. I love to develop film. Otherwise, crazy. E6 is fun but crazy expensive.

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I have E-6 in freezer. It's too expensive to develop so it sits for now.

Huss said:

For 'fun' I much prefer a Leica M3 to a Nikon F. An M4 to an F2. An M7 to an F3. Even though of course all can make superb images. Or not.

I don't find the F6 'fun'. The F4 is a bit more fun because it has knobs and is less complicated, but still not exactly fun. But they - along with so many other AF slrs (N75, F80 other brands too) - just give such CONSISTENTLY great results, they really are more tool-like.

Click to expand...

Leicas are expensive fun. I don't have the budget for that kind of fun.

I like knobs, doohikies, dongles and all sorts of fiddly bits on my fun cameras. I also like cameras that do everything. And some cameras are fun and some are not. I love the original MJU, it's just fun. I don't love the M645, it's not much fun. I love the results though. XA? loads of fun, Pen F? Fun fun fun. C3? Fun but a pain. I can go on and on. Some cameras have soul, some don't.

And of course the "professional look" can get you farther then one that doesn't look the part!

I played the part of a paparazzi at the dedication of Hugh Hefner Drive in Las Vegas and I was moving this group around to get some shots and they actually listened and obeyed my directions that I figure was because I had my EOS 1, white L lenses and big flash as well as an invite to "cover" the party afterwards. Nobody even checked me for credentials as my gear must have said it all . . .

Fuji Superia 400-05-16-ICEF by Les DMess, on Flickr

When I retired from architecture in 2012, my cameras ceased to be tools and became my play toys. I've had so much more fun since then.

A few years ago it dawned on me, finally!! that I could have done almost all my photography throughout my long life with one SLR and at most two lenses (my choices would have been 28-35 and 85-90 with maybe a macro 55-60 when I feel like exploring caterpillars' tonsils.

For me, the concept of using a camera as a tool would have taken a lot of the fun out of my shooting. Although like at least one other poster here, i too enjoy the complexities of using mechanical cameras, fiddling around with various settings, choosing filters, analysing the light conditions, and the rest that goes with photography. Which is why I own 16 cameras in five formats (I had 60+ of the beasts in 2012, so hey!!), and several boxes of accessories. Not to forget my now-minimalist darkroom, which still serves me well after 60 years of playing in the dark (with films and paper, let me say).

I started with B&W in 1961 (yo, let us sing the praises of Verichrome Pan!!), moved to color negative when Kodak spiffed up its films in the late '60s and wedding parties began to demand color coverage, moved to Kodachrome and Ektachrome and later Fuji and Agfa brands (which I now greatly regret because of fading), back to color negative in the 1990s, to digital for color in the late '00s, and now back to B&W for film. My wheel certainly has come full circle.

Cameras. From Yashicas to Rolleis to Pentaxes to Nikkormats to Contax Gs to Hasselblads (I'm still trying to forget the $$$ I threw into those) to old folders to Nikon digitals. Cleared out most of the lot between 2012 and 2015 after I retired and we downsided for a move. Now Nikon Ds (too many) and a few oldies I've kept from my list. A Rolleicord Vb I bought for A$95 is the most fun to use, then a Contax G1 with a Biogon 28, then my D800. The others get a film now and then. I will probably sell more later this year when we start coming out of C19.

GAS is fun in its place and time, but my life-wheel turns on and on... Time passes, things change. As my Buddhist friends like to say, in the summing up, "sh*t happens".

Ditto the darkroom. I run hot and cold about this. For years I did all-night printing sessions, boosted on by good music (thank you, universe, for inventing internet online music) and good red wine. The music endures, but the wine is now with food only. Of my many enlargers, the most expensive (and littlest used) was a Leitz Focomat 1c with an Ilford Multigrade head I paid a shipload of money for, now sold, hardly ever used. An old ex-lab LPL 7700 and below the lens VC filters do me fine now. Also paper. The best FB for prints for many years. Now I buy what's cheapest in RC at my retailer and my prints look just the same - some would say, as lousy as ever, never mind).

Many, many salutary lessons learned as I went, about GAS, meaning, also meaninglessness.

But it has all been good adventures and great fun, which is what I wanted, expected, and got out of my photography. And hope to go on expecting, and getting, for a few more years, until I decide it's time to hang up my darkroom apron and go shopping for a rocking chair. If/when it happens.


All the rest is basically just academic and so much theorising, which at my age I now look upon as mostly barking at planets in the universe.

But then again, it's all for fun, yes??

The purist in me craves all-mechanical cameras. The techie in me craves AF electronic wonders. I can afford to indulge both, so why not? It’s not like I want every camera out there. Just one (or two) of every Nikon F.

I won't claim to have more than a superficial understanding of it, but shenpa is a useful concept for me when I get the urge to buy yet another toy:

https://www.lionsroar.com/how-we-get-hooked-shenpa-and-how-we-get-unhooked/

I eventually came to the realization that no matter what I bought, I'd ride on a wave of new-toy enthusiasm for a few months max, but eventually wind up feeling that something was still lacking in my life, and I'd be craving something else soon enough. It seems that even winners of big lotteries don't necessarily wind up happier. I've seen a lot of very nice toys come and go, but had I kept them all, today I might be freaking out about lack of space, lack of money or simply bummed out about seeing them in a sorry state of decay due to negligence.

I got into a D-Day re-enactment because I brought an Argus C3 with me. Next year I'll bring the Crown Graphic and a hat.

Like you, I love well made, classic photography gear, and it's fun to shoot. But I use an AF camera w/ AE and AE Lock for my manual focus lens. It's just so much faster and easier to nail focus and know the camera is going to expose the shot correctly. The motorized film advance is seldom used for anything, but again, not having to manually advance the film makes things faster.

The shenpa thing is just about our every day desires, but desire is actually a secondary effect, not causation. The cause is attachment, how we won't let go and let reality just be what it is. It's like the book titled After Enlightenment, the Laundry. Lion's Roar can make the simplest things enormously complicated, but it makes for good reading.

I think that you are undervaluing the worth of the F2 for professional work.

Sure, it's more difficult to use for action and moving subjects but people managed to do it with theirs for years on end.

It's my favorite camera. I feel I can do anything with it.