Gear Regret : I am sorry I sold that

Jeff Kubach · May 6, 2009

I sold my Canon FD 20mm lenses a few years ago. Now I regret it. I really love that lense.

Jeff

removed account4 · May 6, 2009

i used to buy, fix and resell falling plate cameras ..
i found one years ago, that had a variable shutter speed,
and a beautiful long format. i sold it and a few weeks later
i sold a both a wollensak exwa 3 1/2 lens ( f12 ) and a air corp 90mm raptar
i miss them still ...
not to mention a record cutting lathe ( like a recordio but 33rpm ) and 25 blank plates for
making ambient noise to play behind some of my work

sorry about your situation paul! hope you find work soon ..

john

Shangheye · May 6, 2009

Hmmm...never sold anything...gave away an EOS650 with a sticky shutter...but that was a great excuse to buy an EOS1n...technically a swap

panastasia · May 6, 2009

jnanian said:
sorry about your situation paul! hope you find work soon ..

john

Not a problem John, I was really only joking. I got severance pay. I did have thoughts about selling a couple of lenses, though, to help my daughter with tuition. Thanks for the kind words.

Paul

dpurdy · May 6, 2009

It is very difficult for me to decide to sell a camera due to the fear of regret. I have a P67 with 6 lenses that I never use and can't bring myself to sell. A 4x5 with several lenses that is closet decoration but I could never sell it.

My biggest regret is a mint Rollei 3.5F sold to a friend who completely trashed it in less than a year. Including putting it in a bag with a banana that rotted and smashed into the controls of the camera. I gave her a really good deal too. Damn it.

nicefor88 · May 6, 2009

I sold a 1971 Nikkor 50mm f1,4. I had regrets almost right after. I then bought a 1972 50 f1,4, his younger brother. Will keep it as I've learned my lesson.
:rolleyes:

Kvistgaard · May 6, 2009

Canon EF 85 1.8. Regretted it so much I had to buy another one. Lesson learnt!

Maris · May 7, 2009

I should never have sold that "like new" Zeiss Super Ikonta I picked up in a thrift shop for $10. But I was young and foolish and figured that a camera that was built to deliver only 11 exposures per 120 roll would cost me a fortune in foregone pictures in the long run.

Getting that $10 back seemed like a smart idea at the time.

pgomena · May 8, 2009

Ah, yes, a Minolta SRT 102. It was ergonomically wonderful, fit my hand like a glove. Sold it and "traded up" to a Canon F1 system when I started working full time as a newspaper photographer. The Canon is like a brick, the Minolta was elegant. The quality of the negatives the Minolta produced was excellent. Still have some of the negatives, and I salve my longing by just not shooting 35mm any more.

Lesson learned. I will never sell my Rollei TLR, nor likely any of the other gear I've accumulated. Except maybe the Canon.

Peter Gomena

dbseney · May 11, 2009

Update on Plaubel Makina

In an earlier post I lamented selling my Plaubel Makina 67 and buying a Mamiya 7 with three lenses; as I said in that post, I never bonded with the Mamiya, and in fact never used it much
List member Phil from Burlington, Vermont Pm'd me that his local camera store had two on the shelf; a 67 and a W67. He was kind enough to provide me with their website. I called, spoke to Broc, the sales manager and we worked out a very fair trade; my Mamiya and lenses plus a little cash for both Plaubel Makinas
It turns out that these cameras belonged to the University of Vermont Medical School and were never used outside. As well, they were overhauled 8 months ago and come with a one year warranty.
I shipped off the Mamiya without a tear. The cameras should arrive by the end of the week. I could not be happier.

Thanks again Phil.

Donald

walter23 · May 11, 2009

david b said:
So, what piece of equipment do you regret selling

Fuji 645 wide angle rangefinder. Cute little camera, sharp as nails.

Jerevan · May 11, 2009

I miss the Arca Swiss B I once had and foolishly sold, thinking I'd never get to be able to enlarge 4x5" negatives. It was a nice, light monorail that I was able to backpack with. I wish I could find one of these again.

Trask · May 11, 2009

Donald,

Nice story, and nice of Phil to help you out with the tip. I've got a 67W and find it a great travel camera, being relatively lightweight and thin when collapsed. My one concern is that I don't find the finder image framing to be very accurate. On the other hand, I really appreciate the in-finder meter and the fact that the aperture ring has no detents so you can set precise f/stops. I hope you enjoy your two new cameras.

Trask

firecracker · May 12, 2009

Nikkormat FT-2 and Nikkor Auto O 35mm F2.

Mark Antony · May 12, 2009

For me, it is a real D'oh (slaps forehead) moment. I sold my Rolleiflex 2.8 Planar in order to buy a Canon D30 digicam in about 2001. Terrible decision.
At the time digital was the future, websites were saying the D30 was a good as 35mm and close to medium format up to 8x12"- Stupid.
I don't have the D30 it cost me about £2K but I did buy a Rollei T last summer - we can learn from our mistakes.

C A Sugg · May 12, 2009

Century Graphic with RF coupled 80mm Xenotar and 2 6x7 backs. Think I traded it for a Super Crown Graphic body. Miss that too.

Ken N · May 12, 2009

Mark Antony said:
For me, it is a real D'oh (slaps forehead) moment. I sold my Rolleiflex 2.8 Planar in order to buy a Canon D30 digicam in about 2001. Terrible decision.
At the time digital was the future, websites were saying the D30 was a good as 35mm and close to medium format up to 8x12"- Stupid.
I don't have the D30 it cost me about £2K but I did buy a Rollei T last summer - we can learn from our mistakes.

I have no regrets jumping off the digital bandwagon for a while. I'm hoping that I can be patient enough for the pixel-war stupidity to settle down.

It is amazing how history repeats itself:

3MP - better than film, look at these wonderful 13x19 prints
6MP - No wait, 6MP is better than film, we were wrong about 3MP
8MP - Cat's meow, we've finally arrived, 6MP is aweful
10MP - Finally we can print larger than 24x36
16MP - Cooking with oil! 10MP is horrid, can't even make an 8x10.
24MP - 16MP? That's just so last year. Can't even make a 5x7 with that.
60MP - We can now print 11x14!!!!!

And the beat goes on...

Lightproof · May 12, 2009

What a great summary, Ken
Digitals most serious problem for me is the lack of interchangeable sensors. As long as there isnt some severe competition on things like that I will never jump back to digital for serious photography.

PS I did sell my digital cam just to get rid of it and I will never regret it.
I was never forced to sell sth in order to buy new stuff. I just sell the "bad" stuff when I need space and my conscience allows me to do so.

Vonder · May 12, 2009

I have a near-sell storry that would have been on this list. I shoot weddings, and to help with low light I bought a Canon 24-105mm f4 IS "L" lens. Damn nice lens. Since I had a 20mm, I figured that would be wide enough for darn near anything, so my 17-40 "L" was soon to be listed on eBay...

Then I got a call from someone who needed interior shots of older, small-roomed houses. Needless to say, even the 17mm end is barely wide enough to capture a decent image in many of these tight spots.

The funny thing is, now the 24-105mm is probably going to be sold instead. IS doesn't really do much for wedding shots. There, you're more likely to have images ruined by subject movement than lens movement.

I guess as far as regrets, I do miss the Maxxum 7 I had that took fine pictures. When I wanted to add digital to my camera bag, Minolta still didn't have a *first* DSLR while Canon and Nikon had third generation cameras. So I sold all my Maxxum gear and invested in Canon. No "real" regrets with that, but man, Maxxum 7's are selling for a pretty penny these days. I did eventually get a Maxxum 800si and love it. Maybe someday I'll get another "7"...

pesphoto · May 12, 2009

Mamiya 6 with lenses. Sucks when you need money and have to sell gear.

Pumal · May 12, 2009

I would never sell any of my stuff. I lost a Micro-Nikkor 200mm f/4 a few years ago and to this day I miss it. They are difficult to get.

Sirius Glass · May 12, 2009

I lost track of a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye and a Voightlander Vito IIb when I moved out from home. I would like to have those now.

Steve

firecracker · May 12, 2009

Ken N said:
It is amazing how history repeats itself:

Exactly! Well, I've never traded my film cameras with digi stuff, but back in 2003 or 2004, I bought a pretty decent inkjet printer and was hoping I could make B&W prints with it as it was advertized and I would not need to use a darkroom anymore.

Well, a year after that, I built my first darkroom in my place and I've been using it ever since.

Ken N · May 12, 2009

I've bought and sold equipment through the years, but for the most part, everything I've sold has either been a duplication of something else or was something that I didn't really care for. All the really nice stuff I've kept. But part of that is sticking with one primary system. As a teenager I bought a pair (actually three at one point) Yashica GS/GSN cameras, but age 20 I bought an OM-2S. With the exception of various medium-format and large-format systems, I'm still using Olympus--even still using that original camera and lens.

IloveTLRs · May 12, 2009

When I needed money I sold my Canon P. That was dumb and I barely got any $ for it. I found another one a few months ago, but it had shutter problems so I got a Canon 7 instead. Nice camera, but it's not the same.

Gear Regret : I am sorry I sold that

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency