Holding on to equipment you don't use....

[ChristopherCoy]

How many of you hold on to equipment you don't use, simply because you're 'attached' to it?

I'm cleaning out my display case of everything that doesn't get used, and I've come to my Nikon FM. Its clean, it works, and its a nice little kit. It hasn't been shot since November of last year, and now that I have an F100, the likelihood of me picking up the FM for an outing is slim to none. The conveniences of the F100 are just too nice. So it just sits there, in the display case.

Some days I want to sell it, some days I don't. I know that it should be somewhere where someone can enjoy it and USE it, but I have become attached to it and knowing that if I sell it I may never find another one like it keeps it where it is.

How do you guys ration with keeping/selling things?

 

[Peltigera]

I expect to use all my cameras now and again but there are only three I use regularly - Voigtlander Vito II, Vitomatic II and ZI Contessamat. I am happy for the others to sit there for a few months not earning their keep.

 

[Alan W]

Last November I went on a purge of unused/rarely used gear and started selling on ebay,Rapid Omega,various folding cameras etc,then I moved on to stuff that I DiD use- the RB67,c330 s-I can't stop and now I'm left with the essentials-Until I buy more!

 

[kbrede]

What really bugs me are the pieces of equipment purchased that I've never used, or only used once or twice. I don't have a huge collection or anything, but I do need to purge a few things. For some reason it seems easier to buy than sell.

 

[danfogel]

For some reason it seems easier to buy than sell.

Amen, brother.

 

[BrianShaw]

I'm not oa gear whore but I buy what I need and want. Some of my older gear goes un-used but I just hang onto it... not because of sentimental attachment but mostly because selling is a hassle and the few times I did sell gear I got screwed too often by low-life buyers.

 

[cliveh]

Even though I have about 10 cameras I hardly ever use, they are nice to pick up, feel their weight and tactile quality, wind on, click and listen to the shutter at different speeds, watch the light reflect off the bloomed surface of the lens, need I go on, or should I see a psychologist?

 

[Steve Smith]

I tend to give away things which I am not using but I still have and will not get rid of an Edixa Prismaflex and a Nikon FG.

The Edixa because it was my first 35mm SLR which my father gave me in 1980 and the FG because it was my first Nikon (also from my father).

And now that I have inherited my father's collection (all of which I am keeping) there is even more incentive to thin out my own collection.


Steve.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

ye, that's me. i love my cameras,and it hurts to part with them.

 

[jcoldslabs]

How many of you hold on to equipment you don't use, simply because you're 'attached' to it?

Guilty as charged. Not only that, but I yearn for gear I used to have that I know I won't use. I shot with a Nikon F3 with MD-4 for years and loved it. When it was stolen twenty five years ago I didn't replace it, and even though I hardly shoot 35mm anymore and even though I have many other 35mm cameras, some crazy part of me wants to buy an F3 again. It's a sickness.

Jonathan

 

[Leigh B]

One of the universal truths I discovered long ago is that you'll always need something you recently discarded or disposed of.

This has happened to me so many times that it's as certain as the sunrise.

I avoid the problem now by keeping everything.

- Leigh

 

[Bob Carnie]

We never sell any of our equipment, I hold onto and cherish the gear that has been accumulated over the years.
We have 10 complete enlarger systems in storage for future use , as the gear we currently use gets banged around and having backups to the backups is reassuring.
Lots of stuff gets donated to us and we try to find good homes for the equipment and use what we can. Nothing goes to the resellers of camera, darkroom gear for profit, they are not welcome in our house.

 

[Grumpyshutter]

I can justify keeping all my photographic equipment, paraphernalia, odds'n'ends, gubbins, nik-naks, miss-matched lenses, out of date film, chemical dregs, 12x15 vargawassi(?) monster camera, olympus pen half frame and everything inbetween, by the simple realisation that I need it. I may not have needed it in the past. I may not need it now. It may be highly unlikely that I'll need it in the future. But someday, someday, I may need it... and that's enough for me.

 

[Grumpyshutter]

Jonathan, I have a F3 that I never use! And what's more, I got it for free (from a patient, long story...). But would I give it up? Even to a deserving case such as yourself? Not on your life...

 

[RichardH]

I have a couple of Jobo 1000 tanks and reels that I never used since I got them years ago. I thought about selling them but haven't yet. I finally brought one out from storage and developed a roll of 35mm.
That was the best experience I have had in a long time of processing film.
Very easy to load, no drips and slinging chemicals in the sink from inversions. Easy to pour into and out of.
Unless I am processing color film, I'll use them for a good while. I normally use metal tanks for color.

I do sell and give away things I know I won't use but usually regret doing it afterwards.

Richard

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I'm not attached to most of them, since most of them were just pieces to fill the display cabinet. I've shot a few, clicked a few here and there, and made plans to use a few in the future... but I'm not attached to them.

This Nikon FM is stressing me though. I haven't used it in a year, and probably wont anytime soon, but every time I pass the display cabinet I think "Thats the roots of what I shoot today". And the thing is, its not something I've had for any significant amount of time, it wasn't given to me by a cherished family member, and it doesn't really hold any sentimental value.... it was an ebay find. My first ebay find, and the camera that led me to APUG a year ago.

 

[DWThomas]

Well, how about I just say my 1800 square foot house is reminiscent of a walk-in closet and let it go at that.

 

[David Brown]

I have:

Cameras I do not use,
Tools I do not use,
Musical instruments I do not play,
Books I do not read,
Records I do not listen to,
Clothes I do not wear,
Plans I haven't completed,
and memories I can't get rid of.

What's your point? :confused:

 

[eclarke]

Use right now...can't buy it new in the future!,

 

[James in GA]

Be happy its just cameras . I had my dad's pro lab to grow up in. I would like to have a full pro lab .
My toys take up space. Or how about Ron M. he would like a R&D film coating plant only a mile long.

 

[James in GA]

Be happy its just cameras . I had my dad's pro lab to grow up in. I would like to have a full pro lab .
My toys take up space. Or how about Ron M. he would like a R&D film coating plant only a mile long.

 

[Aja B]

How do you guys ration with keeping/selling things?

People are forever confusing 'cost' with 'value'. Regardless of cost, if you place little or no value in an item then sell it. Some people need a price-tag to understand value. What's the word for those people?

 

[summicron1]

How many of you hold on to equipment you don't use, simply because you're 'attached' to it?

I'm cleaning out my display case of everything that doesn't get used, and I've come to my Nikon FM. Its clean, it works, and its a nice little kit. It hasn't been shot since November of last year, and now that I have an F100, the likelihood of me picking up the FM for an outing is slim to none. The conveniences of the F100 are just too nice. So it just sits there, in the display case.

Some days I want to sell it, some days I don't. I know that it should be somewhere where someone can enjoy it and USE it, but I have become attached to it and knowing that if I sell it I may never find another one like it keeps it where it is.

How do you guys ration with keeping/selling things?

Well, us collectors, by definition, acquire stuff we don't use, and I have a lot -- several hundreds of cameras many of which work but aren't really cameras you want to try to use. You COULD, but why, when there's a Leica sitting right there?

At times I have gotten rid of things -- gave away a dozen or so movie cameras at a camera show because they were creating a great deal of inattention at $5 each but the little kids loved them, sold the Polaroid SX 70s to some guy in Korea who paid more in shipping than he did for the cameras, and got rid of the Kodak Touristers because they were just butt-ugly.

Some I give to my kids who use them for decoration and to test their wives' patience.
But I keep the rest because they're neat, or wouldn't bring even $5 each and haven't the heart to toss.

And acquiring, and buying and selling, over the years has allowed me to acquire some nice leicas and rolleiflexes .... which are a joy to use.

 

[BradS]

Somewhere in the closet, I have a box with two 35mm kits that I will probably not use ever again, and will probably never sell. One is an original Asahi Pentax Spotmatic w/ 50 mm f/1.4 Super Takumar and the other is a very well used Pentax KX. There are a whole bunch of cool pentax lenes and accessories in there too. This stuff is far more valuable to me than the price it might fetch in the used market.

I've also got a nice Nikon kit around here somewhere...it is my user outfit...that rarely gets used. I wish there were someplace, convenient and reasonably priced to get a roll of those tiny negs developed...sigh.

 

[flatulent1]

I had a large Canon FD body collection. Last year it struck me that I was only using the T90s, so purged most of the rest. I can't, however, bring myself to part with the F1 or New F1.

I have two drawers full of Minolta gear I no longer use, but can't part with. The XD-11 is such a sweet camera.

Aaaaaand I have a pile of EOS gear, multiple copies of several bodies. Hey, you never know when one will break down...

I figure as long as I'm not tripping over the stuff, it can stay.