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

[MattKing]

Christopher:

A Nikon FM makes a great backup for an F100. It is an ideal candidate for a camera that can sit happily unused for a long time, always ready to fill in when the batteries in your other cameras have died.

Just store it without batteries, and exercise it a little every few months.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I do use all of my equipment, but some as not as much as I would like to.

Jeff

 

[Patrick Robert James]

My rule of thumb on this is simple. If I didn't have it and I had a chance to buy it at the price I would get by selling it, would I buy it? If the answer is yes then keep it. If it is no then sell it.

You could also do the coin flip trick. Heads-sell, tails-keep. When the coin is in the air you will know whether to sell it or keep it. You won't need to see it land....

 

[lxdude]

I do use all of my equipment, but some as not as much as I would like to.

Jeff

You're gonna hafta get a girlfriend

 

[Steve Roberts]

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?

You've summed up some of my thoughts. Cameras (or any item of equipment) have more value than simply their intended purpose. As an engineer, I have an appreciation of the construction and design of some cameras that I rarely or never use. Like werewolves, they tend to emerge late at night when everyone else is in bed, and I marvel at the silky smooth shutter, the amazing lack of backlash in the focussing or the ingenuity of the metering system......
Dave (better not use my real name here!)

 

[benjiboy]

I've been thinking about this and after more than fifty years of photography the sum total of the equipment I own and don't use are two mm 50 mm lenses and two light meters. I rationalized all my equipment into an outfit that made sense over twenty years ago when I downsized my large family house to a much smaller one when my children left home to go to university, before we moved house we got rid of everything that wasn't absolutely necessary, now all my lenses and accessories fit and work correctly on all my Canon FD bodys, and my set of lenses, prism focusing screens etc. fit both of my two Mamiya C330F bodys.
I would rather spend any money I can afford to spend on my photography maintaining the equipment I use regularly rather than on more "stuff" I don't use, I wonder how many of the people who have dozens of cameras they don't use last had the ones they do use regularly C.L.A.d

 

[mhanc]

I am a devoted minimalist and am in the process of getting my stash down to only the three cameras that I use regularly.

At this point, I have only two cameras left to find new homes for. Problem is their current market value is low enough that I would rather just keep them for display as examples of amazing industrial art. However... that violates my minimalist urges... which makes me want to sell... which...

 

[BradleyK]

Although I have far more Nikon 35mm bodies that I can reasonably use (10 at last count) at one time, I do make a point of rotating through my "inventory" to keep all in functioning order. The exceptions, however, are a pair of mid-70s chrome F2s (both with DE-1 finders) that are each in need of a CLA. I vacillate between sending the pair to Sover Wong for the necessary work and leaving them in the equipment cupboard for eventual disassembly as parts cameras...

 

[moviemaniac]

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

So true... I scrapped a jobo cpp 4111 a year ago thinking I'd never ever use it again - a few months later I was back shooting film. Still hurts thinking about it, no matter how old it was and not knowing whether it even worked after sitting in the cellar for about 8 years after last using it. I keep telling myself it was a goner just to put my mind at ease
I could however never sell my EOS 300, the first camera I bought with my own money nor my Agfa Optima which was given to my father by his employer decades ago and he sort of passed it on to me (I always used it as a kid, he never officially gave it to me )

oh, and hi APUG

 

[benjiboy]

I can remember I found it a very liberating feeling to get rid of all the stuff we didn't use, not just photographic equipment, but household junk that we had accumulated in nearly twenty years in our last house.

 

[LarryP]

I have 3 I should get rid of, yashica gsn - bad seals and POD that will go sometime soon probably, a fed 5b bad slow speeds but great otherwise and a perkeo1 great little folder but just don't use it since I got the pentax 645. The first two I wouldn't get enough for both to cover the cost to me for one of them debating just putting them in the trash to get rid of them. I keep telling myself I'm going to take I'll take the perkeo out.I should sell it to someone who will use it and appreciate it as a user.

 

[Bruce Robbins]

I've just written a post about this very subject on my blog. I think I said it was like trying to decide which of your children to keep and which to give up for adoption. If you're like me and find it hard to part with much-loved cameras, you end up with more than 30 - and that's just the 35mm cameras. My 120 "collection" has been growing as well...

 

[Matthew Cherry]

My GAS tends to manifest itself a bit differently. I don't own a lot of cameras, in fact I have standardized on a scant few (basically one per format). But when I do get one, then I feel like I need to own the complete system. For my RZ67 ProIID I just bought the battery extension that allows you to keep the battery for the camera in your clothes when shooting in freezing temperatures. I will never, ever, ever use this thing. Yet.... I now own it...

lol

 

[flatulent1]

I'm the same. I have speed finders for both versions of Canon F-1, never use them, will never part with them. Unless I part with the system, of course. Heh. Small chance of that happening, even if I haven't used either camera for a year and more...

 

[ChristopherCoy]

My GAS tends to manifest itself a bit differently. I don't own a lot of cameras, in fact I have standardized on a scant few (basically one per format). But when I do get one, then I feel like I need to own the complete system. For my RZ67 ProIID I just bought the battery extension that allows you to keep the battery for the camera in your clothes when shooting in freezing temperatures. I will never, ever, ever use this thing. Yet.... I now own it...

lol

You mean you aren't shooting Antarctica any time soon? LOL

 

[RalphLambrecht]

i think ,we are all more or less ready for the chair.

 

[Gavin R]

I tend to give away things which I am not using....

Including Steve giving one of our local schools an enlarger and camera. The curriculum for a photography A Level at this school doesn't require darkroom experience but because the teacher thinks it will enrich the students understanding of photography she's having a darkroom built in the classroom. Steve is part of this although he'd not blow his own trumpet in saying so.

If Ebay seems like a hard task I'd urge everyone to look at the education sector before parting with hoarded gear. Students are the future of film photography demand and supply.

 

[donkee]

If I have it I'll use it. It may be once or twice a year but I will use in.

 

[paul ron]

I have an entire closet dedicated to cameras I've used over the years plus a collection of GAS restorations. I"ll never get to use all of em in this lifetime but I love everyone of em as my own family, I could never sell any of em.