How do you guys avoid having GAS- bodies are so cheap?

goros · Oct 15, 2015

Happiness is to love what you have, not to have what you love.

Xmas · Oct 15, 2015

goros said:
Happiness is to love what you have, not to have what you love.

To quote the cartoonist

'i did not know happy was an option?'

Rook · Oct 15, 2015

After accumulating a dozen different cameras over the last 4 years, I asked myself, "will acquiring another camera improve my photography?" And the answer was no, not likely. Since then, I've stopped looking for cameras.

Theo Sulphate · Oct 15, 2015

Since I'm an engineer, I enjoy all the ways cameras are different and the different ways manufacturers chose to do things (or maybe that viewpoint is why I'm an engineer).

I do love what I have ...all of them. Do they make my photography better? Maybe not, but maybe so when I switch to different approaches using a Minox one week or a Hasselblad the next. It doesn't matter as long as I'm enjoying myself.

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 15, 2015

David A. Goldfarb said:
Too much gear costs too much to maintain in good working order and keeps you from really internalizing the operation of what you have, so you pick up a camera you haven't used in a year, and you make mistakes, or forget to set everything, or hesitate when the action of making a photograph needs to be automatic.

That is precisely why I need to trim down the herd, or just commit to not using a lot of my cameras. Generally I shoot MF for landscape, figure, and portraits; 35mm is used for portraits and travel. The portrait crossover is confusing to me when I go print my pictures, so already at two cameras I confuse myself.
And I agree 100% that maintaining photography equipment is expensive. I have a Hasselblad 500C and a couple of backs that need servicing, and a Leica M2. I can't really afford to have both serviced, and am going back and forth between which one I need the most.

Of course I fully realize that there are people who enjoy photography because of cameras.

GarageBoy · Oct 15, 2015

I own a Sony A7 too and that takes care of most of my "needs"
Perhaps I should go to up MF (if you're going to shoot film sparingly, you might as well go big, no?) and just keep a pick up an F6 or something (to use my Nikon lenses that I use on my A7)

darkosaric · Oct 15, 2015

Best compromise could be that you buy a new "toy", play a little and then sell it for more less the same price.

frank · Oct 15, 2015

I did rid myself of some orphaned systems I had picked up over the years, mainly through garage sales. I sold off Exacta, Topcon, Miranda, and Minolta bodies and lenses. It does feel good to lighten your baggage. I still need to trim down my Nikon bodies by selling a couple of F2's and some Nikkormats.

Ricardo Miranda · Oct 15, 2015

GarageBoy said:
I own a Sony A7 too and that takes care of most of my "needs"
Perhaps I should go to up MF (if you're going to shoot film sparingly, you might as well go big, no?) and just keep a pick up an F6 or something (to use my Nikon lenses that I use on my A7)

Oh dear! You're a digitographer.
That's why you don't understand or care to shoot 35mm.
And you still ask how to avoid GAS?
Tut, tut.
Pray 40 "Our 35mm father".

ColColt · Oct 15, 2015

We all like toys, I certainly do and have bought my fair share and then some. Some were needed for an assignment or just maybe a desire and others were spur of the moment purchases with the future in mind thinking "maybe" I'll need it. I started thinking what will happen to all this equipment when I'm gone so; I willed it to my kid brother who is a bit of a photography lover as myself but not on the same plane as for film cameras. What would he do with those cameras? Probably keep one and sell the rest.

After pondering over the situation I felt it best to put that money I may have spent for another camera body, lens, etc. to where it would benefit others beside my own perceived desires and give several times a year to the local area rescue ministry. I did some soul searching and thought to myself that by the grace of God I could very well be in most of their shoes. It's a humbling thought that I put to use. someone can eat tonight while others will have a safe place to sleep and have shoes on their feet and not have to spend the night behind some dark, dank alley with cardboard pulled over them for a blanket.

Is it as much fun as buying a new camera? No, but it makes the heart feel better and last longer than the initial excitement of seeing UPS come up to your front door which is only a temporary feeling.

k.hendrik · Oct 15, 2015

Halve your GAS by having a good and trustworthy friend who has the same disease; and swap camera's. I use his 501, 503, SWC, M4, F2n F3, F4, Linhof and most lenses from me he's having RZ67, Sl66SE, G2, FM, F5, ERKO 9x12, Rollei baby 4x4, C330, Praktica . Now i'm/we're looking for D3x or Df(oops), F6 an extra F5 or .....
spread your risks and double your fun.

ic-racer · Oct 15, 2015

GarageBoy said:
Well, I have way to many bodies, and yet, there's a lot of lenses I would rather have, and in hindsight, wish I spent the $$$ on instead...

But bodies are so cheap! $100 here and there... Pick up a body for cheap, then grab a 50 1.4 just so I can use it- bam already spent $200

Meanwhile, that Nikon 85 1.4 AF is still waiting for me... (and I already have an F100 to put it on... yet I still WANT an F3 and an FE2)

$100??? The late model Nikon film bodies I use are more like $6 to $20!! (N55 & N75). For the price of a single new F6 I can use N55s like disposable cameras. However, N55 is a surprizing durable camera. Never a failure yet of a N55 or N75.

ciniframe · Oct 15, 2015

The 24 hour rule. When the madness strikes I have a strict policy with myself. I wait till the next day and for my head to clear. About 99% of the time the madness passes and I have no regrets.

But, what about photo shows where you generally cannot reconsider the next day? For those times I'll walk around for 20 minuets or so, and then decide. If the item has already been sold, no big deal, I already have far too much stuff and far far to little talent to justify even more stuff.

mweintraub · Oct 15, 2015

ic-racer said:
$100??? The late model Nikon film bodies I use are more like $6 to $20!! (N55 & N75). For the price of a single new F6 I can use N55s like disposable cameras. However, N55 is a surprizing durable camera. Never a failure yet of a N55 or N75.

There are reasons to pay a little more for a nicer body. $100 is not bad for a late model body.

GarageBoy · Oct 15, 2015

These $100 bodies were damn near $2k new
Even in my childhood- used F3s were $600-700 (late 90s)

ColColt · Oct 15, 2015

Even in my childhood- used F3s were $600-700 (late 90s)

IIRC, that was close to the price of a new F2A in 1980.

OptiKen · Oct 15, 2015

I have GAS....
Terrible GAS.
And the biggest problem is that I never get 'good' at any of it because I spend too little time on each one before another one comes along and i have to try that one. I'm trying to limit myself to just a few cameras so that I can become really comfortable with them and know each of their querks and specialties.
....but then I saw a Mamiya C33 for $75 and now I'm picturing all sorts of lenses and viewfinders and ........

CMoore · Oct 15, 2015

Well, as a new guy, I DID succumb to it.....as far as 35mm is concerned.
I bought a few different Canon and Nikon bodies as well as (of course) some lenses.
Two months ago I stared a beginner B&W Film class at out local college, and I have only loaded film in the Canon A-1.
So......."stupid" enough to buy several different bodies, but "smart" enough to stick with just one until I kind of know what I am doing. BUT i still look.!
Cannot believe the price that a Nikon F2AS is going for. The viewfinders are in the 200 dollar range, so they are no great bargain either.
I figure if Ansel Adams could take a picture of the moon, from top of his car, with no meter at all (and make a living off that one frame) I ought to be able to survive with a Photomic Meter instead of the "better" AS Meter.
Whatever that translates to ..... DP-1 Vs. DP-11....?

Ap507b · Oct 15, 2015

Another thing to consider is whether you prefer a meter needle to LED's when thinking of F2 finders? Neither of my F2's have the AS finder & I have never found them wanting. Don't exactly shoot in low light where the AS is superior admittedly.

Theo Sulphate · Oct 15, 2015

CMoore said:
I figure if Ansel Adams could take a picture of the moon, from top of his car, with no meter at all (and make a living off that one frame) I ought to be able to survive with a Photomic Meter instead of the "better" AS Meter.

I'm sure you know this, and I understand your point, however I'll mention that no meter back then or even today would've made that shot easy (Moonrise). The full moon is only half a degree in the sky. What made that photo work was his knowledge of what the exposure should be for the moon, the background, and the highlights in the town. That, plus knowing how he would need to develop that film sheet and print it. In one of his books he describes how he thought through this.

I'm reminded of story where a famous photographer was asked what shutter speed he used for one his photographs, his reply was something like "30 years and 1/60th of a second".

frank · Oct 15, 2015

Yeah, what made that picture was the darkroom printer.

ColColt · Oct 15, 2015

This sort of reminds me about a comment from Alfred Eisenstadt about what he did at night when in Paris. His response was, "I just expose longer".

Sirius Glass · Oct 15, 2015

"Resist the force of GAS futile it is." -- Yoda Star Wars XLVIII, The Uprise of the GASES

benjiboy · Oct 21, 2015

It is possible to resist G.A.S, I haven't bought a camera since 1987 twenty eight years ago, I have seven cameras and am unlikely to buy any more in this lifetime.

ColColt · Oct 21, 2015

What a terrible existence! I've bought four this year and use them all. The only two that don't get used anymore are the two D200's I bought a couple years or so back. They reside in the safe.

How do you guys avoid having GAS- bodies are so cheap?

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