If only I stopped buying cameras 15 years ago...

[Craig75]

Stuff like a Minolta 110 Zoom SLR

get that badboy loaded up with film.

 

[RichardJack]

Good story! Sounds like you only caught the bug. After 100+ cameras and over 500 lenses I started collecting Corvettes. My wife was sorry she complained about the cameras.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I had 3 complete sets of Mamiya 330 over the years. Everytime decided it wasn't half as good as my good old Rolleiflex 3.5F and selling again. Finally I have a Hasselblad (and Rolleiflex of course).
Regards,
Frank

I only moved from the Mamiya 330 to Hasselblad once. I know better than to look at a Mamiyaflex again.

 

[film_man]

It sounds to me as if you're pretty good with the money and don't have a hoarding problem, so consider any cash shortfalls the cost of entertaining yourself, same as if you went out for an evening out on the town! Or as a cheap rental fee.

Although I don't have a cure for GAS, I try to keep expenditures modest and keep the total size of the collection in check, and this works pretty good.

The great thing is that anything medium format and smaller is pretty much affordable and if you can afford the initial outlay you can buy, try and eventually sell for a very small loss (if at all). So I see it as rental. On occasion I hit a bargain and make enough of a profit to keep it going. Obviously that works by keeping the collection size in check, like you do. So if it stays in the bag for 3 months or more then it is time to sell.

It is a great time to be using film gear, we can buy stuff that 10-15 years ago we couldn't even dream of renting, let alone owning.

 

[4season]

I think I may finally be figuring out which film cameras really work the best for me circa 2017 (in terms of actually delivering photos): Smaller, lighter, more automatic + electronic, probably more plastic too. Maybe not so interesting from a collector's point of view, but handier for actually using as a camera.

Not adverse to keeping a few items mostly as collectables, but ideally want these to combine emotional appeal and low price.

In medium format, if you're okay with more of a toy camera, may I suggest the Lomo LCA 120 for it's grab-and-go convenience? Or for clearer, sharper, better-corrected ones, a Fujifilm GA-series 6x4.5 outfit. I think Fujifilm's GA645zi in particular represents the pinnacle of medium format evolution.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

My interest in medium format began in a strange way: a family friend visited us and he had a Rolleiflex, a camera which I'd never seen before in actuality. At the time, the only cameras I owned were my Pentax and an XA2 and I didn't care about any cameras besides 35mm. Well, the black and chrome body, the little controls, and the two large deep maroon lenses interested me. I thought some day I'd have to get one.

Ten years later, when I thought the time had come and I went to my local camera store, they didn't have any. But they did sell Hasselblad, so that's how I got into medium format. Then, about 20 years after that I got my first Rolleiflex.

The appeal at the time wasn't so much that I'd wanted a TLR, but rather the knowledge that this Rollei was almost 60 years old, still worked, and that something like this would never be made again.

 

[nsurit]

Pray for me. I just sold the first camera out of my collection that wasn't surplus or a duplicate. The tap is broken and I hope this is not a difficult road.

 

[Down Under]

GAS? It's something the body produces (and expels) naturally, isn't it? Biologically, it's part of the parcel of being human.

But then there is emotional/mental gas- more difficult to expel. Related to addiction,I reckon. I was about to say "a first world phenomenon", but in Ipoh, Malaysia, where I am this week, I see more consumer GAS and mad shopping mall mayhem among Malaysians than back home in Tasmania, where I live. Maybe Malaysians have more disposable dosh than Tasmanians. GAS is GAS. Global GAS.

In 2012 I took stock of my cameras and drew up a list, and suddenly realised I had almost 50 of the things - of which I used maybe six. The rest were, to misquote a popular term, "wardrobe queens". Let me hasten to explain that in Australia, "wardrobe" is the term for "closet"- so "closet queens", which means entirely something else to North Americans, but let's not go there.

I then did a second list, of the cameras I really wanted to keep. Which really hit me full frontal in the face.

Leaving out the pixel-poppers, I was using on a regular basis, two Nikkormats and two Rolleiflexes. Also, now and then, my Contax G1 kit and my Voigtlander Perkeo I 6x6 folder. End of story.

Something had to give, and some cameras had to go. Over four years, I slowly but steadily disposed of almost 40 cameras, many on Ebay (some at a profit, some as a small loss), and others given away to people who I knew would use them. (They do.) The Hasselblad 500CM and my two Fuji GA645s fetched the best prices and are now being used commercially. Happy about this. Good cameras, but I never did bond with them, being a TLR type.

I now use two of my five (or maybe six, I forget) Nikkormats, one EL and one FT2, with four=ytt98, lenses. Mostly the 35 and 28. The Contax G1 is taken out once every few months, on principle, as it produces the most exquisite color slides but like most of us, I now almost never shoot slides.

The Rolleiflexes are used about one or two times a month, the Ts with a 645 (in fact 456, but that's another story) kit for 17 images on a 120 roll, and the 3.5E2 for truly stunning 6x6 B&W or color negative images whenever I go bush for a day. The Perkeo is ideal for fast shooting on the streets and lives in my backpack, as my candid camera.

I think I have, to an extent, conquered my GAS, or at least brought it under control of a sort. Except for last month, when I acquired, for very low prices, a Rollei 2.8E2 kit for myself AND a Leica DS M3 kit for my partner, who has lusted after one for a decade. After this, no more cameras, I promise. Until the next Melbourne Camera Club fair...

So it goes on. And on. And on and on. But then we know consumerism rules the world and fuels our economies. Are we all to dispose of everything, dress in sackcloth and live in caves?

Thanks, no thanks. I like my freewheeling wandering sojourns in Malaysia and Indonesia too much. And my Tasmanian pinots. And my time in the darkroom when I'm at home.

Most of us have to face the factthat we will probably never stop buying until we stop breathing - the key to GAS control, for me anyway, is to forego quantity and shop for quality. Which will please some but not the cheap/nasty camera collectors. To each their gout, as the French say.

It all keeps life ticking on and over, pleasantly. Long may it last.