Is it a disease? Bought what I hope was a good deal.

[dreamingartemis]

I think you would have regretted not buying it even more.

That's how I started to think when I saw the ebay listing....

 

[RattyMouse]

I bought a GF670W and love it dearly. It is a phenomenal camera. The last of its kind I'm afraid.

 

[Slixtiesix]

By experience I can say that one can only judge in the long run what was a good deal and what was not. It used to happen that I bought things I was very fond of at first but later realized they were absolutely unnecessary. On the other hand there are things which I regretted buying first, but after some time they proved really useful to me. Only time can tell...

PS: I would not sell the TLR!

 

[shutterfinger]

I contracted that buy it bug about the time Meg Whitman was turning the buyer beware flea market into the over priced strip mall it is today. I started a few years earlier purchasing a Nikon FA followed by a new F4s a year or so later. Next I picked up a Graphic View II but traded it for a Sinar F1 at the same dealer a few months later. I was searching out the camera(s) I liked and wanted. Then the bug hit and 3 years later I had 14 4x5 cameras, Press, SLR, and a view, 2 8x10 view cameras, a lot of lens, and several film holders. When the bank broke I was able to sell off the majority for close to what I paid. A electronic recording medium SLR keeps trying to entice me to empty my bank account as do a few of the previously mentioned camera models. The only sure way to break the addiction is not to visit that over priced strip mall that has an occasional flea market table with a camera that appears to be a good buy but is money pit looking for a sucker.

When worse comes to worse I ask myself " what do you plan to do with it?" Just having it for the sake of having it looses out. Potential to make money from it or with it wins.
But, by all means, if you really want it buy it and don't question the decision to do so.

 

[afrank]

My first MF was and still is my yashica mat 124g. I got it for less than 100eur and had a very stiff aperture knob. It had been smashed against the ground and the front focusing plate had been bent and was putting pressure on the knob. I repaired it myself, among a few other broken things it had, I got close up lenses for it, I put new leather on it, I put my soul on it.

And so I got my favorite prints, and shots from it. But then one day I betrayed it, ...

I decided to have the option to shoot bw and color simultaneously, so I went and spend 500eur on an ARAX 88. Heavy as small child, with a full set of zeiss lenses 100% working. And now I look back and realize that I will never like my Kiev/Arax88 as much as my yashica. I made no connection to it and the option to shoot color has not been a plus enough to justify the money spent or the sweat of carrying it around on the summer (when I usually shoot color). So yea I it is disease, but one that depends on value, not price...

At the beg. the Yashica seemed like a bad idea, because it was "defect" but It turned out to be the best deal yet (till last week, got a Sonnar 2.8 Rollei35 for 10eur in a flea-market that I also repaired, giving me that same strange connection to it. ) So here comes the difference between price and value.

What I learned, if its cheap and you repaired and use it, the gear becomes invaluable to you. If its 100% working and redundant, it just another piece of gear that you will not hesitate to sell away as soon as possible if a good offer comes by. My yashica/Rolley35S are now part of my family heritage. I will have them engraved and passed down.

 

[dorff]

I had bought a Yashica Mat 124G back in 2012 when I wanted to try out a cheap medium format camera.

Nothing wrong with the logic, but there are other ways of testing the water, including borrowing, renting or accompanying an MF shooter on an outing. MF is not intrinsically necessarily better than other formats - it rather depends on the system you choose to use. For me it comes down to what size I can and want to print in B/W, and the extra resolution on scans from 6x7. I do think there are many photographers hankering after or jumping into MF systems when they haven't come near exhausting the possibilities of 35 mm. I am not saying you are one of those, though. It is just an observation. The same logic applies when yearning for LF once one becomes bored with MF.

After thinking long and hard (24 hours), I caved in and bought it. Now I am not sure if I had made the right choice. Surely I wouldn't need any medium format camera. Is this what they call buyer's remorse? I guess I could lessen the guilt by selling my Yashica but it would sell so little considering how low they are going on Ebay and this one I got in almost mint condition. It seemed a shame to sell it.

Warren Buffett has a quote something to the effect of: If you keep on buying things you don't need, you'll soon have to sell things you do need. Twenty years ago a friend of mine remarked that there will always be bargains (and he was right!). This has been good advice to me. I follow a few simple principles. If I wouldn't buy something for the price I can sell it for, assuming that I had the money, then I sell it because the money is worth more to me than the item. I never buy anything I can't see myself using soon. If I buy things I don't strictly need, it is never with money that I don't have, or that I need for necessary things in the foreseeable future. So really expensive unnecessary things are automatically taken care of. No matter how good it is to own a particular thing, it can never be good enough to offset the dread of enslaving yourself to creditors. And to my observation, that is one of the reasons why so many people in consumption driven cultures are so unhappy. GAS is ultimately about a pursuit of happiness, and one that isn't particularly successful in hitting its target. If anything, we just become further weighed down by all the things we own. Creative self-fulfilment is much more likely to contribute to happiness, and the tools you need to that end may be some of the best purchases you can make. As long as you know the difference between buying for the sake of owning, and buying enablers to self-fulfilment.

All that said, I hope you enjoy your new camera and the quality it can produce. Use it well, otherwise it is just an expensive keepsake and paperweight.

 

[baachitraka]

dorff: I fell exactly into the same thought after I won Voigtländer Bessa RF.

I do not own an enlarger capable of 6x9 nor a scanner(may never buy it) and do not want to waste time upgrading my darkroom and so sold and bought MCC 110 for it.

Just to pull my leg again, I again saw a Voigtländer Bessa RF with Heilar lens for Euro 5 + Euro 5 for shipping which no body bought in ebay. No I did not go there again...

Now concentrate on printing 6x6 and 35mm negatives, nothing more and nothing less.

 

[markbarendt]

Experimentation with different tools helps you find out what's important and what tools work for you.

I would not rush to sell either until your sure they don't fit somewhere in your life.

I have come to view many of the purchases I've made as the cost of my education.

I think the buyers remorse feeling comes from the thought that "all our stuff" should be viewed as financial assets, that everything should have a monetary value placed on it. While that is prudent when talking about your homeowners insurance, I think it is more fun and more realistic to think of camera equipment as "the price of admission" to something fun.

Seriously, compare your purchase to buying tickets to a concert or ball game or broadway play. Which will give you more pleasure over time?

 

[baachitraka]

For my the deciding point is the tonal gradation on the prints.

Equally enjoy what 35mm and 6x6 negative can deliver but I was little tempted to go for bigger negatives after printing some portraits shot with 6x6. Not a big problem but I was not so interested to upgrade the darkroom. So I let go the 6x9.

 

[SpunkySpine]

My first camera was a Yashica Electro 35 back around 1969. I've bought many used 35's since then but also branched out into "larger formats." I sold that first camera many years ago and still regret it to this day.

Larger formats...
First one was the Yashica Mat124G (and proxar lenses) which I still have and use. I shot many weddings with that one.

Later got a Hassy 500CM for personal pleasure on a 3 yr lease and sold it soon after lease expired... Needed the money at the time.

I was roaming around a surplus store and happened across a Burke & James Rembrandt 4x5 view camera. Got it with two backs and about a dozen film holders. The second back is split with a sliding window that allowed two portrait shots on the same negative. Turns out the camera came from a police dept that used the (custom built) split back for taking straight on and profile mug shots. I've used the not very portable beast for some great landscapes. Still have it and use it today.

Back to 120 film, I have an fair bit of money into a Bronica 6x4.5 outfit... the ETRSi. Over time got 50mm, 75mm, 150mm and 250 mm lenses for it. Have 4 film-backs, waist level, prism, and AE II metered prism finders, motor drive, Beatty bright screen and a few other accessories for it.

No regrets on any of it yet (except for selling that first camera).

Perhaps you will find the same joy of picking which of your favorites you're going to shoot with today.

Oh by the way... the 35 mm and 2 1/4 sq made it "necessary" to build a darkroom around my first enlarger... Omega B600 followed by a very old "pixar" enlarger for my 4x5 neg's.

Enjoy the ride! somedays it seems like you might crash and burn but the majority will always feel like you're on a "magic carpet ride!"

 

[Slixtiesix]

Very well said Dorff!

 

[Sirius Glass]

I had bought a Yashica Mat 124G back in 2012 when I wanted to try out a cheap medium format camera. I figured I would stick to this as my medium format as I couldn't get anything affordable in my budget range, but recently I came across a listing on Ebay for a GF670w I had been eyeing for a long time and this time, it's within my financial capability to own.

After thinking long and hard (24 hours), I caved in and bought it. Now I am not sure if I had made the right choice. Surely I wouldn't need any medium format camera. Is this what they call buyer's remorse? I guess I could lessen the guilt by selling my Yashica but it would sell so little considering how low they are going on Ebay and this one I got in almost mint condition. It seemed a shame to sell it.

You have G.A.S. [Gadget Acquisition Syndrome]. The only cure it to keep buying cameras, lenses, film, tanks, chemicals, paper, and more and more and more!

You are so screwed! You are one of us now.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I used to have a bad case of G.A.S. I still have a lot of my gear, but I have sold off a bit and simplified my kits around what I do actually use. One of the cameras I have that helped me see this is my Rolleiflex. The pure simplicity of a single camera with just one focal length helped me realize that chasing options was really an excuse for not making images. Options are nice, of course, but I really don't need that many, especially the way I shoot. I'm not a sports photographer, I'm not an event photographer, and I'm generally not a landscape photographer. I don't need wides or extreme teles. Using that "normal" lens on the Rollei helped me see that. Give your Yashica a chance to have that effect on you - put a couple dozen rolls through it and get to know it. I had the Rollei for maybe a year, maybe more, before I gave it a fair chance. The interface was odd compared to what I was used to (Hasselblad/RB67), the twin-lens thing felt strange, and so on. But after really taking the time to play with it, I realized how pure and straightforward a tool it is, and how it just gets out of the way of making pictures. I have the control I want with it, it makes pictures that look the way I see.

This may not happen for you with the Yashica, but you won't know until you use it. If after six months of regular shooting, it hasn't clicked with you, you can sell it on for nearly what you paid for it, and consider it a really inexpensive long-term rental. Some people love TLRs, some hate them. Some love waist-level focusing, some hate it. I found that I do love mine, and keeping things simple that way inspires me to be a better photographer.

 

[dreamingartemis]

My first MF was and still is my yashica mat 124g. I got it for less than 100eur and had a very stiff aperture knob. It had been smashed against the ground and the front focusing plate had been bent and was putting pressure on the knob. I repaired it myself, among a few other broken things it had, I got close up lenses for it, I put new leather on it, I put my soul on it.

And so I got my favorite prints, and shots from it. But then one day I betrayed it, ...

I decided to have the option to shoot bw and color simultaneously, so I went and spend 500eur on an ARAX 88. Heavy as small child, with a full set of zeiss lenses 100% working. And now I look back and realize that I will never like my Kiev/Arax88 as much as my yashica. I made no connection to it and the option to shoot color has not been a plus enough to justify the money spent or the sweat of carrying it around on the summer (when I usually shoot color). So yea I it is disease, but one that depends on value, not price...

At the beg. the Yashica seemed like a bad idea, because it was "defect" but It turned out to be the best deal yet (till last week, got a Sonnar 2.8 Rollei35 for 10eur in a flea-market that I also repaired, giving me that same strange connection to it. ) So here comes the difference between price and value.

What I learned, if its cheap and you repaired and use it, the gear becomes invaluable to you. If its 100% working and redundant, it just another piece of gear that you will not hesitate to sell away as soon as possible if a good offer comes by. My yashica/Rolley35S are now part of my family heritage. I will have them engraved and passed down.

And the very scenario I fear could be unfolding (excuse the pun as some medium format cameras are folders) right before my eyes once more and I walked right into on purpose.

 

[dreamingartemis]

Nothing wrong with the logic, but there are other ways of testing the water, including borrowing, renting or accompanying an MF shooter on an outing. MF is not intrinsically necessarily better than other formats - it rather depends on the system you choose to use. For me it comes down to what size I can and want to print in B/W, and the extra resolution on scans from 6x7. I do think there are many photographers hankering after or jumping into MF systems when they haven't come near exhausting the possibilities of 35 mm. I am not saying you are one of those, though. It is just an observation. The same logic applies when yearning for LF once one becomes bored with MF.



Warren Buffett has a quote something to the effect of: If you keep on buying things you don't need, you'll soon have to sell things you do need. Twenty years ago a friend of mine remarked that there will always be bargains (and he was right!). This has been good advice to me. I follow a few simple principles. If I wouldn't buy something for the price I can sell it for, assuming that I had the money, then I sell it because the money is worth more to me than the item. I never buy anything I can't see myself using soon. If I buy things I don't strictly need, it is never with money that I don't have, or that I need for necessary things in the foreseeable future. So really expensive unnecessary things are automatically taken care of. No matter how good it is to own a particular thing, it can never be good enough to offset the dread of enslaving yourself to creditors. And to my observation, that is one of the reasons why so many people in consumption driven cultures are so unhappy. GAS is ultimately about a pursuit of happiness, and one that isn't particularly successful in hitting its target. If anything, we just become further weighed down by all the things we own. Creative self-fulfilment is much more likely to contribute to happiness, and the tools you need to that end may be some of the best purchases you can make. As long as you know the difference between buying for the sake of owning, and buying enablers to self-fulfilment.

All that said, I hope you enjoy your new camera and the quality it can produce. Use it well, otherwise it is just an expensive keepsake and paperweight.

Problem here in malaysia, you can't rent equipment to test out. It's do or do not do here in Malaysia where the mentality is Buy or don't buy that usually ends up with regret either way, because you bought or not.

Yes, I am worried I have yet to exhaust 35mm, but honestly, we can exhaust the limits of 35mm? Many masters still shot because I believe they have reached the limit of what they could do with it.

I'm pretty familiar with what Warren Buffett said as well and dread the feeling sometimes and try to not to go window shopping.

 

[dreamingartemis]

You have G.A.S. [Gadget Acquisition Syndrome]. The only cure it to keep buying cameras, lenses, film, tanks, chemicals, paper, and more and more and more!

You are so screwed! You are one of us now.

Amen brother!

 

[dreamingartemis]

I used to have a bad case of G.A.S. I still have a lot of my gear, but I have sold off a bit and simplified my kits around what I do actually use. One of the cameras I have that helped me see this is my Rolleiflex. The pure simplicity of a single camera with just one focal length helped me realize that chasing options was really an excuse for not making images. Options are nice, of course, but I really don't need that many, especially the way I shoot. I'm not a sports photographer, I'm not an event photographer, and I'm generally not a landscape photographer. I don't need wides or extreme teles. Using that "normal" lens on the Rollei helped me see that. Give your Yashica a chance to have that effect on you - put a couple dozen rolls through it and get to know it. I had the Rollei for maybe a year, maybe more, before I gave it a fair chance. The interface was odd compared to what I was used to (Hasselblad/RB67), the twin-lens thing felt strange, and so on. But after really taking the time to play with it, I realized how pure and straightforward a tool it is, and how it just gets out of the way of making pictures. I have the control I want with it, it makes pictures that look the way I see.

This may not happen for you with the Yashica, but you won't know until you use it. If after six months of regular shooting, it hasn't clicked with you, you can sell it on for nearly what you paid for it, and consider it a really inexpensive long-term rental. Some people love TLRs, some hate them. Some love waist-level focusing, some hate it. I found that I do love mine, and keeping things simple that way inspires me to be a better photographer.

Oddly enough some people come to me on buying advice and this is the same thing more or less I tell them. How odd it feels having the same advice given to me when I am faced with such problem.

 

[dreamingartemis]

Well thanks to everyone for offering me their wonderful advice and the GF670w has finally arrived safe and out and works right out of the box. It feel solid,not as solid as the yashica mind you, but strong enough for my needs and not like some other flimsy medium format camera in the same weight category.

The deal was pretty good that I was worried it was a scam only when I won the bid. But the seller was genuine and given threw in 2 rolls of Velvia 100 into the package free of charge! I kinda feel guilty thinking it was a possible scam.

So I loaded a roll portra 160 and went out shooting. Hopefully I'll be skilled enough to take wonderful pictures with this camera.

 

[Dr Croubie]

Hopefully I'll be skilled enough to take wonderful pictures with this camera.

You don't need skill, having a better camera is all you need.


Isn't that how this works? Someone please say "yes", I'm kind of counting on it...

 

[dreamingartemis]

You don't need skill, having a better camera is all you need.


Isn't that how this works? Someone please say "yes", I'm kind of counting on it...

Okay that really helped brighten me this morning !

 

[Sirius Glass]

You don't need skill, having a better camera is all you need.


Isn't that how this works? Someone please say "yes", I'm kind of counting on it...

My opinion too. My photographs improved with the purchase of a Nikon F100, Hasselblad 503 CX, Hasselblad 903, 4"x5" Pacemaker Speed Graphic, and a 4"x5" Graflex Model D.

 

[RattyMouse]

Well thanks to everyone for offering me their wonderful advice and the GF670w has finally arrived safe and out and works right out of the box. It feel solid,not as solid as the yashica mind you, but strong enough for my needs and not like some other flimsy medium format camera in the same weight category.

The deal was pretty good that I was worried it was a scam only when I won the bid. But the seller was genuine and given threw in 2 rolls of Velvia 100 into the package free of charge! I kinda feel guilty thinking it was a possible scam.

So I loaded a roll portra 160 and went out shooting. Hopefully I'll be skilled enough to take wonderful pictures with this camera.

Be sure to post your results. Not too many of us GF670W owners around!

 

[dreamingartemis]

Okay, so here is the review so far,

It's beautifully crafted piece of camera. While it looks big (although it's smaller than most major MF cameras), it's very lightweight.

The shutter is INSANELY quiet! The only way to know that the shutter had fired, was the red LED light going off in the viewfinder. If it wasn't for its size, it might be considered the perfect street camera due to its silence.

meanwhile, I don't have anything nice to show yet with it (just taking random scenes with it), but the sharpness is UNBELIEVABLE! My 35mm zeiss lenses can't hold a candle to the fujinon lenses.

finally, the camera feels nice and all of the features are well thought out. It's a bloody shame fujifilm doesn't market this camera aggressively! It's simply a wonder to behold and use!

 

[analoguey]

So now that you've tested the camera, you're selling this camera off, right? On APug market? ;-)

Sent from Tap-a-talk

 

[dreamingartemis]

So now that you've tested the camera, you're selling this camera off, right? On APug market? ;-)

Sent from Tap-a-talk

I'm gonna say......no