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The camera (brand) I regret buying...

BradS

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Sep 28, 2004
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Location
Soulsbyville, California
Format
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After fourty-ish years of doing just fine with Pentax, Nikon and the occasional Minolta, I bought a camera...of a brand that I thought I would never buy. I dislike almost everything about this camera - except the prints. I want to sell the damned thing and just forget that I ever bought it. I try to like it, I'll load up a roll of film, expose a few frames and then (the horror!) carefully rewind the film and load it into my favorite Nikon....and then I second guess myself. I store the new camera away and tell myself to just use the Nikon and forget about that other thing....but there's this nagging feeling. Last night I thought I might actually sell my favorite Nikon just to force the issue...

What's a guy to do?

Any of you ever have an issue like this?
 
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If it were me, I'd sell the thing that's causing me the most grief, and keep what I'm comfortable with.

I did that once. Bought a Canon after years of using Nikon. Thought I'd be "cute" and mix it up a little. It may have lasted two months, and perhaps one freelance job. It had to go.
 
So if we work backwards from the print, to the enlarger lens, processing and camera body, we eventually get to the lens. What is it about this lens that you like so much? Is it adaptable to or usable on other bodies? Is it available on a different body? What specific parts of the current camera body do you dislike and can they be changed or modified?


I'm going to guess that it's a LTM body and probably a 35mm lens.
 
I used to be a Canon shooter in the format that must not be named here. I actually loved the camera and the gear, except for the fact that it was so damn heavy that I wasn't using it. I switched to mirrorless Fuji and have not looked back, because in that case, the cameras are just so damn good.
I also used to be a Hasselblad shooter. I traded all that kit in toward a 5x12. I eventually replaced it with Rolleiflex stuff. Best decision I could have made- once I actually started using the Rolleiflex, I found it was the perfect camera for me. But I don't think I've ever bought anything I really regretted buying... well, except that Olympus digital Point-n-Shoot that was waterproof. I used it on one trip, mostly for just one snorkeling trip, and it had so much shutter lag that half the fish I tried to photograph were out of the frame by the time the shutter tripped, and the battery life on it was terrible. THAT was a dud.
 
I guess I could say I regret buying a Kiev (35mm RF, not the 16mm "spy" cameras -- those are fine). No, the Kiev isn't a bad camera -- takes a minute to get used to winding the advance the "wrong" way and the weird spacing of the shutter speeds on the setting knob, but that's copied from Contax. And that's what I regret -- a Kiev let me know I'd love to have a real Contax, preferably the no-meter Contax II (or IIa, but then I'd have to be careful about wide angles, to be sure they don't rub on the shutter curtain). Contax fits me, after having a Kiev for a few months.

Problem is, I'll never be able to afford to play in Contax land. So I've got this taste, and the cameras I can afford make it like buying lottery tickets looking for one that's completely functional. I'll probably keep buying those tickets, though -- because the payoff is so good if one ever does hit.
 
TheFlyingCamera said:
Oh, the image quality was excellent. It just fell seriously short in certain other categories.
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I had an E620 for exactly 19 days. It had more bands than a box of band-aids.
 
I regret ever buying a Nikon. Because I liked it too much. Its ergonomics and lens compatibility across media types have cost me too much money through the years.

Plus, once you buy one F, you want to buy all its sisters to keep it company.
 
Miranda, I bought one on a spur of the monument buy thinking it was system I could collect, early models with interchangeable focusing screens, finders, nice range of lens, later EE just the viewfinders. No one was collecting Miranda, for good reason, prices were much less than Nikon or Canon. Seems that I made a poor collector, after getting the bones of the system just go boarded and gave up.
 
So I'm guessing it's a Leica M based on a post in another thread in which you mentioned not loving the camera, but loving the prints.

I started my photographic 'journey' with a Leica M and shot exclusively with it for several years, then bought a Nikon FM to have a go at an SLR. I think the Nikon is great and I have some fun with it, but I don't feel as comfortable with it as I do with the Leica. I guess it's just what you get used to.

What is it about the M that you dislike?
 
YOU CHEATED ON NIKON WITH LEICA?!? Sounds like she gave you the clap.
 
There are some opportunities I have had that I regret NOT buy a particular camera.
 
The camera brand that I regret buying was Miranda.

I had been a medium format camera user for years. My first small format camera was a Miranda Sensorex SLR that came highly recommended by a Consumer Reports magazine. The Sensorex broke three times within the first two years of its 3-year warrantee.
 
Ihad no luck with a Praktika and would never buy that brand again.
 
I regret all the rangefinder cameras I bought trying to avoid buying a Leica M. After spending 10 times what a nice used Leica M is worth, I bought a user M2 and understand why people value them so much.
 
StepheKoontz said:
I regret all the rangefinder cameras I bought trying to avoid buying a Leica M. After spending 10 times what a nice used Leica M is worth, I bought a user M2 and understand why people value them so much.
Click to expand...

To heck with delaying gratification, save the aggravation and just go to your desired camera.
 
StepheKoontz said:
I regret all the rangefinder cameras I bought trying to avoid buying a Leica M. After spending 10 times what a nice used Leica M is worth, I bought a user M2 and understand why people value them so much.
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Ha! I did exactly the same thing. Why I just didn't give myself permission I do not know. I like the other rangefinders I still have, but the M2 is my favorite.
 
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