The Camera Funnel

[Vonder]

I have many cameras. I do not know the count but it's over fifty. I know there are many others here on APUG who have as many, or more. When people talk about the resurgence of film use I think they are forgetting that a great part of this "surge" is from film lovers buying large quantities of the stuff (both cameras and equipment) to ward off, as long as possible, that dark day when film photography is trully a rare bird.

I have enough cameras. Do you? If not, I am relinquishing my "hold" on the tip of the funnel and directing it towards your closets.

Is there a valid, sane reason to have 50+ cameras?

 

[Ian David]

If you are not making occasional use of them all, or running a museum, your large collection is probably a sign of mental illness.

 

[ricksplace]

If you are not making occasional use of them all, or running a museum, your large collection is probably a sign of mental illness.

I guess I am mentally unwell.

 

[Ian David]

I guess I am mentally unwell.

It happens to many

 

[JBrunner]

They are mine. Mine. Mine.

 

[Terence]

On the bright side, you're only HALF as ill as me. Maybe closer to 1/3. I'm afraid to count anymore.

 

[removed account4]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)



my entry needs to be amended ...
i think i have a few more

 

[Domenico Foschi]

I think that you are doing a great thing to put them for sale.
A friend recently reminded me that a camera not used it's not a camera.

 

[Dave in Kansas]

I think it depends on why you have the number of cameras you have. If you are a collector then that's probably not an unreasonable number. People collect all sorts of things. If you are a photographer it is hard for me to realize why you would have that many.

I don't know exactly how many I have, but more than I need for certain. I have no plans to acquire any more. I just want to use what I've got and keep a couple of spares.

Dave

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Well, I must be mentally very sound then.

I use all my cameras.

A lot.

All four of them.

 

[Ian David]

I only really have three. The other small handful are just spare bodies.

BTW, studies show that the correlation with mental illness becomes more pronounced if you also have a significant collection of Star Wars figurines still in their original packaging.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've been keeping it to 10-12 for several years now. Each one has its purpose. Too many cameras sitting unused are an ongoing maintenance expense.

 

[Joachim_I]

I use all my cameras. All four of them.

Same here. Four is sufficiently small to use all of them and sufficiently large to have some diversity with respect to format and features.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

I have a few and use them. And that has absolutely no bearing on my ill state of mental health, thank you. I don't need photographica to substantiate my insanity.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I have 20. But half of them are cheap cameras (pinholes, holgas, box(ies?), etc) that I don't use on a regular basis, but that I do use for specific purposes. Some I just bought for fun. They're cheap and not worth trying to re-sell and don't take up that much room to begin with. I have 6 TLRs -- two of which I use with some regularity. The other four are dust collectors because they no longer work for whatever reason -- I just have prefered buying a 'new' camera than try to get the other fixed. A lot cheaper that way. But I'd never get rid of the TLRs -- they are by far my favorites. The other four are a Crown Graphic, a Nikon FE (and a spare), a Nikon F100 for when I need more automation, and my latest addition, my Bronica SQ, which is now my main workhorse. They all have a purpose, and get used with varying regularity. So...

I guess that's puts me in the mentally unwell group as well.

 

[mrmekon]

I have 30, including cinema cameras, of which exactly one, the DSLR, cost over $100. Average price per camera is probably around $5, considering that many of them came in a big batch. I shoot with about 10 of them regularly, another 10 get a roll through at least once a year, and 2 or 3 have never been used.

There are vast differences between a Polaroid, a TLR, a 35mm rangefinder, a 35mm SLR, a holga, a brownie, a DSLR, a point-and-shoot, a bolex H8... if your goal is to explore the medium, owning a lot of cameras is certainly an acceptable method in my book.

I also have 4 enlargers for one tiny bathroom darkroom, so maybe there's some obsession involved, too.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I only have about 7 camera bodys with several more lenses and one enlarger. Sometimes I wish I had more, but right now I can't afford anymore.

Jeff

 

[bsdunek]

I don't know how many I have, however most of them are in a lighted glass case my wife got me so they could be displayed. There are four I use, so I guess that's not bad. Who's to determine who is mentally ill and who is not. Most of the psychiatrists I have met are pretty weird themselves, and some of them collect photo gear too.

 

[pentax4ever]

I made a strategic error of installing a glass-fronted cabinet in my den and putting all of my film 35mm cameras in it. SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) had not seen all 18 of them in one place. No, I don't shoot with all of them, my 1950's era Praktica (have had this since I was a boy) is retired. Besides that, a man has to have backup.

OK, camera acquisition may be stalled out for the moment but I still need to expand my range of Pentax-M and Takumar M42 lenses. That's just common sense. And occasionally, I might have to take a body with a lens that I want...

 

[ntenny]

I have a couple of cameras that are shelf queens for functional reasons; they look nice, but don't work in one way or another. Someday I'll try to fix them, or cannibalise them for parts, or pass them along to someone who wants to fix them, but for the moment at least I'm saving them from being thrown away...

Then, too there are some cameras around that use formats that are neither available nor adaptable; what do you do with a 126 camera?---and I don't have the slightest problem with people who collect those without using them.

But in general, I agree with the philosophy that tools want to be used. I have a dozen or so fully functional cameras, and I rotate through them pretty steadily. Some get more use than others, in accordance with my taste and their areas of competence, but I try not to let any of them languish. I find that my subconscious takes care of this for me; after a while, I start getting that nagging voice in the back of my mind that says "You know, that AE-1 would be just the right camera to use..."

-NT

 

[MattKing]

I'm not sure where backup bodies fit in this discussion.

Probably as a remnant of my days as a wedding photographer, I don't feel comfortable with a camera unless I have a backup body to go with my main camera body. For that reason, I have both C330 and C220 bodies for my Mamiya TLRs, M645 Pro and M645 Super bodies for my Mamiya 645s and two Koni Omega Rapid M bodies.

I have no rational explanation, however, for the 5 Olympus OM bodies, although I would point out that the 4 different models exhibit a nicely diverse set of features, and one of the duplicates I bought for my wife .

Of the two old Kodak folders I have, one is purely decorative, and the other can only be used by fiddling with adapted 120 film.

I have two fixed lens 35mm rangefinders (see my avatar) and shared use of three 35mm P&S autofocus cameras too - let's not count them.

Matt

 

[Ian David]

I'm not sure where backup bodies fit in this discussion.

For the purposes of this thread I have been thinking of "back-up bodies" as accessories

 

[Davesw]

I HAVE SOME rationalizations: I have 2 automobiles and therefore I must have one camera in each car at all times with film in it.(you never know when you will be on the way to work and see something worth photographing.) Every one needs an 35MM SLR in the house that is not tied up sitting in the car waiting to be needed , medium format is required for most of the "serious" work. I apparently need two ( one is a TLR with sentimental value ) and finally at some point don't we all want want to have owned and used a view camera? OK I have justified 6 of them. Only 2 film cameras in the house I need to consider surplus ,or as I like to call them spare backups.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I'm around the 10 mark as well, and most of my bodies have a purpose, or apply to a particular mood.

The three most important ones function as systems for specific purposes:

Mamiya C330 (3 lenses): my top image quality setup, when I want to have big negatives with lots of details and beautiful tonalities.

Nikon FM2n / FE (3 lenses, motor drive) : when I make those 2-day, 60 individual portraits contracts (gotta love the motor drive and remote), redundancy of bodies, and also when I need to go anywhere not perfectly safe (hot/cold/high/low/far/etc).

Contax IIa (5 lenses) : my "precious." Camera and lenses that exhibit amazing quality for 35mm work, jewel-like precision, lightweight, walkabout all-focal-lengths-covered kit, 35mm slide shooting. There's a Kiev 4a with a Jupiter-12 that works as extra. A good holiday camera, but also a good "Moleskine" camera: the one that has the rich leather binding to keep your most precious and profound thoughts as you go about in your life...

The other ones are individuals to fit a mood.

Praktica L : it's my first camera ever, and I keep it to use a Helios 55mm f/2.

Minolta Hi-Matic: Whenever I feel like a Japanese tourist. Vacation camera. One lens, quick focus, quick setup. Fun for slides too.

Agfa Isolette II : Whenever I feel like a German tourist. I snatched it free from the good soul on APUG who repaired them and gave them away for free. Works great to practice evaluating distances.

Brownie Hawkeye: Whenever I feel like an American tourist. Really just for the purpose of using flashbulbs, and making the occasional family snapshot à la sixties. And the amazing feeling of simplicity.

SoHo Cadet: Whenever I feel like a British tourist (that's rare nowadays). An old bakelite folder, with two focus positions (near and far) and a fake diaphragm opening. I used it to do 6x9 contact prints, some vaguely experimental multiple exposures, and more vacation pics. I haven't used it much, so it's more of a shelf queen ("wow! what a weird camera!").

Zeiss Contina: cheapie scale focus 35mm with a crappy lens. Haven't extracted anything good from this camera, and I got it for peanuts, so either I throw it to goodwill, or I try to find how I can best use it.

 

[lxdude]

If you are not making occasional use of them all, or running a museum, your large collection is probably a sign of mental illness.

Not mentally ill, just nuts.