To sell the Hassy, or not?

MattKing · Oct 25, 2013

ChristopherCoy said:
I haven't seen the red light since March...

Makes me think of a Police song ...

Is this by choice, or as a result of circumstances?

Is the situation likely to change in the reasonably foreseeable future?

If you expect to be able to do more printing soon, I'd hold off selling it.

I find that the more printing I do, the more I'm encouraged to shoot the medium format stuff.

ChristopherCoy · Oct 25, 2013

My sisters wedding, for which i was the best man, has finally passed, and we will be closing on our house later in November... So after all that calms down, I hope to get back to the fun things.

After we close on the house, I'll also be putting a dedicated building out back that will strictly be a "studio" and darkroom.

MattKing · Oct 25, 2013

ChristopherCoy said:
My sisters wedding, for which i was the best man, has finally passed, and we will be closing on our house later in November... So after all that calms down, I hope to get back to the fun things.

After we close on the house, I'll also be putting a dedicated building out back that will strictly be a "studio" and darkroom.

"Studio" + "Hasselblad" = potential "Magic"

Sounds to me like its life that has been getting in the way of enjoying the Hasselblad, not photographic priorities.

pbromaghin · Oct 25, 2013

ChristopherCoy said:
After we close on the house, I'll also be putting a dedicated building out back that will strictly be a "studio" and darkroom.

I was going to say "sell" until you wrote this. A dedicated building practically screams "keep".

rjs003 · Oct 26, 2013

Most of the cameras that I have sold I wish I still had them.
Buying new glass for the Nikon? ..... You will never keep up with the new STUFF they keep making

TheFlyingCamera · Oct 26, 2013

I've simplified my working habits down to the point that I'm almost exclusively shooting with the Rolleiflex and its dedicated 80mm lens. Just put 32 rolls of film through it in Paris in roughly 9 days. The point of the above comment is that in roughly 400 exposures, I can think of less than a dozen I would have wanted to take with either a longer or wider lens, and less than half a dozen I didn't take because the shot REQUIRED a different lens to accomplish it. So a miss rate of 2% from the "normal" lens is pretty good, I'd say, and a pretty strong argument for not buying additional lenses.

Will additional lenses for your 35mm outfit really make a difference? What focal lengths would you buy that A: you don't already have and B: would make a significant contribution to your photographic output? If you want to shoot a LOT of sports or wildlife photos, and you don't have a long, fast tele, then maybe selling the Hassy to fund it would be a good idea. Bear in mind though that most of the time, additional lenses get used very little relative to the expense of their acquisition.

I would keep the Hassy but make sure you get it out and play with it and fire the shutter and advance the film mechanism on a regular basis. Hassys were built to be used and suffer greatly from disuse. It sounds like you're going to be ready and able to use it fairly soon.

RalphLambrecht · Oct 26, 2013

I could not agree moreespecially with the second to last sentence; my experience exactly.

ambaker · Oct 26, 2013

One thing to keep in mind is that nothing is forever.

Cameras come and go. My wife wishes a few more would go, but that is a whole different story...

If your shooting is oriented towards 35mm, sell the Hassy, and get the glass you want. If your path heads back to the larger format later, fine. Then you buy a Hassy or whatever, and perhaps sell the smaller equipment. Any time you have to force yourself to shoot something, it's time to do something else. Photography should be an enjoyable creative process, not a chore that must be done...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

ChristopherCoy · Oct 26, 2013

TheFlyingCamera said:
Will additional lenses for your 35mm outfit really make a difference? What focal lengths would you buy that A: you don't already have and B: would make a significant contribution to your photographic output?.

The 70-200 2.8.

I either shoot really wide, or really tight. I already have a 24-70, and that 24mm end gets used heavily.

John_Nikon_F · Oct 26, 2013

ChristopherCoy said:
The 70-200 2.8.

I either shoot really wide, or really tight. I already have a 24-70, and that 24mm end gets used heavily.

Maybe get the 80-200/2.8 instead, since you do mention that you have an FM. If I was shooting a D700, instead of the D200, I would be using only D or regular AF lenses, in addition to my manual Nikkors. Reason being is that I have a few cameras that are incompatible with G lenses. Three that are completely incompatible, and one that's partially compatible. The F5, however, is fully compatible.

Granted, your mentioning that you use the 24-70 kinda nullifies that argument. At the same time, you can get an 80-200/2.8 regular AF or D version for less than $700. Half of what a 70-200/2.8 goes for on the used market.

Another option, if you can live without the extra stop of light, is the 70-210/4. Not the 4-5.6 version, but the straight 4. It, and the Series E 70-210 that it's based on, is a surprisingly decent lens. Yeah, the reviewers pan it from time to time, but I got good results out of the copies I had. One of which was a $18.00 lens (the E version 70-210).

If you go the 70-210 route, you can then grab a 250/5.6 Sonnar C as well without breaking the bank too much.

-J

TheFlyingCamera · Oct 27, 2013

ChristopherCoy said:
The 70-200 2.8.

I either shoot really wide, or really tight. I already have a 24-70, and that 24mm end gets used heavily.

If you shoot really tight, then think about getting a 200mm-ish prime instead. KEH has 180mm f2.8 lenses for under $500, under $400 if you don't need the case and original lens caps. Hell, under $300 if it doesn't need to look new in box.

Nuff · Oct 27, 2013

I'm opposite, I will never sell my hasselblad. Maybe trade my 150mm lens for 50 or 60mm. But that's about it. I'm in the process of selling 35mm lenses since they don't see any use.

I'm the sort of person if I own something that doesn't get used for 6 months, it has to go. I don't like clutter. And the less choices I have the easier they are. I have 1 favourite 35mm camera and I will stick with it + 3 primes.

The only thing I would like to add to my collection is pentax 67 and rolleiflex.

jerrybro · Oct 27, 2013

I also have too many camera systems and not enough time to use them all, so I've started selling off what doesn't get used. For 35mm I'm keeping my Nikons and selling my Leica gear. In that format anything I want to do can be done with the Nikons and I am more comfortable using them. The Leica stuff is wonderful, it just doesn't fit the way I shoot.

ChristopherCoy · Nov 9, 2013

I actually took the Hassy out of the cabinet today, put it in my back with a roll of film, took a trip to Hermann Park in Houston....

...and never even loaded the film.

John_Nikon_F · Nov 11, 2013

Well, then, maybe you'd be ok with it being gone... After all, it's not like another 500c or c/m will break the bank, body-wise. Lenses might run a decent amount, price-wise.

-J

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