what advice, gear, materials were suggested, but didn't work in your situatiom

[Saganich]

Things that didn't work for me but I was told were necessary:
Zoom, telephoto, and wide angle lenses
Automatic focus and exposure
Color film
Tripods
Filters
Electronic on camera flash
Really low ASA film

 

[MattKing]

.... and another thing!
Why the obsession in years past by camera manufacturers with fitting self-timers to cameras? I can see some justification with down-market P & S film cameras, where the potential market may have relished the prospect of pre-digital 'selfies' (I think that's the right word), but how many times does a serious photographer want to take a picture in which he or she has a starring role? OK, they can arguably be used as a poor substitute for a cable release to minimise camera movement, but for the effort and expense involved in designing, manufacturing and fitting the necessary mechanism, surely this could all be better employed? Perhaps Pentax saw this when they marketed the self-timer-less SP500 and SP1000.
Steve

The combination of mirror pre-release and delayed shutter release is something I really value in my self-timer equipped cameras.

I much prefer using the self-timer than using a cable release.

In other words, YMMV

 

[Bill Burk]

I'm with MattKing on this.

Self-timers are great when you have a rickety tripod... or you lose your cable release.

I lose one on every trip except the trips where I bring two. Something about having a spare makes it unnecessary.