what to keep what to sell ?

[removed account4]

i am almost to a point where i want to sell everything i have and just keep one camera ...

any suggestions ?

 

[Pioneer]

I am in the same boat. My thoughts have been as follows:

1 - Keep the one most used: This is the Zeiss Ikon for me.
2 - Keep the one capable of the highest quality: For me that is my 8x10 Deardorff.
3 - Keep one capable of macro and telephoto: This is my K1000.
4 - Keep d...l, which we will not discuss here.

These are the ones my head tells me I can make do with. Unfortunately I have not been able to get my heart to agree.

 

[Dr Croubie]

Deserted Island Camera?
(you know, if there was a photolab or darkroom on said deserted island, and whole crates of velvia washing up on the shore at regular intervals)

Probably depends on what you shoot and already have.
For me, probably my Bessa and 21mm Skopar (either my Bessa L or R3A, either way i'd use the external finder). If I could buy something before I went to said island, probably same lens on R4A.
It's small, portable, pocketable, unobtrusive, great for hiking and produces great shots. (and has the uncanny knack that whenever I take only it out for a day of hiking and leave the SLR at home, there's some cool bird to shoot and all i've got is 21mm). Still, I can live without birds but I can't live without landscapes.
Doesn't do too badly for street and architecture with a slow B+W film and orange filter either...

Or maybe I'd upgrade to a GF690 or something for bigger frames with more detail, but I can't afford them...

 

[removed account4]

thanks pioneer:

to much stuff, too many memories made with them
even buying/them memories ... i guess there is no hope for me
i can't even do what you are doing ... LOL

 

[BrianShaw]

Me too (although I really don't have that many that would need to be sold). I'd keep the Nikon F3. It has been my "old reliable" since 1982 and is highly versatile.

 

[DannL]

I recently did just that. And what a relief. In my case, to all the 35mm and MF gear, I finally had to say goodbye. Everything that was related to roll-film . . . gone. I even purged the darkroom equipment that was related to roll-film. It took me some seven years to acquire it all, and about six months to make it all disappear. I have always had this nagging desire to concentrate on the large formats only, but always found myself enticed by the false convenience of roll-film. Ultimately there was too much anxiety associated with roll film. And putting all that labor and resources into a tiny frame just was no longer worth it. I suppose I was also worried that I might go through some form of withdraw if I wasn't carrying a snapshot camera everywhere I went. Those symptoms never materialized. And now if I'm going to carry a camera it will either be a 4x5, a 5x7, or a half-plate. Do I really need all those cameras?

 

[MartinCrabtree]

I've actually been acquiring d*****l for school. They have a darkroom but don't teach film so I had to get the darkside stuff. Don't tell anyone but it's kinda cool what it can do. But I do carry the F5 more often and if I could only keep one that would be it. Do not yet have the discipline for large format. But it keeps calling me.................

 

[Tom1956]

You can't get rid of everything but 1. You have to get rid of them all. Then start over. Essentially, I'm dumping all and just buying a nice $80 Nikon F. Heck, where I live in the middle of nowhere, there's no place I could afford the gas to drive to take pictures. What do I need all this junk for? Maybe an old F and an 8x10 would be plenty of variety.

 

[Bill Burk]

You only need 2

Of each

Format

And lens mount

 

[agnosticnikon]

i am almost to a point where i want to sell everything i have and just keep one camera ...

any suggestions ?

Sorry, I'm at the point where I want to buy everything, and keep everything too. My wife calls it a sickness, I call it a hobby. Fortunately, lack of money keeps me from this sickness, er, I mean goal.

 

[Pioneer]

You only need 2

Of each

Format

And lens mount

Only 2?? Darn, I knew I was doing it wrong!

 

[Tom1956]

I have a buddy. He's a good buddy, but he has a problem. When he gets interested in something, he has to buy up the whole world. No health insurance, he lives in a dilapidated trailer, has no savings, but he has 40 lawnmowers, 40 motorcycles, a hundred cameras, 30 crock pots, 30 pressure cookers, on and on and on. He's a good old boy and a Christion, but why do you need to go on ebay every day and buy a used bible? What do you need with 40 bibles?
Every camera he's got needs work. You can't buy these old cameras and just use them--they need lubrication and calibration. Why does somebody need a hundred of everything? I believe it's bipolar disorder.
At some point, collecting when you have no visible means of support is a mental illness. I just bought a nice Nikon FTN for 80 dollars. I'm sure some Hasselblad stuff is soon to be out the door. Discipline. Financial responsibilities come first.

 

[nsurit]

Hmm, maybe you could just send them all to me and I will return one of them to you. I have given 5 or 6 35mm set ups to college students this year. Bill (Who has way too many cameras) Barber

 

[jordanstarr]

John....
I used to have a few 35mm systems with many lenses, a couple MF systems with lenses and a 4x5 system with 4 lenses....I sold it all and bought a Leica and a couple lenses and Mamiya 6 with a few lenses....best decision I've ever made. When I got out and shoot, I just take what I'm familiar with -no muss, no fuss. I found this works for me and I just hammer it day after day.

I know your style and we're very different, so I do mostly street/documentary work and used one camera, 2 lenses for 90% of my stuff. So, my opinion might be way off.

 

[Bill Burk]

Hmm, maybe you could just send them all to me and I will return one of them to you. I have given 5 or 6 35mm set ups to college students this year. Bill (Who has way too many cameras) Barber

That's the thing to do..

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Wish I could get down to one camera, but even though I could get by with just one, I feel that I like taking pictures more in nature with the Hasselblad or 6x6 pinhole, and people photography I do better with 35mm. The prints seem to come together better for me this way.

Use as many cameras as you want, but don't let the camera get in the way. Any camera that doesn't feel natural to me to use gets axed. Same for too many cameras of the same kind.

35mm SLR - Qty 2 - Pentax KX with various prime lenses
35mm RF - Qty 1 - Leica M2 with various lenses
120 6x6 - Qty 1 - Hasselblad 500 with three lenses (want one more body for backup)
120 6x6 - Qty 1 - Zero Image 2000

I own a Spotmatic and a few other loose ends of cameras, but none that I really use anymore, because they fill no function that isn't already filled.

 

[JLP]

Don't sell anything to buy something new. I have done it so many times and I most always regret selling what I had. There has been a few exceptions but I would really like to suggest to keep what you have for at least a year after you start to think about selling.
I tend to change the format I like to shoot. 8x10 was my main for a few years but now I am completely in love with 35mm again and shoot old Leica cameras. Next year I could be back at 8x10

 

[removed account4]

jan, i am kind if in your boat ...
too many fun formats and fun cameras with unique signatures to shoot.
its probably just a phase, cause if i sell or give any of them away
i'll be wicked depressed ... and i don't have the $$ to buy new...

i wonder if painters have this problem with brushes ?

 

[markbarendt]

Don't sell anything to buy something new. I have done it so many times and I most always regret selling what I had. There has been a few exceptions but I would really like to suggest to keep what you have for at least a year after you start to think about selling.
I tend to change the format I like to shoot. 8x10 was my main for a few years but now I am completely in love with 35mm again and shoot old Leica cameras. Next year I could be back at 8x10

Yep, yep, yep...

 

[mhanc]

i am two small sales away from being down to one camera, one lens for each format: 35mm, MF & LF... must say that i like the minimalism and simplicity. at this point all i want is to do grab a camera, go shoot, have fun - repeat as necessary. this approach also works well in other, non-photographic applications.

 

[benjiboy]

The more stuff you have, the more hostages to fate you have, and the more to worry about.

 

[Roger Thoms]

i am almost to a point where i want to sell everything i have and just keep one camera ...

any suggestions ?

Sounds like crazy talk to me. Plus with all that money from selling all your cameras you would probably just buy more cameras.

Maybe just go out photographing with one camera.

Roger

 

[Bob Carnie]

Crazy talk, get some professional help.
oops didn't see Rogers post

plus one

i am almost to a point where i want to sell everything i have and just keep one camera ...

any suggestions ?

 

[Bill Burk]

I'd not sell cameras with a unique signature that you'd miss like a Ricohflex or Ikonta.

But giving away to someone starting out, that's worthwhile.

Or giving back to the person you borrowed it from might be reasonable too (that's where the Ricoflex went, back to Mom)

 

[E. von Hoegh]

I've had a lot of cameras. At one point I decided to get rid of redundant stuff.

For a portable, versatile, small camera capable of everyting from point-n-shoot to high quality macro work, I kept a Nikon F and six lenses.

For a portable reasonably fast working camera giving a larger negative than 35mm, I kept one Rollei.

For an easily portable, versatile, very high quality largeformat camera I kept the Linhof STIV, which uses 6x7 and 4x5 film and can be used handheld with a Grafmatic/rollfilm holder or on a tripod.

For the ultimate in quality and reasonably sized contact prints with the option of enlarging, I kept the Deardorff V8 with 8x10 and 4x5 backs.

For about 15 years I stuck with this set of equipment.

But.

About 6-7 years ago I found a working Pentaz IQZoom at a thrift shop for $3. Snagged it for a PHD camera, it's pretty good.

About 5-6 years ago I found a Miranda with a 350mm Soligor in a dumpster and pulled it out.

5 years ago my father died, leaving me a pristine OM-3, OM-4, and five lenses including a 35mm shift Zuiko.

About 4 years ago a fellow saw me using my Nikon, he gave me a Nikkormat which he had not used in a couple decades.

Last winter I decided I wanted a screwmount camera so I could play with some of the different M42 lenses available, I bought a Pentax H1a.

Last week I was given a 2x Vivitar teleconverter on Monday, and a Yashica TL Super on Wed..

See the trend here? Like any addict, you're either active or in retirement, there's no middle ground. It all started with one small harmless little P&S camera, next thing you know I'll be looking for 11x14 filmholders. Sad...