what to keep what to sell ?

[Laurent]

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

any suggestions ?

I'd say "keep the Rolleiflex" (or buy one if you don't jave one ;-) )

at l least this is what I'd do if I had to get down to 1 camera. In my case, there is a part of "the best camera is the one at hand" as this is the one I use the most, but I finally find it the last obstrusive of my kits, and it's lack of versatility" is, I think, a strength.

 

[Bill Burk]

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.

Doesn't it drive you crazy that they moved infinity all the way over to the other side?

 

[Discoman]

I'm at the point myself... GAS got me into buying a couple things I haven't used enough to justify keeping them. Sure, stuff I may love what it can do, but with what I've spent vs the amount of use... Yeah, I'll be selling some stuff.
Going to keep the medium format stuff (none of it has any real value) and my Graflex setup and whatever 35mm gear I may have around (few gifts, worth no real value) and just sell the accessory lenses, extra cameras, and accessories that I've gotten and never used.

 

[cliveh]

I have about 10 cameras and often think about selling a few of them, but when I pick them up and handle them, listen to the sounds they make when you press the shutter and change the speed. Also view the iris diaphragm and it's centricity of blades, I end up keeping them, even if I don't use them.

 

[removed account4]

I have about 10 cameras and often think about selling a few of them, but when I pick them up and handle them, listen to the sounds they make when you press the shutter and change the speed. Also view the iris diaphragm and it's centricity of blades, I end up keeping them, even if I don't use them.

YES!!

this is MY problem
but i use them too.
its not like i have GAS i don't really buy
a lot of gear .. maybe a clunker lens
or a junk camera every other year.

i guess i have silver halide in my system and there is no cure.
i can think of worse things to have trouble with ...

 

[mjs]

I think it likely that whatever you choose to keep, you'll regret something that you get rid of. Therefor, don't get rid of it. Pick what you think your 'keeper' is and carefully pack what you think you won't use in a box, seal it and store it somewhere safe. If you haven't opened it in a couple of years, then you know you can sell it. But I bet you keep at least some of it.

Mike

 

[Bill Burk]

...you'll regret something that you get rid of...

This is where my plan comes in... When you give it away to someone who will use it... Then you don't regret it.

You might remember it... The Spotmatic with 35mm f/2 SMCT and Soligor SpotSensor that I gave to a typesetter/colleague years ago. Sure, I'd be happy to have em back. But they went to a good home and my memory isn't that I just got rid of it... I passed it on to someone who can use it.

 

[eddie]

Bill- I had a similar experience with a Spotmatic. I gave it to a friend, about 27-30 years ago. I had just bought an OM-2, so I didn't need it, and she got some good use out of it. A few weeks ago, she told me she hasn't used it in years, and wants me to have it back! I'm looking forward to holding, and using, it again.

John- I only have a few cameras I haven't used in the last 2 years. But, I plan to...
Seriously, when it comes to getting rid of cameras, most won't give you much return on the money. Unless it can go to someone who can use it, as Bill said, there's a better chance that you'll eventually find a project for them. With your unique methods, and vision, I've no doubt you'll come up for uses.

 

[waynecrider]

The idea to sell everything and maybe keep this or that has, I believe, it's basis in the yearnings of the soul. We can be connected to our animal nature to possess things that we believe is instrumental to our happiness or we can be spiritually enlightened and understand that true happiness is never a possession. Something within or without is usually unbalanced and one may be willing perhaps to make big changes in order to effect something new, some new path perhaps. Overall I have never met a person who was not relieved to discard the material things that they believed were instrumental to their lives. Once the debris is cleaned out there is always a lightness to their being and it seems opportunities abound. My ideology is never to be afraid to give and to get rid of. The source is unending and our needs are always fulfilled in the most amazing of ways.

 

[Tom1956]

I hope you pardon a thought that occurred when I saw this thread was an old saying. I didn't know exactly the wording so I googled it. I had heard it, but never really knew where it came from. But here it is. (I thought it came from Star Trek) Anyway...
Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

 

[MattKing]

i guess i have silver halide in my system and there is no cure.
i can think of worse things to have trouble with ...

Seems like a great slogan for a T-shirt

 

[Keepfilmalivetyler]

If y'all decide what you want to part with let me know?

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

John, never sell or give away anything before the big Game Over light flashes. Your kids will do that for you at the estate sale. And by that point you won't know or care which of your beloved cameras ended up in the landfill.



Ken

 

[Ulrich Drolshagen]

Over here some people are collecting old farming tractors, old Lanz Bulldogs and the like. Collecting cameras seems to be comparatively harmless to me. Just buy a glass cabinet and put all cameras you don't actually use in there. Most old cameras are a joy just to look at. There may come a time where you have a desire for one of them to use. You then don't need to buy it again. Just go to your cabinet and swap cameras.

 

[MattKing]

Over here some people are collecting old farming tractors, old Lanz Bulldogs and the like. Collecting cameras seems to be comparatively harmless to me. Just buy a glass cabinet and put all cameras you don't actually use in there. Most old cameras are a joy just to look at. There may come a time where you have a desire for one of them to use. You then don't need to buy it again. Just go to your cabinet and swap cameras.

Or as I like to say to my wife:

"Dear, why don't we just shop at home?"

 

[Wayne]

In the last few years I've been forced by necessity to sell:

90mm Schneider Super Angulon
14" Goerz Trigor
Turner Reich Triple Convertible
Calumet 4x5
Kodak 5x7

I've come perilously close to having to sell my Wista 45Sp. It's safe for the moment, but not out of the woods yet.
I'm certainly not a collector and don't consider myself to have GAS, but I wouldn't have sold any one of these if I didn't need to. Fortunately
between 3 cameras I still have 35, 6x7, 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 covered.

 

[Jon Shiu]

I am in the process of un-hoarding, but at the rate I'm going, it's going to take about 10-20 years to complete the process.

Jon

 

[Whiteymorange]

i wonder if painters have this problem with brushes ?

yes. and then some of us get the camera desease and we have it in both mediums. Brushes, fortunately, wear out more quickly than cameras, and you need a number of them to do your work, and they take up less space, and they don't mind humidity, and, and...

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I think we are all individual in how we use our tools, how many tools we feel we need. To some, having the choice of many lenses can seem empowering, and to others it can seem detrimental.

There are as many approaches as there are individuals, I'm sure. I don't think of myself as having many cameras, but when I start to count them all, I'm always surprised. Sometimes I even forget a camera or two, and am genuinely surprised when I find them.

I very much admire those who are able to keep it simple, using just one single camera, or has several setups of the same thing, for backup purposes.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Doesn't it drive you crazy that they moved infinity all the way over to the other side?

At least the aperture ring is still in the back... on some of the lenses. Hey, it's not as bad as going from an old Brit bike to a new Harley!

I also find myself developing a dangerous new attraction to preset lenses. T-mount lenses too.

The directrix of the local library has a very strange young boy, he's interested in old guns, film and film cameras, all sorts of things no modern 12 year old should even know exists. I'll most likely give him a good working body and a lens or two.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

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

any suggestions ?

Might want to keep some clothes, depending on your local climate...

 

[removed account4]

Might want to keep some clothes, depending on your local climate...

good point ...

 

[Whiteymorange]

Might want to keep some clothes, depending on your local climate...

No, in Rhode Island he could get away with nudity, as long as he wore a silly grin.

John, sell it all and invest in an iPhone. Then you can be a photo journalist!

...NOT

 

[removed account4]

No, in Rhode Island he could get away with nudity, as long as he wore a silly grin.

John, sell it all and invest in an iPhone. Then you can be a photo journalist!

...NOT

i was thinking about that .. but i can't afford the data account

 

[benjiboy]

I've recently sold all my surplus photographic gear, it's more than twenty years since I last had a clear out, I've kept seven cameras, five canon FD SLR bodys, one Mamiya T.L.R, and one Zeiss Contax rangefinder these are the cameras I use regularly on a daily basis because since I retired I'm out shooting almost every day.