What was your biggest mistake?

[Rick A]

Yes... ever buy an automobile that seemed nice... drove well, reliable, economical, treated you nicely... but then completely turned into a hateful lemon... like it was possessed by some evil being?

Yes-- that gd 74 Chevy van. I bought it new and it was a total POS the tranny fell out of it(factory screw-up with missing crossmember) the electrics caught fire(again-factory F-up) had a squeal in the front that noone could find until the caliper (another factory FF-up)that was installed wrong cut through the rotor. The list goes on from there. AAARRRRGGGHHHHH.......
I haven't owned a Chevy product since. I was without an automobile for the first six months I owned it.

Rick

 

[jgjbowen]

My BIG mistake was the purchase of a Konica TC in 1980. My bride and I were done paying for tuition and books and had a couple hundred $$ left over. I wanted a tape deck, but she wanted a "nice" 35mm camera. She won. But then I decided I needed to learn how to use this "nice camera." 30 years and many, many thousands of $$ later, I'm still learning, but now it is with 8x10 and 7x17. One 7x17 film holder costs almost twice what that Konica TC cost in 1980.

The Konica is long gone, replaced first by a Fujica AX-3 and more recently by a few Nikon FM-3a bodies and some really fast lenses. I never dreamed I'd enjoy photography as much as I do now.

Thanks Honey, for getting me started on the path...

 

[Mark Sawyer]

"What was your biggest mistake? Either buying something or selling something?"

How about "not buying something?"

Like pictorial lenses, back when they were being dumped for cheap. Or a like-new Kodak Master 8x10 for $300. We all have our stories...

 

[reaganalvin]

My biggest mistake was I failed to install an after market radio it did not turn on and I ended up paying money.

 

[ooze]

How about "not buying something?"

I'm in the same boat. I should've bought a 5x4 enlarger when I had the chance to do so, while I was living in the UK. Instead, I opted for one that does 6x6 max. I see the occasional 5x4 enlarger for sale here in Turkey but usually there are various missing parts.

 

[Kirk Keyes]

Lesson: Sleep with your camera stuff. Have insurance.

I always follow that rule. I even haul the 4x5 backpack into restaurants sometimes.

My biggest mistake was picking up a camera in the first place. I've spend many tens of thousands of dollars on this hobby over the years! Talk about expensive.

 

[jamesgignac]

I turned my back on my brand new (literally) Bronica SQAi system in a very low-lit 'club' when I was there to cover the bands performing - I allowed myself to be distracted by a cranky girlfriend who thought I was not paying enough attention to her (as I was there to shoot...and yes, she knew this to begin with.)
*sigh*
Anyhow, the pain was that it took me 6 months of picking up components in that system and 6 minutes to lose it all.

Bums.

So yes, keep everything on you like a greedy miser and look suspiciously at those who eye your gear...and growl perhaps...if it helps scare them off.

 

[lxdude]

I turned my back on my brand new (literally) Bronica SQAi system in a very low-lit 'club' when I was there to cover the bands performing - I allowed myself to be distracted by a cranky girlfriend who thought I was not paying enough attention to her (as I was there to shoot...and yes, she knew this to begin with.)
*sigh*
Anyhow, the pain was that it took me 6 months of picking up components in that system and 6 minutes to lose it all.

Bums.

So yes, keep everything on you like a greedy miser and look suspiciously at those who eye your gear...and growl perhaps...if it helps scare them off.

I have not had anything stolen, but the other part.....Oh geez! Whining, bitching, "You and your @#&# cameras!" spouting,


I'd better just stop right now.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

One of biggest blunders I made(and I made quite a few!) A fish eye lens that was in my coat pocket fell out and rolled into a deep pond. Never did find it. I bought another one sometime later.

Jeff

 

[Ric Johnson]

Buying a digital camera

 

[eclarke]

Didn't get the back snapped in place on my 5x7 Arca last Saturday and broke the GG. I bought maybe the only one in the western hemisphere..lucky...Evan Clarke

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Buying a digital camera

Me too! Mine cost me less than $200. So it wasn't too bad.

Jeff

 

[Vonder]

Ooooooo... my theft stories - two of which are photo-related.

I was shipped out to the Indian ocean in the Navy. When transfering by helicopter from a temporary ship to my new ship, I left my duffel bag unlocked. We're all shipmates right? Yeah. My Nikon N2000 was stolen. Luckilly the Navy paid me for my loss. Unluckilly I spent that entire tour, around Italy, Spain, Gibraltar without a camera. Thanks, a$$hole...

Grrr.

My other one was even more cowardly. I had a fast trigger finger in my early days and my ship was doing a missle shoot. One of the other sailors commented that the missle came off the rail so fast he'd never been able to catch it. Well, I boasted. And I caught it. Perfect shot. Mysteriously, the negative vanished soon after. I'm convinced the lout stole it. Jealously is such a foul, dark emotion. Perhaps my boasting prompted it. Again, still hurts, to this day.

So to petty officer Lemoyne, wherever you are - yer a dirtbag.

Grrr.

 

[2F/2F]

Selling my Graphic View II. It is for sentimental reasons, not because I would be using it that much now that I have a Sinar. The GVII was my first 4x5, and my second "real" camera. More than any other, it was the camera with which I really learned photography.

Purely practically speaking, my biggest selling regret is the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8. I sold it when I stopped shooting for a newspaper and a lot of weddings, so the amount of digital I was shooting went to almost nothing. I now might need to repurchase the lens, as I may need to start shooting more digital again (and now have a "new" EOS film camera). This lens is really out of sight (as is its sister lens, the 100mm f/2.0). I don't even know how many published basketball pix I shot with it. Basketball was the reason I got the lens, and it certainly paid off, and quickly. I also considered it my second-most-important wedding lens, on an APS-C sensor, only second in importance to a 50mm (1.4 and later 1.2) on an APS-H sensor.

 

[paulie]

things i regret but no longer use....

using a shutter
using manufacturers camera bodies
not using a tripod enough
using modern lenses
using modern style films
resin paper
owning a enlarger
not building my cameras sooner
having to spend my early days not being able to afford to do photography, now this has changed and i make my living buying and selling all those wonderful cameras i used to drool over in the shop windows

god bless you digital, i love you

 

[Dennis S]

god bless you digital, i love you

No truer works spoken. My camera collection has grown a very large amount because of it.

 

[michaelbsc]

Marrying a lunatic who, BTW, was also a "B" word.

Are you the guy who married my ex-wife?

 

[Yamaotoko]

Are you the guy who married my ex-wife?

Ha Ha Ha!!!

 

[wiseowl]

My biggest mistake, selling a Bronica ETRS system to buy a digital. The digital is long gone and obsolete and I still miss the Broni. I now have a SQ system, but it doesn't handle quite as well as the ETRs with a prism and speedgrip.

On the plus side digital has allowed me to be able to afford LF.

 

[mhcfires]

I have not had anything stolen, but the other part.....Oh geez! Whining, bitching, "You and your @#&# cameras!" spouting,


I'd better just stop right now.

Yeah, they can really be a PITA, though my GF is very interested in cameras, but turns her little nose up at film, says it is obsolete. Then she gets pissed when she sees the results of my labors. My M2 is way cooler than her Nikon D200 will ever be, and I can carry it in my pocket with a collapsed lens.

 

[lxdude]

Yeah, they can really be a PITA, though my GF is very interested in cameras, but turns her little nose up at film, says it is obsolete. Then she gets pissed when she sees the results of my labors. My M2 is way cooler than her Nikon D200 will ever be, and I can carry it in my pocket with a collapsed lens.

 

[nyoung]

Many years ago, picked up a Retina IIIc with an 85mm (I think) auxilary lens for 5 dollars at a church rummage sale. The shutter was a little gimpy so I let a lifelong "friend" who was a much more advanced photographer take it to send off to a repair shop for me. Never saw that camera again and haven't seen him in about 28 years.

 

[Anscojohn]

Replacing an Ollie OM-1n with a Nikon F2. Hated that beast.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Not buying a Kodachrome processing line for my lab.

 

[curtt]

I don't think buying or selling things is a biggest mistake while in need....