Why do we collect gear?

[mcgrattan]

I have a fairly small collection - 2 x 35mm pentax SLRs, 2 x 35mm soviet rangefinders, 1 x TLR, 1 x 6x6 SLR, 1 x 645 RF, 1 x 6x9 box camera and a couple of compacts.

I use all of them fairly regularly. My wife and some of my friends don't really understand why you'd have more than one, but mine are all cheap, my total spending on all my stuff including lenses is less than the cost of a cheap dSLR with kit lens, and I get pleasure out of using them.

I did, however, have more at one time, and have been steadily selling off the stuff I don't use.

 

[PhotoJim]

I have a lot of gear (as my signature attests), but I enjoy gear. I really don't care if others think it's ridiculous or not.

Cameras are fun and interesting. They each have a personality. Each is better at something than the others is. I also shoot differently with different gear. Even with 35mm, I take much different pictures with a Nikon F5 than I do with an F3HP.

I'm trying not to accumulate so many cameras now (and actually sold four quite recently) but the reality is that few of these cameras are worth much and thus they are worth keeping. There are some lenses I would still like to get (and probably will) but my 35mm system is nearly where I want it. My 4x5 system still needs a lot of work but I want to learn more about what I want before I invest a lot of money into it.

 

[Paul Howell]

Most of my gear I obtained new and I have a habit of not selling off older or even obsolete equipment so I have still have all of Pentex 35 and lens from the 60s and early 70s, my Retina C and lens, Graphilc 4X5, ect. I did buy lens to add to my Pentex system as user equipment, but not for the sake of collecting. Then last year for some reason that excapes me (other than being affordable) I started to collect Miranda 35mm. Although Mirandas have a few nifty features the reason I collect them is that I just like puttering about them them. I do not use them for any serious work, just toys.

 

[Thomassauerwein]

"Collecting", in my case would be the wrong word!. People are always giving "These old things" to us. I don't have the heart to throw them away. It is fun sometimes to pick one up and test it out but for the most part they collect dust. Working gear is a different story. It has been an evalution of need or want for a different viewpoint and feel for different situations. Every camera has a different "vibe" as does lighting equipment. The tools are what they are, "tools". Inherant variations for the exacution of photographic thought. I have no guilt about having a nice variety of tools.

 

[Edwardv]

There is no such thing as a perfect camera, but the perfect camera for the right assignment.

Beside I am addict to cameras.

You all have a nice day.

 

[Whiteymorange]

It's always easier to buy a new tool than to actually use the one we have.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Why else? Because it's there . . .

 

[eddym]

I've never "collected" cameras just to have them to show off. I've always bought them to use them, and usually to use them professionally. I've bought them because they would do a better job at a certain type of photography than whatever I already had.
Thus I worked my way up from a borrowed Rolleiflex T to a Mamiya 645 to a C330 to an RB67 to a Hasselblad 500ELM to a Linhof Technika 70 and a Linhof 220 to a Rolleiflex 2.8F (going back to the beginning) to a Tele-Rolleiflex to a Rollei 6003 and now back to a Hasselblad 503CX.
And that's just in Medium Format... never mind 35mm and 4x5!
But the only time I really bought a camera to "collect" it was when my wife & I made a trip to Germany in 1983 along with another couple, the husband of which was a REAL collector of cameras (and other things). On that trip I bought a Rollei SL2000F (Before it was imported into the USA) and my first "collectible," a Gold Rollei 35S camera. In fact, both I and my friend bought one. He never took his out of the wrapper; I put a roll of film in mine and shot away! He was aghast!
I finally sold mine a few years ago to finance a new lens for my Nikon system... or something. Why not? I wasn't taking pictures with it!

 

[steven_e007]

Dear Steve,

Must be a bloody expensive Leica!

I bought my M4-P over 25 years ago and am still using it. Expensive when it was new, yes, but in terms of cost per year, something of a bargain.

And second-hand Leicas are not expensive at all. All right, half a grand for an M2 is quite a lot but it's still cheaper than a half-tolerable digi SLR.

Cheers,

R.

Nah!!! Second hand doesn't count!
'Down the nosers' don't carry used gear, surely?

And digi SLRs definately don't count. All keen digi SLR users have a camera collection, they just keep quiet about it. There will be the model with only 5 megapixels from the year before, the 3 megapixel model from the year before that and then there is the one where the lithium battery had been discontinued...

All sitting in the loft 'cause no one wants them.

As for bargains, my 'everyday' 35mm SLR is a Fuji ST705 which I bought second hand about 10 years ago. I'm not a big 35mm user, but it has still shot over a hundred films with never a hitch and is still going strong.

It cost me £35

Steve

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Steve,

I think it's 'down the nosers' that DO buy used (mint) gear -- and make sure it stays mint by never using it. I've had two new Leicas in the 36 years or so that I've been using them; I'd had Leicas for a good decade before I got a new one.

I get really annoyed with Leica 'anti-snobs' who assume that Leicas aren't worth the money (I don't mean you, you've said nothing of the kind). I am not a rich man but Leicas are worth the money to me. I get more good pictures from my Leicas than from any other cameras because I find them very easy and comfortable to use, light and compact to carry, etc., but a lot of people look at the Leica 'round my neck and make certain unreasonable assumptions.

Point well taken about digi camera collections.

As for bargains, I've lost track of the number of cameras I've been given. Not road-test stuff that I've not returned (people are getting meaner about this) but 'It's not worth anything, would you like it?' It's not that many, maybe half a dozen, but I'm talking about usable cameras here.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Ole]

Collect? Wouldn't accumulate be a better word for what most of us do?

"Accumulate" is the word I use, too.

A "collection" implies some kind of system or rationale behind each aquisition, an "accumulation" allows "stuff" to be aquired just because - because - because - it's available, or cheap, or neat, or in best case all three.

I have a few "wrong guesses" which aren't as usable as I thought they might be, and lots of nice cheap usable stuff. I certainly couldn't afford to replace my LF gear with new! Well - maybe I could afford one new Gandolfi. But that would leave me without money for lenses, which would be difficult since I've gotten used to having at least ten to choose from...

 

[snegron]

"Accumulate" is the word I use, too.

A "collection" implies some kind of system or rationale behind each aquisition, an "accumulation" allows "stuff" to be aquired just because - because - because - it's available, or cheap, or neat, or in best case all three.

I have a few "wrong guesses" which aren't as usable as I thought they might be, and lots of nice cheap usable stuff. I certainly couldn't afford to replace my LF gear with new! Well - maybe I could afford one new Gandolfi. But that would leave me without money for lenses, which would be difficult since I've gotten used to having at least ten to choose from...

In addition to "accumulate" and "collect", we can add "providing a loving new home for" as well!

 

[Early Riser]

I don't collect gear, I only buy gear that I intend on shooting with, however I tend to want to buy the perfect piece for a specific purpose and because of that I have accumulated a huge amount of gear. Also from my studio days I used to have 4 sets going at the same time, that also required a lot of gear.

 

[firecracker]

Actually I have to admit I have a collection of quite unusable camera bags (or should say, "some bags" I bought for my cameras specifically) simply because they were not returnable afterwards. And selling them on online auctions seems to take too much effort!

 

[removed account4]

i pretty much use everything i have bought (or was given to me ) over the years ... although, i do have a gigantic falling plate camera that i intended to fix+use and haven't .. but other than that ...

 

[braxus]

Yes I also have the sickness. 14+ cameras and counting. I only really use a few of them. It all started when I was doing a shoot with a very pretty girl I liked and the camera broke down during that shoot, cutting things short. I vowed to never let that happen again. Needless to say I lost the girl, but gained many cameras. I just couldn't stop buying them trying to make up for that one shoot.

Dead Link Removed

Here above is a pic of my many cameras.

 

[alan c. davis]

I have a theory in life that if a man could work out how to earn $10,000 a week, his wife will somehow work out how to spend $10,010. So if I have a steady trickle of photographic gear, books etc. arriving by mail, this is my antidote to the better half's continual flood of shopping bags passing by me on the way up to the bedroom.

 

[Kino]

I don't collect them in the sense that I did with motion picture projectors (thank God that is over!). If you think LF takes up a lot of room, try a brace of Powers 5 and 6A 35mm projectors on full pedestals with Western Electric sound heads, tube amps, changeover gear and Voice of the Theater speakers!
Not to mention 20 or 30 feature 35mm films...

My camera budget is just short of "zero" unless I can wheel and deal, so I tend to accumulate stock I can sell or trade, but it doesn't mean I can't use ift for a while and THEN trade it for something more desirable.

Yes, it's a scattered, undisciplined way to work and it probably shows in my work, but damned if I don't have fun doing it and have owned more motion picture and still cameras than most people have ever even SEEN in their lives (not including one person who lives in Nevada and probably a few others here), so I won't apologize.

So don your hair shirt and whip your backs with the single tripod you have if you must for your art; I have no regrets and shall not join you...

 

[Soeren]

snip>
Needless to say I lost the girl, but gained many cameras. <snip

Sounds like a good deal to me

Kind regards
Søren

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'm down to around 10 cameras/systems, and I don't see myself acquiring any more at this point, unless maybe I get a DSLR to replace my scanners. If anything, I've been selling them off and could imagine consolidating further. Each has its own purpose--

Canon New F-1 for birds and low light and occasionally snapshots
Voigtlander Perkeo II--The pocket 'blad that goes anywhere
Bronica S2a system--rollfilm SLR
Linhof Tech V 23b--handy for lightweight travel or along with the birding kit
Linhof Tech V 4x5"--All round field and press camera--the one I use most
5x7" Press Graflex--an SLR with negs big enough to contact print
Sinar 8x10" P--Full function studio camera always out on the stand
Gowland 8x10" PocketView--the biggest camera I'm likely to travel with
Korona 7x17"--LF panos, maybe I'll try traveling with this one
American Optical 11x14"--Big negs for big contact prints

Nikon Coolpix 990--handy for digitizing documents and photographing things for sale on the internet
Beaulieu 4008ZM2--Sometimes stuff moves

 

[Black Dog]

I have a theory in life that if a man could work out how to earn $10,000 a week, his wife will somehow work out how to spend $10,010. So if I have a steady trickle of photographic gear, books etc. arriving by mail, this is my antidote to the better half's continual flood of shopping bags passing by me on the way up to the bedroom.

just look at Posh n' Coleen ROFL... :confused:

 

[braxus]

Soeren,
I know you are joking on the cameras thing, but realistically I'd trade them all for her. She was quite the lady.

 

[braxus]

To add on last comment. Yes I would trade them all for her, but she's married today. So I no longer pursue her, I use my cameras to keep me happy.

 

[steven_e007]

Dear Steve,


I get really annoyed with Leica 'anti-snobs' who assume that Leicas aren't worth the money (I don't mean you, you've said nothing of the kind). I am not a rich man but Leicas are worth the money to me. I get more good pictures from my Leicas than from any other cameras because I find them very easy and comfortable to use, light and compact to carry, etc., but a lot of people look at the Leica 'round my neck and make certain unreasonable assumptions.

Cheers,

R.

Ahhh... Well, to me a 'down the noser' is someone who makes snide comments about me because I have a piece of crap (in their eyes) around my neck.

What they have around their neck is their business. I wouldn't judge a man by the cost of his camera, I just get annoyed with the "I'm a serious photographer because my camera is really expensive - but your is really cheap, so..." type atitude. I don't think they qualify as photographers, so maybe we wouldn't find them on APUG?

I'm certainly not anti Leica, I merely used them as an example of one of the cameras coveted by certain types of camera snobs, as are Nikons and Hasselblads (also great cameras if you need to actually take pictures, questionable as a necklace, though...) If I was a pro photographer I would certainly consider Leica or Nikon. My company uses both in technical applications where they shoot dozens of rolls of film every working day of the year. They give virtually no trouble at all and still last for years.

Today, as it happens, I am collecting a Leica R8.
It isn't for me, my company is purchasing it, but I am going to collect it, 'test it out', make sure it does the job we require and look after it until it is needed.

I suppose some Leica devotees wouldn't consider an R8 a real Leica, but it is still a serious piece of kit which I'm sure will need quite extensive testing this summer(!) It will be of great interest to me to compare the results with my own cheap and cheerful stuff!

Steve

 

[Roger Hicks]

Ahhh... Well, to me a 'down the noser' is someone who makes snide comments about me because I have a piece of crap (in their eyes) around my neck.

Dear Steve,

Sure; I know what you mean. I think that here I'd be more inclined to say, "Wow, haven't seen one of those for ages, how do you like it?" or some such. If I said anything, of course.

But I have to admit that I'm one of those snobs who doesn't regard Leicaflexes as Leicas. I'd only say that jokingly; they're very fine cameras. And I'd only say to to the right person.

Cheers,

R.