To the older photographers here

[radical7]

Was there GAS back then? If so was it as extent as today? What did the manufacturers use to show off as selling point?
I'm wondering about this because the camera life today is way shorter than is was back then... so was there?

[Dralowid]

There was GAS way back then but it was mostly second hand and German...and for those who thought about buying new there were sometimes 'dummies' in the better photographic shops

Michael

[charjohncarter]

Same as now, the camera battles were won by the companies with the best marketing departments, not necessarily the best cameras.

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by radical7

Was there GAS back then? If so was it as extent as today? What did the manufacturers use to show off as selling point?
I'm wondering about this because the camera life today is way shorter than is was back then... so was there?

Back in the 70's I had a Nikon F2 in art school. My camera made me very popular with the girls, and for me there was no better camera and I only owned one.

Eventually I grew into Nikon F3's and had three of them, but GAS only started only when I discovered this particular forum. I feel if it were not for the internet, EBAY and this forum I likely would not have gone nuts and spent tens of thousands of dollars.

Cal

[jky]

Cal is still popular with the girls....

[Timmyjoe]

Can only speak for the 1970's, 'cause I'm really not that old.

I was using a Canon TX with a 50mm 1.8 and though it worked very well for my needs, I did lust after an F-1, and a 50mm 1.4 or the unobtainable 55mm 1.2 (IIRC). I also had an acquaintance who had a Leica M (don't recall which one) and he was constantly going on and on about this or that lens that he wanted to get for the camera. At that time he was enamored with older Zeiss glass that he had seen other M shooters use.

So yeah, there was that gear lust and wanting to buy better equipment. But the camera introduction cycle was much more drawn out, and since a good quality film camera lasted decades (as opposed to now where the latest and the greatest digital piece is obsolete by the time it hits the store shelves), many of my GAS dreams rested upon cameras and lenses that were made in the 1950's and 1960's.

Best,
-Tim

[PaulW128]

I'm with Cal, I think this Form as well as the Internet in general is what makes GAS such an issue. Back in the '70's I don't remember feeling a need to upgrade willy-nilly!! I started with an F2, got the F3HP and was very happy....Now, forget about it

Paul

[twopointeight]

Cameras lasted much longer back then. One could shoot with Nikon FM's for example and work with those for 15 years. Zooms were not as popular as now, but there was prime lens lust because ISO's were much lower than now and fast glass was the answer. But there were more accessories to buy, like filters, meters, lighting gear, and innumerable do-dads like radio transmitters and slaves. It was always something. This is from a working pro point of view.

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by jky

Cal is still popular with the girls....

Don't tell my girlfriend. LOL.

Anyways nature has been kind to me, and somehow I'm a 54 year old man trapped in a thirty-year old body.

Cal

[Paul Luscher]

Well, I started in the early Eighties, and if I got GAS, it was because as I got better at shooting, I realized I needed certain items to help improve my photography. First, I realized I needed something other than just a 50mm lens. Then I realized that given what I shoot I also needed fast lenses. Then I got into motor drives, so I wouldn't have to take my eye away from the camera and risk losing a good shot.

And I got into Leicas when I realized shooting acoustic shows in small clubs with a SLR was not a good idea (especially with a motor drive), and I needed something which would let me shoot without incurring the wrath of the audience or the performers. Started out with beat-up second-hand M3s, but once you start shooting Leicas, you want a new one of your own. This led to me getting an M6, and it's gone on from there....

[BlackXList]

Originally Posted by Dralowid

There was GAS way back then but it was mostly second hand and German...and for those who thought about buying new there were sometimes 'dummies' in the better photographic shops

Michael

based on what I hear some salespeople come out with, that's still very much the case

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by twopointeight

Zooms were not as popular as now, but there was prime lens lust because ISO's were much lower than now and fast glass was the answer. .

Only pretty recently the performance of zooms approached that of fast primes.

Also my most technically advanced camera is a Pentax 67II because its the only camera I own that offers TTL with a dedicated flash, and also offers six-segment matrix metering, center-weighted metering, and spot metering at a flick of a switch.

BTW I still shoot a Nikon F3P that I have owned for decades. Still a great camera and legendary durability.

Cal

[Tom A]

Using Leica M's in the 60's - there was not much chance for GAS. There was the M2 and the M3 and later the M4. Lenses were limited and once you had a working kit (21/3.4, 35f2 or 1.4, 50 f2 or 1/4 and the 90f2_ you were pretty much set. Leica's "cycle" was usually 5-7 years - and with lenses even longer/ OK, the GAS came in the form of accessories (flashes, tripod's etc).
The Nikon F did come with just about every bit you could wish for - but you had to carry it too. Hasselblad was the same, but usually you got the Superwide, a 500C, 60/100/250 and that was it. If there were changes, they had to be measurable to justify the expense.
Today's "cycle" of months or maybe a year is a marketing ploy to a great extent. Move a screw, add a minor feature and advertise the hell out of it!
A lot of time you got used stuff, it was cheaper to pick up another body than have the dropped one fixed (bl.p M4 $80. bl.p M2 $ 60-100 and bl.p M3's around $100). These where usually swapped at the paper or between friends. Still not cheap when you consider that monthly pay was around $225-250.

[kuzano]

s

Originally Posted by charjohncarter

Same as now, the camera battles were won my the companies with the best marketing departments, not necessarily the best cameras.

Of Course, this was pre-internet. Also, I don't recall ever seeing a camera ad on television... No Ashton Krutchers back then, or as they say, "In the day".

Photo mags and reviews. In the glossy mags, every "review" had a full page ad of the camera being reviewed across the page from the "review". Photo mags were in their heyday. Reviews were seemingly partial by that observation.

Shutterbug was tabloid size on newsprint, and Columbus Camera Group had about an 8-10 page classifieds (full pages). Actual classifieds section was about 35-40 pages in the back. The monthly shutterbug was well dogeared and raggedy by the time it got hung up in the "outhouse". (Yes Emily, we had an outhouse in the back yard of our first "in town" home in 1947) I suspect the Shutterbug left black ink when wiping your derriere, butt never looked to see for sure?

Yes, there was GAS, which I always defined as the elusive search for the perfect camera that would actually make me a better photographer. And at least the advertising served other usefull purposes. (the outhouse... remember), or roughly the same value as advertising today... useless, Butt for.....

[paulfish4570]

i got GAS even worse when i was a young man because there were two decent and one very good camera stores in easy driving distance. i could lay hands on anything that interested me. probably a very good thing that newspaper reporters were paid so poorly, but i did manage to buy a used DS M3 and elmar 50/2.8 for about a week and a half's pay ...

[jsrockit]

Oh man, before the internet it was camera shows, camera stores, and shutterbug magazine... you old folks know what I mean.

[J450N]

Originally Posted by Calzone

but GAS only started only when I discovered this particular forum. I feel if it were not for the internet, EBAY and this forum I likely would not have gone nuts and spent tens of thousands of dollars

I completely agree with this. I suspect this is related to behavior contagions, where individuals modify their behavior based on the behaviors of others in a group, much like a group of good kids walking home at night that end up vandalizing someone's house. I imagine there is a lot of marketing research into capitalizing on this (viral marketing, etc.).

[dct]

Originally Posted by Calzone

Don't tell my girlfriend. LOL.

Anyways nature has been kind to me, and somehow I'm a 54 year old man trapped in a thirty-year old body.

Cal

Hear, hear! I share your feeling. But we all know: Ars longa, vita brevis. Let us better focus on art... It might still work when we feel how old we really are.

[kbg32]

I only got gas when I looked at the old Modern Photography yearly gear review.

[Hatch]

Yup.

you had to be dedicated to have GAS.

I remember in the day we had a store that catered to the pro and amateur at the same time time.

It was about 45 mins from home on my bike.

I spent hours just looking in the store window.
They had literally hundreds of used camera's just in that window alone.

I bought my first F2 there and when I asked if they had one in stock used, the reply was "Yep over there. just select one you like, they're all the same price".

Must have been forty or fifty at any given day.
The same with Hasselblad, Leica, you name it.

It's just not the same with evilbay.

[Vics]

Originally Posted by jsrockit

Oh man, before the internet it was camera shows, camera stores, and shutterbug magazine... you old folks know what I mean.

Yeah, Popular Photography and Modern and Peterson's etc. were great GAS producers. But they were also very informative. Those Nikon F ads and Leica-M and Rolleiflex ads just made me pant back then. By the time I bought some of each of those cameras, I was already old-ish.

[radical7]

Originally Posted by Calzone

Back in the 70's I had a Nikon F2 in art school. My camera made me very popular with the girls, and for me there was no better camera and I only owned one.

Eventually I grew into Nikon F3's and had three of them, but GAS only started only when I discovered this particular forum. I feel if it were not for the internet, EBAY and this forum I likely would not have gone nuts and spent tens of thousands of dollars.

Cal

Ebay, Keh, Rff Classified do help out the GAS
Do you guys thing that Modern GAS is superior to Older GAS??? Like do modern manufactures know better how to make you have wet dreams?

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by J450N

I completely agree with this. I suspect this is related to behavior contagions, where individuals modify their behavior based on the behaviors of others in a group, much like a group of good kids walking home at night that end up vandalizing someone's house. I imagine there is a lot of marketing research into capitalizing on this (viral marketing, etc.).

I think you are spot on with you observations. When I was an exclusive Nikon SLR snob I was captured by the Nikon Pro camera image and marketing.

When I discovered this forum I quickly became contaminated with the notion that there was another universe to explore the world of rangefinders and immersed myself in it. It seemed like I had been deprived for several decades and the result was gluttony.

Now I have grown to realize a newer medium for me: medium format. I wonder as a focus group how photographers might have a generally higher propensity for obsessive behavior that can easily managed, manipulated and exploited.

Cal

[Vince Lupo]

I recall going to used camera shows back in the early 1980's in Toronto (anyone remember the shows at the Holiday Inn Don Valley????). They'd have shows that took up this gigantic ballroom, and there were probably 300 people lined up to get in about an hour before they opened. Was definitely more exciting than the camera shows today (or at least in the DC/Baltimore area where I am), so while there wasn't eBay or online stores, the used camera shows made up for it.

[daveleo]

Speaking only for myself . . . back in the old days (1960's - 1990's) I had gear lust, and attended all the camera shows and haunted the local shops, but raising a family didn't allow me to spend lots of money on gear.

Then 3 rivers merged to form paradise . . . my kids grew up and moved out, the digital plague fell upon us, and I retired. So now I buy and trade away new stuff (not very expensive stuff) all the time . . . so I got GAS in my "golden years" (which actually ain't as golden as they promised us )