Too many cameras?

[Tim]

On the "Wotcha Got?" thread, Gene said:
<quote>
This bids me pause... Does having too many cams get in the way of shooting??
<quote>

It's funny, this very thought has been occupying what I loosely call my brain for the past month or so.

Been realising that buying different cameras, I feel "obliged" to put a couple of rolls through them, and that's not enough to learn a camera. And then you get something else and use it in turn.

Now, while this is a lot of fun, maybe it does get in the way of your photography - because you are always worrying about the technicalities of getting the shot, rather than the shot itself.

Personally, I find that detracting badly from my shots - while technically they may be ok (or even good) they don't "grab" me. Yet I can pick up my favourite camera (the Bessa R2 until recently) and take good shots, rather than ordinary ones.

Looking thru Matanle's books for instance - you get the impression that he gets more fun from using the various cameras than getting great pictures - i find few of his pictures really grab me. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it's a different way of looking at things. Guess it depends just what you're trying to achieve.

So personally, I decided to find one or two cameras I really like, stick with them, really learn them, until using them is automatic and I can concentrate totally on the picture itself.

Just my idle ramblings, late at night, couple of glasses of nice red.

I'll shut up now.....

tim

[oftheherd]

I think you aren't far off track. I have been neglecting my Mamiya Super Press 23 for a long time and it isn't happy with me. I have been having fun with a Toshiba 4400 digital. (Shhhh! Who said that ugly word? )

Actually a fun camera. If the Epson RF wasn't so expensive, I would seriously consider it. I hate shutter lag.

Anyway, I have been giving a lot of thought to starting to carry the Press 23 and/or one of my two favorite SLR's more often. Especially now that I have b/w developing capabilities again. That was one of the reasons the 23 sat for so long. It was just too much of a hassle to try and get 120 developed, color or b/w. And considering that I now have a scanner for 120, what else do I need?

[wierdcollector]

Very good point Tim. Lately to amuse/abuse myself I thought I'd try and use a bunch of cameras I'd picked up but hadn't tried at all. I was going to try 60 cameras in the 60 days vacation I had. So far, I've tried 50, some with terrible results, others not bad but as you said, I spend more time trying to make sure I get decent results with the equipment than on making sure there is something that really grabs me about the photo itself. I'm deciding to leave most of my oldies on the shelf for a while after this and sticking to 1 or 2 RF's and 1 or 2 SLR's till I master them a bit better and get back to the photo, not equipment testing. Thanks for your post, it made me feel not so alone out there.

[jdos2]

Originally posted by oftheherd ...
I think you aren't far off track. I have been neglecting my Mamiya Super Press 23 for a long time and it isn't happy with me. I have been having fun with a Toshiba 4400 digital. (Shhhh! Who said that ugly word? )

And my Universal has sat similarly unused this summer, much to the dismay of the 100mm f/2.8, which now drags on slow shutter speeds and at the full second, sounds like it won't close at all... I'll have to do something about that.

I've personally made an effort to get rid of cameras so that I'll simply use the ones I *do* have. That's not worked so well... The Prominents are fresh, the Contax G is only slightly less so (pumped 10 rolls through it since it came back from Kyocera!), and even the Moskva took some pictures. Then the Kiev, which still has Kodak IR (and a 21mm lens!) in it (I guess I should get that done soon), and finally the Universals, last used for Polaroid a good bit ago.

There there are the RB's...
I either have to take more pictures or get rid of some cameras!

[rover]

I stress less about this because I have sold 4 cameras recently. What I had done was to go out with my Bessa R and a fixed lens RF and work them together. I found out quite quickly that the Bessa was a much better tool for me so I have decided to move in that direction. I bought an R2 to replace the R and sold the R along with 3 of those fixed lens RFs and have an R3a on order. I think this two camera kit is more focused on what I do and will help me shoot more, not less.

[Oldprof]

I graduated from high school in 1960 and throughout the 60s I had but one camera - a 35mm rangefinder. But I took many more pictures then than I do now. I was experiencing a lot of new things in my life and I wanted to record everything ... college, two years in the Peace Corps in South America, falling in love for the first time, etc. In 1970 I started graduate school and became an anthropologist. I also got my first SLR in 1970. I shot lots of film when I was doing field research in Central and South America.

It is now many years later and I have about a dozen cameras. And I find myself shooting less and less. I still do field research periodically and take pictures at those times. I also carry a camera and photograph when I am traveling. But I am not taking many pictures at home, exploring my little habitat the way I did when I was younger and experimenting with the camera to see what it could do. Part of the problem is I have more responsibilities at work and less time to diddle around. At least I feel that way. Time seems scarce now. But perhaps this is just part of growing older. I would like to rediscover some of the excitement I had about photography in the late 50s and 60s and start shooting more.

[Honu-Hugger]

Similar story to many others -- took the most pictures (and some of the most satisfying) in my youth with only one camera and a few lenses. I spent many years wishing/hoping/feeling the need for this or that camera, and while this advice may not be for all it certainly worked for me: just go do it and get it out of your system! You will either find that the camera of your dreams is or is not everything that you imagined it would be -- but until you try it you will never know for sure.

That's the only reason I could answer honestly on another thread that there is no other camera I desire. I would not even consider engaging in an argument as to whether or not there are "better" cameras than the ones I own -- of course there are. But, due to no accident I have exactly the cameras I want (well, a few more than I really want -- three of the Contax I's have to go along with a couple of Alpas). None of them have come to me by accident or through ignorance -- they are exactly the cameras that I want. I went through late model Contax SLRs, Leica Ms and SLRs, many TLRs (Rollei, Zeiss, Mamiya), Hasselblad, and had an obscene number of Nikon bodies and Nikkor lenses around here at one time and I found it all to be stifling and creatively paralyzing.

The most liberating thing that I did was to reduce the inventory to a manageable amount. I was still shooting mostly with Nikon SLR then but as the inventory decreased my shooting went up. The final most liberating step for me was when I ditched a few cases of Nikon gear the night before a vacation and packed two rangefinders instead -- my biggest challenge was finding a bag small enough to reasonably carry the gear! That was it for me, from that point forward I have been mostly a rangefinder shooter.

I think we all have different shooting styles that suit us. I don't look too deeply into "why," I just know that I'm most comfortable shooting with the RFs that I use. It's comforting to put the "I wish I had..." behind me. As they say, "your mileage may vary..."

D2

[Doug]

Is there such a thing as too many cameras? Curt may have an answer! I have plenty of gear to handle pretty much anything I'd want to do. When I develop a theme/project to pursue, I'll dig out what I think is the best tool, dust it off and make sure it works. I can ignore the rest... as if I didn't have them. They're no burden, snug on my shelf under last Summer's t-shirts.

I commonly have 3 or 4 cameras ready to go, depending on the task. But the main project gets the main attention of a couple of them. As I attend to that project I don't pack much gear with me, only what I know I can use, usually one camera & one lens.

I have to agree, though, that taking a camera out just to give it some exercise or to see how it runs tends not to result in many "keepers."

[taffer]

Uf, tough question... the more I think about it the more I convince myself that indeed I have too many, but OTH, with my 'recent' discovery of eBay and the overseas market, suddenly I 'can' afford owning and using lots of cameras which I love but whose price is simply ridiculously high here, and that if you can find them at all.

Probably I have a collector's soul after all

[nwcanonman]

When I was younger, and the kids were still at home, most of my shots were "documentary". By that I mean the typical: Here's the kids at play and Here we are at Disneyland. Only used the 50mm lens that came on my SLR then, so not much different than an RF.
Now that all that's behind me I'm more into pleasing the artist in myself, trying to record something only my inner-self can define. Having different "light-tight boxes" only gives me more tools to help reach that indefinable goal.

[DougK]

Interesting question, Tim. I have to say that with the advent of the Internet, I've been able to find great deals on cameras - otherwise I'd have never believed I could afford to try MF or even really known about rangefinders and other types of cameras other than SLRs.

That said, I think I've actually been motivated to get out there and actually shoot MORE than I ever have before, both from being inspired by other people's work and also just going out and having fun trying new things and new toys.

One other observation, I've noticed since coming to RFF that while I am buying and using more cameras, I've tended to purchase those with normal to slightly wide lenses where before I used telephoto and zoom almost exclusively. This has forced me to pay more attention to composition and use of the "Nike zoom". As a result, I think my photos have improved, plus I've gained new respect for just how capable older cameras really are.

All in all, worth a few dollars spent