As this is my personal blog on photographic and other topics, I thought I'd just start some free-flowing automatic writing roughly in the corner of photography and cameras. As time has gone by, I realise that I'm as much a photographer as a collector of cameras and lenses. And to be fair, there really is a lot to collect and try out and play with. I am attracted by new things, as in new to me, which in most people's book mean antiques. Anything made of metal and glass. Preferably mechanical, as a pose to autofocus tomfoolery. Although obviously electronic cameras definitely are collected and played with. At the same time, this quest for newness means that I also tire quickly of the less than stellar items, and these are then put back into "circulation". Occasionally, I'll sell something, and then immediately regret it and look for another copy. This happened with the Nikon F4.. twice! Just because.. it's a difficult camera to use and hold. However, it's place in the Parthenon of Nikon F series cameras, as well as being a truly revolutionary (as well as evolutionary) camera meant that I was always going to like it. Always in Nikon territory.. the 85mm AF-D f1.4 lens.. what I call the Eye of Sauron. When mirrorless came out all the AF-D lenses were turned into manual lenses.. but I just loved the way the lens drew, so when I chanced on another, I grabbed it. I've always had a particular interest in fast portrait lenses.. and currently own 4 examples.. A Leica 80mm f1.4 R lens, the Canon 85mm L f1.2 and the aforementioned Nikon.. as well as a TTArtisan 90mm f1.25 for Leica M.. The fact that they cost me all an arm and a leg means that when I'm out photographing I have to hop around and try to take pictures one-handed. It also means that I need cameras for each and every system! God I love collecting camera gear! And I even make excuses to get more stuff..
Having said all that, I'm actually in a contraction phase. Simply put, I'm culling the collection to the bare essentials. I've already pared it down significantly from the stratospheric heights of previous collecting sprees, but I've come to the realisation that having a large camera collection just takes too much time to take care of it all, and my photography has suffered. I spend more time cleaning lenses and dusting bodies than putting rolls through them, and that is just sad. Because.. I got into photography because I wanted to take photographs, not to collect cameras. Along the way the impetus inverted.. and now I collect cameras, which I sometimes (rarely) shoot. So time for another drastic reset.
And so I need to organise my collection into essential, nice to have, and superfluous. These are arbitrary labels, and one day a camera can drift through from essential, to nice to have, then superfluous, and then straight back to essential! The vagueries of our brains! But seriously.. I do need to reduce, concentrate.
One thing I've definitely noticed is that film has become much less important to me. There was a time, around the early period of full-frame digital, where I abandoned film completely, and sold off all or most of my film cameras. This happened around the time I got my Canon 10D, a 6mp cropped sensor camera. It was an amazing camera, and for a while I used it in conjunction with my Eos 3 film camera.. but a summer trip to Italy convinced me that the small digital camera was the way to go. And so my various manual focus Pentax's went on the block (back then I was still a photogrpaher and not quite a collector). Then something strange happened.. Over 10 years of digital upgrades and a huge upheaval in the photography market, and I realised that there was the law of diminishing returns that was finally affecting digital photography. However most of the world had abandoned film, and so film bodies were plentiful and cheap on the secondary market. Ridiculously so. Enticingly so. And that's when I pounced and started buying up all the film cameras I'd ever lusted after. Kodak went through it's bankruptcy and came out the other end leaner and meander and incredibly still making film, so there was still something to put into these cameras. Ilford went through similar growing pains but thankfully weathered the most destructive phase of the digital tsunami, and was also still open for business..
So anyways, where am I going with all this?! Well.. need to downsize. Because although I've managed to own every film cameras I've ever desired (more or less..) I find that I use film cameras less and less. And they need to be taken care of. Cleaned. Lubed. Shot from time to time. So, having fewer to take care of will mean I'll use them more often.
Stay tuned for what goes on the block!
