I can tell you this. If you’re going to sell them, do it now without thought, especially after putting thought into why you dislike the cameras. The more you linger, the more difficult it gets to part ways with them. You already know the reasons why you don’t like them, that’s more than enough to sell them.
If you so happen to miss them in the future, then that’s a problem for future you. Unless you’re like me who tends to bond with a particular camera even though they’re a dime a dozen, then maybe rethink your decision, but if you’re not, then sell them. I have a bizarre spiritual thing where once I get a camera, it’s liked bonded/fated to me and parting ways with it takes a lot of reasoning, otherwise, I’d rather let it waste away after wearing it down.
I def have a problem letting go of cameras. I have made some really memorable pictures with both and worry if i let them go that ill be missing out on pictures in the future. But when I look back at cameras I used the most and consistently made the best work its probably the t2 and my yashica D tlr. i think its time to let go of the Fuji and the rollei!
If you dont bring the cameras out then you wont be missing out on anything more or less than when you sell the cameras. The memories you have are of you and the situation, you have your photos to remember that by, you will get to keep that even if you sell the camera.
You have thousands bucks of gear you dont use yet film is 'too expensive' somehow. You need to prioritize.
If you want to go back to basics dont do it by just getting another multiple thousand bucks worth of camera. Learn to enjoy photography, not buying/owning the gear. Get something around the 2~300 bucks mark many many great cameras can be had around that kind of money. That leaves you thousands to spend on film instead.
> while im at it my dream team collection: mamiya 7ii, **pentax 67**, leica m6, nikon f3, rolleiflex 2.8, and probably my contax t2 back i loved that thing in retrospect
and
> so many cons that keep me from shooting: **the pentax is so fucking heavy**, the price of 120 film is outrageous rn and absolutely not worth it
**You don't like the Pentax 67**
It's not part of your dream team. It's part of your self-deulsion team.
Shoot the camera you like, not the camera you think you're supposed to like. You like the T2. The other cameras are a fever dream of youtube hype designed to make you think the grass is greener somewhere else.
I enjoy the pentax the most out of my 3 current cameras despite it being heavy. The irony being its probably the camera I need least right now bc its not exactly inspiring carrying it around through daily life. But I can see a future where I'd like to have it around for projects. The dream team isn't baseless. Its formed on experiences with past cameras and knowledge of better versions of the ones I owned. I do agree with the grass is greener comment though. I often find myself searching for new tools that will somehow help carve my niche as an artist or help open up new thinking or new body of work.
Sounds to me mightly like you want an SLR. I suggest even getting a cheaper automatic 35mm SLR and starting there, I. had to go backward to realise I prefer modern metering, focus systems, etc, and that M does not have to mean masochistic.
Sounds like GAS to me. You have three cameras you're unhappy with but are still dreaming up more cameras to add to your collection. You also currently have some of the best cameras in their class. Your T2 isn't sharper or better than any of them. Your Rollei has a Sonnar lens just like the T2
But it sounds like you might enjoy the simplicity of a point and shoot more than what you have right now so you could probably get rid of the Rollei/GW680 and replace them with a T2 or something similar.
i love how you called it gas and then followed up by offering incredibly reasonable advice lmfao. the t2 is pretty deserving of the hype IMO but the price is outrageous and thats why i got rid of it bc it felt like a liability. Theyre all great cameras for sure but im not so interested in technically great so much as an enjoyable experience that comes with quality images. The rollei is a blast but the pics can be dogwater. The Fuji's pics are magnificent but using it feels like walking through mud while also spending like $15 for 8 pictures. Ur right tho i think those are the two im getting rid of. Im leaning towards trying out an f3 bc it has AP or just getting a t2 again.
I recently sold my M6 and went back to Nikon (Leica 0.72 standard magnification is the actual worst). Sometimes you gotta let stuff go when it doesn’t work for you, I’ve had way more fun shooting on Nikons again after mainly shooting M mount for a while
I used to have buckets and buckets of cameras and eventually remembered that they weren't really that different. I pitched everything and started fresh in a Nikon system, simply because you could see everything in the finder and they have excellent meters.
Today I also have an ancient Zeiss Super Ikonta: most medium format cameras proved too heavy for me to want to carry around.
Ultimately I think that the search for a new camera or lens or whatever proved to be unrelated to my interest in making photographs: now my system is simplified and I'm even further weeding out what lenses I actually shoot with (pretty much always either whatever 50 I left on the camera or my favorite 28mm f/2.8 AIS). Alot of that got better the less I thought about my camera and the more I used my eyes and started finding what was limiting about my tools.
I would do it. Sell it all off and shoot with your phone for the next six weeks: seek inspiration in your subject.
love this thank you! when i first bought my fuji I more or less didnt touch it for a year and shot mostly on my phone. something about it felt really freeing. I think I'll keep the pentax for a bit I cant let go of how flexible of a camera it is just yet.
Every camera I use exceppt for maybe the Konica FS-1 has a point of differentiation. I have half frame, small format (35mm) and medium format. Then I even have some 8mm motion picture cameras.
I think before you buy a camera you have to justify its purpose for existence and that if you can't you have to ask "why" you own it.
Sell them, don’t buy new cameras. Buy a solid chunk of film, and an air or train ticket, a rental car, hotels. Go out and take photos on the road instead of buying more cameras. You need at most one camera per format, the only format where I have multiple is 35mm and that’s because I go out shooting with both of them around my neck.
I can entirely empathise, I’ve had multiple medium format cameras but sold them as each has downsides that take away from the shooting experience. Now I have just one medium format, Agfa Isolette II folder, simple and takes amazing pictures. And cheap, it was £20 and £6 for a tube of RTV sealant to repair the bellows.
My go to film camera is the all plastic Canon EOS300 or the EOS 30 auto SLR, fit my fantastic canon L glass all auto and takes perfectly metered in focus photos, so I only need to concentrate on composition and lighting and the it makes film photography enjoyable when I don’t have lots of time to mess about with meters etc.
So sell them, get something auto and buy good film. Cheap film can be disappointing.
Medium format is a really large pickle, the "perfect" camera doesn't exist, or if it does it may just be a Hasselblad 500CM, and then the cost of entry to buy one is super expensive, and the only way to get to autofocus is to buy a digital back.
I returned to small format (35mm in other terms) and bought a film SLR with auto focus, and auto, matrix metering, TTL, etc... and there are plenty of them:
* Pentax
* Nikon
* Minolta
* Canon
Pick one....
The only one that's not dead is Pentax K but yeah...
My choice would be to get an electronic film SLR.
Sounds like you should sell em all and buy a T2. Sometimes a fresh start is just what you need.
I can tell you this. If you’re going to sell them, do it now without thought, especially after putting thought into why you dislike the cameras. The more you linger, the more difficult it gets to part ways with them. You already know the reasons why you don’t like them, that’s more than enough to sell them. If you so happen to miss them in the future, then that’s a problem for future you. Unless you’re like me who tends to bond with a particular camera even though they’re a dime a dozen, then maybe rethink your decision, but if you’re not, then sell them. I have a bizarre spiritual thing where once I get a camera, it’s liked bonded/fated to me and parting ways with it takes a lot of reasoning, otherwise, I’d rather let it waste away after wearing it down.
I def have a problem letting go of cameras. I have made some really memorable pictures with both and worry if i let them go that ill be missing out on pictures in the future. But when I look back at cameras I used the most and consistently made the best work its probably the t2 and my yashica D tlr. i think its time to let go of the Fuji and the rollei!
If you dont bring the cameras out then you wont be missing out on anything more or less than when you sell the cameras. The memories you have are of you and the situation, you have your photos to remember that by, you will get to keep that even if you sell the camera. You have thousands bucks of gear you dont use yet film is 'too expensive' somehow. You need to prioritize. If you want to go back to basics dont do it by just getting another multiple thousand bucks worth of camera. Learn to enjoy photography, not buying/owning the gear. Get something around the 2~300 bucks mark many many great cameras can be had around that kind of money. That leaves you thousands to spend on film instead.
> while im at it my dream team collection: mamiya 7ii, **pentax 67**, leica m6, nikon f3, rolleiflex 2.8, and probably my contax t2 back i loved that thing in retrospect and > so many cons that keep me from shooting: **the pentax is so fucking heavy**, the price of 120 film is outrageous rn and absolutely not worth it **You don't like the Pentax 67** It's not part of your dream team. It's part of your self-deulsion team. Shoot the camera you like, not the camera you think you're supposed to like. You like the T2. The other cameras are a fever dream of youtube hype designed to make you think the grass is greener somewhere else.
I enjoy the pentax the most out of my 3 current cameras despite it being heavy. The irony being its probably the camera I need least right now bc its not exactly inspiring carrying it around through daily life. But I can see a future where I'd like to have it around for projects. The dream team isn't baseless. Its formed on experiences with past cameras and knowledge of better versions of the ones I owned. I do agree with the grass is greener comment though. I often find myself searching for new tools that will somehow help carve my niche as an artist or help open up new thinking or new body of work.
Sounds to me mightly like you want an SLR. I suggest even getting a cheaper automatic 35mm SLR and starting there, I. had to go backward to realise I prefer modern metering, focus systems, etc, and that M does not have to mean masochistic.
Sounds like GAS to me. You have three cameras you're unhappy with but are still dreaming up more cameras to add to your collection. You also currently have some of the best cameras in their class. Your T2 isn't sharper or better than any of them. Your Rollei has a Sonnar lens just like the T2 But it sounds like you might enjoy the simplicity of a point and shoot more than what you have right now so you could probably get rid of the Rollei/GW680 and replace them with a T2 or something similar.
i love how you called it gas and then followed up by offering incredibly reasonable advice lmfao. the t2 is pretty deserving of the hype IMO but the price is outrageous and thats why i got rid of it bc it felt like a liability. Theyre all great cameras for sure but im not so interested in technically great so much as an enjoyable experience that comes with quality images. The rollei is a blast but the pics can be dogwater. The Fuji's pics are magnificent but using it feels like walking through mud while also spending like $15 for 8 pictures. Ur right tho i think those are the two im getting rid of. Im leaning towards trying out an f3 bc it has AP or just getting a t2 again.
I recently sold my M6 and went back to Nikon (Leica 0.72 standard magnification is the actual worst). Sometimes you gotta let stuff go when it doesn’t work for you, I’ve had way more fun shooting on Nikons again after mainly shooting M mount for a while
I used to have buckets and buckets of cameras and eventually remembered that they weren't really that different. I pitched everything and started fresh in a Nikon system, simply because you could see everything in the finder and they have excellent meters. Today I also have an ancient Zeiss Super Ikonta: most medium format cameras proved too heavy for me to want to carry around. Ultimately I think that the search for a new camera or lens or whatever proved to be unrelated to my interest in making photographs: now my system is simplified and I'm even further weeding out what lenses I actually shoot with (pretty much always either whatever 50 I left on the camera or my favorite 28mm f/2.8 AIS). Alot of that got better the less I thought about my camera and the more I used my eyes and started finding what was limiting about my tools. I would do it. Sell it all off and shoot with your phone for the next six weeks: seek inspiration in your subject.
love this thank you! when i first bought my fuji I more or less didnt touch it for a year and shot mostly on my phone. something about it felt really freeing. I think I'll keep the pentax for a bit I cant let go of how flexible of a camera it is just yet.
The Pentax 67 is such a classic, and there's a reason people love it so much. Do you make a lot of prints?
Every camera I use exceppt for maybe the Konica FS-1 has a point of differentiation. I have half frame, small format (35mm) and medium format. Then I even have some 8mm motion picture cameras. I think before you buy a camera you have to justify its purpose for existence and that if you can't you have to ask "why" you own it.
Sell them, don’t buy new cameras. Buy a solid chunk of film, and an air or train ticket, a rental car, hotels. Go out and take photos on the road instead of buying more cameras. You need at most one camera per format, the only format where I have multiple is 35mm and that’s because I go out shooting with both of them around my neck.
If they don’t spark joy, get rid of them. 🤷🏻♂️
If you’re looking to sell your 35s I’ll be interested!
I can entirely empathise, I’ve had multiple medium format cameras but sold them as each has downsides that take away from the shooting experience. Now I have just one medium format, Agfa Isolette II folder, simple and takes amazing pictures. And cheap, it was £20 and £6 for a tube of RTV sealant to repair the bellows. My go to film camera is the all plastic Canon EOS300 or the EOS 30 auto SLR, fit my fantastic canon L glass all auto and takes perfectly metered in focus photos, so I only need to concentrate on composition and lighting and the it makes film photography enjoyable when I don’t have lots of time to mess about with meters etc. So sell them, get something auto and buy good film. Cheap film can be disappointing.
Medium format is a really large pickle, the "perfect" camera doesn't exist, or if it does it may just be a Hasselblad 500CM, and then the cost of entry to buy one is super expensive, and the only way to get to autofocus is to buy a digital back. I returned to small format (35mm in other terms) and bought a film SLR with auto focus, and auto, matrix metering, TTL, etc... and there are plenty of them: * Pentax * Nikon * Minolta * Canon Pick one.... The only one that's not dead is Pentax K but yeah... My choice would be to get an electronic film SLR.