Fighting GAS: This new camera is not exactly right for me because...

[Aberaeron]

...because 1. it will not make me a better photographer, 2. it will be a month before my wife trusts me again when I say, "Honey, this is finally the camera I'll be staying with."

She probably knows you better than that already.

When I buy something new without prior consultation, I have to concede something that she wants. It usually works. A camera would equate to a new fancy saucepan for her. A car would justify a new pair of curtains on her part. A fandango Range Rover would certainly escalate to a new kitchen or a house makeover, which is one good reason to stick with what I've got for a good while longer.

Note though that I can get away with a new camera or camera gear quite cheaply. A bunch of flowers might even work, although the last time I gave her a bunch she asked what I had been up to that gave me a guilty conscience.

 

[JonB1975]

Rule number 1 - You can't win...

 

[brianj]

These threads are great. The OP asks a gearhead question on a gearhead forum, where 90% of the posts post about endless GAS issues, and every response he gets is from people who are above the fray and too advanced as human being to be caught up in gear aquisition syndrome. I am actually laughing while reading the responses.

Are you laughing because:

a) You don't think anyone could reach this elevated position?

b) You think these superior people shouldn't have responded

c) Nobody could actually be this superior to have conquered GAS, so they must be lying

d) These people have caused the demise of the camera industry by not buying enough

e) These people must be easily pleased to be happy with what they have.

f) You are really laughing at yourself for being so weak



Brian

 

[Jim King]

"You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"

I only wish I could get back half of what I have paid for gear over the last 14 years...

 

[Jim King]

#11 is hilarious, and oh, so true...

 

[Jim King]

All of the above...

 

[Jim King]

Rule number 1 - You can't win...

Rule #2 - You can'r break even.

Rule #3 - You can't get out of the game.

- Restatement of the three laws of thermodaynamics. (Think about it...)

 

[Osvaldo Cristo]

I beat this battle over 7 years ago now, I only buy the cheapest last year model that is available, they all meet my needs and I know they will be worthless in no time. If you want to dump your money keep buying expensive cameras.

The only exception to this rule is where you make more money from your camera than it costs, then you have a good business case.

Brian

In the last five years I have bought, used and later sold for profit, the following cameras and lenses.

Canon 5d Mark II. Bought used from an unclaimed baggage store (had 25 shutter actuations) I used it for almost 75,000 shots. Sold it for $300 profit

Canon 7d. Bought used on Craigslist with 3,500 clicks. Sold on ebay a year later with 25,000 clicks for $100 profit

Canon 5d Mark II. Bought from a studio that was trying to stay afloat. It was a 20,000 click body. Kept it as a backup for a year and a half. Sold it for $50 profit.

Canon 70-200 2.8. Bought used on Craigslist. Used for three years. Sold it for $200 profit.

Canon 85mm 1.2L. Bought used on Ebay. Sold on Craigslist for about $20 profit after using for two years.

Canon 24-105 bought used from Craigslist. Sold for $50 profit two years later.

Currently I use 5d Mark III bodies. Bought on deep discounted Ebay sale. Got both new about a year ago for $2500. Love them so much, I won't be selling these for profit.

Canon 300mm 2.8 IS. Bought used for less than they are selling for on ebay today, three years ago. Not selling it.

Canon 85mm 1.8. Replaced the 1.2 for faster AF (sports). Bought used for less than used ones fetch on ebay.

Canon 135mm f2. Traded a lens ($200 more credit than I paid) plus cash (for a total of $300 less than they fetch on ebay) on Craigslist.

Of the tons of Canon gear that I have bought and sold, I have never lost money. The lenses I bought new aren't going anywhere (I bought them new because I new I would always use them). The stuff I buy used and sell is so I can use the gear without having to throw money away renting it.

I do not know how fun is Photography for you but it looks you get a lot of fun trading Photographic equipment even at "amateur" level and judging by your testimonial above, you have talent for trade.

Enjoy!

All the best,

 

[travelinbri_74]

These threads are great. The OP asks a gearhead question on a gearhead forum, where 90% of the posts post about endless GAS issues, and every response he gets is from people who are above the fray and too advanced as human being to be caught up in gear aquisition syndrome. I am actually laughing while reading the responses.

Are you laughing because:

a) You don't think anyone could reach this elevated position?

b) You think these superior people shouldn't have responded

c) Nobody could actually be this superior to have conquered GAS, so they must be lying

d) These people have caused the demise of the camera industry by not buying enough

e) These people must be easily pleased to be happy with what they have.

f) You are really laughing at yourself for being so weak

Brian

Thank you Brian - my name as well actually. This post no doubt demonstrates your superiority - and in such an elegant, enlightened, engaging, meaningful, and polite manner no less - clearly a post to be bookmarked and referred to again and again.

I did not think this post would attract quite the negative attention it did, but such is life. Apparently taking a strong interest in the gear surrounding a hobby - or where lucky, a job - takes away from perceptions of our ability and passion for the art itself. I am not one to take the defensive, but I always wonder why people who just want to be rude waste the time to reply, unless something truly offensive has been stated. Of course, I always defer to thinking that a response tells more about the responder than about the recipient.

I suppose this thread came from my constant desire to get a small and tough FF camera, and the fact that neither the DF nor the A7R completely meets my needs, but I keep going back to them and hoping I can convince myself that they will. I assumed there might be others out there with similar internal battles, and I am trying to save myself from exactly the issue of purchasing something I know is not perfect, just to sell it a year or two later, when really I have enough to get by right now.

Appreciate the responses, yes, all of them.

-TBri

 

[Camley]

Many of us here get momentarily blinded by gear lust when shiny new toys come out, I think we should make this a running thread on reasons those newly released and excellently reviewed cameras do not precisely meet our needs. Looking at some of the cameras I have been lusting over (currently have a Sony RX1R and Ricoh GR, used to have a Canon 5DII and plan to eventually buy back into an interchangeable lens system when the right one comes), I'll give it a start:

The (excellent looking) Fuji X-T1 is not exactly right for me because I still prefer the look of FF photos, the battery life is mediocre at best, and the new weatherproofed lenses look to diminish the advantages of the small body.

The Nikon DF1 is not exactly right for me because I don't want to pay almost 3,000$ for a camera with a great low light sensor but only mediocre lowlight AF.

The Sony A7R is not exactly right for me because AF is slow, battery life is low, and more lenses are needed.

What purchases are you fighting?

-TBri

None travelinbri.

When a new camera that I like comes out, I fight the urge for a short while and then rush out and buy it.

You would be surprised how good that makes me feel.

 

[Ron A 19]

I can never take the plunge to buy new photographic gear because it's just so expensive and unnecessary, but I have severe lens lust for a couple lenses out there. I basically waste a lot of my time looking at lens reviews and images posted to public forums to assess if I like the rendering. In the spirit of, "if I won a lot of money, what would be the first treat to get?" without every buying anything. All I lust for are FF primes. This forum seems like a friendly place to rant!

At the top of my list is the Canon 135L. It's not even a question as to whether I need this lens or not, I'm going to get it. One day. I love all images that come off this thing, because it has a very distinctive professional quality to it. Likely because it's sharp and the bokeh is possibly the best I've seen out there. It's a lens that has the DOF to make any image look professional. Cons: it's $1000 and I don't need it.

The new Sigma 50 is next because 50mm is my focal length of choice and I shoot most of my images on a manual focus f/2 50. The problem is that I miss a lot of action shots because of the manual focusing. The Sigma is like a dream lens: sharp as the zeiss otus (which is a 55), is 1.4 instead of 2, has AF. Cons: it's $1000 and I don't need it. Also it's absolutely enormous for a walkaround lens.

The Canon 40mm STM pancake. Honestly, who even wastes time lusting for this?! Amazing lens, incredibly cheap. I just don't need it. I have a 50mm f2, which does the same job. I just sometimes miss the AF that the 40 could give me. Also, it can make any FF DSLR as portable as a leica M. Cons: f2.8 is slowish, I don't want to switch to 40 because I like the added DOF of a 50. Money better spent on a gift for my girl.

Absolutely no camera lust for anything as the 6D has been keeping me very happy. Perhaps a 6D mk II with ISOs into the 400k range would be worthy of an upgrade, but the gains are so marginal in the current technological climate it's not really a big deal.

I do my best to get over this gear "desire" (I don't actually buy anything) by posting to flickr and printing my images as posters - it keeps me more interested in the art of photography rather than the technology itself. Reading about composition also takes the focus away from gear and more about art.

Thanks for starting the thread. It'll server as a therapeutic outlet for many, I'm sure!

 

[Chris Malcolm]

I found that my photography improved a lot every time I bought a new bit of gear. I discovered that good lenses improved it a lot more than new cameras, and were cheaper, especially second hand. Then I found that a good tripod improved my photography a lot. As did a remote shutter release, which was really cheap.

The most interesting discovery was that my photography improved whenever I started carrying around a lovely new bit of gear, even when I didn't actually use it. Or when it obviously had no connection with image quality, such as a nice new camera bag. I also discovered that the despair of finding that I'd wasted my money buying a dud very seriously reduced both quantity and quality of my photographic output.

I know people with much more expensive gear who are annoyed that I get better photographs when we go out together. And I know some very annoying photographers who take better photographs than me with clearly inferior gear.

No, I haven't conquered GAS. It's a lifelong affliction. I can remember my schooldays when I was convinced that a top quality fountain pen would improve the quality of my essays. But I've discovered that a £10 gadget can improve my photography nearly as much as a £1,000 lens. It's not about the gear. It's about my mood & motivation.

Chris Malcolm