So finally saying goodbye to m4/3 (sad)

Velocity of Sound wrote:

MinAZ wrote:

I had my wife help me unload the boxes of gear from our minivan, and as she handed me the last box she asked "You sure?" I said "Yes". She said "We took some great photos with these didn't we" I said "Yes".

While I count myself among those who were initially scratching their heads over how this was "goodbye," I commiserate with the sense of sorrow over parting from gear. Particularly for pieces you've had for a long time or used heavily, it almost feels like losing a part of yourself, or an old friend. Sure, they're just objects, but they were at your side (or on your back in a bag) during certain events and travels, and they were involved in capturing memories that you can see and share with others. That makes them pretty special.

Or maybe I'm just sentimental like that. There was one lens I bought off of eBay where the seller said it was his grandfather's, and sometimes I'd just find myself looking at that lens and wondering what parts of the world it might have been taken to, and what scenes it had been pointed out. Maybe it's that lenses are the mechanical equivalent to eyes, and eyes are meaningful in so many ways to us.

Having realized that I've gone years without touching some of my lenses, like you I'll be downsizing in the near future. It's a painful endeavor. I hope you're a bit happier now - there is some joy to be had in being more of a minimalist!

There was this one camera I bought off E-bay, a Nikon F100. The seller called me after I won the bid, saying he wanted to make sure I was a true enthusiast and that it was going to a good home. Apparently he was a photojournalist and that camera had been with him almost his entire career. He told me of the stories he had and said that he hated parting with it but he was happy it found a new owner who would appreciate it. Needless to say, I still have (and use) that camera to this day.

HRC2016 wrote:

MinAZ wrote:

So I have sold all my gear except for a few things that I am keeping just for fun/travel/wildlife photography: the OMD-EM1 Mark II (still like this one for the IBIS, and high-res mode), the PEN E-PL6 (for fun and when I travel), a couple of pro lenses for wildlife and travel, a bunch of the fun lenses, and I decided to keep the speedlites because you really don't get that much for selling them. But I've gotten rid of all the rest.

Sounds like someone wasted a lot of money because of GAS.

Bye.

Why do some individuals on this forum chose to be so unpleasent when expressing their opinions on the choices of others?

Lots of us have a gear cupboard with stuff we do not use anymore.

You are "leaving" m43 but you have more gear than many of us who use it as our primary or only system, lol.

Just sayin.

Okapi001 wrote:

NCV wrote:

HRC2016 wrote:

MinAZ wrote:

So I have sold all my gear except for a few things that I am keeping just for fun/travel/wildlife photography: the OMD-EM1 Mark II (still like this one for the IBIS, and high-res mode), the PEN E-PL6 (for fun and when I travel), a couple of pro lenses for wildlife and travel, a bunch of the fun lenses, and I decided to keep the speedlites because you really don't get that much for selling them. But I've gotten rid of all the rest.

Sounds like someone wasted a lot of money because of GAS.

Bye.

Why do some individuals on this forum chose to be so unpleasent when expressing their opinions on the choices of others?

Lots of us have a gear cupboard with stuff we do not use anymore.

There is stuff you don't use anymore, but you did, perhaps even a lot, and there is stuff you never used. It's not unpleasant to mention GAS, if you have (a lot) of the latter. Just a fact of life. Next step from GAS is hoarding, which may be a little unpleasant

There is stuff i did use a lot and I do not use anymore.

I always trade in stuff I do not use when I can.

But who wants a Nikon 801 with a bent shutter repaired with a ballpoint pen or a D300 where the rubber doors have warped and do not close anymore? This stuff just rots in the gear cupboard because I cannot bear to throw these faithful friends in the dustbin.

Thre are things I thought might be useful and I perhaps used them a couple of times. These things get sold usually, but this stuff falls into the "might be useful one day category.

Then there is stuff like my 5x4 Faitif that I have been trying to sell for six months now. It is just too nice to toss into the trash.

Easier to edit? That makes zero sense. Just tell us you feel for all the hype. Plus you probably have bad G.A.S..

KEH gives you a fraction of what it is worth.

Po Sen Tsui wrote:

This is called using two systems rather than a goodbye.......it's just that you maybe downsizing one of it

Exactly! He still has more m43 equipment than most... 😂

Okapi001 wrote:

Tom Caldwell wrote:

one thing stood out - it was a beautiful very large collection of wooden planes. Every shape and type imaginable - large, small, offset, rebate, etc - and they were being auctioned off to various bidders one at a time. One might of imagined that such a glorious collection should really have been kept together in the hands of another collector who would have properly appreciated them.

Off-topic:

It makes much more sense to sell such items separately, at least as long as most of them have a reasonable probability to be sold. You will get a much better return, and if there is a collector at the auction, he or she can always bid on each and every item separately.

There are of course situations where there is a sin to break-up a collection (for example if there is a complete collection of something) , but even then it may make more sense financially to break it up, because there may be very few collectors preparing to buy the whole collections. Unless of course it's not only a complete, but also a unique collection.

I agree. But the context here is a guy who spent a lot of his time building up collections of tools (a passion that he probably truly enjoyed) But his executors (presumably family) did not share his passion in any way and were obviously out to make as much money as possible.

If I was into wooden planes it was a treasure house - but I wasn’t nor were they sold off in a way that could keep the collection together. Obviously in a relatively small country town and an estate auction the committed collectors were not present and any carpenters there were just buying one or two and at the end of the day quite a lot of the stock would not have been sold - well maybe worth “$2” each?

This was before eBay and the smart executors would have done appreciably better is they had been offered to a wider market via the on-line medium.

Old wooden planes of course are scant regarded in an age of power tools and of course even in time of good memory metal bodied planes had already supplanted them until power was applied to them.

So in the context of how this thread has gone off topic the same applies to carefully collected old lenses - fun for those that might do this for a hobby - but don’t expect your kids to share your passion.

carlgorski wrote:

KEH gives you a fraction of what it is worth.\

Depends on the lens or body. For about half of my recent M43 gear, I got quotes from them that were comparable to what I would have gotten on Ebay. The other half was lower, but I was pleasantly surprised that as much of the gear was that close to the Ebay averages, actually.

Of course, if you have a low demand item, it will not get a good offer price, and you will do better Ebaying it or selling privately.

-J

NCV wrote:

Okapi001 wrote:

NCV wrote:

HRC2016 wrote:

MinAZ wrote:

So I have sold all my gear except for a few things that I am keeping just for fun/travel/wildlife photography: the OMD-EM1 Mark II (still like this one for the IBIS, and high-res mode), the PEN E-PL6 (for fun and when I travel), a couple of pro lenses for wildlife and travel, a bunch of the fun lenses, and I decided to keep the speedlites because you really don't get that much for selling them. But I've gotten rid of all the rest.

Sounds like someone wasted a lot of money because of GAS.

Bye.

Why do some individuals on this forum chose to be so unpleasent when expressing their opinions on the choices of others?

Lots of us have a gear cupboard with stuff we do not use anymore.

There is stuff you don't use anymore, but you did, perhaps even a lot, and there is stuff you never used. It's not unpleasant to mention GAS, if you have (a lot) of the latter. Just a fact of life. Next step from GAS is hoarding, which may be a little unpleasant

There is stuff i did use a lot and I do not use anymore.

I always trade in stuff I do not use when I can.

But who wants a Nikon 801 with a bent shutter repaired with a ballpoint pen or a D300 where the rubber doors have warped and do not close anymore? This stuff just rots in the gear cupboard because I cannot bear to throw these faithful friends in the dustbin.

Thre are things I thought might be useful and I perhaps used them a couple of times. These things get sold usually, but this stuff falls into the "might be useful one day category.

Then there is stuff like my 5x4 Faitif that I have been trying to sell for six months now. It is just too nice to toss into the trash.

Some old person I knew who has been a long time not with us said wisely (maybe) that if you keep something for seven years you might find a use for it.  

I have been following this wise saying for years.  Luckily I have a big shed ... I have had occasion more than once ... where something I had already was very handy to get out of retirement.  Comparing its cost then, what it could have been sold for and what it might cost today to replace seems to have justified the storage “fee”.

On the other hand it is quite different when you find you need a special tool and you have one somewhere “in the shed” and you cannot find it and in frustration you buy another - now that is hard-edged GAS coupled to storage issues.

There is a principle in accounting known as “sunk costs”.  Many things can be bought when they can be afforded and the money is “gone” - if there ever is the slightest chance that it could be useful again the only issue is in storing it.  Just as much as renting is a never ending series of sunk costs which is only viable for short term convenience.

In fact regular hire means that it is often more costly to rent and the only saving is the reality that you don’t have to find the capital to buy (and sink) and the space to store for an indeterminate amount of time until it might (or might not) become useful again.

Buying and re-selling is just a form of rent and of course the loss on the transaction is “rent” - whether either is more sensible depends on personal circumstances and whether the objective is simply collecting nice things for personal pleasure - at which point all accounting theories fly out of the window.  Some people just collect stamps - a more space saving exercise than collecting camera gear but could be just as expensive and people might think you much more clever ....

yardcoyote wrote:

We are stupid in the same way, I think.

It does highlight the advantage of buying legacy MF lenses.

When I bought the NX10 it came with a very useful kit lens.  But it was in my early stages of buying Legacy MF lenses and I bought a few and a number of Whatever-NX adapters.  I only did buy one more specific oem NX mount lens (luckily).

So the older MF lenses I bought then went to the GXR-M (Leica M mount) with suitable adapters, then a flirtation with Sony E/FE where I did not buy even one native E/FE lens - only adapters.  Then M4/3 where there were more adapters but where I found a serious attachment to M4/3 camera bodies and did buy oem M4/3 lenses.  And now L-mount - but again only to adapt EF and Legacy MF lenses via adapters - so at the end of the day the only lenses I have locked into one system alone are two NX mount lenses (which are basically “write off”) and a bunch of M4/3 mount lenses that I continue to have in full use.

System hopping was not all that expensive until you find one that you truly like enough to buy more oem lenses which you expect to continue to use for an extended period of time.