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Archive 2013 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article

  
 
David Baldwin
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


"I didn't realize you were the writer"

Sorry, my mistake, I thought the "writer" meant the OP, sorry for the confusion I am not the writer of the blog!



Jul 11, 2013 at 02:45 PM
Gochugogi
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


justruss wrote:
Very nice shots in that article!

I'm not a gear addict.

I don't have any feelings for my gear. And I don't lust after stuff I wouldn't use (like an 85L). I don't care about my cameras and lenses except as tools. I don't care about my screwdrivers and hammers either, but I'll buy good enough tools to get the job done. I've never bought, sold, and re-bought any lenses-- except once to move from a single-coated to a multi-coated version.

When I started, I tried to cover a lot of focal lengths, mainly with zooms. Now I have coalesced around a
...Show more

Obviously you're a superior being. I, on the other hand, have no need for images but care deeply for my gear. And they also care about me (they told me so). I try to limit use to a bi-annual fondle and then quickly wipe with micro fiber and return it to the original packaging. Right now I'm bidding on backup boxes just in case I over indulge...



Jul 11, 2013 at 02:58 PM
jcolwell
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article





Jul 11, 2013 at 03:02 PM
Smackeral
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


I have a very limited kit but I will say I do enjoy looking at pictures of peoples gear. I guess that feeds the addiction though I also do look forward to upgrading and buying new things but generally keep it simple with my kit.


Jul 11, 2013 at 03:43 PM
Shutterbug2006
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


I am a gear addict. I'd like one of everything, and it's just as well I can't afford more new 'stuff' - my gear closet is full.

.



Jul 11, 2013 at 03:54 PM
mogud
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


I am a real gear junkie or another nice way of putting it, I'm a camera and lens collector. This habit started many years ago when I couldn't afford anything. I thought, maybe what I should do is become a wedding photographer and pay for my gear from the money I made shooting weddings.

Well, after many weddings, I didn't buy any camera gear and started to hate my equipment and shooting weddings in particular. I stopped shooting weddings, sold all my gear and hadn't picked up a camera or a lens in 25 years until 3 years ago.

You guessed it, I bought a friends used Canon camera and......went nuts after that. I'm back and it's worse than ever. Doesn't matter because I'm creating great pictures(IMHO) and get a real rush buying and shooting.

Edited on Jul 12, 2013 at 08:43 AM · View previous versions



Jul 11, 2013 at 05:25 PM
Jo Dilbeck
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


As a hobbyist, I confess to being a gear addict. I have certain lenses "just in case" that rarely, if ever, get used. Can't think of the last time I pulled the 85 f1.8 out, but I know if I sell it, I'll need it for something or other. The worst issue for me right now is, I have both the 70-200 F2.8 II and 70-200 F4 IS. I had the F4 version first and loved it. Bought the F2.8 II for a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton believing that I'd need the 2.8 aperture. I intended to sell one of the lenses, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't "Need" the money, except for maybe a lens I don't have, but it just seems so wasteful having both lenses just sitting there. If I had to, I could narrow my kit down to 3 lenses, 16-35, 24-105 and 100-400, but I sure as hell don't want to

Jo



Jul 11, 2013 at 05:58 PM
Gunzorro
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


mogud wrote:
I am a real gear junkie or another nice way of putting it, I'm a camera and lens collector. This habit started many years ago when I couldn't afford anything. I thought, maybe what I should do is become a wedding photographer and pay for my gear from the money I made shooting weddings.

Well, after many weddings, I didn't buy any camer gear and started to hate my equipment and shooting weddings in particular. I stopped shooting weddings, sold all my gear and hadn't picked up a camera or a lens in 25 years until 3 years ago.

You guessed
...Show more

Yay! That's what I like to hear.

And as Shutterbug says, I wish I had a full camera store inventory at my disposal, just for when I get the urge to try something, or use a piece of gear I don't use everyday. It's fun to look over an inventory list or read a thread and decide immediately to pull out a camera and lens combo and start doing a self-assignment.

I never get tired of trying new things, be it ideas or equipment.

Good times!



Jul 11, 2013 at 05:58 PM
StillFingerz
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


Stopped feeling guilty after buying my 4th T90 and 3rd 300L Speedlite...that was in 1990.

Besides working with computers, reading/writing, photography is my only hobby, creative activity/outlet that my physical issues permit.

I'm limited physically and by budget at times, must work within those confines, with mind however I fly, experiment, do my best to not limit imagination. Sometimes another bit of glass, a remote or new feature can further discoveries, helps set new goals, brings a smile deep within.

A gear junkie, canon fanboy, okay...my serious addiction is creativity and that's what helps me push...more then just wheels

So I tell myself



Jul 11, 2013 at 06:28 PM
PNelsonMN
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


I'm trying to recover from this myself. My solution is renting - we have a good rental place here in Mpls where I can take stuff out for a spin. It's much cheaper than buying and selling, and I don't have to live staring at a lens I would sparingly use (like the 300/4IS that I'm taking to an airshow this weekend).

I'm still trying to get to the point where I can force myself to slap a 35mm equivalent lens on my 7D and just shoot. Maybe I'll never get there, but I feel it'd do wonders for my ways of seeing things...



Jul 11, 2013 at 06:37 PM
Will Patterson
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


In all honesty I was a gear addict until I got my 1DX. With my other cameras I was always envious of upper model's particular features that I liked. Now that's not an issue.

And I've finally settled on the lenses I like. 17-40, 35L, 24-70, and 70-200 II with 1.4x extender and a set of macro rings.



Jul 11, 2013 at 06:38 PM
PetKal
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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


Folks look for a drama and some sort of epiphany within the gear acquisition phenomenon, be it controlled or rampantly out of hand. That's a rather common subject on photography fora, and the evolving step in the debate is usually "talent vs. gears".

To me the whole matter of gear procurement boils down to the old saying " It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have".



Jul 11, 2013 at 06:53 PM
bigbluebear
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p.2 #13 · p.2 #13 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


PetKal wrote:
To me the whole matter of gear procurement boils down to the old saying " It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have".


HAHAHA! Great one PetKal! Sounds like the boy scouts motto too.




Jul 11, 2013 at 07:22 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.2 #14 · p.2 #14 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


David Baldwin wrote:
http://www.f-stopeight.com/confessions-of-an-ex-gear-addict-how-buying-cameras-and-lenses-made-me-miserable-and-loose-thousands/

My name is David, and I am a gear addict. Its not that I have much kit now (check my profile) its that in the past I owned A LOT of equipment. Like any addiction the seeds of its return are always there. The writer of the article I link to above proclaims he is "a big fan of Limitation creativity". I agree, and I feel using kit limitations to fuel both good photography and recover from the addiction is the right way forward.

Anyone else admit to being a current or recovering gear addict? Sorry if this post appears
...Show more

There are two interesting opposite and both, in my view, false notions about gear.

1. The more typical false belief around here, this being a gear forum after all, is that having the best gear and lots of it is critically important. To put it crudely, the acquisition of the largest stack of big, new, shiny things becomes the goal more than does photography itself - yet, oddly, many who pursue the gear claim to do so so that they can produce better and better photographs.

2. A secondary false belief that often pops up as a counterpoint to the gear lust holds that you will be more creative if you have less gear. To an extent I'm slightly sympathetic to that notion, but in the end it is equally false.

The real goal is to get to the place where you have and carry the gear that you actually use to make the photographs that you set out to produce. It is more about the appropriateness of the gear for the task(s) at hand than a) having the best, test-bench-confirmed objects or b) being able to say that you managed to make photographs in spite of your gear.

Basically, worry a lot less about gear. Get some, and then start focusing on making photographs with the gear you have.

In terms of equipment, the place you eventually want to be is one where you rarely think about the gear aside from how you will use it for the shot at hand. Lenses are, quite bluntly, tools. And as tools they are not the object, but only the means to do something more important, and their value is measured purely in how they affect that work of making photographs.

Oh, if none of this logic works on you, it can be useful to find out more about what some of your actual photographic heroes carry and use. I sometimes shoot with a person who might be such a personage for some reading this forum - a person whose large prints sell rather well, who does a steady stream of highly regarded workshops, and whose books some of you might have purchased. He shoots with two lenses - 17-40 and 70-200mm f/4. Period. I could cite a number of other similar examples.

Dan

By the way, there are limits to the "better to have and not need than to need and not have" paradigm, and in real photography we often find that we can do everything we need to do without carrying a great tonnage of gear. I tend to select from the gear that I have depending on the circumstances of the shooting. I doubt that even Petkal would think it wise to schlep a 800mm lens over a 12,000' pass or carry it along when doing street photography. ;-)



Jul 12, 2013 at 03:38 AM
StillFingerz
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p.2 #15 · p.2 #15 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


Real Photography...really, what a joke...what exactly is the definition. Such an elitist notion, stance assumes much in grand ignorance. We all have our 'REAL' as we do opinion, it's most personal and need not be labeled...unless you find comfort in separating your 'better' self from your fellow human beings.

Is a snap-shot of a loved one enjoying the moment any less 'real' then a majestic landscape...loss of perspective, over analysis, tends to paralyze as does our insatiable lust/need to label. To be better is a noble goal, to better another for ego's sake, to single out, is quite a lonely road, fosters fans the flames of separation; but that's just opinion...what is really real

BTW, I'm lusting right now, thinking how wonderful it would be to have...a working body that would allow me to shoot that majestic landscape...it sucks to be without, if that's your perspective, choice. Stop over analyzing, enjoy your shooting, stay real, true to self.



Jul 12, 2013 at 05:32 AM
mitesh
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p.2 #16 · p.2 #16 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


gdanmitchell wrote:
I doubt that even Petkal would think it wise to schlep a 800mm lens over a 12,000' pass or carry it along when doing street photography. ;-)


Well, of course he wouldn't lug his 800 around for those purposes, Dan. Everyone knows you must have a 600 II plus some extenders available in case such scenarios arise .



Jul 12, 2013 at 06:07 AM
dolina
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p.2 #17 · p.2 #17 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


PetKal wrote:
Folks look for a drama and some sort of epiphany within the gear acquisition phenomenon, be it controlled or rampantly out of hand. That's a rather common subject on photography fora, and the evolving step in the debate is usually "talent vs. gears".

To me the whole matter of gear procurement boils down to the old saying " It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have".


You sir, are a constant inspiration to us all! May your tribe thrive!

========

On the article, at least he was honest about the reasons why he could not sustain his GAS. Most people would sidestep it all together.



Jul 12, 2013 at 06:23 AM
Breitling65
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p.2 #18 · p.2 #18 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


You will find many addicted to the gear people here on FM, just look on profiles and count $ spent on that list Many don't even make $1 after buying all these lenses and bodies. Myself use to be like this, but good resale on Canon gear helped me a bit. I agree - people should focus on photo not on gear.


Jul 12, 2013 at 06:49 AM
PhilDrinkwater
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p.2 #19 · p.2 #19 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


Equipment is the tool which allows me to realise my vision and therefore get paid for that - that's the same for camera kit, lighting or even software.

Everything in my bag is used and the few things which aren't have been sold on, never to be bought again unless something significant changes.

That said, I do love gear. I just won't buy it unless I have a need...



Jul 12, 2013 at 07:24 AM
Lars Johnsson
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p.2 #20 · p.2 #20 · Gear Addiction - Interesting Article


PetKal wrote:
Folks look for a drama and some sort of epiphany within the gear acquisition phenomenon, be it controlled or rampantly out of hand. That's a rather common subject on photography fora, and the evolving step in the debate is usually "talent vs. gears".

To me the whole matter of gear procurement boils down to the old saying " It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have".


+1



Jul 12, 2013 at 08:10 AM
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