p.1 #1 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
I came back to Nikon maybe 2.5 years ago. I'd just retired and wanted to go taking more landscape shots.
It's not happening.
I built up a nice kit, initially the Z8, 14-30, 24-120, 100-400, then added the 70-200 f2.8 for low light tele, the 24-200 when I wanted to travel lighter and added the 105 Z macro for close up stuff.
However, I'm just not using it. It's not that I'm not using it 'much', I'm just not using it at all. It sits in the bag or on the shelf while I'm much more in to making short films and general video (mostly historic railways - a love I've have for 30+ years) and think I really prefer it over taking photos.
I know the Z8 can be a great video camera too, 8K raw and all that, but I just find I take the Lumix S1ii every time because it's much more customisable and suits my way of shooting.
All the time the Nikon gear is just sat there and it's just going down in value.
So, how long do keep stuff before selling it, presumably in the hope that you will once again become excited to use it and pick it up again?
p.1 #2 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
If I have a great copy of a lens, that is worth more to me than selling it, because I know there will be some day I wish I had it for a specific task.
If I have a redundant piece of kit, then I am less likely to keep the one I use less. It sounds like your Nikon kit is largely redundant or irrelevant to your interests. If you're not using it at all, and it doesn't spark your juices, just ditch it. Or perhaps sell the majority of the kit and keep a core of it (The Z8/24-120 combo for instance) and starting using that more and see how you feel.
p.1 #4 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Apply a 'keep only what realistically gets used' filter. Sell the niche lenses first. If you’re not doing much photography at all, the chances of you doing something like macro are even smaller, Z 105mm would be first to go. Ultra Wide 14-24 is a also niche use, it’s hard to justify keeping. 70-200 will be the next as I don't see it as a landscape lens, more like fast action lens. f2.8 is still very dark for low light, that's why I stick to f4 zooms combined with primes. Also sell redundant and overlapping 24-200.
I think you would be better served by ZR, 28/40mm f2, 24-120 f4 and 85mm S f1.8 but you hinted you prefer Lumix so sell everything or stick to just Z8 and 24-120 for now.
Also, most of the major depreciation has already happened. At this point, it’s really just money tied up in gear you’re not using there’s not much left to save or lose either way.
p.1 #5 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
RoamingScott wrote:
Or perhaps sell the majority of the kit and keep a core of it (The Z8/24-120 combo for instance) and starting using that more and see how you feel.
Exactly that had crossed my mind. When I look at the shots I've taken, the vast majority have been with that combo.
p.1 #6 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Outstanding wrote:
......I think you would be better served by ZR
Sadly, once you look past the gushing recommendations for the ZR by the YouTubers being sponsored by Nikon, and start looking at the real world specs and capabilities compared to what else is out there, the ZR falls short in very many areas.
No false colour, terrible h.265 implementation poor customisation options, poor focus assist implementation etc, it soon becomes just another video capable mirrorless camera that just happens to shoot Red Raw and have Red on the body (which in reality is all the YouTubes get so enthusiastic about). Given how bad the h.265 is (even compared to the Z6iii) you are pretty much forced in to shooting Red Raw with file sizes that are unrealistic for most projects.
If it actually had all the features I use even today on the S1ii I would have jumped on it. Lots of serious video people bought it to try, lots of people sold it again quite quickly. Check out Philip Bloom's review!
So, yes, I considered it, looked in to it quite deeply.... Maybe the mk2..... if I still have Nikon glass by the time it comes out.
p.1 #7 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Dave_EP wrote:
Sadly, once you look past the gushing recommendations for the ZR by the YouTubers being sponsored by Nikon, and start looking at the real world specs and capabilities compared to what else is out there, the ZR falls short in very many areas.
Fair enough, but that logic cuts both ways. If you're skeptical of YouTubers hyping it, you should be just as skeptical of YouTubers tearing it down as both are part of the same content ecosystem.
Funny thing is, the people actually using the ZR don’t seem nearly as unhappy as the people debating it online.
p.1 #8 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Outstanding wrote:
Fair enough, but that logic cuts both ways. If you're skeptical of YouTubers hyping it, you should be just as skeptical of YouTubers tearing it down as both are part of the same content ecosystem.
Funny thing is, the people actually using the ZR don’t seem nearly as unhappy as the people debating it online.
Thanks - yes a fair point you make about YouTubers.
I do know two people who bought the ZR with great expectations - both shoot professionally - and I know them from when I ran a video production company. It seems both of them sold them after the last firmware update.
I'll keep my eye on the ZR, but it really does need more buttons and faster customisation while shooting run & gun stuff.
So, I'm back to pondering what to do. I love the 24-120, 70-200 and macro. The rest I think I'll let go....
p.1 #9 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
The ZR is completely underbaked right now. An .h265 fix is needed first, and other features like desqueeze/traffic lights and others would make it far more compelling.
The good news is Nikon has a great current track record of bringing things like this via firmware, though I would not buy the ZR hoping for them in the future.
p.1 #10 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Consider the cost of shipping now too. Sold a lens for $400 yesterday and UPS ground with insurance cost $49. Makes you reconsider if you should just keep the thing.
p.1 #12 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
EB-1 wrote:
As long as possible. Someone can sell it all after I'm deceased.
EBH
Yup decades and counting, my old F mount gear there are a few great old lenses in the bunch, like 58 mm 1.2 noct and the 180 mm ED 2.8 and they adapt to Z, the thorium 35 isn't the best lens now, but it is radioactive and ws the journalist prized lens of the 70s. My D100, maybe next to worthless, was a revolutionary piece in time and can sit proudly with my Apple 1987 Mac, the original ones, no HD just one floppy, for me both changed my world. Might not use them, but I can still prize them, and they and I have a lot of water under the bridge.
Other stuff, like my 300 and 500 pf, or even my D850 more recent vintage, the 850 is sometimes recruited into my mix, and 300 and 500, they are still awesome lenses and if I have an accident with my Z glass I have them. Besides selling them might clear a little space, but realistically aside from great vintage glass like a 58 mm 1.2 noct nothing really holds enough residual value to bother, better to just pile it up for the incase and let those after deal with it.... it is a gift and a "hoard". Now if I only hoarded those comic books and baseball cards of my youth, we would really be talking....
it is a small fraction of old camera gear that really appreciates, some are nikons like my 58 1.2 noct, but most not really worth bothering to sell.
p.1 #13 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Keeping it unless it is absolutely not justifiable. E.g. Z 105 macro is rarely used but it is a gem of a lens. Pictures, coming out of it, even if used once or twice in a year, are worth keeping it. Same goes with Voigtlander 50 f1.2, rarely used as it is inconvenient to use manual focus, but pictures make it worth keeping. Bags, filters, flashes, light modifiers, IMHO, worth selling if it doesn't get used and if I can find a buyer locally.
p.1 #14 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
I’m selling if I feel burdened by keeping something. So, some lenses I hardly use but that could see some use in the future and that aren’t crazy expensive, I keep. Others that I don’t use and represent a lot of value, just not to me, I sell. Same for cameras.
I’d add that I’m in Europe now, where you can’t easily rent most gear. In the US, I’d sell more because I could easily rent kit if needed.
p.1 #15 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
I tend to keep my gear for years, if not forever. Whenever I take a lens out with the intention of selling it, I shoot a few frames and immediately remember why I bought it in the first place. It usually ends up going right back into the cabinet. At this point I have a full Sony kit, the Fuji X100VI, and now the Nikon Zf with a couple of lenses. Part of me feels like I should downsize to one system, maybe two at most, but the truth is that this is a hobby for me and I genuinely enjoy aspects of all three. Each one gives me something different, but when I am feeling low, I end up not using anything at all.
p.1 #16 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
My life tends to stay incredibly busy between my work and family (and has for about 8-10 years) so I tend to hold onto gear now longer than I need to even if I'm not shooting with it much. If it has some sentimental value and I expect to use it again (and it's not crazy expensive) I'll hold onto it. If it's something I know I'm fully planning to move on from/never use again, I sell it to someone who will put it to use.
p.1 #18 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
EB-1 wrote:
As long as possible. Someone can sell it all after I'm deceased.
EBH
Yea, but what a burden to leave on your next of kin. We're telling our parents to purge their stuff so the kids don't have to. Especially stuff that requires some specialized knowledge to price & sell.
p.1 #19 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
rsk7 wrote:
Consider the cost of shipping now too. Sold a lens for $400 yesterday and UPS ground with insurance cost $49. Makes you reconsider if you should just keep the thing.
I took a box to the UPS Store to ship. They quoted me $150. I went home and got on PirateShip.com. They charged me $60 for the same box. Expensive either way, but clearly the in-store experience comes with a price.
p.1 #20 · How long do you keep gear you're not using before selling it?
Most of my gear that has some value doesn't stick around for more than about 2 years if it isn't being used. A few low-use items are the exception because they are purpose built and will be needed when I do the related activity a while from now.
