November 27th, 2024
Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS)
So like most photographers or people drawn to Photography, I’ve always loved the technical side: the cameras, the lenses and anything that’s “new and exciting” in the profession. Ever since I was given my first camera I’ve always searched for the “perfect” one. As most everyone knows, there’s no perfect anything but you eventually find something that you can live and work with, something that comes close to perfect or becomes “perfect for you”.
I’m not the only one, it’s a problem that a lot fall into (just check any of the online forums). BUT it becomes a bigger problem when people get so caught up in finding the best camera, or complaining about what can’t be done with their current camera so much so that they never shoot any pictures or if they do then they’re only test pics to check the exposure or how sharp the image is from corner to corner.
Now back to the confession part… I’ve been guilty of the above but only to a certain extent, as an “means to an end”.
My Nikon 610 and Canon 5D MII had constant front and back focus issues and this is where the testing came in, for a while I seriously thought it was me, some sort of physical issue since my images were always slightly off focus. The focus point was not where I wanted it to be which is quite irritating. I took lots of meaningless images with lots of different cameras which unfortunately had the same focus issues (confirmed by the many,many times in the repair facilities). The Canon had the complete sensor assembly replaced and still came back with the same issues! This put me on a path to search for a different camera.
I’ve owned lots of cameras: Pentax, Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Hasselblads, Mamiya, Leica, and Sinar and I’ve used many formats: 35mm, 6×6, 6×7, 4×5, 8×10 and now of course digital. When I shot professionally I used the best camera for the job at hand, therefore I needed a wide range of equipment to choose from but that’s no longer a concern. Now I need a camera that I can have with me all of the time, my “artistic” work usually involves or starts with a found subject and I need to always be ready to capture the image. I agree with Chase Jarvis that “the best camera is the one that you have with you” I’m just not willing to shoot everything with my iPhone (although, I’ve gotten some great images with my “iCamera”).
My goal aside from fixing the focusing issues was to have equipment that’s small enough to carry without it being a burden, gone are the days of carrying a large camera bag with two or three bodies and four or five lenses – no more, no way. I finally narrowed it down to one body and a zoom that covers the range from 27mm to 210mm and it all fits into a small sling bag which doesn’t even look like a camera bag and doubles as an EDC (every day carry).
I switched to a smaller Nikon DX camera that has smaller lenses. But I also have a larger Full- Frame Pentax K-1 that I use for studio work (shooting my wife's sculptures).
Note that this isn’t an ad for either Nikon or Pentax, it's just a celebration of being able to get back to what’s important – actually taking pictures !!!
Also the image at the top of this Post was taken with a Nikon FE film camera over forty years ago with a cheap, yes very cheap off-brand 135mm lens. I’m glad I had my camera with me.
DCF