As my return to deliberate photography gathers pace (by deliberate I mean where I go out with a specific camera to look for compositions, as opposed to happening to have my phone with me and taking snapshots now and again when something catches my eye), it’s been interesting to note some other habits returning.
Predominantly, wanting to try a variety of cameras. Some of which I don’t even own yet!
As with many aspects of life where I need to make a decision, I like to have well reasoned arguments behind those decisions.
So for questions such as “Do I really need another CCD sensor bridge camera when I have the very capable and underused Lumix FZ38?”, or “Do I need another 15 year old Pentax DSLR?” where the obvious answer is “No, use what you have!”, I start to come up with more creative responses that serve my desire for buying a new (old) camera.
In other words, I manufacture arguments about why I do need a certain camera, based on increasingly unconvincing parameters.
Even with the cameras from a decade ago and more I favour, which are relatively simple compared with cutting edge cameras today, there are still enough different attributes – sensor size, MP, body size and weight, batteries, memory card, handling, ease of use, focal length range, to name a few – to justify owning more than one because of minor variations in those attributes.
So I’m starting to think again about returning to my currently dormant One Month One Camera project.
I would like to get back to that immersion in one camera, and to channel my photography energy into enjoying only one for a sustained period.
Rather than considering half a dozen others in my arsenal (and another half a dozen just a couple of eBay clicks and a few days in the post away), because when I look hard enough at some tiny detail or other on any of them, there’s nothing else quite like it out there.
Plus, whilst I love some variety, it’s a great feeling reaching that point where the camera just feel likes an extension of your hands and eyes.
Instead of something you have to consciously think about and figure out, every time you want to change the ISO, or engage macro focus, or tweak the exposure compensation.
How about you? Are the cameras you own each vastly different, each with a specific purpose that no other can serve? Do you have a range of cameras that are actually all pretty similar? Or do you just use one camera and wonder what all this fuss and (over)thinking is about?
As always, please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).
Thanks for looking.
What Next?
Share this post with someone you think will enjoy it using the buttons below.
Read a random post from the archives.
See what I’m up to About Now.
35hunter 
Dan, I think you need to manufacture an argument to start shooting film again. While you’re at it you might as well manufacture an argument to develop and scan your own film as well. 😉 I’d say don’t bother with color, though, as Kodak and Fujifilm are out of control with their price-gouging and don’t deserve people’s business as far as I’m concerned. Stick to reasonably priced B&W stocks from a manufacturer that isn’t screwing their customers. So, anyway, get to manufacturing those arguments because I miss seeing your film work!
Ah thanks P, good to hear from you and thanks for the encouragement. I can’t really see this in the near future though. I have limited time and funds, and though I do have a couple of SLRs left (Spotmatic F and Contax 139Q) and a bunch of lenses, increasingly my eyes have struggled to focus with a viewfinder too.
I haven’t used my DSLRs in ages really for the same reason, so a digital compact/bridge camera with a decent screen works best for me now.
Never say never though!
I’ll keep my hopes up!
Hi Dan,
I’ve recently discovered your blog – while searching for info on a charity shop purchase (Helios 44M) AFTER falling for it and buying it.
Since reading the Helios posts I’ve tumbled from one post to another – and am about to buy a Ricoh 50/f2 Rikenon based on what I read in the Lens Love series.
I think our photographic paths are similar as indeed are those of the majority of your readers. I was given an old Brownie 127 box camera when a child and graduated to a Zenit B and then a Pentax and a Nikon before a Fujifilm DSLR.
When this became too cumbersome to lug around I went for a Canon G8 – which I loved as a travel/street camera.
When this expired I bought a Lumix LX100 as a replacement (although I never felt it was).
Then a Lumix GX9 followed as the micro4/3 system seemed to give me DSLR flexibility at a fraction of the weight. Again I felt the GX9 lacked something and so I bought a secondhand GX8 – which I am getting to love.
Oh and I also have acquired a couple of Kodak 620 and 120 film cameras, a FED 4B and a Ricoh 519 rangefinders – all charity shop rescues over the years.
I’m writing this as I take a break from sorting through them with a view to moving the Kodaks and a clutch of various SLR lens on – many (having been cleaned up, admired but never used) are destined for the same local charity shop they came from.
Somewhere in the back of my mind is a plan to (perhaps) keep the FED and use it before moving it and the Ricoh 519 on to replace them with a good Fed 2, Kiev 4 or Zorki.
Of course a range of adapters for M4/3 for the two GX cameras means I am caught in a spiral of buying lens and moving them on.
My collection is tiny in comparison to yours and so I don’t need to manufacture excuses/reasons to buy cameras or lens. For me the look and feel of a camera and the knowledge that there are M43 adapters for old lens out there is enough.
But as my tidying up is proving, I do need to sit down and decide what I want my cameras and lenses to do and make a plan.
Oh – and stick to it.
Hi Richard, well my photography journey is actually not that old, and began really with camera phones in the mid 2000s, like the Sony Ericsson K800i. About five years later, in 2011, I bought my first “proper” camera, a Nikon P300. About six months after that, in June 2012, I was given a Holga 120N by my father in law after being curious about film, then bought a Smena 8M 35mm, and it evolved from there.
My film camera route went far more quickly (and involved far more cameras!) than digital, but gradually I explored more digital, and after giving up film (or at least putting it on hiatus) in 2017, I’ve only shot digital since, mostly with CCD sensor Pentax DSLRs and a range of compacts like the Lumix LX3, Ricoh GR Digital III, the mini DSLR wonder that is the Pentax Q and a succession of compacts.
I still have perhaps a dozen old lenses, mostly M42 with a few Pentax K mount, but haven’t really used a DSLR much in a couple of years, preferring compact and bridge cameras.
I don’t have a huge amount left, I guess 15 cameras, maybe 12 – I think the peak with film was about 55 or 60 cameras at once!
I have one P&S digital for the documetary daily photography one very old DSLR for more serious projects and a few Film cameras of the different formats like 6×45, 6×6, 135 panoramic and 135 rangefinder. And 6×6 simple plastic Holga for the dreamy multiple exposures. Trying to use all of them, but it’s really impossible, so it’s going more with my mood. Right now finishing another roll with Holga, and some time ago finished a roll with Fuji 645 which took around 8.months to finish the only portraits on this specific roll.