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I have said this before, and now I will say it again. Despite evidence to the contrary, I am not a camera collector. I do not buy cameras for the sole purpose of owning them. I do buy cameras for the purpose of making photographs with them. With exception of one or two, every camera I own has had film loaded into it and used to make photographs, and I have the negatives to prove this.
However, I also have a large enough collect - wait, let’s call it my camera inventory - to lead someone to believe that I collect cameras. This and a number of other facts have led me to suspect that not only do I possess too many cameras, but also doing so is ultimately bad for my photography.
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| Uncle Jonesy’s Minolta. Not going anywhere. |
The Argument
Recently, I have given much thought to the possible negative effects owning a large number of cameras for the sole purpose of using them might have on my photography, and I have reached several conclusions. Some of the conclusions are practical, while others are conceptual. All of them have become undeniable. So, here they are one by one.
1. Storage in a Small Condo is a Problem
I love my downtown Chattanooga condo It has 690 square feet of paradise. It has everything I want. It just does not have much storage room. When my wife and my moved in, we had to downsize considerably, and this required making decisions (some painful) about which of our possessions were essential to our happiness. We off-loaded a lot of things, and today, we are doing just fine. Happier, even, I would suggest. Possessions can burden you.
However, not only did I not leave any cameras behind when we moved in, but also I’m pretty sure that I have added cameras to my inventory since then. Some of my favorite cameras are on display on shelves or the window sill nearest my bed. Cameras with film in them are kept in camera bags in the closet, ready for use. However, other camera are stored in storage boxes on shelves in my closet. In other words, I seemingly have cameras everywhere. I fully expect to open my refrigerator someday and find a camera in it.
This is a problem for me, as I don’t like clutter. My wife and I take pleasure in the uncluttered layout of our condo. The abundance of cameras in my condo are a threat to our uncluttered environment.
2. More Choices are Not Always Good
When the opportunity to photograph comes along, I rejoice. I love to get out with a camera and try to be creative. Opportunities do not come along often enough for me, so the last thing I need is indecision regarding which camera to use. And believe me, camera indecisiveness is a thing. I agonize over it. I even feel guilty about having a nice camera but not using it. “Why am I not not putting film in my Leica iiia or my Rolleicord or my Minolta XD-7? There are people out there who would love to own and use the cameras I don’t use. How can I let them sit on a shelf or even lay in the bottom of a storage box?” And so I give a lot of thought about my choices, and when I finally make a decision, I sometimes question my decision even while I’m shooting. And then it hits me. My choices are infringing on my fun.
3. More Cameras Mean More Camera Problems
Let me reiterate that I am not a camera collector. I own cameras for the purpose of using them and if I choose to use a particular camera on a given day, I really want that camera to work. Most of the time they do. However, sometimes they don’t. And of course, those times almost always happen to be important times when I simply must get the shot. It’s the Murphy's Law of photography. Cameras never fail at unimportant times. Some of I own cameras have been serviced (CLA’d) and should not fail, but I also own cameras that haven’t been serviced but seem to work fine. They are, in fact, ticking time bombs. It’s just a matter of time.
Obviously, the solution to this is to get them all serviced. But just as obvious is the fact that the more camera own, the more money I will spend servicing them. Nothing wrong with that, except that the money I spend on servicing all my cameras could buy more film, chemistry, and paper. Shooting vintage film cameras is fun for certain, but The ultimate goal is to make photographs that I can print and hold in my hand.
4. The “At One” Factor
Neil Young and Peter Buck are two of my favorite guitarists, and they both are associated with a particular guitar, a guitar that appears on most, if not all of their records and live performances (for Young, it’s a 1959 Les Paul known as “Ol’ Black, while Buck has played a black Rickenbacker 360 on nearly every record he’s ever made). Because they have used these guitars so very much over the years, it’s safe to say that they long ago reached the point to where they are “at one” with their instruments. They know them inside and out and can call up every possible sound their guitars can make in an instant.
I would very much like to be that way with a camera. And I have a couple of SLRs that I do feel at one with, because I have owned these camera models for decades. Other cameras in my inventory are less familiar to me and require more time to operate. Certainly, if I shot them more, I would eventually reach “at one” status with them them at some point. But as I stated above, I feel guilty leaving my favorite cameras on the shelf. And anytime I leave a camera on the shelf for an extended period of time before picking it up again, there always will be a “reacquaintance” process, a process that could (and has) caused me to miss a shot. Not good.
The Truth about Cameras and Photographs
Now as you read this, you may or not agree with me. Thats fine. I am not you, and you are not me. You know you. I don’t. However, I will state something something that I believe is true for everyone. Owning a lot of cameras does not make you or me a better photographer. It will make you a better collector, and there is nothing wrong with that. I can be impressed by someone's collection like anyone else. You may even be impressed with my inventory of cameras. But what I really want to impress you with are my photographs. That’s what I care about.
How We Got Here
At the point you may be wondering how and why I got myself into this dilemma in the first place. “Wow, why do you have so many cameras? You must be a collector.” Good question. Here is what happened. When my brother and I got our cameras out of the closets in the spring of 2017 after not having used them for several years, our passion for photography was reignited and burned hot. We shot rolls and rolls of color negative film, developed it at home with C-41 kits from the FIlm Photography Store, scanned the negatives with our Epson scanners, and posted them online. Then we would have long conversations about what we had done and what we were learning. We also talked about cameras we were seeing for sale at antique stores, thrift stores, and flea markets. We were amazed at what we found. They were cameras we had admired and wanted back in the early 1980’s when we first began our film photography journey but could never afford, and now here they were forsake for $10 to $50 dollars. It seemed like such a shame to leave them there not doing what they were made to do, so we “rescued” them.
It goes out of hand, of course, at least for me. Soon I had more cameras than I had time to shoot and had space to store. So here we are. Now it’s time for some Hard Decisions.
