Ok, so we have discussed GAS. GAS occurs when you feel that you need to keep on buying things, or buy things for the wrong reason(s). This isn’t a discussion about GAS … rather it is about the woes of indecision and stress from having too many choices to make. The dreaded results of having too much stuff include missing a picture due to unfamiliarity with an underused camera, being waded down and made overly conspicuous by carrying much more gear than necessary for the task at hand, or having outright paralysis because you have too many choices to make. In the end you become frustrated and unhappy.
This is not to be confused with having the right tool for the job. Or as some people on the forums are fond of saying, “horses for courses”. For example, there are times for you when a rangefinder might be the right solution, and other times when a single lens reflex might be best. Depending on subject matter or circumstances it may come down to a decision to use 35mm, medium or large format size. Or to use a camera with movements verses one without.
What I am talking about is my belief that it is best to keep things simple concerning whatever outfit you have or are using. That means generally one camera for the task at hand (it does not mean you shouldn’t own a back up in case your main camera breaks or falls into the lake), and only the lenses you need, verses all those you think would be great to have, or all the focal lengths the manufacturer makes! Ok, for certain applications I can see the value of having more than one camera, each with a different lens … or I know … one for color and one for black and white … but I hope you get the point.
I really believe that those who are less caught up with the need to carry an over abundance of gear – particularly lenses, have more time to concentrate on capturing the best picture instead of trying to figure out what is the best lens to use at any given time. Truth be told, probably more than 90% of my pictures have been made with a 50mm lens or near 50mm lens equivalent in different formats. But even so, I have owned more than one focal length for my outfits, because the other lenses do get used when necessary, albeit not as nearly as often the “normal” lens.
Think about this — using the 50mm, it only takes a few steps forward or backwards to get the equivalent of a mild wide angle or mild telephoto lens. In your case with the way you see the world, it might be a 35mm lens moving forward a few steps to give the view of a 50mm when needed. Entire careers of great photographers have been built around these two focal lengths or their equivalents. In any case, the point is to know your equipment, be familiar with what it can do so you can be free to concentrate on what counts – capturing the vision you have when you decide you want to make the picture!
Michael, you raised some interesting points and, I reckon, touched a few nerves. Unsure why more haven’t commented. Wary of putting long valued thoughts into words, maybe. This applies to me.
GAS? To me, it’s more A Pain In The (drop the first letter in GAS). OK. Cut out that sentence if you prefer. On a more serious vein, I believe we all have different reasons to justify our impulsive (or compulsive) buying, buying, buying. One friend has 160 Pentax SLRs and virtually every accessory made for them, but never even picks up a camera. Too many fell for the marketing fertiliser hype. Some (I was one) bought for years on weekends to keep alive the hope, however slim, of actually USING the gear one day in future. Luckily, I am now doing just that.
From the 1980s I had the cherished ambition of some day selling stock. My interests are religious and cultural events in Asia, colonial architecture, and ‘arty’ ephemera. Pre-internet, trying to sell stock was a long, drawn out process involving much correspondence with overseas agencies (at that time nobody sold stock out of Australia where I’ve lived since the 70s). Every year I traveled for a month, to escape my boring civil service/mid-level academic job, and shot up big. Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Fujichrome, B&W. Even infrared.
Eventually the combo of internet and digital photography came along, and duly freed us from the double tyrranies of postal services and film.
Finally I retired in 2012, and after cleaning up my home before an interstate move, I found I had FORTY cartons of packed gear in storage, plus the films in my darkroom fridge! Weary of digging in boxes for a Nikon lens hood or the UV filter for my Perkeo II, I bit the bullet and sold, sold, sold. And made a mint!
Let us not belittle the joy of selling gear at a profit, as I did (and am still doing). The first 15 cameras I sold funded a Hasselblad SWC, quirky but a joy to use. The next 15 sold got me a ‘user’ Fuji GA645wi (28mm equivalent in 120 MF). The last 15 sold paid for my 2013 overseas trip. So 35 got recycled into two with a two month budget holiday thrown in. Everyone was happy. I surely I was!
In the past I dragged along huge loads of gear, most of it unused or very little used. For one Indonesian trip I took a Nikkormat and FIVE lenses, a Rollei TLR, and a Linhof 6×9 kit? Why. Madness, I reckon.
Now common sense prevails. For color, a Nikon D700 with 28, 60 micro and either 85 for (beaches) or 180 (mountains). For B&W, a Nikkormat with 28, 55 micro and 85 OR a Contax G1 with 28, 45 and 90. For architectural B&W, MF means either a Rolleiflex T or the Fuji GA645wi. Lens hoods, filters, films or extra batteries and a charger. Nothing else! 95% of my images are made with the 28. I’ve had the 20, 24 and 180 for years but rarely use the wides and have never used the tele. That says it all, I think.
My late grandfather, bless him, knew all about minimalism. He left Germany in rather a hurry in 1938, with only a small suitcase, a Leica IIIc and three lenses, 35, 50 and 90. In New Mexico, he used this gear to set himself up as a journalist and later a portrait artist. His friends included Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe and many others of the Taos School of Artists. One could do all that, back then. In the ’60s, by then retired, he got a Leica M3 and offered me his old kit as a school graduation gift. I nixed it. Today I kick myself for that. Had I taken it, my lifetime of photography would surely have gone in different directions. Or maybe GAS is in our DNA. Nature or nurture? To me the jury’s out on that one.
The one camera, one lens ‘ritual’ (or ‘lifestyle’ if you prefer), be it a 50 as you use, Michael, or in my case a 28, has much to recommend it. One’s eye becomes the center of one’s vision, not which lens or camera.
I now “think” in 28. A d700 with a 28/2.8 D. A Nikkormat with a 28/3.5 or a Rollei with a 75, all three give me the greatest pleasure of all in my photography, by satisfying the innate urge in my psyche to CREATE.
There is much to be said for the minimalist viewpoint. The money saved. The expertise gained. The satisfaction of seeing with your own inner eye.
Let the camera be your eye, and your eye be the camera. Good, huh? I just made that up, I think. Or maybe Albert Camus said it first. Simone De Beauvoir? Anyway, put this idea to work with your gear. Take your camera with one lens out and explore your neighborhood, your town, the nearby park, the path along the river, the old warehouse complex closed since the ’60s. Shoot was you see, but see it in a different way. One lens will simplify the visual process for you. Now go and try it.
JayDann,
Many thanks for your very thoughtful comment. Like me you have gone through a journey only to find out that often less is better, and in this case better means fewer options to think about. Focus on what is really important … making the photograph that speaks to you. That doesn’t mean that I am a blind advocate of the one camera, one lens philosophy, even though the vast amount of my photographs have been made with one focal length or its near equivalent in a variety of formats. I think the worst thing that could happen is if you can’t make your picture, for example, because you can’t back up any further to get everything into the frame. Cartier-Bresson made most of his photographs with a 50mm lens, but he used other lenses when the need arose. The way I seem to operate is find a way to make it work with my primary lens and change only if I cannot.
Cameras and lenses have always fascinated me. They are wonderful devices that provide pleasure on many different levels. One has to guard against becoming more enamored with the cycle of desire, acquisition, and disappointment as an ongoing replacement for the challenge of going out into the world and making photographs. Armed with the knowledge that you have the essential tool(s) you need for the job frees you from a lot of distraction.
I hope you will continue to visit me here and comment often!
Best,
Michael