[djc737]

Lens Buying Addiction, didn't have it with Canon, a couple a fast zooms and a prime or two. Didn't have it with Oly, a couple of fast zooms and a prime or two. I have got it with Pentax, what gives???

It's the lens interface that is the problem, Canon changed theirs and cut off the past, the same for Oly. Buy new or not at all was the only way to go.
Now I bought the K-5 and a couple of nice primes, DA21, FA 31 and 77 as my simulated Leica. This will fill my needs forever. Oh, need something wider, DA15, Need something longer, A 135, no with AF, FA 135 first and second used lens. Need a macro, DFA 100, no a shorter macro DFA50, need something really long, Tammy SP400 f4. Need even longer, SP 2X. Yikes, where does this end. Crazy thing is I do use them all in different combinations depending on my target of the day. Kills the old collecting dust argument.

Curse Pentax for not seeing the light for us addicts. It would have been a simple change of anything to cut off the past. And now I am really starting to like using MF for many of my lenses. Catch focus, pre focus, hyperfocal focusing and many of my lenses have scales on them. I have actually increased my keepers using MF. It was rarely the case before. Of course, as long as I am MFing anyway, why not just go all the way and buy Zeiss glass. If you are going to do something do it as best you can so get the best.

Where does this end, I read about some of you with dozens, no hundreds of lenses. I do not need anymore lenses. All the slots are full. I can't carry all the lenses I have now, yet, I scour the Market place and other back alleys looking for something, I don't even know what but it is out there. The next better version of something I have, maybe something to fit in between the 50 and the 77. Maybe a better 50, Zeiss makro, maybe a little longer 50, DA* 55. Yikes, yikes, yikes...

I need self control. I don't need any more lenses and I really can't afford any of the ones I am lusting after. Please help!!! How do you stop? Even more important, how do you get the desire to want to stop??? I know this is a beaten subject but I spend my nights after my wife goes to bed like some kind of crazy addict, reading specs and reviews and analyzing bokeh, always looking. Somewhere it is out there and for a bargain price. Woe to those who turn down the path with the P over it.

Dave

[xfloggingkylex]

The other issue is that Pentax is rather known for its primes which force you then to get multiple focal lengths instead of a zoom. If they had some really high end zooms like canon I don't think LBA would be quite as bad... but maybe I'm wrong.

[hoanpham]

Start by using your camera more often. I think after 100+ good lenses, the addiction slows down a bit.
It's also more fun to use the current gear, exploit them to the max. Just pick up whatever lens you have and stick with it for a month or until you got several keeper photos - a portrait, a landscape, a bokeh, a close focus, etc... and can keep those photos as reference to compare with other that you have. Repeat for every f-stop but different subjects, and repeat for every focal length in a zoom. Build up a portfolio or a showcase.

Just unplug your computer for 6 months. Stop read reviews. Enjoy taking photos.

[eddie1960]

The other issue is that Pentax is rather known for its primes which force you then to get multiple focal lengths instead of a zoom. If they had some really high end zooms like canon I don't think LBA would be quite as bad... but maybe I'm wrong.

Wrong, this would just be additional lenses to fuel LBA. It's the massive number of good inexpensive manual focus primes that sets off many people. you know, oh well it's only $10(20-30-40-50...)
like getting that first taste of smack for free from the dealer it sucks you in slowly and before you know it you have 20 lenses and a craving that won't go away

[baro-nite]

LBA has snuck upon me as well, to my surprise as I had happily gone for nearly four years with only 3 lenses. This forum has been an enabler, but that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned: without all the info and opinions available here I'd probably be spending just as much or more on current model limiteds and/or zooms. I have LBA because my interest in photography has gone up lately, and joining this forum is a result of that.

Lusting after lenses you can't afford is OK, it's buying lenses you either can't afford or simply won't use that is LBA, IMO. Who among us doesn't wish to try out, say, the A* 85 (other than the lucky ones who already own one)? I do, even though portraiture is really not my thing. If I ever find myself bidding on one, that will be LBA plain and simple. The good news is that we can sell our surplus gear usually at no or small loss.

You say you're regularly using the lenses you have. Great, that's why you buy them. Ultimately the goal is to make the images you want to make. Having gone from 3 lenses to 15 in a few months I'm trying to put my focus back on that. What do I really need, as opposed to want. Where would an upgrade (faster sharper longer wider etc.) really be justified vs. what I have is good enough for my skills and the subjects I actually shoot. I'm just as much as a crazy addict as you are when it comes to reading specs and opinions and trawling for bargains, but I am sorting out what gear I really need and all in all the LBA experience has been a helpful part of my ongoing education in photography. And it's been fun, too.

[interested_observer]

Wonderful set of observations, all the way around!!!! I think that the Canon and the 4:3 folks are starting to see a bit of LBA now - using the M42 and C/Y lenses, as it creates a similar environment. The Canon folks are even destructively chopping our old Pentax lenses for the wonderful glass. I also like the Zeiss reference. Usually the price for the new glass puts a damper on things. However with the availability of the old Contax line of lenses from Carl Zeiss, you can afford to acquire them and even with the remount costs, come out only spending 1/3 to 1/2 what the newer Zeiss glass goes for (and its not destructive).

Primes like xfloggingkylex wrote, certainly push the acquisition binge.

I guess you are the newest member of PAA or LAA - Pentax Addicts Anonymous or Lens Addicts Anonymous I think that Rico is chairing the meeting this month.....

[Clinton]

Where does this end, I read about some of you with dozens, no hundreds of lenses. I do not need anymore lenses. All the slots are full. I can't carry all the lenses I have now, yet, I scour the Market place and other back alleys looking for something, I don't even know what but it is out there. The next better version of something I have, maybe something to fit in between the 50 and the 77. Maybe a better 50, Zeiss makro, maybe a little longer 50, DA* 55. Yikes, yikes, yikes...

I need self control. I don't need any more lenses and I really can't afford any of the ones I am lusting after. Please help!!! How do you stop? Even more important, how do you get the desire to want to stop??? I know this is a beaten subject but I spend my nights after my wife goes to bed like some kind of crazy addict, reading specs and reviews and analyzing bokeh, always looking. Somewhere it is out there and for a bargain price. Woe to those who turn down the path with the P over it.

I say the only way to beat it it to come up with a budget, with some fudge room if a steal or something really rare comes along, and have a plan of which lenses you are going to buy in what order.

Apply some logic to your lens selection. For example with what you said above. You feel like you want something in the 50-70 range. Do the research, which is a major fun part. Is what you're looking for the DA* 55? What price is it and how soon would that fit your budget? Does it replace another lens that you could sell to make up a piece of the difference?

Coming up with the strategy for what you're going to buy, and when, and how you can adapt your budget when the mystical whatever lens comes along at a steal can be quite a bit of fun.

I've sold two lenses that many on the forums would consider heresy. The DA 15 ltd, and the FA* 300/4.5. I found other lenses were far more likely to go into the bag than these two, and so these two got sold here on the forums to supplement the purchase of my FA* 300/2.8.

Where LBA comes off the hook is when you start buying lenses you wont use: But that A 28/2.8 in the paper is only $60! I must go buy it NOW! If you had no plans to buy an A 28, just because it's a deal doesn't mean it's a good selection for you. Find what you're looking for, plot it out, and nobody needs the Zeiss makro. <yawn>

[Clinton]

The other issue is that Pentax is rather known for its primes which force you then to get multiple focal lengths instead of a zoom. If they had some really high end zooms like canon I don't think LBA would be quite as bad... but maybe I'm wrong.

The corollary of this could be: If Canon had the high end glass, including primes, that Pentax has made, LBA would be just as rampant in their ranks.

[Lowell Goudge]

While it is perhaps true that canon and others have cut clean and forced purchasers to buy new, with the change in mounts, nore also that even depending on camera body, not all cameras can use all lenses in their lines. Same with nikon, entry level is their equivelent of HSM only, or nothing, not even screw drive, or metering on old lenses.

Pentax did not make that distinction, and it has, to this point saved them, with respect to being a viable company, because it is people who have existing lenses that made the pentax DSLRs what they are today.

It is also true that pentax has always been a leader in primes not zooms, although I would be willing to bet that the zooms they make stand up well with equivelent nikon or canon lenses in the same ranges optically.

Now, with respect to controlling LBA, good luck. Once you decide on a direction, the only solution will be to complete the kit you have started.

the real control is to control the urge to start new kits.

[sterretje]

I know the feeling. Bought a lens that I absolutely don't need about 2 weeks ago; just could not leave it for the price Opened the door to a new K-mount kit

But ...

Be glad you did not buy a MILC. Imagine, no longer limited to M42 or K mount; just some simple adapters to get the registration distance right. A whole new perspective to LBA; Konica, Contax, Olympus, Minolta, Pentax, Nikon, Canon, whatever lenses, side by side in your bag.

Oh yeah, all those possibilities .... I can't wait to use my old Minolta MD lenses and donated Olympus OM lenses And shopping for unknown glass

[blackcloudbrew]

Welcome to the real world...

[Lowell Goudge]

I always figgured with my K mount MF kit and my M42 kit, if pentax ever stops making cameras I would switch to......... god, I can't believe I am saying this,.......Canon.

Only because the regestration distance is so much less than pentax that mechaincal adaptors gauranteeing infinity focus, and chipped adaptors that give focus confirmation, would still let me use most of my kit.

[jsherman999]

.

I spent all of 2008 and most of 2009 in the grips of a real LBA bug. Once I acquired everything I really wanted (and went on a couple huge house-cleaning sales in the process - the results of over-buying , ) I settled down on my current Pentax and Nikon kits and have been very happy.

However... I have to say that that LBA period of time was incredibly fun in it's own way. There's something to be said for wanting something very bad, for the thrill of the search, for that incredible feeling when a lens is finally "out for delivery", or when it arrives in it's box on your doorstep...

I say: enjoy your LBA. Indulge it, within reason. It's all part of the hobby.


.

[RioRico]

I think after 100+ good lenses, the addiction slows down a bit.

No; after 100+ good lenses, one starts looking for another 100+ lenses with (bad) character, odd optics, strange mounts, etc. Especially if bellows are on hand -- a universe of enlarger-projector-copy-process-etc lenses opens up. DOOM!

Just unplug your computer for 6 months. Stop read reviews. Enjoy taking photos.

What, no picture processing and posting for half a year?!? That's almost monastic.

It's the massive number of good inexpensive manual focus primes that sets off many people. you know, oh well it's only $10(20-30-40-50...)
like getting that first taste of smack for free from the dealer it sucks you in slowly and before you know it you have 20 lenses and a craving that won't go away

Oh, there's an alibi: testing. Oh yeah, I've heard that these and those are good lenses, but are they REALLY?!? Hay, that batch of 3 Vivitars costs less than a pizza, why not see how they compare that lot of Sears glass I got last week? Hmmm, is the Takumar 135 really better than the Biotar? Gotta test...

I say the only way to beat it it to come up with a budget ... Apply some logic to your lens selection.

Unless there's an actual valve that shuts off the cashflow, a budget is just a fantasy guideline, like a New Year's resolution. We can always find excuses. My budgeting is simple: I have zero disposable income. If I want to buy something, I must sell something else first. I've been slacking lately, but I'm starting to post on eBay again. Got to -- I'll not get M42 focusing helcoids any other way. Oh bother.

I've outlined my alleged logic(s) in lens-accumulation before. The noble, rational, high-level approach is to ask myself: What do I want to do that I can't do with what I have? The answers led me to my first dSLR kit. Then frenzy kicked in, and I devised a roadmap of excuses with four levels of desire:

1) Coverage. The 10-24, 18-250, and 170-500 cover a huge range.
2) Speed. *Need* faster lenses at various critical focal lengths.
3) Specialties. Fisheye zooms, macros, 1000mm mirrors, etc.
4) Character. Those European 2-ring presets just render better.
5) Frenzy. Looking for incredible deals on weird glass, just because...

OK, I cheated; the fifth level becomes all-consuming, especially when cash is low. Oh yeah, grab that Fujica Super-8 cine.cam; the three Fujinons on its troika turret may be worth something someday. Hay, a superfast Xray lens for only ten bucks? Gotta have it! Et f*cking cetera.

I don't suffer from LBA. I enjoy every moment of it.

[djc737]

LBA has snuck upon me as well, to my surprise as I had happily gone for nearly four years with only 3 lenses. This forum has been an enabler, but that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned: without all the info and opinions available here I'd probably be spending just as much or more on current model limiteds and/or zooms. I have LBA because my interest in photography has gone up lately, and joining this forum is a result of that.

Lusting after lenses you can't afford is OK, it's buying lenses you either can't afford or simply won't use that is LBA, IMO. Who among us doesn't wish to try out, say, the A* 85 (other than the lucky ones who already own one)? I do, even though portraiture is really not my thing. If I ever find myself bidding on one, that will be LBA plain and simple. The good news is that we can sell our surplus gear usually at no or small loss.

You say you're regularly using the lenses you have. Great, that's why you buy them. Ultimately the goal is to make the images you want to make. Having gone from 3 lenses to 15 in a few months I'm trying to put my focus back on that. What do I really need, as opposed to want. Where would an upgrade (faster sharper longer wider etc.) really be justified vs. what I have is good enough for my skills and the subjects I actually shoot. I'm just as much as a crazy addict as you are when it comes to reading specs and opinions and trawling for bargains, but I am sorting out what gear I really need and all in all the LBA experience has been a helpful part of my ongoing education in photography. And it's been fun, too.

Thanks for this observation. Yes, I use all the lenses I have bought in different groups for different purposes. So I guess I have not really crossed the line to collecting for the sake of collecting. You do get on a role and need to slow down a bit when you feel the crazies coming on. I do feel I have covered most of my needs so far. It is fun, ok a little crazy, spending so much time learning about the huge range of possible lenses out there. Thanks, I feel a little better. Dave