[wolfiegirl]

you know what LBA is but you insist you don't have it.

you have thought about cutting back on buying lenses

you have gotten angry at someone suggesting you should cut back on buying lenses

you have felt guilty for buying lenses

you have dreams about buying lenses

your dreams include focal-length equivalences...

your drawers/cupboard/room/house/car is overflowing with lenses but you still haven't found The One yet.

you have more lenses than shirts (including tees)...

you own 20+ of a particular focal length

you think having 50+ lenses is normal

you have more lenses than shirts (including tees)...

you have all versions of a particular lens (smc, non smc, 7 element, 6 blade, etc etc)

you have *at least* two lens kits covering the entire focal lengths ever made

you own a 300mm lens but never go birding, OR you own a 18mm prime but you never shoot landscape.

you quit smoking in order to buy more lenses

you go on holiday and insist you take 10+ lenses with you - each have their own "special place"

you look in your sock drawer/back of the couch/pantry and discover a lens you had forgotten about

your significant other has threatened to leave/cut off your access to the accounts unless you stop buying lenses/cull your lens collection

you've bought a lens and then after you paid for it, realised you already have the exact same one - AND THAT'S OK!!

you knowingly buy a duplicate and justify it because it will go on a second body and who knows it might render differently on said body...

you knowingly buy a duplicate because at that price, you can't just leave it there!!!

the post office/courier knows you by name

you've been known to stay up till late in the night because you just want to check out one. more. listing.

you learnt to use a sniping program in order to get the best price for your lens (and also so you can get some shut eye)

you forgot about a snipe you'd set and you end up buying a lens you'd already bought (see previous statements re buying replica lenses)

you have made a spreadsheet to keep track of all your lens purchases

your lens database is 100x larger than your phone book

you have made an attempt to add up the cost of all your lenses and are shocked that you had that much money to begin with!

you have been known to scrounge for change (back of couch/spare change jar/your offspring's piggy banks) in order to pay for your lens

you have set yourself a "budget" for your lens buying (which you may or may not meet/exceed - but that's another story)

you set up a "lens" account (paypal/credit card/high interest savings account) but conveniently forget to tell your significant other (you just want to keep the peace..)

you tell yourself you can always/will sell the lenses you don't need/use

after not buying any lenses for a couple of days you expand the search criteria.

you have been known to be creative with the truth when asked how much you paid for a lens

your worst nightmare is you will pass away and your significant other will sell your lenses at the price you told them you bought them for

you have your lenses shipped to a different address from your home address so as to bypass your significant other's questions re lens buying..

you sneak a package in the window so the wife/husband/significant other doesn't see it, then forget about it for the rest of the evening, because you have gotten so many new lenses over that last week, the excitement has temporarily wore off.

your first port of call every morning is the pentax forum marketplace/ebay/local classifieds

your last port of call every evening is the pentax forum marketplace/ebay/local classifieds

you follow the pentaxforums marketplace to stay abreast of the liquidated value of lenses you would be willing to sell if "the one" is available

you have a script/search string set up to find all lenses you are interested in, so that you are notified immediately when a lens comes into your vicinity

you are au fait with exchange rates so you have a better idea of how much a 18euro lens will really set you back in terms of your dollar

the pentax lens review is permanently bookmarked to your toolbar/iphone browser etc

you have Pentax lens on ebay setup as your home page

you have narrowed down your 'wants' list to a specific rating number based on the pentax reviews (eg, I only want lenses that get a rating of 7 or higher, etc)

you spend more time looking for lens bargains than you do actually taking photographs

you have a list of second hand camera stores to visit whenever you go to a new city/suburb/country

you are more excited about a lens you are bidding for on eBay than your Christmas gifts.

you have a list of "lenses to look for" you take with you whenever you visit a second hand camera store (but you don't necessarily always refer to that list)

you justify buying a lens because: a. you would like to have a spare, b. you can replace your current one with a better one and sell the dud, c. it's your birthday/anniversary/you deserve a treat d. you can't let it go at that price... and sometimes, e. all of the above

you walk into your local secondhand camera/pawn/thrift/ store and they know you as the camera gal/guy

you know more about a lens in a camera shop than the camera guy does

you get a funny look from the 20 year old sales assistant when they talk to you about how this weird lens could be something obscure like a zenit and you immediately correct them and say, no a zenit is a m42 mount (the look on his face was priceless)

when a photo turns out less than you expected your first thought is "I need a better lens"

you admire someone's photo in the forum and your first thought is "wow, i wonder what lens he/she uses..."

you look at something you want to photograph and are amazed at how clear/sharp the lens is! and then you realise you're just looking with your own eyes, not through a camera lens

when watching movies, you are care less about the movie itself but keep looking at the images, bokeh, eyes reflections, sharpness transitions, DOF, and discover CA/PF and/or bad bokeh...

you've got more than 20 lenses but you decide you have no lens that you like and need another

you have yet to use every single lens you've bought - it's not your fault that three lenses arrived at once and you don't have three dopplegangers, right??

you have joined or thought about joining the "single month" challenge in an attempt to share the lens love and help justify all your lenses

you ask someone to talk you out of buying a lens, but really what you want them to say is "buy it. it's a great deal and you really need it. you won't regret it!!"

you've been known to subsist on bread and water until payday because you've used the last of your money to buy a lens

you look at a leica noctilux 50mm f0.95 and think it's worth taking a mortgage out for ... and you don't even own a camera that can use it

your ultimate fantasy would be to pay $10 for a 1k lens off ebay because no one else was watching......

you consider watching the final few minutes of frenzied bidding at an auction a spectator sport, and like channel hopping, you go from auction to auction.

you LOVE lot auctions.

you're always on the lookout for 'sleeper lenses'

you want to buy new lenses to take photos of your new guitar gear so you can show off your GAS (guitar acquisition syndrome) on the guitar forums.

you have taken a lens apart because in your LBa frenzy you bought a lens that was fungus infested/broken/had a stuck focus/aperture ring

you tell yourself that the hours spent taking and putting back together these lenses is "educational" and really time well spent to better "appreciate" your hobby

you know you're not the handy kind of gal/guy but you have seriously considered modifying a lens just so you can use it

you start buying lenses that don't fit on pentax bodies specifically to modify so you can use them

everything you look at has the potential to be stuck onto your camera body and used as a lens.

you start to covet a lathe to adapt lenses

you are given off brand lenses that can't be modified to Pentax and then start looking for an off brand camera to put them on

you start putting my lenses on double adaptors so your significant other still thinks i only have 5 lenses when it's actually 10

you start converting non pk teleconverters to pk adapters

you take pilgrimages to optics foundries...

you mod round spectacles for fractional-dioptre closeups...

you buy the nex5n with evf, order 8 adapters immediately, and keep telling yourself that spending that much money are good buys.

you already have the nex5n with evf and still looking for the nex7.

you also purchase nex AF lenses, both prime and zooms, and tell yourself that these are actually very good for travelling.

you then order several more adapters with the mount you DON't have any lens to use with, but keep telling yourself that you will be needing them very soon.

you assure yourself all money spent was spent wisely because it's an "investment." Premium optics rarely loose their value, in fact they normally increase in price. You have valuable assets in a compact and portable package. Not only do they represent a great investment, but they are USEFUL.

your listing of just one brand's lenses is too long for a .sig text...

you name your pets (or kids) Nikkor, Rokkor, Takumar, Domiplan, Westron, Lydith, Ektar, Tessar, Zenitar, Sandmar, Primagon, Helioplan, Oreston, Trioplan, Cintagon, Telemegor etc

you can list every single compatible pentax lens ever made (and list all the potential modded brands) from memory

you happily peruse your vast collection and gloat in the knowledge that NO OTHER human on the face of the earth has such a perfectly well-matched set of gear. Nobody.

you get a very good and expensive lens in another mount, but have no camera body to use

you then later buy the camera to use with the new lens.

you then collect more lenses for that newly purchased body as you know the lens would feel lonely without friends.

the drybox you're looking at, is almost worth a Limited lens, because you need something BIGGER.

you think about starting a website devoted to your favorite lens(es)

you buy old photo magazines just to look at the ads

you can't sleep the night before a big eb*y auction

your favorite Pentax Forums thread is "Your latest acquisition"

you bump an old LBA thread because it needed just one more post

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I've tried to put together a list of all the things that we joke about re LBA. This forum is vast and i'm only on the lowly levels of LBA so I'm pretty sure I've missed a lot of signs. I've seen bits and pieces referred to here and there but have yet to find a comprehensive list. Feel free to point me to it if you can find it. Otherwise, feel free to tell me what I've missed and I'll add them in.


(note in many cases these statements also apply to CBA)

ETA: Let's say if you meet 5 or more of the above critiera you have LBA.

And to further clarify: this list is not a comprehensive indication of where my current LBA is at. This is more just to poke fun at all the different ways that we experience LBA. Please don't think that I've done each and every one of these statements.

None of us meet ALL that criteria... do we?

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Last edited by wolfiegirl; 06-10-2013 at 05:14 PM.

[pezmaker]

Leave some for those of us with a mild case

---EDIT---
Also, excellent compilation. As I implied, I've only got a mild case, other than the kit lens, I've only accrued 6 beyond the kit lens. Well, the 7th is on the way... I chuckled as I was marking off the ones that apply, or have nearly applied

[wolfiegirl]

Leave some for those of us with a mild case

note I didn't specify whether these signs were for a mild or severe case.

...and really, is having LBA all that bad?

[pezmaker]

..and really, is having LBA all that bad?

That depends, haha. So far, the S.O. has only half jokingly put me on a lens buying moratorium. I think I will be able to... bribe... my way out of it when I give her my Eric CLA'd pentax ME Super, and 28mm 2.8, 50mm 2, and 135 2.8 kit for her birthday. *crosses fingers*

[wolfiegirl]

That depends, haha. So far, the S.O. has only half jokingly put me on a lens buying moratorium. I think I will be able to... bribe... my way out of it when I give her my Eric CLA'd pentax ME Super, and 28mm 2.8, 50mm 2, and 135 2.8 kit for her birthday. *crosses fingers*

just beware once they go down the slippery slope as well. it can get nasty!

hubby made a fuss when i bought my second camera body. but now he fights over using it. it makes me feel good because half of my justification for buying the kx was because hubby would always take my k100d and then one of us would be camera-less. it's amusing watching him struggle with the manual lenses though. i almost don't want to show him how they work so he thinks that the problem is with the camera and i can get it back....

[RioRico]

That's a start. Meanwhile, you know that LBA is wearing off when you're just not attracted to stuff that seemed enticing a few months ago. That beautiful M42 Rikenon 35/2.8? Most of my 35s are M42 and I don't use them enough and another just seems like too many. That PK-M Vivitar 20/3.8? I have its near-twin, an M42 Tokina 21/3.8, and my goal now is something smaller and lighter (but probably not the DA21Ltd).

Maybe I'm getting blasé. Maybe ennui is overcoming my LBA. But maybe some more German glass will cure my malaise and set me back to glass-gobbling. Yes, a nice bracing Meyer-Steinheil-Zeiss-Enna-Schneider cocktail should do the trick. Sköl!

[pezmaker]

Yes, a nice bracing Meyer-Steinheil-Zeiss-Enna-Schneider cocktail should do the trick.

I had a chance on a nice Enna 135 2.8, but I couldn't afford to go too far. Not knowing how far the winning bidder was willing to go, it went for $50, and now 19 days later and a "holiday bonus" in the bank, i'm kicking myself for not going above my 37 bid :/

[RioRico]

I had a chance on a nice Enna 135 2.8, but I couldn't afford to go too far.

I have an Enna 135/3.5 that is just glorious optically, a bit sticky physically. Some say that Enna glass is over-rated and overpriced, but what I have, I like just fine. Call it character. Yes, I want more.

Oh, the other thing that might re-invigorate my LBA: a NEX or the upcoming Pentax equivalent, something that will let me use cine-video lenses, of which MANY exist. Yeah, that would keep me busy.

[excanonfd]

you know what LBA is but you insist you don't have it.

Massive Snip!
---------

I've tried to put together a list of all the things that we joke about re LBA. This forum is vast and i'm only on the lowly levels of LBA so I'm pretty sure I've missed a lot of signs. I've seen bits and pieces referred to here and there but have yet to find a comprehensive list. Feel free to point me to it if you can find it. Otherwise, feel free to tell me what I've missed and I'll add them in.

(note in many cases these statements also apply to CBA)

Nope, I think you've covered them all. Gawd, I thought I was a hardcore LBA junkie, I guess I am not if we go by that list.

[magkelly]

The only reason I still have so many extra lenses is because I literally can't seem to get rid of them. No matter where I post my stuff no one likes to buy my extra photo gear. I'm apparently stuck with it unless I want to give it away and that crazy I'm not.The reason I have half a dozen extra cameras and about twice that many lenses is because I haven't managed to sell any of them since I bought them. You know I really don't think I have LBA. I'd cheerfully sell some of them off but apparently I'm destined not to. The universe is clearly trying to tell me I'm supposed to keep them all, laugh.

[hoanpham]

you start buying lenses that don't fit on pentax bodies specifically to modify so you can use them

Too much work, even each will take 20-30 minuttes. hard to modify them nicely and professionally. So I listen to RioRico and excanonfd and pick the easy way to give LBA a new life:

Just got myself another early christmas gift: nex5n with evf

[lamented bovine]

The one lens yet we wait

[hoanpham]

your worst nightmare is you will pass away and your significant other will sell your lenses at the price you told them you bought them for

I know several had been awaken from the deadth when they heard the price to be sold for.

[wolfiegirl]

You know I really don't think I have LBA. I'd cheerfully sell some of them off but apparently I'm destined not to. The universe is clearly trying to tell me I'm supposed to keep them all, laugh.

destined to keep them all? that sounds suspiciously like LBA to me

I saw your sales in the marketplace the other day. i don't think i saw anything i wanted but i might go and take another look to be doubly sure..

Nope, I think you've covered them all. Gawd, I thought I was a hardcore LBA junkie, I guess I am not if we go by that list.

well you don't have to fit ALL the criteria in order to be classified as LBA. maybe i should add a line saying if you meet 5 or more of that criteria, say...?

Too much work, even each will take 20-30 minuttes. hard to modify them nicely and professionally. So I listen to RioRico and excanonfd and pick the easy way to give LBA a new life: Just got myself another early christmas gift: nex5n with evf

hoanpahm, i thought you and Rico were the kings of mods... what with your nikkors and Rico's well.. dremel too, the world is your oyster?

congrats on your nex5n! i thought about that for a crazy sec. and then quickly talked myself out of it. that's the one that lets you use 4/3 lenses right?

[hoanpham]

no, i think nex5n has same sensor as k5, without going in details (what's the point, you will need it anyway - to use all your lenses right?)
1.5 crop. very good noise ratio. nex7 is better in respect of buttons and controls, but not coming out.
consider nex7 will need firmware fix, premium price, the nex5n is my best compromise.

looks like a pack of sigarettes. too small to use it outdoor in the cold. i am still not used to the tiny buttons yet. for now the wheel with build-in direction arrows drives me crazy.
The EVF is very good, but it's too soon for me to have final judgement. It has been my criteria for a nex body.

regarding the mod work,
I know people with metal workshop, got different mounts from ebay to test out which is better, got the jis screw drivers, even bought a leitax mount, etc... but still too much work and management in aspect that i may sell some of these and need to keep them in original shape - mod must be reversible and each lens has a small ziplock bag with original parts. Consider hrs of work, just to make them work with a pentax body, crop sensor. it's better to get the nex5n.

as long as you have only tak and k mount, you can wait. i mean in some point of LBA development, you must have a body with very short register distance. I wish some day they sell a similar body but with FF sensor.