Crossroads' end, for those suffering from lba

PentaxMom Felua · 06-07-2012, 02:14 AM

If you call your lens buying lba, you acknowledge you are ill. And if you don't, you are not. At best/worst in precarious financial situations.

Today I sold my last m42 item. It is done now.
It feels sad, it marks the final end of an era in my life. It is done now. I flipped through the old foto books, scrolled through the files on my compu. Yes, days gone by.

Shiny shelves, cleaned of dust. Silent encounter with emptiness. A heartache and a headache. Aging eyes and revisiting the graves of those that left me their takumars and zeisses and meyers, numerous little items, scribblings in little notebooks, days gone to a loss, with me following in their trai.

Love for the early summer breezes, rain that falls on my very light equipment bag, steps that still are being taken, progress nothing but ongoing movement through life.

Faces that fill my inner eye, ... and getting back then, home.

Sometimes I wish I could sell a part of my memories too.

RM Barker · 06-07-2012, 02:40 AM

Reina, this is a very sad story you are telling us! Does this mean you are finished with photography at such a young age? And, you only have 306 posts. Your best years may be ahead of you. Please say you have given up all that equipment but replacing it with new?

PentaxMom Felua · 06-07-2012, 04:31 AM

Well, I am really not that young at over 55, and no, I haven't given up on photography, I have a K-5 with some lenses. And a Q. Still almost never leave the house without a camera.

Yes, sad story. I do feel sad indeed. Most of what I sold was inherited, many stories storming my head these days. Is as is.
Still, though I once thought I would never part with any of them, the truth is none of my children or close friends takes an interest in manual focussing, my eyes troubling me, so, that is why. But after goodbyes come hallo's, I guess.
All those old lenses with their peculiarities ... glad to have known them ... guess it is ok for me now.

Truth of course is they will always somehow haunt me.

hoanpham · 06-07-2012, 04:53 AM

You are strong who could do this.

For me, the manual focus process is a part of the fun. Of course, no one than me interested in old lenses in family.
Buying modern af lenses would end up with a few, while old ones.. a cabinet, but some of m42 had taken years to get, and among the last to go...

I guess the limiteds are welcome, and may be some Zeiss/Leica are waiting to visit as well.

Arjay Bee · 06-07-2012, 05:40 AM

Having today been sent one of your last pieces it seems, I will treasure even more the item knowing through whose hands its been and the feelings with which it was released.

I hope to pass forward when the time comes with similar sentiments and provide the same sense of satisfaction from a period of custodianship.

RM Barker · 06-07-2012, 05:55 AM

Well, PentaxMom, I am glad to learn that you are just shifting from one mode to another. It is a problem with us "older" photographers, we are willing but our bodies betray. I envy some of our colleagues in this Forum who can actually trek miles to sites that are virtually inaccessible to many of us. But, in your case, thank goodness for autofocus. I will look forward to seeing some of your work. As you might have noticed - I'm pretty new here!

kenafein · 06-07-2012, 08:55 AM

I sold a bunch of my manual glass because I just couldn't keep up with my daughter, but, with focus peaking, my love affair with MF is back on. I now regret selling my manual glass and I've bought a bunch more. I am now considering selling a bunch of my AF lenses.

**monochrome** · 06-07-2012, 09:11 AM

I CHOOSE to view my bouts of LBA (and it is uncontrollable when I am buying) and LBR (Lens Buying Recovery) not as something to regret, but as opportunities to do something few other people get to do - that is, to use these fine examples of engineering and hand assembly, decades after they were made, and appreciate the care that was built into these lenses by an anonymous Pentax assembler.

PentaxMom Felua · 06-08-2012, 12:33 PM

Today the sweetest boy possible came to collect my ultimate last m42 manual focus lens, a not really important 28mm f2.8 Fodor, a rather large affair with acually rather decent performance. I had stickered up a handwritten ad on a board in the local supermarket: 1 euro. He was so happy it was heart softening. He was going to use it with a panasonic g3 he said. Well, that is ok with me.
A happy face to cheer up the final end. There he went, on his battered old bike. Could have been one of us I guess, even me some 35 years ago.

Thanks everyone for all the wise and true words, you all lifted my spirit

.

**Lowell Goudge** · 06-08-2012, 12:39 PM

While LBA may be resolved for this round, your new bodies will also demand new glass, you have not reached an end to LBA just changed the objects you will lust after

PentaxMom Felua · 06-08-2012, 02:22 PM

Originally posted by Lowell Goudge

While LBA may be resolved for this round, your new bodies will also demand new glass, you have not reached an end to LBA just changed the objects you will lust after

Thank you, but I just also sold off all of my Samsung Nx stuff

, totally redundant in the light of my omdem5. For which I have 12/25/45 and long oly kit. That's it. And indeed for now. Planning on selling my da15ltd, also redundant after omdem5 + 12 (not an additon, but a true addiction).
Sure will buy that 75mm.

M42 never was an addiction, though, it was left on my threshold to deal with ... but wonderful it is. Once you have used some old and often frustrating Meyers, you sure know what it means.

Well, Q is good too, because it is so bad in a way. It magnitises me into ever telling vagueness of true encounters with fleeting by people and objects. Great museum camera. With the standard kit.

You are so right, of course, 'cause there's ff too, though not pentax. I don't know but of course I do: probably too heavy to drag along on my long winding outings.

Love the small formats more and more. I don't mind so much about utter perfect quality, but do mind freedom of movement. Something that I think gets more important every year one grows older.

abacus07 · 06-10-2012, 12:27 AM

Sounds like this is more of shift in toys than an exit and I've felt the same way and I'm planning on selling my takumars/other MF at some point in favor of new toys. It is fun to have a large collection but at the end of the day I don't need so many multiples of similar focal lengths and apertures. So I'll trim my collection to a really nice MF set with 3 ltd's mixed in and start adding a compact body and kit (m4/3, K01, samsung, other?) and a few great zooms for Pentax.

PentaxMom Felua · 06-10-2012, 08:58 AM

In a way you are right. I have done a lot of thinking, lately. And learned how to let go of a number of common points of view. It may sound crazy, but I have grown too old to be bothered any longer by what rules my photography should abide in the opinion of those I don't even know. Years on end I have run my household with three autistic sons, by now I am totally through by what is supposed to be an accepted point of view, an acceptable point of view, an in the eyes of respectable those who really know best point of view, and so on. I am truly tired.

So often I wonder why one forgets to simply look around and why they forgo on the miracle of simply being caught. By what is there. It is the very thing those autistic boys made me see.
And oh, how hurt people can be by the truth which they truly believe to be the truth. If you don't follow them there. But there is no truth but acceptance, love and hope and heaps of forgiveness.

This is my credo when out to be caught by pictures. And home, I am so happy when they make themselves seen on the screen. Oh how I don't need the multitude, but DO need the right amount of tools for the different places I like to go. Most none of them allow for heavy gear, certainly not when I have to carry it all by myself.

These days I allow myself to have an opinion of myself as far as art and photography and literature are concerned. Too often it is too limiting being hold back by rules others dictated. Why, I shall be free within my own limitations. I hurt noone, my tools are mine, within my own budget. Gosh, I love the opportunities out there. All pens-and-inks in my hands.

reeftool · 06-10-2012, 10:43 AM

Has your LBA ended? I gather from reading that you're selling off manual focus lenses because, as many of us as we age, you are having difficulty manual focusing. I am slowly but surely adding to my AF collection as manual focusing is also becoming difficult. I'm quite Interested in the new 550mm that's supposed to be in the works. As my eyesight gets worse and my hand less steady, modern technology has come to the rescue.

**monochrome** · 06-10-2012, 10:53 AM

Originally posted by reeftool

Has your LBA ended? I gather from reading that you're selling off manual focus lenses because, as many of us as we age, you are having difficulty manual focusing. I am slowly but surely adding to my AF collection as manual focusing is also becoming difficult. I'm quite Interested in the new 550mm that's supposed to be in the works. As my eyesight gets worse and my hand less steady, modern technology has come to the rescue.

Pay attention to the progress of focus peaking. It is a renewal for those with ageing eyes.

06-07-2012, 02:14 AM	#1
PentaxMom Felua Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Veluwe Posts: 339	Crossroads' end, for those suffering from lba If you call your lens buying lba, you acknowledge you are ill. And if you don't, you are not. At best/worst in precarious financial situations. Today I sold my last m42 item. It is done now. It feels sad, it marks the final end of an era in my life. It is done now. I flipped through the old foto books, scrolled through the files on my compu. Yes, days gone by. Shiny shelves, cleaned of dust. Silent encounter with emptiness. A heartache and a headache. Aging eyes and revisiting the graves of those that left me their takumars and zeisses and meyers, numerous little items, scribblings in little notebooks, days gone to a loss, with me following in their trai. Love for the early summer breezes, rain that falls on my very light equipment bag, steps that still are being taken, progress nothing but ongoing movement through life. Faces that fill my inner eye, ... and getting back then, home. Sometimes I wish I could sell a part of my memories too.

06-07-2012, 09:11 AM	#8
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	I CHOOSE to view my bouts of LBA (and it is uncontrollable when I am buying) and LBR (Lens Buying Recovery) not as something to regret, but as opportunities to do something few other people get to do - that is, to use these fine examples of engineering and hand assembly, decades after they were made, and appreciate the care that was built into these lenses by an anonymous Pentax assembler. Last edited by monochrome; 06-08-2012 at 02:27 PM.

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06-07-2012, 02:40 AM	#2
RM Barker Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 312	Reina, this is a very sad story you are telling us! Does this mean you are finished with photography at such a young age? And, you only have 306 posts. Your best years may be ahead of you. Please say you have given up all that equipment but replacing it with new?

06-07-2012, 04:31 AM	#3
PentaxMom Felua Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Veluwe Posts: 339 Original Poster	Well, I am really not that young at over 55, and no, I haven't given up on photography, I have a K-5 with some lenses. And a Q. Still almost never leave the house without a camera. Yes, sad story. I do feel sad indeed. Most of what I sold was inherited, many stories storming my head these days. Is as is. Still, though I once thought I would never part with any of them, the truth is none of my children or close friends takes an interest in manual focussing, my eyes troubling me, so, that is why. But after goodbyes come hallo's, I guess. All those old lenses with their peculiarities ... glad to have known them ... guess it is ok for me now. Truth of course is they will always somehow haunt me.

06-07-2012, 04:53 AM	#4
hoanpham Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Strand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,366	You are strong who could do this. For me, the manual focus process is a part of the fun. Of course, no one than me interested in old lenses in family. Buying modern af lenses would end up with a few, while old ones.. a cabinet, but some of m42 had taken years to get, and among the last to go... I guess the limiteds are welcome, and may be some Zeiss/Leica are waiting to visit as well.

06-07-2012, 05:40 AM	#5
Arjay Bee Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Horn Island, Torres Straits, Q Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,715	Having today been sent one of your last pieces it seems, I will treasure even more the item knowing through whose hands its been and the feelings with which it was released. I hope to pass forward when the time comes with similar sentiments and provide the same sense of satisfaction from a period of custodianship.

06-07-2012, 05:55 AM	#6
RM Barker Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 312	Well, PentaxMom, I am glad to learn that you are just shifting from one mode to another. It is a problem with us "older" photographers, we are willing but our bodies betray. I envy some of our colleagues in this Forum who can actually trek miles to sites that are virtually inaccessible to many of us. But, in your case, thank goodness for autofocus. I will look forward to seeing some of your work. As you might have noticed - I'm pretty new here!

06-07-2012, 08:55 AM	#7
kenafein Veteran Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Southern California Photos: Albums Posts: 4,082	I sold a bunch of my manual glass because I just couldn't keep up with my daughter, but, with focus peaking, my love affair with MF is back on. I now regret selling my manual glass and I've bought a bunch more. I am now considering selling a bunch of my AF lenses.

06-08-2012, 12:33 PM	#9
PentaxMom Felua Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Veluwe Posts: 339 Original Poster	Today the sweetest boy possible came to collect my ultimate last m42 manual focus lens, a not really important 28mm f2.8 Fodor, a rather large affair with acually rather decent performance. I had stickered up a handwritten ad on a board in the local supermarket: 1 euro. He was so happy it was heart softening. He was going to use it with a panasonic g3 he said. Well, that is ok with me. A happy face to cheer up the final end. There he went, on his battered old bike. Could have been one of us I guess, even me some 35 years ago. Thanks everyone for all the wise and true words, you all lifted my spirit .

06-08-2012, 12:39 PM	#10
Lowell Goudge Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 17,886	While LBA may be resolved for this round, your new bodies will also demand new glass, you have not reached an end to LBA just changed the objects you will lust after

06-08-2012, 02:22 PM	#11
PentaxMom Felua Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Veluwe Posts: 339 Original Poster	Originally posted by Lowell Goudge While LBA may be resolved for this round, your new bodies will also demand new glass, you have not reached an end to LBA just changed the objects you will lust after Thank you, but I just also sold off all of my Samsung Nx stuff , totally redundant in the light of my omdem5. For which I have 12/25/45 and long oly kit. That's it. And indeed for now. Planning on selling my da15ltd, also redundant after omdem5 + 12 (not an additon, but a true addiction). Sure will buy that 75mm. M42 never was an addiction, though, it was left on my threshold to deal with ... but wonderful it is. Once you have used some old and often frustrating Meyers, you sure know what it means. Well, Q is good too, because it is so bad in a way. It magnitises me into ever telling vagueness of true encounters with fleeting by people and objects. Great museum camera. With the standard kit. You are so right, of course, 'cause there's ff too, though not pentax. I don't know but of course I do: probably too heavy to drag along on my long winding outings. Love the small formats more and more. I don't mind so much about utter perfect quality, but do mind freedom of movement. Something that I think gets more important every year one grows older.

06-10-2012, 12:27 AM	#12
abacus07 Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Taiwan Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,075	Sounds like this is more of shift in toys than an exit and I've felt the same way and I'm planning on selling my takumars/other MF at some point in favor of new toys. It is fun to have a large collection but at the end of the day I don't need so many multiples of similar focal lengths and apertures. So I'll trim my collection to a really nice MF set with 3 ltd's mixed in and start adding a compact body and kit (m4/3, K01, samsung, other?) and a few great zooms for Pentax.

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06-10-2012, 08:58 AM	#13
PentaxMom Felua Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Veluwe Posts: 339 Original Poster	In a way you are right. I have done a lot of thinking, lately. And learned how to let go of a number of common points of view. It may sound crazy, but I have grown too old to be bothered any longer by what rules my photography should abide in the opinion of those I don't even know. Years on end I have run my household with three autistic sons, by now I am totally through by what is supposed to be an accepted point of view, an acceptable point of view, an in the eyes of respectable those who really know best point of view, and so on. I am truly tired. So often I wonder why one forgets to simply look around and why they forgo on the miracle of simply being caught. By what is there. It is the very thing those autistic boys made me see. And oh, how hurt people can be by the truth which they truly believe to be the truth. If you don't follow them there. But there is no truth but acceptance, love and hope and heaps of forgiveness. This is my credo when out to be caught by pictures. And home, I am so happy when they make themselves seen on the screen. Oh how I don't need the multitude, but DO need the right amount of tools for the different places I like to go. Most none of them allow for heavy gear, certainly not when I have to carry it all by myself. These days I allow myself to have an opinion of myself as far as art and photography and literature are concerned. Too often it is too limiting being hold back by rules others dictated. Why, I shall be free within my own limitations. I hurt noone, my tools are mine, within my own budget. Gosh, I love the opportunities out there. All pens-and-inks in my hands.

06-10-2012, 10:43 AM	#14
reeftool Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Upstate New York Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,553	Has your LBA ended? I gather from reading that you're selling off manual focus lenses because, as many of us as we age, you are having difficulty manual focusing. I am slowly but surely adding to my AF collection as manual focusing is also becoming difficult. I'm quite Interested in the new 550mm that's supposed to be in the works. As my eyesight gets worse and my hand less steady, modern technology has come to the rescue.

06-10-2012, 10:53 AM	#15
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	Originally posted by reeftool Has your LBA ended? I gather from reading that you're selling off manual focus lenses because, as many of us as we age, you are having difficulty manual focusing. I am slowly but surely adding to my AF collection as manual focusing is also becoming difficult. I'm quite Interested in the new 550mm that's supposed to be in the works. As my eyesight gets worse and my hand less steady, modern technology has come to the rescue. Pay attention to the progress of focus peaking. It is a renewal for those with ageing eyes.