[titrisol]

Especially in 2000-2006 the prices were amazingly good

The drop in the price of [most] used film-era gear on Ebay.

For example I paid £50 for a used Pentax AF280T flashgun in 1988 (they cost ~£100 new then AFAIR) which is equivalent to about £130 today. However I recently won an Ebay one for £9.99, which would have been like £4 in 1988, an order of magnitude cheaper than I paid back then. I have "specialised" in used flashguns and now have quite a collection.

The obvious reason for the price drop in the used market is the move to phone cameras flooding the market with full size gear. But another reason is that many people assume that film era gear cannot be used on digital cameras. Remember in the ealy digital days the marketing people were putting the "Digital" label on everything from tripods to camera bags, and the impression has stuck. That is partly true of course, for example with lenses unless you are a Pentax or Nikon user. In the case of flash units it is a matter of knowing some technicalities about them. Yes, I know about adaptors.

Most film era gear is probably going to landfill now, and I feel I am saving some of it from its fate! Acquiring and playing with vintage gear is a cheap hobby compared with some I can think of.

[Baard-Einar]

Hello GAS-people.

Not sure that I have GAS? What are the indicators I should look for to get the correct diagnosis?

[kypfer]

Hello GAS-people.
Not sure that I have GAS? What are the indicators I should look for to get the correct diagnosis?

A common symptom for me is not to specifically "need" a certain lens or type of lens, but moreso seeing a lens (or other piece of gear) at a "sensible" price and trying to figure out what good it might do me
Then there's the "silver would look so much nicer than black" concept (or vice versa) or the "that might be useful one day" scenario
For me, the nett result is probably having far more gear than I'm ever likely to "need", but having the satisfaction of being able to cope with almost any photographic scenario (if I happen to be carrying the appropriate equipment at the time!)

[titrisol]

Hello GAS-people.

Not sure that I have GAS? What are the indicators I should look for to get the correct diagnosis?

If you have to ask, you most probably have it... and enjoy it !!

[Driline]

Mine all started in 2013 with the acquisition of a Pentax K-5. It was all up hill from there!

Of course then I went with the K-3 and a myriad of Pentax Glass including the 3 amigos.

THEN my obsession with Billingham Bags started...Buying selling, giving reviews on YouTube.

My next venture came with the Fuji System... The X-T1 and then the X-H1

THEN my adventures with vintage scale focus and rangefinder cameras

And FINALLY my current adventures with the late 70's and early 80's SLR cameras.

Here's photo of my K-5 with Pentax's best ever F*300mm lens...

[jcdoss]

Mine all started in 2013 with the acquisition of a Pentax K-5. It was all up hill from there!

It sounds to me like your case is hopeless. 🙂

[Sam_I_am]

Yeah, but what about your quest for naked ladies? How did that work out?

I have five naked ladies....in the back yard. The common name for a type of Lilly. 🤣 (be very careful googling that one)

Let's see...about 9-10 years old, I started finding old cameras in the storage room of our house. (Two generation of accumulated stuff) Mom had a Kodak 124 instamatic that she used all the time for family snapshots, so I had an interest in them from a young age. I found an old tin box camera that worked quite well actually, but at the time, all I wanted to do was take closeup pictures of my models. I had no idea that I needed to be about 15ft away from my subject, which probably explains why pictures of my dog came out pretty good. I used that camera pretty often, then found a wooden box camera that I didn't like because the pictures came out all dark. Had no clue about light seals or leaks at the time. Found a couple old Brownie Hawkies that I couldn't figure out how to work but loved popping that flash. 😁 Then we bought a Polaroid....instantly developed pictures. All the craze at the time. After the novelty wore off, I purchased a Vivitar 110 pocket camera that became my goto....until....can you guess....the disc camera. Oh boy, I jumped all over that one. Then came cars. I have pictures of my cars but can't remember what camera I was using at the time. Seems I always had a camera, because I have the pictures to prove it. 😃 My neighbor at the time was an old friend of the family who was an avid (and still is) photographer. He showed me his slr.(what the heck is an slr camera?) He explained how it worked (Canon AE1, which he still has) (I was about 21-22 at the time). One day he came by and grabbed me and took me to a garage sale that had an old slr kit for $50. I bought it (an old Fujica screw mount with a few lenses, flash, and case)and then proceeded to go with him every time he took his camera out. Wasn't very good (and still not) picking up the basics on how to use one. Few years later married a wonderful woman(just had our 30th) who's hobby...yup, that's right...is photography. So I watched amazed at the photos she had taken, (she loved b&w, especially developing her own, she had access to a darkroom all through high-school). She purchased her Pentax...(yup, I married a Pentaxian), ME super when she was 16. After marriage, she did a couple photo shoots for friends weddings but found that she was missing shots because of not getting film advanced and focused quick enough (didn't know about a winder at the time). I had also uped my game by having a one owner Konica FS-1 kit gifted to me, which I used regularly until kids came along (still haven't figured out how that happened...three times) About this time, (going back to before kids)Canon came out with the Rebel-x, and she went to the dark side (not knowing at the time, that it was the dark side). She wore that thing out...twice...before digital. Again went with the Canon-x line due to the lenses still fitting them. Upgraded the digital once again, and proceeded to get that one to the point where it needed servicing (for the second time) so contemplated upgrading again. A few years before thinking about upgrading, I met Ismael on a model car forum. (I've known him for about 8 years or more I am guessing). He started posting pictures of the different Pentax cameras that he was restoring from his "other" hobby. That made me dig out our slr kits (that had been in storage (in all types of indoor conditions) ) for about 20 years. I had picked up an extra body for each of our kits (one for b&w, one for color) before we packed them away. The other bodies needed repairs that I thought I could make at the time.
About the time Ismael (and his bad association) had me digging the slrs out, I started having serious bouts of depression, which eventually led to constant depression. When struggling at my lowest point....I found shopgoodwill.com.... Let's just say that online shopping is a self coping mechanism, and boy did I cope. I started buying every cheap, old slr I could get my hands on (while getting diagnosed and then getting treatment). My wife (did I mention she is the best one in the world) just let me go, knowing why I was doing it. After a year or so, I stopped binging. (She, our bank account, and my Dr. were very happy that the meds had started working) I then started "thinning the herd so to speak". I went through everything and started selling the ones I knew I didn't want to keep, (Major progress) and started focusing on those that I did. I now have, not only a Pentax kit, but a Minolta, Olympus, Konica, and lastly, da bricks. I still have some things to get rid of, but am focusing on getting the bodies I have in good working order so I can start exercising them. By the way, my wife's ME super was the first to get serviced, and she is on her second roll of b&w. Did we upgrade her digital? You betcha. Thanks to the marketplace on this forum, she is now the proud owner of a K3 ii and a few lenses. Will the GAS ever completely go away?, I doubt it, since I found a bellows for my Minoltas, a couple lenses for my Konicas, a one owner Minolta X570, and lastly a Super Program. All in the last few years. Oh, and don't get me started on my model car kits...

(If you have finished reading this very short paragraph, and am reeling at the "major TMI", you have my condolences... and thanks) 😊

[Autonerd]

How about you, why do you have more than the prescribed number of cameras?

Because I am a sick, sick man.

How did you get on this path?

When I got back into film in 2019 (with my KX), friends started giving me their old cameras -- and I realized how many nifty cameras that I couldn't afford back then were affordable now. Finding great cameras for $50 or less has kind of become a thing.

Do you want to get off it?

Yes. No. I mean, YES. no YES, absolutely, I have too many cameras. SHUT UP NO NO NO NO NO

Seriously, I have calmed down a bit, as I now have all the cameras I can shoot, I've ID'd favorites and settled on mostly K-mount (Pentax and Ricoh/Sears) cameras. I've avoided the temptation to get into new systems and slow-rolled my search for a Signet 35...

Do you have any advice for others that may help them - one way or the other?

Absolutely -- Explore this wonderful world! Buying and using new cameras has really helped me understand what I love about film photography. And as my eyes get worse, I have plenty of autofocus cameras waiting for me!

Aaron

[thatcameraguy]

Ever since i was a little kid i've been surrounded by cameras as most of my family where in the photography or camera buisness. When i left home in the early seventies i started collecting cameras with no special theme in mind, just "old" cameras. now 50years on i'm still collecting. There's a part wich comes from GAS equipement i buy to actually photograph and then keep it even though it's outdated and another part of "real" collecting on the theme of film cameras from the sixties till now, with lately the addition of early digital.
here's a few shots of part of the collection, and one from the beginning with the orange bench seat (very fashionable in those days 😁 ) There's got to be some 300 cameras today, haven't got the opportunity to photograph and document them all. there's a lot of medium format to, not pictured here

[gatorguy]

Ever since i was a little kid i've been surrounded by cameras as most of my family where in the photography or camera buisness. When i left home in the early seventies i started collecting cameras with no special theme in mind, just "old" cameras. now 50years on i'm still collecting. There's a part wich comes from GAS equipement i buy to actually photograph and then keep it even though it's outdated and another part of "real" collecting on the theme of film cameras from the sixties till now, with lately the addition of early digital.
here's a few shots of part of the collection, and one from the beginning with the orange bench seat (very fashionable in those days 😁 ) There's got to be some 300 cameras today, haven't got the opportunity to photograph and document them all. there's a lot of medium format to, not pictured here

O.M.G.

Thank you for proving I'm not that sick after all, I have just a mild case.

[StiffLegged]

... here's a few shots of part of the collection...

Mate, you have it bad. Baaaad.

[mlag]

I have been surrounded fotography: my father had a Minolta SLR with few lenses and my mother a Minolta rangefinder. And a black&white home photo developer instalation .... so my life is pretty well documented in a huge pile photoalbums.
My first student job earned me a a pentax SFX kit and stereo chain ( not sure in which order).
Traveled a lot, extended with better range of lenses than the original kit lens, ...a wide zoom, a constant aperture kit lens, a tele and a tc1.4x. The k10D came, then K3-II and I aimed to have a backpack covering 10 to 300mm to travel light (actually 7 kg, but that's my standard foto kit).
Then covid lockdown started and I tried macro with tele lenses of flowers and insects....open air walking was stimulated as pastime in the first wave (with distance protocol of course). I found the limits of my 55-300 red WR lens, including extender rings, and started looking for another lens. In a local camerashop offering new and secondhand, I stumbled on a M*300 mm and was sold to the compact lenses of the pentax ME.
At the same time my daughter got into film photography with a 20€ Fuji SLR because it is so cool...vintage... I found a tele zoom for it ... from some cool unknown brand.
I discovered more vintage lens shops, .... pentax Forums, ...

No GAS, I limit myself to 5 pieces: of each category I deem usefull : film bodies, DSLR, uwa, wide lens, tele, macro, light Pentax ME lenses, silver fantastic plastic era ( MZ-7), long tele, limiteds, mirror lens, extenders and bellows, .....that’s it I think for now....

Now my son started with instant cameras, posting his event pictures on Instagram....

PS: forgot these family items: 3 pocket zooms, a travel zoom, a bridge camera .... (daily use camera’s beside our smartphones) and a NAS photo server with backup server.

[btnapa]

There's got to be some 300 cameras today

Love the collection. I have to show this to my wife so she will never think I have too many cameras!!

[simple1]

Dredging up a dead thread.

For me, like several others, when I found out (via PF) that old M42 lenses could be adapted to my K7. I was traveling a lot for work and would stop in thrift stores and pawn shops. I'd find glass I liked and if it came with a camera body, that would get tossed in a box. Then (via PF) I learned of shopgoodwill.com. Then I got interested in shooting film and started looking for bodies as well. So really it's because of PF.

Used to be I was primarily after bargains and would rarely pay more than $100. Nowadays I'm after certain cameras and lenses and often pay collector prices.