The pursuit of "gear" and neglecting the fundamentals

**jpzk** · 10-12-2011, 09:57 AM

This came to me this morning, an "epiphany" as you may say, while looking for a compact back up for my K5.
See my thread regarding this here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/non-pentax-cameras-canon-nikon-etc/158161...-one-wait.html

I find myself trying to accumulate "gear", as of late (again!), while neglecting the fundamentals of photography: taking pictures !

These LBA/CBA/GAD(gear addiction disease) have hindered my goal of taking better photos with the gear I already have ... and God knows how much "gear" I presently own.

I recently purchased a DA 15mm Ltd ... not here yet but I did buy it ! But, did I really need this? Probably not, but I "wanted" it ... LBA.

So, I am going to start using what I have as photographic equipment and try to make the best of it, especially trying to produce some decent flash shots, something I will have to work at seriously.

I am sure many of us here share this "pursuit" of the gear ... while forgetting to go out there and really start taking pictures.

I am curious to see if this will be answered in all honesty!

Cheers.

JP

aurele · 10-12-2011, 10:29 AM

Originally posted by jpzk

I am sure many of us here share this "pursuit" of the gear ... while forgetting to go out there and really start taking pictures.

And this forum doesn't help (thanks Marketplace

) !

But hopefully, at a time or another, we start thinking like you : too much gear, not enought pictures

Then we sell lots of small stuff ... and we buy a bigger, heavier, funnier lense, and we ruin all our effort

**jpzk** · 10-12-2011, 10:35 AM

Originally posted by aurele

And this forum doesn't help (thanks Marketplace

) !

But hopefully, at a time or another, we start thinking like you : too much gear, not enought pictures

Then we sell lots of small stuff ... and we buy a bigger, heavier, funnier lense, and we ruin all our effort

Quite true!

We sell the small stuff only to get the big stuff while we forget that we had the small stuff to take pictures in the first place!

And, as you say, the stuff on the Marketplace doesn't help !!

JP

aurele · 10-12-2011, 10:49 AM

i decide to sell some of my gear i didn't use to get back some money, then i started thinking that i "really" lack of a good tele for sports comp' ... damn ! A sigma 70-200 HSM non-Os would be perfect ... 550$ to go ... wait wait wait, did'nt i sold stuff to keep only what i use ? ... arf !

kenafein · 10-12-2011, 10:55 AM

Guilty! I obsess over what I don't have more than I get to shoot, and I don't get to use my stuff often enough. Before I joined this forum I had 4 lenses (+ a K100D), 3 of which I was very happy with, and one that was a gift. A little over 4 months later I've bought and sold 2 additional bodies and got my hands on over 20 lenses and sold about half a dozen. It is fun though! Maybe I should take that DA15 off your hands

.

My photography has also improved greatly in the last 4 months, this site is a great source of knowledge, just not great for the bank account. Maybe I should slow down a bit. Your thread on compacts had me thinking about a mirror-less I don't need.

aurele · 10-12-2011, 11:00 AM

Originally posted by kenafein

thinking about a mirror-less I don't need.

Ah ah ah !

SpecialK · 10-12-2011, 11:04 AM

I recently sold a fast fifty despite the fact you just have to have one. Also sold the Tamron 28-75 last week but replaced it (used) with the Sigma 17-70 which is more useful for me (wider) from a FL viewpoint.

Supposedly my K100D is sold. I have nothing on the horizon. Yea!

kenafein · 10-12-2011, 11:16 AM

Originally posted by SpecialK

I recently sold a fast fifty despite the fact you just have to have one. Also sold the Tamron 28-75 last week but replaced it (used) with the Sigma 17-70 which is more useful for me (wider) from a FL viewpoint.

Supposedly my K100D is sold. I have nothing on the horizon. Yea!

Those would be two of my keepers from my kit SpecialK. The 28-75 is a barrel of primes, and the FA50/1.4 is just great, but to each his own.

**jpzk** · 10-12-2011, 11:23 AM

Originally posted by aurele

i decide to sell some of my gear i didn't use to get back some money, then i started thinking that i "really" lack of a good tele for sports comp' ... damn ! A sigma 70-200 HSM non-Os would be perfect ... 550$ to go ... wait wait wait, did'nt i sold stuff to keep only what i use ? ... arf !

Oh ... that hit a note here!

Just like when I sold the Sigma 100-300/4 to get the money for a DA*300/4 ... the Sigma did the job well but I was rather influenced, at the time, with the Pentax DA* specs. While I am happy with the DA*300, I still think that the Sigma was doing the job just fine!

Now, I was looking into the famous and very lengthy thread:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/lens-clubs/86234-15mm-limited-controls-my-mind-club.html
and I got hooked on this lens ! Damn!

... LBA strikes again.

I'd better get some good use of this lens when I receive it !

JP

**dadipentak** · 10-12-2011, 11:25 AM

Well, I'm guilty of course but I get the best gear I can afford (well, ok, sometimes a little more than I can afford.) so that, if I ever do everything right, it'll be a really good photo. .

kenafein · 10-12-2011, 11:29 AM

Originally posted by jpzk

Now, I was looking into the famous and very lengthy thread:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/lens-clubs/86234-15mm-limited-controls-my-mind-club.html
and I got hooked on this lens ! Damn!

... LBA strikes again.
JP

I've been looking in the DA15 thread, the Sigma 10-20 thread and the Sigma 8-16 thread. So many talented photographers and great shots and I can't make up my mind and haven't bought a wide angle yet. I guess in a way those threads have helped me, but if I'd only looked at one of them I'd have probably bought that lens.

**jpzk** · 10-12-2011, 11:35 AM

Originally posted by kenafein

Guilty! I obsess over what I don't have more than I get to shoot, and I don't get to use my stuff often enough. Before I joined this forum I had 4 lenses (+ a K100D), 3 of which I was very happy with, and one that was a gift. A little over 4 months later I've bought and sold 2 additional bodies and got my hands on over 20 lenses and sold about half a dozen. It is fun though! Maybe I should take that DA15 off your hands

.

My photography has also improved greatly in the last 4 months, this site is a great source of knowledge, just not great for the bank account. Maybe I should slow down a bit. Your thread on compacts had me thinking about a mirror-less I don't need.

I too joined this forum after acquiring a K10D with ONE single lens: a DA 18-250.
Was quite happy with that ... not for long until I joined here!
Funny how how could do with that one lens and now I have some many AND two other camera bodies ... that I find it hard to decide when to use them all at some point!

I admit, just like you, that my photography "skills" have improved dramatically since I became a member on P.F. but now I am at a point where I HAVE to take pics more often, with the existing gear - which has grown way beyond my needs.

About the DA 15 Ltd ... let me say that it's a recent LBA-itis bout, but I believe it could become a permanent fixture on one of the camera bodies I own.
That could well be insanity too !

JP

RioRico · 10-12-2011, 11:38 AM

We talk gear here because gear is easy to quantify. Photographic aesthetics are quire another matter, all subjective and gooey. Sometimes we aim for 'better' gear whether or not we can fully exploit it -- and of course some get emotional satisfaction from having the 'best' gear.

And some also become emotionally defensive when justifying the cash outlays. Damn, of COURSE I'm a better togger 'cause I spent a zillion yen on an exotic lens made of lab-grown meta-crystals and hand-forged by kobolds! Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure exactly *why* the old K50/1.2 that I paid US$250 for is 111x better than the older Tomioka 55/1.4 that cost me US$2.25 shipped.

Do I let gear acquisition and disposal slow down my photographic efforts? Not really. DISCUSSING this stuff here slows me down a bit, but mostly on occasions when I wouldn't be out shooting anyway. Like, when I'm half-asleep. Which is most of the time. ZZZzzzz...

Anyway, lenses are more interesting to discuss than are pinholes. Usually.

EDIT -- Confession: I used to rant about P&S's on 4chan. Yeah, I was A.Non.Mouse. When I joined PFC just about 3.3 years ago, my entire SLR kit was the K20D, AF360, DA10-17, DA18-250, and FA50/1.4. They kept me happy for a few months. Then I read more here, and at MFL and some other fora, and I started buying more lenses. And more. And selling many. And buying more. And not so much 'best' (costly) lenses, as cheap & weird glass. It's all so damn educational. And it brought me back to film too. There's just no end to the delights.

**jpzk** · 10-12-2011, 11:42 AM

Originally posted by dadipentak

Well, I'm guilty of course but I get the best gear I can afford (well, ok, sometimes a little more than I can afford.) so that, if I ever do everything right, it'll be a really good photo. .

It comes to a point where we want to have the best equipment for what we want to achieve, and that makes sense to some degree.

I "should have" started with one serious telephoto lens and one excellent prime but it just didn't happen that way.

Now I have tons of gear, some mediocre and not used hardly enough (and I should think to sell some off) and some rather great stuff.
Altogether though, I think I could do with just 3 great lenses for what I do ... previous bad timing/bad decisions from my part may have skewed the curve too far off, if that makes sense?

JP

GDRoth · 10-12-2011, 11:47 AM

As I join the same group from JPZK's other thread, I believe that photography attracts gear heads like us. I've only been active on PF for 6 months or so, but my photography has moved forward by leaps and bounds!

My gear has also leapt forward.................I've strengthened my kit and prolly could finish my life with the gear I have today..............but there's always a shiny new thing out there that keeps my attention................rather than get a mirrorless cam to keep in my pocket, I should probably get a second K5 for my current lenses and carry it in a bag................the K5 with a pancake DA21 is not that dramatically larger than many other cams....................

10-12-2011, 09:57 AM	#1
jpzk Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Québec Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,251	The pursuit of "gear" and neglecting the fundamentals This came to me this morning, an "epiphany" as you may say, while looking for a compact back up for my K5. See my thread regarding this here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/non-pentax-cameras-canon-nikon-etc/158161...-one-wait.html I find myself trying to accumulate "gear", as of late (again!), while neglecting the fundamentals of photography: taking pictures ! These LBA/CBA/GAD(gear addiction disease) have hindered my goal of taking better photos with the gear I already have ... and God knows how much "gear" I presently own. I recently purchased a DA 15mm Ltd ... not here yet but I did buy it ! But, did I really need this? Probably not, but I "wanted" it ... LBA. So, I am going to start using what I have as photographic equipment and try to make the best of it, especially trying to produce some decent flash shots, something I will have to work at seriously. I am sure many of us here share this "pursuit" of the gear ... while forgetting to go out there and really start taking pictures. I am curious to see if this will be answered in all honesty! Cheers. JP

10-12-2011, 11:38 AM	#13
RioRico Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Limbo, California Posts: 11,263	We talk gear here because gear is easy to quantify. Photographic aesthetics are quire another matter, all subjective and gooey. Sometimes we aim for 'better' gear whether or not we can fully exploit it -- and of course some get emotional satisfaction from having the 'best' gear. And some also become emotionally defensive when justifying the cash outlays. Damn, of COURSE I'm a better togger 'cause I spent a zillion yen on an exotic lens made of lab-grown meta-crystals and hand-forged by kobolds! Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure exactly why the old K50/1.2 that I paid US$250 for is 111x better than the older Tomioka 55/1.4 that cost me US$2.25 shipped. Do I let gear acquisition and disposal slow down my photographic efforts? Not really. DISCUSSING this stuff here slows me down a bit, but mostly on occasions when I wouldn't be out shooting anyway. Like, when I'm half-asleep. Which is most of the time. ZZZzzzz... Anyway, lenses are more interesting to discuss than are pinholes. Usually. EDIT -- Confession: I used to rant about P&S's on 4chan. Yeah, I was A.Non.Mouse. When I joined PFC just about 3.3 years ago, my entire SLR kit was the K20D, AF360, DA10-17, DA18-250, and FA50/1.4. They kept me happy for a few months. Then I read more here, and at MFL and some other fora, and I started buying more lenses. And more. And selling many. And buying more. And not so much 'best' (costly) lenses, as cheap & weird glass. It's all so damn educational. And it brought me back to film too. There's just no end to the delights. Last edited by RioRico; 10-12-2011 at 11:46 AM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Post your "Park Bench" "or "Picnic Table" images	tessfully	Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories	2199	2 Days Ago 10:28 AM
Don't say Pentax "Q" in French ... "Q" = "cul" = "A--"	Jean Poitiers	Pentax Q	52	11-10-2013 06:25 AM
French Magazine "Réponses Photo" 2011 Gear Guide - Pentax very well positioned	Flickeroo	Pentax News and Rumors	8	01-04-2011 09:13 AM
For Sale - Sold: Pentax Gear (mostly "film" equipment) (NA)	mcbishton	Sold Items	5	11-29-2010 04:13 PM
Removing those "old school" labels from your gear?	jgmankos	Photographic Technique	16	06-08-2010 01:43 PM

10-12-2011, 10:29 AM	#2
aurele Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Paris, France Photos: Albums Posts: 3,217	Originally posted by jpzk I am sure many of us here share this "pursuit" of the gear ... while forgetting to go out there and really start taking pictures. And this forum doesn't help (thanks Marketplace ) ! But hopefully, at a time or another, we start thinking like you : too much gear, not enought pictures Then we sell lots of small stuff ... and we buy a bigger, heavier, funnier lense, and we ruin all our effort

10-12-2011, 10:35 AM	#3
jpzk Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Québec Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,251 Original Poster	Originally posted by aurele And this forum doesn't help (thanks Marketplace ) ! But hopefully, at a time or another, we start thinking like you : too much gear, not enought pictures Then we sell lots of small stuff ... and we buy a bigger, heavier, funnier lense, and we ruin all our effort Quite true! We sell the small stuff only to get the big stuff while we forget that we had the small stuff to take pictures in the first place! And, as you say, the stuff on the Marketplace doesn't help !! JP

10-12-2011, 10:49 AM	#4
aurele Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Paris, France Photos: Albums Posts: 3,217	i decide to sell some of my gear i didn't use to get back some money, then i started thinking that i "really" lack of a good tele for sports comp' ... damn ! A sigma 70-200 HSM non-Os would be perfect ... 550$ to go ... wait wait wait, did'nt i sold stuff to keep only what i use ? ... arf !

10-12-2011, 10:55 AM	#5
kenafein Veteran Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Southern California Photos: Albums Posts: 4,082	Guilty! I obsess over what I don't have more than I get to shoot, and I don't get to use my stuff often enough. Before I joined this forum I had 4 lenses (+ a K100D), 3 of which I was very happy with, and one that was a gift. A little over 4 months later I've bought and sold 2 additional bodies and got my hands on over 20 lenses and sold about half a dozen. It is fun though! Maybe I should take that DA15 off your hands . My photography has also improved greatly in the last 4 months, this site is a great source of knowledge, just not great for the bank account. Maybe I should slow down a bit. Your thread on compacts had me thinking about a mirror-less I don't need.

10-12-2011, 11:00 AM	#6
aurele Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Paris, France Photos: Albums Posts: 3,217	Originally posted by kenafein thinking about a mirror-less I don't need. Ah ah ah !

10-12-2011, 11:04 AM	#7
SpecialK Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: So California Photos: Gallery Posts: 16,480	I recently sold a fast fifty despite the fact you just have to have one. Also sold the Tamron 28-75 last week but replaced it (used) with the Sigma 17-70 which is more useful for me (wider) from a FL viewpoint. Supposedly my K100D is sold. I have nothing on the horizon. Yea!

10-12-2011, 11:16 AM	#8
kenafein Veteran Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Southern California Photos: Albums Posts: 4,082	Originally posted by SpecialK I recently sold a fast fifty despite the fact you just have to have one. Also sold the Tamron 28-75 last week but replaced it (used) with the Sigma 17-70 which is more useful for me (wider) from a FL viewpoint. Supposedly my K100D is sold. I have nothing on the horizon. Yea! Those would be two of my keepers from my kit SpecialK. The 28-75 is a barrel of primes, and the FA50/1.4 is just great, but to each his own.

10-12-2011, 11:23 AM	#9
jpzk Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Québec Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,251 Original Poster	Originally posted by aurele i decide to sell some of my gear i didn't use to get back some money, then i started thinking that i "really" lack of a good tele for sports comp' ... damn ! A sigma 70-200 HSM non-Os would be perfect ... 550$ to go ... wait wait wait, did'nt i sold stuff to keep only what i use ? ... arf ! Oh ... that hit a note here! Just like when I sold the Sigma 100-300/4 to get the money for a DA300/4 ... the Sigma did the job well but I was rather influenced, at the time, with the Pentax DA specs. While I am happy with the DA*300, I still think that the Sigma was doing the job just fine! Now, I was looking into the famous and very lengthy thread: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/lens-clubs/86234-15mm-limited-controls-my-mind-club.html and I got hooked on this lens ! Damn! ... LBA strikes again. I'd better get some good use of this lens when I receive it ! JP

10-12-2011, 11:25 AM	#10
dadipentak Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Baltimore, Maryland Photos: Gallery Posts: 11,590	Well, I'm guilty of course but I get the best gear I can afford (well, ok, sometimes a little more than I can afford.) so that, if I ever do everything right, it'll be a really good photo. .

10-12-2011, 11:29 AM	#11
kenafein Veteran Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Southern California Photos: Albums Posts: 4,082	Originally posted by jpzk Now, I was looking into the famous and very lengthy thread: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/lens-clubs/86234-15mm-limited-controls-my-mind-club.html and I got hooked on this lens ! Damn! ... LBA strikes again. JP I've been looking in the DA15 thread, the Sigma 10-20 thread and the Sigma 8-16 thread. So many talented photographers and great shots and I can't make up my mind and haven't bought a wide angle yet. I guess in a way those threads have helped me, but if I'd only looked at one of them I'd have probably bought that lens.

10-12-2011, 11:35 AM	#12
jpzk Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Québec Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,251 Original Poster	Originally posted by kenafein Guilty! I obsess over what I don't have more than I get to shoot, and I don't get to use my stuff often enough. Before I joined this forum I had 4 lenses (+ a K100D), 3 of which I was very happy with, and one that was a gift. A little over 4 months later I've bought and sold 2 additional bodies and got my hands on over 20 lenses and sold about half a dozen. It is fun though! Maybe I should take that DA15 off your hands . My photography has also improved greatly in the last 4 months, this site is a great source of knowledge, just not great for the bank account. Maybe I should slow down a bit. Your thread on compacts had me thinking about a mirror-less I don't need. I too joined this forum after acquiring a K10D with ONE single lens: a DA 18-250. Was quite happy with that ... not for long until I joined here! Funny how how could do with that one lens and now I have some many AND two other camera bodies ... that I find it hard to decide when to use them all at some point! I admit, just like you, that my photography "skills" have improved dramatically since I became a member on P.F. but now I am at a point where I HAVE to take pics more often, with the existing gear - which has grown way beyond my needs. About the DA 15 Ltd ... let me say that it's a recent LBA-itis bout, but I believe it could become a permanent fixture on one of the camera bodies I own. That could well be insanity too ! JP

10-12-2011, 11:42 AM	#14
jpzk Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Québec Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,251 Original Poster	Originally posted by dadipentak Well, I'm guilty of course but I get the best gear I can afford (well, ok, sometimes a little more than I can afford.) so that, if I ever do everything right, it'll be a really good photo. . It comes to a point where we want to have the best equipment for what we want to achieve, and that makes sense to some degree. I "should have" started with one serious telephoto lens and one excellent prime but it just didn't happen that way. Now I have tons of gear, some mediocre and not used hardly enough (and I should think to sell some off) and some rather great stuff. Altogether though, I think I could do with just 3 great lenses for what I do ... previous bad timing/bad decisions from my part may have skewed the curve too far off, if that makes sense? JP

10-12-2011, 11:47 AM	#15
GDRoth Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: S.E. Michigan, USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 830	As I join the same group from JPZK's other thread, I believe that photography attracts gear heads like us. I've only been active on PF for 6 months or so, but my photography has moved forward by leaps and bounds! My gear has also leapt forward.................I've strengthened my kit and prolly could finish my life with the gear I have today..............but there's always a shiny new thing out there that keeps my attention................rather than get a mirrorless cam to keep in my pocket, I should probably get a second K5 for my current lenses and carry it in a bag................the K5 with a pancake DA21 is not that dramatically larger than many other cams....................