How much gear do you own that you've used less than a dozen times?

[MichaelChang]

<p>I'm trying to take inventory of gear that I rarely or never use but felt the uncontrollable urge to own at the time of purchase.</p>

<p>One glaring example is a 500mm/F8 lens that I'm sure many photographers own but rarely used, not counting old cameras and many manual lenses and accessories. </p>

<p>So what's in your unused or rarely used collection, and are you still accumulating new stuff you'll never use? </p>

 

[Charles_Webster]

<p>None. I'm no longer shooting comm'l product work, but when I was I rented little-used gear whenever possible to avoid buying equipment that would get used for only a few projects.<br>

Now, old cameras... that's another story ;-)</p>

 

[Damon DAmato]

<p>Electronic flash. Maybe more than a dozen times, but that's over many, many years. I use them only when I absolutely have to, and almost always hate the results.</p>

[Sandy Vongries]

<p>Michael -- a recent revisit has exposed good value in my 500 F8. It is my lightest, smallest long lens. Under the right conditions it can deliver quite acceptable results with none inconveniences of its larger, heavier counterparts. As to rarely or never, a long list. Half a dozen great old film Nikons and accessories (since getting film processed is increasingly difficult & expensive), a must have meter illuminator for low light use with my F2, a variety of close up rings, lens reversing mounts, supplemental magnifiers, an AP 2 Nikon Pan head, the motor drive for my ELW, likely unused for at least a couple of decades, the list goes on. As to new gear, about the only things that don't get used are a few filters, bought largely out of "Film Habit" -- Grad ND, Polarizer (both on occasion), a Monochrome viewing loupe (shoot & chimp instead with digital), etc. I don't use flash a great deal, but those do get some use. Studio lights, background stand, rarely, but occasionally. An entire darkroom, excavated from the storage room but still in boxes.<br>

I'll probably hang on to most of it, since I got rid of quite a lot of stuff of various kinds the last time I moved that I had to replace. Storage in home doesn't cost much, and in a recent thread I wrote about the fun of visiting with & using old gear!</p>

[jcuknz]

<p>The 7.5mm 'bug-eye' meets that spec in my case .... bought for the fun of trying it as it seemed cheap at the time.</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>Nothing above a plastic rain jacket where I always seem to find a way that's less convoluted when I need to. <br>

I'm not a gear -head, don't collect old cameras, and sell stuff I replace with the exception of the last body which becomes the back-up. I probably go a year at least between visits to a camera store </p>

[leslie_cheung]

For me, 85mm 1.4f Zeiss and Nikon. I still tend to shoot portraitures with 35/28mm, my usual street lenses. I find shooting informal

(unposed) portraiture at f2 - f1.4 tough...the shallow dof is great, but my success rate is, say, 1 in 4 or 5 (in focused and good all around).

And the lens is big and heavy (relative to me).

 

 

Have not bought gears in, maybe 2.5 years? I bought the LX7 new, whenever that came out...

 

I did use the 85mm more than a dozen times though. My 12-24mm FF sigma? Used it maybe 4 times to shoot interior/house pics

[Jochen_S]

<p>I bought a few k-mount film bodies too many as it seems. - So I fear both my MXes a Ricoh and maybe the Sigma & the Maginon meet the criterion. I think so far I used my 1000mm mirror lens 2 times in total. 400mm f6-3 and 300mm Tair didn't get really busy either.<br>

A similar chapter might be my Soviet RF gear. The Retina II (IMHO a "sufficiiently modern" pocketable camera) hasn't burned 12 rolls. <br>

In the MF realm I bought a C33 with 80mm as a 2nd body and the 250mm wasn't too busy either. <br>

My LF kit is something I wanted but I haven't gotten going with it.<br>

My own antique studio strobes haven't seen much business.<br>

Digital: I'm barely ever using the Sigma 70-300mm considering it too disappointing & slow. The Fujis don't get very busy either. My camera phones (none of them great) belong on this list too. - Yes, I hate phones and am not even sure if I made a dozen calls with the old one.<br>

Leica: IDK why I own a II. - I have no western LTM lens besides CV 15mm. The copy stand extension tubes thing did not see much use yet. - Maybe things change once I stitched a holster for it. The way bulkier solution based on an enlarger column did not see frequent use either. <br>

(Film) scanner(s). - I'm lazy. And I never had the calibrated screen on a decent PC + too much time at hand to really get going.<br>

Bags: a huge Loewepro backpack and a small photo backpack the first too big the 2nd not my usual thing since I really like carrying a classic German highland troops pattern pack instead and only have one back in total. The giant sports bag style thing saw some use and serves for storage purposes. Classic wooden aluminium clad camera cases might be borderline though. - I don't have a car to toss them in or a wheelbarrow for shuttling them between home & car.<br>

Yes, I am buying and craving more surplus gear: In a few months I'll have paid off a used K10D with 2 zooms. - Besides having a paying job where I'll use it I wouldn't know where to sort that camera its too old and lame as a workhorse and maybe one pricing level above pool side beater or whatever a kind of dispensable camera should be called. <br>

Maybe I am saving up my real money to finally buy some sports DSLR with an overweight stay at home zoom or my Leica kit will reach critical mass when I'll add another body. Did I mention being tempted by Sony A7 series and the Pentax K1? <br>

The spot metering attachments for my Gossens weren't frequently used yet but are surely nice to have. <br>

I don't mind owning a bit too much gear. It means I'll be able to occupy myself with some silly projects some day, like shooting the local semi tame bunny population with my long lenses on the way to or from work. And at least I didn't pay much for the long lenses I am not using.</p>

[rossb]

<p>All the time and money I have for photography is consumed shooting my FM2n and HP5. I just have a couple prime lenses. I do not have any problems getting the photos I want using the camera so I see no need to buy a bunch of stuff to sit around unused. </p>

[Karim Ghantous]

<p>A few things, including a shift lens. However, unlike the other stuff that I rarely used, I won't sell that. It's very specialized but at the same time it's very useful when needed.</p>

<p>I have a few film cameras which I got very cheaply. I do intend to use them eventually, so I put them into storage.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>I see no need to buy a bunch of stuff to sit around unused.<br>

</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This could be the default philosophy of all photographers. We'd be happier this way, I think. :-)</p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>Always the things I use the least are bags (use them for 3 months, don't like them-change), and electronic flash, although I need it I use it only rarely when I have an event to shoot. I have a fisheye lens which I like, but rarely use it - the nature of the beast - but I don't want to get rid of it. When you want it, you want it.</p>

<p>To be frank, my biggest waste of money was medium format. I used 'blads quite a lot for 10 years, but I don't think I was really better off using the system, nor were my shots really any better - just more detailed, and it was more of a pain to carry around. I was quite relieved to sell it all off when I went digital in 2009.</p>

[rajmohan.]

<p><strong>Jochen</strong> - if the Leica II proves too much of a burden for your conscience, I'd be happy to take it off your hands :)</p>

[Mike D]

<p>Up to several years ago, I used to buy the appropriate latest-and-greatest Nikon flash unit when I purchased a new Nikon body. As a result, I now have a drawer full of hardly-used Nikon flash units. It adds up to a couple thousand dollars. </p>

[shutterbud]

<p>I own one camera and one lens. A couple of years ago I owned two cameras and four lenses. But the piece of gear I used least was my 14/2.5 for u4/3. </p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Thanks everyone for your contribution; now we know who the accumulators are. :) </p>

<p>Now I'm faced with an annoying problem - somewhere in the house is a SB-24 strobe that I remember last seeing 8 years ago but now I have no idea where I might have placed it. It must be with the F801 camera which I can't find either. </p>

<p>Good thing is, I found a bunch of goodies that I've entirely forgotten about, so they're now on the table with my brain spinning with all sort of possibilities on how I can use them. </p>

<p>I know - first world problems. </p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>When I was in high school, I couldn't afford the equipment I wanted, so I might buy something I could afford on the flimsy excuse it would come in handy some day. I have a C-clamp with a tiny ball head, which I bought in lieu of a tripod. I can't say I ever used it, but it's still with a collection of cameras past.</p>

<p>I'm a lot less impulsive these days, and buy things I know I will use. For one, my toys are a lot more expensive, but I also have a clearer idea what I need for situations I cover. I'm not immune to impulse, however. I bought a bellows attachment for my Hasselblad a couple of years ago, which I haven't actually used. I take a lot of closeups, but with extension tubes, which are easier to manage in the field, and more suited to subjects like flowers and fungi. Bellows are hard to find, and KEH had one in like-new condition for a reasonable price. Who can resist a bargain?</p>

<p>I should feel guilty about collecting polarizing filters. I use them individually less than a dozen times a year, but for hundreds of images time. It was easier when entire lens systems used 52 mm or 77 mm filters. Now I have sizes from 39 mm to 88 mm, and a growing number in between. So much for standardization. Polarizers are the best way to improve saturation in landscapes (main use) and darken blue sky (easily overdone), and their effects can't be easily emulated in software.</p>

<p>Things I no longer use compose a much longer list. If I'm not using them, nobody else is using them either, at least not enough to pay a fair price. If I sell them, it's considered income. If I donate them to charity the tax deduction is a wash, without the hassle, and someone will put them to use.</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>I guess I should chime in here out of guilt. I've got some close-up and colour filters, and especially grads, that I've never used, and it's been a couple of years since my film cameras had an outing (likewise my Eos 300D and other Canon kit, since I'm mostly Nikon these days - I might still have a cheap Canon-compatible ring flash). I think I've still got a grip for the D700 I traded in 18 months ago, too.<br />

<br />

Probably the real guilty items are the 35mm and 65mm tilt-shifts (Arsat and Hartblei respectively) - I used the 65mm when I shot Canon, but having mount converted it and seen internal reflection issues (the new mount is shiny metal, so I need to black it with something I don't mind getting inside my mirror box) I've found both painful to use on Nikon. I've recently got (but not used!) HeliconFocus, which might put me off their future need. Or Nikon might make a tilt-shift that's a bit less compromised and has the super-rotator-style dynamic ability to change the planes.<br />

<br />

I'd have been more guilty about a 500mm f/4 AI-P until recently, but I finally traded it in for a more practical 200-500. Most of my other kit was bought because I was expecting to use it, so it does get used... just not necessarily very often. But then I do have a lot of weird kit, as I discovered when insuring it recently.</p>

[RaymondC]

<p>My Tamron macro lens and my Speedlight. I have had the speedlight for sometime over 10yrs of course I have used it more than 12 times in total but not 12 times per year ... I just use it the odd portrait. But most pple shots I do is just with natural light.</p>

<p>I need primes and zooms - compact size and versatility. Times you are at home, have the car and others overseas ... I really just need 2 or 3 zooms and maybe 2 primes.</p>

[Glenn McCreery]

<p>I was inspired to look through my camera closet since it is presently raining. A few unused items that I mostly forgot about and have not used for a few or more years: a Mamiya RB 67 Pro body with something wrong with it, but I forget what, a Minolta Spotmeter F, a few unopened boxes of Kodachrome 35mm and Super8 film, several dozen series 9, 87mm and other sizes of black and white filters, a roll film holder for a Graflock back, four mechanical cable releases and a pneumatically operated cable release, a lens hood for a 45mm Mamiya M645 lens (no camera or lens for about ten years), half of a leather case for a Mamiya C33, an unopened box of Polaroid roll film, T-mount and C-mount extension tubes, a T-mount bellows, two Sunpak 622 strobes, and a lot more stuff that is not worth mentioning. The Minolta Spotmeter is probably the only thing worth selling on eBay. I also have an assortment of film cameras that I have collected for display. I will probably never use my 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Graflex SLR, but it looks good on the shelf. I won't get into describing the gorilla in the basement, my unused darkroom with 4x5 and medium format enlargers (anyone want an Omega B8 enlarger with lenses and holders, etc. for free?).</p>

[Mike D]

<p>Advancements in photographic technology have made me a collector. First, in the 60's, I had the opportunity to archive my Contax IIIA and a bunch of Zeiss lenses for a Nikon F and a bunch of Nippon Kogaku lenses. I never sell most of my older equipment. Then I gravitated toward a Mamiya RB67 Pro S and several Mamiya lenses. That all changed when I bought my first D2H. I never looked back to film and now I have collection of Zeiss, Nikon F, and Mamiya RB 67 equipment. I prefer to call myself a collector and not a hoarder. With the onslaught of the digital era, I have actually sold some of my older digital equipment to upgrade to newer and better digital equipment. I will never sell some of my old film equipment, especially the Zeiss. </p>

[rajmohan.]

<p>Hi Glenn,<br>

I might be interested in the Omega B8 - would it be okay if I messaged you?<br>

Thank you,<br />Raj</p>