Excellent post on fighting Gear Acquisition Syndrom (GAS)

Seems more like a post about abusing the return policies of camera retailers. How many nice cameras did Emil send to the refurb/open box bin? Maybe he can post his schedule for 2013 and we can follow along for some discounts. :)
 
I'm always curious about why anyone would want to FIGHT GAS. Like with the other kind of gas, it works better when you let it work its way out. I had it with bicycles, until I didn't. I have it with camera gear now - someday I won't. Obviously you shouldn't spend more than you can afford, but short of that, its fun. I love photography, but I also love cameras. I just love figuring out and getting comfortable with making them work and am always thrilled when I find one that seems to work just like I do and there's simply no fighting the gear - it almost becomes an extension of yourself. And in these days of such amazing technical progress, GAS is really awesome. We'll probably hit a plateau at some point - I mean once you can comfortably shoot at ISO 6400 with amazing DR, its just down to features at that point. And most new sensors are pretty much capable of that. So, maybe GAS will slow down when, as, and if the rate of innovation plateaus, but its just not something I fight. Its something I rather enjoy. I just keep it within my financial resources (no Leica M's or pro-level DSLR's - fortunately no real desire for either - but I can afford a pretty nice m43 setup and a limited Fuji setup and the occasional compact...), and celebrate it rather than fighting it.

I can't WAIT to see what happens to compacts over the next year and I'm pretty sure I won't sit it out. I may not buy another system body next year (although probably a new lens or two), but I will almost certainly buy a compact or two as various makers come out with their RX100 competitors...

-Ray
 
Ray,

I sometimes find myself anticipating my next camera more than my next shot. i need to remind myself from time to time the point of the exercise -- ie, make pictures I like.

Cheers, Jock
 
Ray,

I sometimes find myself anticipating my next camera more than my next shot. i need to remind myself from time to time the point of the exercise -- ie, make pictures I like.

Cheers, Jock
Sure, but you can only start anticipating the next shot when you're out (or in) shooting, which you can only actually do "X" number of hours per week. But you can spend the rest of the hours of the week with the next piece of gear swimming around inside of your head. I'd rather be shooting than thinking about gear, but I'm actually ABLE to spend far more time doing the latter. If or when your interest in shooting wanes, so will your interest in gear. I'm pretty sure of this - it's happened to me with guitars and bikes and concert taping gear.

If you lose all interest in photography at some point, but still find yourself obsessed with camera gear, THEN you might want to think about what's going on. But your current state sounds reasonably healthy to me.

-Ray
 
New toys are fun! It's true they won't make you a better photographer by themselves, but I do see differently depending on the camera I'm carrying. One of the reasons I like going out with a fixed primelens on a body is that I tend then to see in terms of that focal length and it sharpens my instincts. My shots with do-it-all zooms tend not to be as good, but I enjoy taking them as much, and of course with a take anywhere sort of camera there's always that great shot that you'd not have gotten if you did not have it. I don't know: I may or may not sell the XZ-1 when the X10 arrives, but if I do I will almost certainly put whatever I get for it back into photo gear. And I KNOW I'm getting the new 35mm f1.8 from Olympus for my E-M5 -- one way or another.

There's the photography thing, which is serious and has been for a long time, and there's the gadget thing. In the age of whizz-bang digital cameras they've come together. But cameras are tools, and you know what they say, "you can't have too many tools."
 
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