Gear Creep!

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No, I'm not talking about that creepy gear guy who owns a lot of photo stuff and is just weird!  Lol.  Here is what I'm talking about...

In May of 2012, with the introduction of the Olympus E-M5, I embarked upon the mirrorless road.  My goal was to reduce the size, scope, weight and cost of my gear, but find a system that maintained excellent image quality.  Frankly, in spite of its extraordinary image quality, I had become tired of carrying my full frame Nikon gear with 5 large, fast full frame lenses.  For over 20 years prior to moving to digital, I carried a "ginormous" Pentax 6X7 medium format film camera and 4 huge lenses around with me.  I thought it was time to give myself a break weight-wise and size-wise.  M4/3 intrigued me as what may scratch that itch and I haven't yet been disappointed that I moved away from full frame.

As a result, I purchased an E-M5 and, interestingly enough, three Panasonic lenses that were, at the time, recommended to me as being very good—the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4, the Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 (as opposed to the 14-42) and the Panasonic 45-200mm f/3.5-5.6.  All of my copies turned out to excellent (I was lucky with the 45-200 as there was quite a bit of product variation in that lens) and I was really astounded as to the versatility, image quality, lightweight and compactness of that small kit.

After using it for a while, I realized the E-M5 was a bit too small for my hands.  Yes, cameras can be too small to be comfortable.  I bought the 2-piece grip.  I only used the extended grip part and not the extra battery part as I didn't want to negate the efficiency of the smaller sized camera body.  Then, I thought I needed a longer lens so I bought the Panasonic 100-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.  With that, "Gear Creep" started and the march back up to bulk and weight began as, of course, I carried everything I owned with me!  I didn't really see it coming.  :-(

Along the way, Fujifilm came out of no where with their X-Pro 1 and three lenses, also a rather small, high quality mirrorless camera.  Hmmmm.  I wondered what that was all about?  I followed what Fujifilm did, what the reviewers said about their gear and what users showed as typical of the ease of use and image quality.  Again, I was quite intrigued.

Fujifilm followed up with the introduction of more lenses and at the same time, Olympus followed up with more cameras and lenses.  In February of 2014, I bought a Fujifilm X-T1, the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens, the 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 lens and the 23mm f/1.4 lens.  Just to see what all the fuss was about.  At first, I actually didn't care for the Fujifilm camera.  It wasn't the gear itself.  It was Lightroom's RAW conversion that bothered me.  I loved the manual controls, menu layout, etc.  The lenses were really good.  I actually sent the Fuji gear back but after a few months really missed the manual controls and the satisfaction of ease of use and how the camera felt in my hands.  I bought it again determined to figure out how to best Lightroom.

As time went on, I found I had three full systems.  The big Nikon which was languishing in its bag, the Olympus which was getting the most use and the Fujifilm system which got quite a bit of use, despite Lightroom driving me crazy.  As had been my pattern over the many years, for the Olympus and Fujifilm systems, a new lens would be introduced that would serve my purposes better than my current stable of lenses and I would sell, then buy what I felt was a better choice to help me improve my photography.  For example, I sold the Panasonic 14-45mm lens and bought the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8.  This was a much better lens.  I sold the Panasonic 45-200mm lens and bought the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 lens.  Again, a much better lens.  Both lenses are much higher quality and faster.  I was able to produce a better image for stock submission.  This has been my practice over many years—buying what I believe can improve success while minimizing costs by selling gear I don't use.  Over time, I added a few more lenses.  Gear Creep had unknowingly infiltrated my subconscious.  Drat!

The "Gear Creep" also entered the Fujifilm system.  Soon I found myself with a 10-24mm f/4 lens.  When the 50-140mm f/2.8 lens was introduced, I bought one of those.  Wow!  What a lens that is!  Of course, I also needed the 1.4x tele-converter to go with it!  How could I not buy that?

Do you see a pattern here?  What started out as a path to reduce size, bulk, weight and cost without the expense of image quality, due to what I call, "Gear Creep," has gotten be back where I was.  The only difference is that smaller cameras and smaller lenses allow me to carry more of them in the same size bags!  I'm not really making progress in my goal, am I?  Insidious, I tell you!

The Nikon system totally was sold off after I bought the X-T2.  As was the X-T1 with the 18-55mm lens.  I replaced that lens with the 15-55mm f/2.8 and it is stellar!  Also, I have sold a couple of my Olympus and Fujifilm lenses over the past year.  At least I am making some progress, if not just a little.  

The reason I write this is that a couple of days ago, I took stock of what lenses I owned and I was shocked to realize I still owned so many!  Too many!  I need to pare down my inventory and get back to basics.  I freely admit I love photography gear.  I always have and photography satisfies that left brain/right brain need I have for creativity balanced with technology and process.  Couple that with how wonderful Fujifilm and Olympus lenses and cameras are and it is all but impossible not to fall victim to Gear Creep.  However, I still have to remember that all these lenses don't make me a better photographer.  More versatile, maybe, but not better.

Gear Creep is different from Gear Acquisition Syndrome.  It is not so much about acquiring the latest, greatest, newest or just more, it is more about thoughtful purchases that add up over time which goes against the photographic philosophy of less is more.

If you have suffered from "Gear Creep" you have my empathy.  I know how insidious it can be and sneak up on you when you're not looking!  All of a sudden, I have all of these lenses!  Where could they have come from?  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

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