I Took Another Step Along My Journey To Simplify My Photography For More Satisfaction

I'm hoping you can figure out what this is.  Answer at the end of the post. (click to enlarge)

As many of you long-term followers of this blog already know, I have been on a (convoluted and sometimes less than successful, it seems) journey over the past few years to reduce the amount of photography gear I own and use.  My goal is simplifying my photography ultimately resulting in more enjoyment and achieving greater satisfaction.  In other words, I’m going for ‘less is more.’  From what I’ve read my journey is not uncommon among us photographers.  Many of you have expressed the desire to reduce the amount of gear you own.

These days I’ve come to dislike ‘complicated’ in any aspect of my life.  I feel my life has benefited from simplification.  But, to be honest, when it comes to my photography kit I haven’t been as successful as I had hoped as I often suffer from that well known malady called Gear Acquisition Syndrome or GAS.  You are all very familiar with the term, I’m sure.  Nasty disease!  Lol.  Just when I get up the nerve to divest myself of some of my beloved gear, a new, shiny object catches my eye and that GAS rears its ugly head.  But I’m persistent.  I keep keeping on, as we used to say in the 1960s.

One effort I had started  many years ago was to choose smaller, lighter, less bulky but still excellent cameras and lenses.  In other words, choose carefully to maintain high quality and versatility but in a much smaller package.  Less hassle, more enjoyment.  That has worked in and of itself, but it seems I always also had the larger, heavier and more expensive full frame cameras that offset my efforts.  Ugh.  I blame the camera companies for offering us such great gear.  I couldn’t resist.  Not my fault (always blame someone else for your own shortcomings.)

Another realization I had was that more gear and a greater variety of gear from which to choose is not always better and doesn’t always bring more joy.  In fact, I found it causes the opposite—decision paralysis—which causes stress.  I thought my two efforts together would help me achieve my goal of simplification.  Well, they would if I had stuck to them, but, as I said I’m weak when it comes to camera gear.

Along with those two initiatives I have also strived to carry less gear on any particular outing.  If I can accomplish what I want to accomplish photographically by carrying a single camera and only one or two lenses, that is what I will choose.  I no longer automatically grab my large backpack with five or six lenses, two camera bodies and a plethora of accessories for every outing.  I find taking that much kit very unnecessary.

That first effort guided me toward looking seriously into Micro4/3 gear.  I found the cameras well engineered, packed with more features than any others on the market and many of the lenses small and of extraordinary build and optical quality.  I bought into the system in 2012 and have been very happy with the quality of the gear and especially the quality of the images I’ve made with it since. Over the years, you’ve seen hundreds of images I made with that kit published in this blog. I can say the same about my Fujifilm gear.  Not only is it smaller and lighter than full frame, but the XT series of cameras have those analog style controls like I used for three decades shooting film cameras.  Both systems have served me very well.

As for my second initiative, reducing the amount of gear I own, I have found fewer cameras and lenses brings less stress and, in turn, greater pleasure.  I’ve sold a lot of gear in the past with good intentions but, after a year or so, ended up buying more gear as those doggone camera manufacturers just tempt us over and over again with superior new cameras.  How could I resist?  I already told you it isn’t my fault!  Lol.  However, I’m now off to an another good start in winnowing down the number of cameras and lenses I now own.  I have sold a number of cameras and lenses and will continue to do so over the next few months.  What did I sell?  I’m getting to that.

Deciding which gear to sell has been extremely difficult for me.  I love it all!  I love using it all.  Talk about decision paralysis!  Until recently, I had three full digital systems and two film systems.  The film systems have not been used in decades and the digital systems are used alternatively, depending upon my mood for the day and what I am going out to photograph. The job dictates the best tools to use in any endeavor.

So how does one choose which to sell?  Obviously, the film systems, not being used and not anticipated in being used anytime in the future (realistically, ever again), don’t need to stay around any longer.  One of those will go and I’ll tell you why I’ll keep the other.   I’ll discuss how I decided on which digital system or systems later on in this post.

The first kit I sold was my Pentax 6 x 7 system.  That system consisted of two 6X7 mirror lock up (MLU) bodies with TTL prism finders and those gorgeous wooden handles that attach to the side of those ‘beasts’ of a camera.  I don’t exaggerate when I say beast!  Along with those two bodies I had six lenses.  I trudged around this country with the big Pentax cameras and lenses for almost 25 years.  I was a lot younger then and I did whatever it took to ‘get the picture.’  Never again.  It is not necessary today.  I really liked those cameras and lenses because image quality was so superior over 35mm that, at the time, I felt it was well worth carrying all of that gear.  I made some of my all time favorite photographs with that system.  However, since converting to digital around 2001-2002, I have not used any film cameras at all.*  So the Pentax 6 x 7 gear has been sitting on a shelf since 2001—unused.  It is all in very good condition, most of it excellent condition, with all the accessories.  With the resurgence of film, I thought it would be a nice gesture to put this gear back into the market, potentially for someone who is interested in using these cameras for film photography—to use and enjoy as much as I did. The alternative is for this gear to sit on the shelf until after I die at which time my wife and/or children will have to deal with it.  They don’t want that and I don’t want that.

For those of you who never have seen nor held a Pentax 6X7 camera, here is a size comparison.
The camera on the left is an Olympus E-M1 Mark III.  It is essentially the same size as a Nikon Z7
and a Fujifilm X-T5.  These both have the approximate equivalent of a 50mm lens. (click to enlarge)

You can understand why I choose not to use the Pentax cameras in the future!  Size matters!

I lugged that monstrous camera and lenses around the country for more than two decades.
At the time, it was well worth the effort, but I am very happy we have today's digital tools.

Leica Minilux in Titanium

I also sold a little camera I bought back in 2000.  It is a Leica Minilux (not zoom) with a terrific little 40mm f/2.4 lens.  That camera and lens combination was what subsequently caused me to favor the 40mm focal length.  It still is my favorite focal length.  Alas, it is another camera that I have not used since about 2002.  As much as I like that little wonder of a film camera, it was time to release it into the wild for someone else to enjoy.  Interestingly enough, I was offered over twice what I paid for it new. 

I do have two old Nikon F mount film cameras that have some sentimental value more than any monetary value, and I have chosen to keep those.  Along with those I have four old Nikon F-mount primes and one zoom lens, all manual focus, that I used with those cameras.  I will keep those as well—for display purposes—sentimental reasons.  They, along with some of the very first cameras I've ever owned (first camera—1962 or so) will stay on my shelf to remind me where I started photographically.

As far as the digital systems, I found it very difficult to decide which to sell, but as I thought my way through it, a bit of clarity came about and the decision became easier.   I literally struggled for months trying to decide whether to sell and what to sell.  I had an OM/Olympus system, a Fujifilm X system and a Nikon full frame system. All have served me very well.  I thoroughly enjoy using each of these systems.  I had wanted to sell at least one system but couldn’t decide which.  Each time I thought I made my choice, the old red flags of “will I regret it if I sell” started waving furiously.  Several weeks ago I finally convinced myself to make a decision—and I did.  But which system was it?

The OM/Olympus system is the smallest, lightest and most fully featured.  There isn’t anything these OM cameras cannot do and do excellently.  They have more features than I'll ever need nor use.  The are small, lightweight and are engineered as well as any camera I've ever used.  The downside?  The sensor is the smallest and 20mp.  So there's that.  How important is sensor size and megapixels these days?  Not very, IMHO.  Additionally, the lenses are first rate.  I love the 12-100mm f/4 Pro lens for travel.  The 8-25mm f/4 PRO and the 40-150mm f/4 PRO are also miniscule when compared to full frame lenses.  Did I mention how well constructed they are and how sharp they render subjects?  The OM system is a tremendous value for what you can do with it and the images you can make.

The Fujifilm cameras are the same size as the OM cameras but the lenses, in general, are a bit larger and heavier and certainly less versatile.  (Example: Fujifilm doesn’t have an equivalent to the Olympus 12-100 f/4 PRO lens I mentioned). The Fujifilm cameras have 40mp, which is an advantage, and the colors are the ones I prefer most from my three systems.  The disadvantage?  The AF system lags behind my other two systems.  Fujifilm may have improved the face tracking but they still haven’t fixed the mis-focus issues with wide angle lenses when stopped down.  Also, I wonder if Fujifilm has sort of lost their way.  They used to give us incremental firmware and feature updates (Kaizen) and produce some really sophisticated cameras.  It seems now they are going for the 'niche' market, such as the X-Half, GFX100RF and the GFX Eterna 55 video camera.  It also seems their priority is on their Instax products.  I can understand why as that generates the most revenue for them.  One last thing.  The X-T5 still remains my all time favorite digital camera.

The Nikon gear, specifically the Z8, has 46mp, is large, heavy, the most expensive and has many of the same features as my other cameras but but the features are not implemented nearly as well as the those same features in the OM or Fujifilm cameras.  The upside is the large sensor and excellent AF implementation.  The downside is the size, weight and less well implemented feature set. (For example, the camera can do focus stacking but, a) the viewfinder blacks out during the entire process so you cannot visually keep track of your exposures and b), you have to use separate software to actually stack the images. The OM cameras keep what’s in the viewfinder visible so you can actually handhold the camera during focus stacking and it offers a feature to combine the images in-camera.  Additionally, Pre-Capture and high speed burst modes in the Nikon are only in JPEG where the others are in raw format.  All three systems offer high resolution imaging but only OM has handheld high resolution and merges those in-camera.  The others have to use proprietary software during the editing process to merge the images,).  Finally, realistically, the 46mp Z8 sensor gives me little practical advantage over the 40mp Fujifilm sensor.

Nikon Z8

My decision.  I ended up selling all of my full frame Nikon gear and will keep the Fujifilm and OM/Olympus gear. Why? For some of the things I stated above as well as for a few other reasons.  First, I have not used my Nikon gear in over a year.  I have not found it necessary, nor does it have any features or attributes that my smaller and lighter cameras don’t have.  Secondly, it has been my experience, over and over again, that when I've looked closely at my photographs over the past couple of years, even the three or so thousand exposures I made during my two 4-week road trips last year, none of them would be improved if I had made those photographs with full frame gear rather than with my gear with smaller sensors. The differences in image quality are so small that the difference in sensor size has become inconsequential.  As I’ve said in the past, it is only when you are photographing in the extremes does full frame remain in advantage today.  So the Z8 and seven lenses went—gone.  Sold.  So far, no regrets.  I just don’t think I need full frame any longer.  But, and I’m always going to leave myself an out, this doesn’t mean I won’t buy another full frame (or medium format) camera in the future as I have sold a lot of gear in the past only to backslide.  When something intriguing is introduced, I get a hankering to buy one to try it out.  I know, I’m weak.  Lol.  But it’s not my fault—or is it?

The OM and Fujifilm gear will stay for the foreseeable future.  Those are my current two preferred systems for all the reasons you, by now, understand to increase photographic pleasure and reduce photographic friction.  As I age and potentially venture out less frequently just to photograph, I suspect I'll eventually sell one of those systems, too.  Both are terrific, as far as my current needs and photographic plans are concerned.  Slowly but slowly, I’m going for simpler.  Did I mention slowly?  Lol.  (I'm finding it tough to sell my gear.  Really.)

Am I going to miss any opportunities by selling some of my gear?  No, not really.  I don’t believe I will.  I don’t have complete lens and capability duplicates of each system but they are close enough to ensure I’ll be able to make the photographs I want to make.

How about you?  Will you, are you or have you sold some of your gear just to simplify your photography?  If you sold some, did you eventually replace it?  I did, which is why I'm back at the selling block once again.  Yikes!

*I did take the first SLR that I ever bought (in 1971), a Minolta SR-T 101, to Yellowstone National Park in 2012 to make a few photos as when I was there for several weeks in the summer of 1972 with that camera, it was not working (long story as to how it was sent to me broken 😩) and I didn’t get to take a single photograph..   If you want to read about it, you can find it here and here.  Other than that, I have not shot any film since about 2004.

The answer to what this image is at the top of this post is...drum roll...a composite of four exposures of small portions of the letters L, O, V, E which have been composited together to stylistically re-create the word LOVE.  These giant LOVE signs are all over the place, at least here in Virginia.  I don't know about elsewhere.  I photographed small portions of the giant letters (about 7 ft. tall) with the idea of making just this.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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