The Problems With G.A.S aka Gear Acquisition Syndrome
For my first blog, I honestly had no idea what I wanted to write about! Do I write something about the technical stuff? Do I write something about how I came to enjoy photography? What about the places I’ve traveled to? The events I’ve been to? Etc, etc.
All of them are valid things to blog about, however, as I sit down to write this there is one obvious thing that’s right in front of me that’s a glaringly obvious topic for me to write about… I have several tabs open on my browser that are pages from the used sections on camera store websites. Why do I do this? Why do I have so many tabs open? It’s because quite frankly, I suffer from G.A.S, aka, Gear, Acquisition Syndrome.
What is that you might ask? Well, for most people it should be self explanatory. It’s the constant need and desire to acquire more stuff. More gadgets. More things that you THINK you might need, or THINK you might want. And it’s horribly addictive. G.A.S has made me go from owning Canon gear, to Fujifilm and now on to Sony. It’s made me purchase numerous film cameras in different formats, I now have a collection of vintage lenses. It’s an insidious, horrible and expensive addiction. But it’s also damn good fun!
Sensible people normally keep to one system or buy the stuff they know they definitely need. Those people are, as I mentioned, sensible, but also rational and have plenty of self control. As for me, I just want to try everything. I’ve always liked tech and gadgets, they intrigue me and I love how much, and how quickly, technology evolves and changes. The advancements are astonishing - whether that’s computer hardware (laptops, PC’s etc) or camera gear. Especially when there is competition between companies and an arm race begins between them. And this is what allures me to G.A.S with photography stuff. I just want to try all of the nice shiny new things.
However, this desire to want to try new stuff has also led to a desire to enjoy older gear, or how it’s commonly called now, vintage gear. And the whole reason for it is because vintage equipment and film photography is almost a whole different world to the modern photography world where we’re spoiled with autofocus technology, mirrorless cameras, high fps, photo editing in Lightroom etc. Vintage equipment, for the most part (it's arguable that older formats like Canon EF will soon be considered vintage) is more bare bones, with most lenses being manual focus, cameras that have no light meter, or you need to adjust the shutter, aperture and ISO speeds manually. Stuff that’s almost alien to modern cameras. Although Fujifilm do have cameras when such older fashion looking dials are present on their cameras (Fujifilm X-T4 for example).
And I tell you something now, vintage cameras have a feel to them that modern cameras don’t have. There’s probably a really fancy word for it, but as I write this, I honestly can’t think of one. But compared to modern digital cameras, old cameras, and especially old SLR cameras, range finders or reflex cameras, are most mechanical in operation in that there are gears, levels, cogs and springs in them that are all driven by mechanical actions, namely the process of using the film advance lever to cock the camera prior to releasing the shutter. And it feels so amazing and satisfying to do so. No idea what. It just feels good advancing the film on one of these old SLR cameras. The sound of the mechanical internals all functioning in sync to advance to the next frame and cock the shutter is quite simply glorious. Of course as time went on and the decades went by, more and more manufacturers began to add new technology to their cameras such as auto-exposure modes, aperture only modes, light meters etc. But for the most part, the cameras themselves were all still mechanical when it came to advancing the film.
As a consequence of what I am talking about, I now own a couple of Pentax SP cameras, a Canon AV-1, a Yashica D TLR and a Seagull TLR. Stupid G.A.S.
But it's not just the old SLR cameras that are great fun to play with. Vintage lenses are another one of the things I like to collect. But in this regard, I’m a little more controlled with my vintage lens purchases and the reason for this is quite simple. With vintage lenses, I’m not after the sharpest, or best vintage lenses ever made. I look for lenses that are quirky, or less popular. Mainly because they’re almost always cheaper than the more popular wide angle lenses, or the f1.4 50mm lenses. But it's not just the cheapness of the less popular ones I’m after, it’s also the quirky characteristics they can possess. Some of these lenses produce interesting effects when shot. For example, some lenses can produce swirly or bubble bokeh effects, some flare like made because their lens coatings are basic, or non-existent, or the lens elements may contain radioactive elements. And I love all of that quirky nonsense. I don’t want technical perfection because quite frankly, modern lenses do it better.
The most classic example of a quirky lens in the Helios 44 lenses. There are multiple versions of that lens in existence, all with different levels of build quality, but all of them have the same characteristics - they have swirly bokeh when shot under the right conditions. Although admittedly, you’ll only really ever see that swirly bokeh on a Full Frame sensor camera! And the best part about this lens? It’s bloody cheap. The first version I got at a store in Manchester for £25, the next version I got (which has better build quality) for £35. And being a 58mm f2 lens, they’re a great general purpose lens to shoot with!
That Helios is just one example of the sort of lenses I collect. Another example is a Fujinon 55mm f2.2. It’s a really cheap lens with a flimsy plastic construction, but when shot wide open, the lens produces a bubble bokeh effect due to the lens formula being made up of 4 elements! It’s a crap lens, being soft wide open, but it’s still fun to use!
These lenses are just an example of the sort of lenses I like to collect. I have a triplet lens with a square aperture blade, radioactive lenses, a couple of telephotos etc. And I got all of them for around the £50-70 mark. Some vintage lenses can fetch some extortionate prices and I stay clear of those. Mainly because I know for the money you can buy a modern lens that will outperform it. But some have quirks like those above, just at a higher price point.
So as you can see, I can waffle on for ages about vintage gear. It is dead fun to use! Although there is a downside, the more it gets used, the more it wears out and there aren’t many spare or replacement parts lying around! And the more people collect such stuff, the higher the prices go.
Now, back to modern equipment!
As mentioned earlier, I’ve changed camera systems several times. From Canon to Fujifilm and now to Sony. And the reason for my changing systems? Because of technological changes. I always kept chasing better and faster tech in my cameras when the sad reality is, the camera is just a tool and a skilled photographer can use any camera to get amazing shots! But for me, it was shiny new features! Or a bargain I discovered and purchased on impulse.
Canon first attracted me to their cameras because of their ease of use, beginner friendly design and more importantly, their huge lens collection. However, after around a decade, I started to get distracted by the latest new thing… mirrorless cameras. They were smaller, lighter and showed you your exposure in real time and were beginning to surpass DSLR’s. But of course G.A.S kicked in didn’t it?! Canon’s early mirrorless cameras were falling behind their rivals and after dabbling with some Sony cameras (a6000 and A7 Mk1), I settled on the Fujifilm X-T series. They combined modern mirrorless cameras with retro features like shutter and aperture dials and it lured me in like a Magpie to a shiny object. They are fantastic cameras to shoot. Their handling, features and lenses are all excellent and I purchased several over the years. Although weirdly, even though I had some of their flagship cameras (X-T2 and X-T3) it was the X-T10 I loved the most. Really small and light-weight and a great sensor. Rubbish AF though, although it did work. It just wasn’t the fastest or most effective in the world.
But of course I wanted more. I got all jealous of other cameras. Especially those with newer and faster autofocus, especially what Sony was producing in their modern cameras and I wanted a piece of that action. I just couldn’t hold out any longer and the G.A.S struck me down again. And so last year, I decided to part ways with my Fujifilm gear and try out the Sony system again. This time the A6400 which has the autofocus technology from the A7iii in it and needless to say it is amazing! It’s my new, shiny new object I can distract myself with!
To be fair, the autofocus is useful for me as I’m doing more wildlife photography and event photography, but still, I could have been happy with my Fujifilm but I just wanted something different. Something new to collect and own and to go back to the beginning of this blog, I have several tabs open in my browser because I’m constantly looking to buy a Sony A7 camera. Whether that be a Mk1, Mk2, Mk3 or any of the A7R models I don’t know. But I know one of them will be my next purchase because… reasons. But also because I want to use my vintage lenses on a Full Frame setup.
But also because…
Stupid bloody G.A.S
You just keep wanting more. And it’s not cheap!