Thread: I guess there is no "one system" for me

Originally Posted by wt21

I do get bored with just a certain camera/lens...

I get that way, too. I guess it's because when I have a new camera (or lens) I see some things differently. Look at it as an exercise in creativity!

Originally Posted by Biro

Drat. I wish I knew that.

LOL would not have helped, I was only selling locally :)

I just found a used EPL3 w/17mm lens I'm going to pick up. Dedicate it to square format B&W.

I was out this morning with my NEX, and was just missing my m43. The NEX is great, and with the CV40 I can get some great people shots, but I had an EPM1 and a GRDiii previously that I used for B&W, and I just miss them. I think I'll like the tilty screen on the EPL3, too. $310 for the body + lens combo, so my cheap side is satisfied as well :)

Personally, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a 1 system person. Even when I shot exclusively Canon I had zooms for this and primes for that. 1 series bodies for work and 5 series and xx series for "lightweight". At one stage I had the f2.8 and f4 70-200's AND a 70-300 DO plus a 24-70 and 24-105. Ridiculous!

Actually..... Even that's not true. I'm just remembering that during the Canon years I still had another system in play. There was a 'blad 500, an Xpan, a Mamiya 7II, Olympus XA1, Nikonos (III, 4a and V), and an ETRSi system. Damn! That's a lot of cameras.

And I've tried and tried and tied to convince myself that I can settle on one system. I was going to have only two M9's and a half dozen lenses. But currently I've still got both the M9's and a NEX7, an extensive m4/3 system and an a77, all with various lenses and accessories. I'm trying to convince myself to sell some of them, but so far I've only managed to get a few redundant lenses on eBay.

I don't drink much. I don't smoke, gamble or play golf. I don't collect watches or expensive pens. So I'll have to get used to the simple fact that I like playing with cameras as a hobby as much as I enjoy shooting with them. I enjoy the variety and the idiosyncrasies they each have. So I say, stop torturing yourself and enjoy ALL your cameras.

Gordon

I could not live with one system. I love photography so much that I do it in several circumstances. There is the documentation and quick artistic snap and all-around I just want to take pictures with the Ricoh GRD4. There is the more methodical, purposeful photography with the Ricoh GXR/APS units. And there is the fair weather, soccer dad, family snapshot Pentax K-30/18-135mm. And I recently worked my way down to just those and it feels good!

It's nice in that everything has a purpose and it's not much of a quandary which camera to take when I go out.

It's horses for courses for me. I'm up to four "systems"

Pentax K-mount (K-5, K-01): for when IQ and low light performance really matters
Panasonic M43 (GH1/GH2): for video (I use my Pentax lenses)
Nikon 1 V1: for mounting on motorcycle, outdoor action, and when I want reach in a small package
Pentax Q: Just because

Each has it's own niche, or at least that what I tell myself.

I used to play these mental games with myself about how to justify new camera purchases. If you're able to fool yourself, is that a good thing? And you're not really fooling anyone else. Buy what you enjoy....life is short. But quit trying to explain it to yourself. "Oh, this one is smaller, and this one I can take in the rain, and this one is just for black and white."

And if I hear one more person refer to buying a camera because they can put it in their pocket, I'll just scream. Even the smallest camera that this website talks about is almost never put in anyone's pants pocket....not comfortably anyways. I was just a BEst Buy and even the smallest, crappiest P & S camera there were not pants pocketable.

Man up and say you have a camera hoarding habit.

I only wear cargo pants with huge pockets :)

Not sure if I should be glad to see so many other people using multiple systems, or if we are all just enablers for each other! I have four systems:

- Canon 5D Mark II plus assorted L lenses; I use this for work which includes photography and video. In fact, I shoot a lot more video now than ever before.
- Leica M system, with a whole batch of lenses
- Olympus OM-D with four m43 lenses. With a Leica adapter it could be very interesting.
- Ricoh GXR with two modules and the Leica module.

I have all of these because nothing does everything. The Canon system is my go-to rig for work and I would never consider using another system as primary. The M9 is my personal camera, particularly when I want the best image quality, but it doesn't do video at all, nor does it autofocus or zoom, which I find useful on occasion. The OM-D is my current 'everyday' camera, and comes out with me when it is raining. The video is decent but I wouldn't shoot it as an A-cam. And the Ricoh system is wonderful for image quality, ergonomics and size, but isn't as fast as the OM-D, nor is it weatherproof.