I guess there is no "one system" for me

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.
 
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.
 
Yup, I have more cameras than I need, but this is meant to be a hobby so I'm not going to feel guilty about it or begrudge anyone else from doing the same. Micro 4/3 has been my main system for a while now and the E-M5 has cemented that position. It is certainly the most versatile camera I have ever owned and after comparing it to the "Sweet 16" Sony APS-C sensor in the NEX-5N recently I have no issues with where the current gen m4/3 sensors are. I run a Panasonic GH1 as my second m4/3 camera which is a great compliment because they are two very different cameras that just happen to share the same lenses. Win! Speaking of lenses, they're the other half of the reason why I like Micro 4/3. Outside of Micro 4/3, my G1X gives me that Canon look that I became accustomed to from years of using their DSLRs. I do still have my 50D and a couple of lenses which is certainly my most marginal system (in terms of having a reason for still owning it). The most annoying thing about the (2008 model) 50D is that while I have since used cameras which are better at handling extremes of dynamic range or low light, in normal conditions there still isn't a camera which I could say can deliver an image that I prefer over it.
 
I've said it before, but will repeat it again. As long as you are not being financially irresponsible (depleting the children's college fund, failing to pay your mortgage or failing to put some pennies away for a rainy day) I see no reason why anyone should feel any guilt about owning one, several, or many cameras.

I have three systems (Leica M, Canon EOS, Canon FD) and many loose cameras. The Leicas do about 85% of what I want to do. The EOS system comes out when flash or AF is needed, or for extreme wide or tele shots. The Canon FD I have owned for decades and is just wonderful to hold and fondle.

As of lately, I have been having a lot of fun with a twin lens Rolleiflex. I also have my Lumix GF-3 and Oly E-P1 for when I want something extremely portable.

If I had to pare it down to just one system, I would keep the Leicas and sell the rest. But, I don't have to, so I won't.

Cheers,

Antonio
 
The most annoying thing about the (2008 model) 50D is that while I have since used cameras which are better at handling extremes of dynamic range or low light, in normal conditions there still isn't a camera which I could say can deliver an image that I prefer over it.

The Canon 50D is the basis of my EOS system. It's also my oldest digital body. It's so good at what it does that I do not see myself replacing it anytime soon.

Cheers,

Antonio
 
I am a camera addict. Am I in the right place??

I also don't see why we sometimes beat ourselves up about how many or how often we change cameras etc. like it has been said, it's our hobby, enjoy it! You can't take it with you so have a great time playing with it all now. We re so lucky that we can do what we do that I think we miss the bigger picture.

I enjoy trying out different cameras and systems, does it cost me money? Hell yeah! But it's my one and only real love that I spend a lot of time on and having no kids or other habits is lucky for me! Hehehe.
 
The Canon 50D is the basis of my EOS system. It's also my oldest digital body. It's so good at what it does that I do not see myself replacing it anytime soon.

Cheers,

Antonio

That's the second mention of the 50D, which overall was kind of a forgotten camera, falling between the cracks of the classic 40D and then the 7D. What's magical about the 50D?
 
That's the second mention of the 50D, which overall was kind of a forgotten camera, falling between the cracks of the classic 40D and then the 7D. What's magical about the 50D?

Actually if you believe everything you read on the internet (and who doesn't, right?) you'll get the impression that the 50D sensor was a downgrade from the one in the 40D. The main reason why this became a popular theory was due to comparing 100% crops from the two cameras despite the big differences in overall resolution (10MP vs 15MP). The 50D shows slightly higher "per pixel" noise at higher ISOs, but of course has 50% more pixels. I remember the 50D being the camera that made me question whether DPReview's long standing Studio Scene Comparison was a reasonable method for evaluating cameras since it only compares 100% crops regardless of total resolution and only applies generic camera raw profiles when some cameras can easily handle more sharpening, etc than others.

Otherwise the 50D added some nice features over the 40D (high res 900K LCD, contrast detect AF in live view), and one critical feature for a DSLR (autofocus micro-adjustment). It meant that you could actually use various fast prime lenses and Sigma lenses on the 50D without awful back or front focusing issues.
 
That's the second mention of the 50D, which overall was kind of a forgotten camera, falling between the cracks of the classic 40D and then the 7D. What's magical about the 50D?

I would not necessarily describe it as magical. It simply does what it's supposed to do, with a minimum of fuss, reliably, and without being overly complicated, all the while producing beautiful results. Mind you, I felt the same way about the 20D that preceded it in my arsenal, but the extra 7mp, the quickness of operation, the high-res screen (in comparison with the 20D's paltry 1.8" screen) and live view (very useful for carefully framed tripod shots) made it a very worthwhile update in my opinion.

In contrast, I just don't see anything in the 7D that would entice me to upgrade. I don't need video and I never use anything other than the center AF point and single shot autofocus. A 5D III or 6D would be nice, but I would have to give up my 10-22 and 60mm EF-S lenses.

Cheers,

Antonio
 
In contrast, I just don't see anything in the 7D that would entice me to upgrade. I don't need video and I never use anything other than the center AF point and single shot autofocus. A 5D III or 6D would be nice, but I would have to give up my 10-22 and 60mm EF-S lenses.

A second-hand 5DII (for cost reasons vs the 5DIII or 6D) would be the only other Canon DSLR that I would consider to replace the 50D, assuming that I had any intention to keep a DSLR in the longer term.
 
We all have as many individual reasons as we are individual people for participating in photography. (Even though we may use similar words, like hobby, the meaning of hobby is as individualized as we are.) I wrote a bit of a contrary commentary just to show a different side to collecting different systems. I still see my hobby as I did when I was working news. Seeing and consistently capturing 'The Shot', the 'Exceptional Image' is all that is important. It would drive me crazy if a competitor on the same story "scooped" me with a better picture than I.

If we are on this forum for our own individual reasons, most of those reasons revolve around some need ... praise, constructive criticism, education, photographic improvement, sharing our lives and in particular the photographic parts of our lives with like minded peoples.

Okay, now I'll try to bring it all together ... I love cameras. I have a small collection of cameras as momentos and curios. In the last few months my fingerprints are on so many Leicas in so many camera stores ... you get the idea. But I never purchased. (ala Antonio, it would not be a responsible use of my resources.) But I have been buying µ4/3 gear, spending money like a survivalist in a canned food store. The difference being that I knew the µ4/3 purchases will help me to capture the Exceptional Image. The Leica gear, while being fun, really would not contribute to better photography. I also knew that using the same system, day-after-day, would put me higher on that learning curve where the camera an I would act together as one, as a team and hopefully creating a synergism between my eye and my equipment. There is much to be said for Henri Cartier-Bresson's statement that your first 100,000 photographs are your worst. (Henri was a co-founder of Magnum, and for nearly all of Cartier-Bresson's career, he shot with a Leica and a 50mm lens only.)

For me and my experiences, "better photographs" is the principal reason to purchase equipment. But focusing on hardware instead of the image will retard one's ability to consistently capture the exceptional image. Many of us here want a balance between the fun of collecting hardware and the fun of the photographic experience. And that's okay, but that approach will dilute and slow the raising of your consistency rate, the ratio of keepers to trash . Every time I toss a camera around my neck, I have a passion burning to see and capture that exceptional image. While collecting different systems is fun, it will not significantly help you become a better photographer.

Gary

PS- Now for the disclaimers:

1) Specialization may require/demand different systems. I understand that. A photographer may need a special camera system for ... underwater, or astro, or video. That's different than my $.02 above;
2) There is much to say for shooting/developing/printing film, as that broadens one's understanding of the photographic process. The same argument can be made for using different systems for taking pretty much the same images. But I really don't see this broad approach as an efficient methodology to honing one's photographic skills towards the ultimate goal of consistently capturing the exceptional image;
3) I am speaking only for myself with no expertise of knowing what works for others; and
4) I am speaking of what I suggest as a path to attain 'professional' level photographic skills and images. I think that most of us here would like that level of skill. I recognize that taking the fun of collecting out of the photographic process doesn't balance out the photographic experience that many enjoy.

G
 
EPL3 is on it's way in the mail. Just realized I'll have 4 formats now -- FF (5D), APS-C (NEX 5n), 43 (EPL3) and 1" (is that what it's called? -- RX100). We also have a waterproof 1/2.33" sensor camera, so I guess that's 5. Something for every occasion :)
 
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