Revisiting Unremembered Gear

It’s more common these days to be excited and gush over all the new gear that comes along. Fujifilm has come out recently with two new versions of their cameras; the X-Pro3 and the newest, the X100V. Fujifilm took two cameras of which I thought were pretty great as the were, and they made them even better. Fuji is truly a fantastic presence in today’s camera manufacturers. They do stand out. Okay, gushing done. Let’s get back on track to what I wanted to talk about here.

Revisiting Unremembered Gear

If you’re like me, you’ve got plenty of camera gear that you probably haven’t even touched, let alone used in quite a while. It sits there on the shelf, your desk, wherever you leave your gear lying around.

The cool thing about this is that, if you’ve got a lot of gear you really don’t use, that means you’ve got a lot of different shooting experiences available to you when you get bored with your current deal. And you don’t have to spend a dime.

Using old gear — moody phone • Tele-Elmarit 90mm • Leica M262

Pick Up That Old Lens…

Pick up that old lens; old body; the Holga; your SX-70; that medium format camera you new would change your world, but you just don’t use it!

Put down your usual kit and work with something different. One way to stay inspired these days is by changing things up. Don’t keep doing the same thing with the same stuff.

Jonny • Summicron 50mm • ACROS • Leica M6

True Story

I’ve got a Tele-Elmarit 90mm lens. I bought it a few years ago from KEH, intending to use it for portraits. It’s a good lens, but I had really fallen in love with the look that my Summicron 50 delivered. The 50 had become my lens of choice for portraiture.

Lately I’ve picked the Tele-Elmarit up again and have been playing around with it. Normally this lens had become a cap for whichever Leica body I wasn’t using.

use old gear — moody baseball • Tele-Elmarit 90mm • Leica M262

I have to say, I’m kind of enjoying it. Does it deliver the punch and micro-contrast I get from the Summicrons? No, but this tiny 90mm lens really does have a pretty beautiful look of it’s own.

So, Are You Bored These Days?

If so, look around at the stuff you’ve already bought, but has maybe faded into the background as your newer purchases took up more of your attention.

Take your Holga out for a run. Make a project out of it. Make a book out of it. (I’m really on the book kick these days) Have fun with the stuff you haven’t used in a long time. Your old gear will stimulate your creativity in new ways.