Clearing Out

Once upon a time, photography was one of my main hobbies. As is my wont, when I’m into something I can be all in. I always had a camera with me, and I learned to see the world with an eye to lighting and framing. I took classes, I read books, I subscribed to magazines, and of course I acquired equipment! My mind is going right now to a longer essay about how photography has influenced my life, but that’s not the post I had in mind when I started this, so I’m going to push ahead on my original intent. While I did learn how to develop and print in a darkroom, I never got into that aspect of photography, and so didn’t gadget up for that.

I plunged into the world of high-end SLR photography in the early 1990s, the dark ages of miniaturization of electronics, and firmly still in the world of film. I went with the Nikon brand for my camera backs and changeable lenses and was fortunate that they have had a commitment to compatibility - lenses I bought back in the beginning still work on the latest cameras. But, as things got “smarter”, not all functionality transfers. The quality of lenses depends largely on the quality of the glass, however, not on its electronics. And I bought some very high quality lenses.

I also wanted to always have a camera with me. Sometimes things happened, or light became extraordinary, and a pocket camera would be just the ticket. I did NOT have a camera with me on 9/11, and that prompted me to buy my first ever digital camera, a pocketable Nikon. 

The last time I used my film cameras was around 2006, when I went on a big vacation with my first digital SLR, also a Nikon. That was also about when phones started having cameras, but not very good ones. Pocket digital cameras, however, started becoming very very good. So I kept buying equipment, but what I got shifted. But I never got rid of anything! 

One ooky day this past week I decided to tackle the issue of camera equipment. The huge pile of cameras, lenses, accessories, and especially cords and wires took up half of a closet. And since I never trusted cameras to the formerly damp basement, it was prime closet space off the dining room. I could think of better uses for the space. 

I laid everything out on the dining room table, sorting, and figuring out what went together and what still worked and what was just trash. Then became the hard part - I had to decide what I might want to keep and what could go away. And related, what might have some value to someone else, and how could I keep it out of the landfill?

Pocket film and digital cameras were easy for me to part with. I have one nice pocket digital camera that I definitely use, but the rest (some from my mother) could go. Hooray, posting on the neighborhood listserve found homes for all I was willing to part with. Oddly, young people want to experiment with film. Parents want digital cameras for their kids trying to stave off phones for them.  I also had a vintage 1950s film camera, and a broken digital one with retro good looks, and someone else in the neighborhood took them for display purposes. Win win win!

I will definitely part with my Nikon film camera back. I will not got back to film. But all the other SLR equipment I can’t decide about. The digital camera back I have is from 2011, but it was high end and is still good. I do not know if I’m going to use it again, but I can’t quite part with it. And as long as I might use it, I am also hanging on to at least some of the ten lenses and the many many accessories I have to go with it. At least for now. I put all the stuff I have left into a big box, and its in my spare room until I’m ready to take the next step to sort and dispose. I imagine taking out the camera back, and doing some photography around here with some of the nicer lenses, and trying to decide if I should keep any of this at all. Will I ever use it? I’m not likely to ever schlep it on a trip that involves airplanes. Too heavy and bulky.

So what I have that I definitely use are a very nice pocket digital camera (bought in 2011), and a high end Sony self-contained large and heavy digital camera I bought for my cancelled 2020 trip to Iceland. I don’t know how to use all the features of the Sony camera, and perhaps I should focus on that instead of idle dreams about the SLR. The joy is that I don’t have to decide this now, it can wait a while.

I believe I will be able to find someone to take all of the Nikon equipment that I’m willing to part with in a batch. When I’m ready to part with it, I’ll start by putting out feelers among young people I know that are in the local art scene. I know some of this equipment has monetary value, but not enough money that I’m willing to go through the extra trouble of actually selling it myself. I won’t mind if someone takes it all and sells it because I just want it to be used.