Beginner how many cameras is enough

Well, following your logic, you only need one of those lenses. If you reply that they serve different purposes, then you've conceded the point.
It's true I only need one of my lenses but laziness dictates I'd rather have a long lens than walk further than I need to.
 
we don't need any cameras really, its an art form that's enjoyable for both making and looking at.
the world wouldn't end if it stopped,
its fun to have a few cameras and lenses to play with, and waiting to see the results adds to it. its just more satisfying than digi. dig has its place and its dynamic range is incredible. but this constant search to buy the latest and greatest camera just doesn't float my boat at the moment-but give it a week or two and who knows:p:confused:
 
I have recently reduced down to two; Hasselblad and a Minolta XD11, neither of which I would ever part with.

Feeling pretty good about just two and both regularly used but after looking the Super 8 thread on here I might cave in and get a third!

Mark
 
I have recently reduced down to two; Hasselblad and a Minolta XD11, neither of which I would ever part with.

Feeling pretty good about just two and both regularly used but after looking the Super 8 thread on here I might cave in and get a third!

Mark
Wow, do I miss my Hasselblad.
 
Yes and I miss my Leica M3 (1958) but I know I can achieve better and more images more cheaply with a modern digital camera. That is the problem with nostalgia ......... it aint what it used to be :). However like a clock complication the feel and mechanisms of analogue cameras is a delight!
 
Yes and I miss my Leica M3 (1958) but I know I can achieve better and more images more cheaply with a modern digital camera. That is the problem with nostalgia ......... it aint what it used to be :). However like a clock complication the feel and mechanisms of analogue cameras is a delight!

Well, you say better and cheaper but I'm not sure you are correct. Besides, where's the fun in shooting hundreds of images, searching through dozens of almost identical shots only to find you missed the moment. :D

Its not just about the image quality (and with large and medium format digital isnt even close anyway) its about the process, the feeling of control, the completion of the whole process from choosing the shot, setting up the camera, developing the film and editing the result. Point and shoot isnt an option.
 
I wasn't going to comment but after Andy's post above I'll add my thoughts.

"Better and more images" raises the question in my mind as to what you mean by "better". Technically? I wouldn't back a Sony a7rii against my 5x4 (or even RZ67) for image quality in a print of the size I produce. I will happily admit that a digital camera with a reasonable sensor size outperforms 35mm in the print; but that does leave aside any considerations like depth of field which is dependent on the format size. "More images" - well, I'll concede that too; digital wins hands down. But I don't find that I'm personally capable of seeing more worthwhile images for my subject matter than I can easily cope with, even on 5x4 film. This is going to depend on subject matter.

Where I partially part company with Andy is his second paragraph. My primary concern is the print, with a second concern being using a camera that puts as few obstacles in my way as possible. For me, that means a camera that mandates a tripod and doesn't use an eye level viewfinder. I need the tripod to force me to compose rather than snap; and an eye level viewfinder immerses me too much in the scene to view it objectively, and I fail to see what is actually there. Both I admit are personal weaknesses; but I prefer a camera that caters for them.
 
Well, you say better and cheaper but I'm not sure you are correct. Besides, where's the fun in shooting hundreds of images, searching through dozens of almost identical shots only to find you missed the moment. :D

Its not just about the image quality (and with large and medium format digital isnt even close anyway) its about the process, the feeling of control, the completion of the whole process from choosing the shot, setting up the camera, developing the film and editing the result. Point and shoot isnt an option.

Well agree to what a lot you say Andy although have gone past the excitement of dev and printing...for me using my son's digi Canon 400D is boring and I think I know the reason why? Using a film camera for shot, it's the excitement of receiving the negs back and to know that after years of experience (well OK maybe a bit of luck at times o_O)...... you got the shot you wanted and sometimes belt and braces would take two or three shots for something more tricky and important by changing settings.
IMO any competent photography should get all static subjects right within three shots and how boring to digi machine gun and then sort through them on a computer.
 
IMO any competent photography should get all static subjects right within three shots and how boring to digi machine gun and then sort through them on a computer.

You've right (in my opinion) in the word you highlighted; but actually, very few subjects are truly static. In landscapes, clouds move, and there position can make or break a photograph. I have two of a fern, drystone wall and old tree taken in as quick a succession as I could manage with my 5x4, but one is far better because of the cloud positions. And the nearest I've ever come to machine gunning with 5x4 was in capturing low clouds that were moving across the road in Glen Nevis, where the view changed second by second.

In this second case, using a second camera (in my case a Mamiya RZ67) would probably have been better - a case where more than one camera would be a good idea. As it happens, I did have it with me; but things were changing too rapidly to set it up. But nevertheless a case where a different camera would have been a better tool.
 
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clouds move,

Well I suppose they do a lot in a hurricane ;) If you are thinking of a brief moment when a shaft of sunlight hit a subject well even a £5000 digi ain't no good if you miss it :eek:
 
You've right (in my opinion) in the word you highlighted; but actually, very few subjects are truly static. In landscapes, clouds move, and there position can make or break a photograph. I have two of a fern, drystone wall and old tree taken in as quick a succession as I could manage with my 5x4, but one is far better because of the cloud positions. And the nearest I've ever come to machine gunning with 5x4 was in capturing low clouds that were moving across the road in Glen Nevis, where the view changed second by second.

In this second case, using a second camera (in my case a Mamiya RZ67) would probably have been better - a case where more than one camera would be a good idea. As it happens, I did have it with me; but things were changing to rapidly to set it up. But nevertheless a case where a different camera would have been a better tool.
Grafmatic holders?
 
Not just in a hurricane; wind speeds high up can be rather higher than we experience on the ground. Even in the case of the drystone wall photo I mentioned, when it was a calm day with no wind to speak of, the cloud moved enough to make an appreciable difference. And on the second point - it's not the shaft of sunlight moment I'm thinking of, as the actual position of the clouds as part of the composition. The two drystone wall variants differ only in the cloud position, but one is markedly better. I spend more time waiting for the clouds to assume the correct position than I do waiting for the sun to come out and, yes, this does imply a correct position for the sun to break through, but it's the overall composition that I'm mainly thinking of. I take the light as a given (when it is :D) but the cloud positions and formations are part of the overall image and it's worth waiting to get it right.
 
Grafmatic holders?

Six at a time in one holder? A luxury. I think I must have managed about six with conventional double dark slides - I'd have to go back to check.
 
Well I have dug my Pinhole camera out ...... takes one A4 sheet. I despise those with more than one shot! They are charlatans and johnny-no-goods!

Let us all be serious here. Film HAS had its day. Continue to use it or re-take it up or start for the first time. Its a current fad and will die out when no longer trendy to re-awake 20 years later. The cost of photography and film was never higher and only the wealthier people could afford it. When I was 17 , 43 years ago a roll of kodachrome 25 was slightly less than £8. At the time my pocket money was £1 a week. So it would take 2 months to save up!

Digital has revolutionised photography and continues to do so. Of course we still have our wealthy photographers and some are dabbling in film, so what? I know someone who paints the colloids onto glass plates. Its hip and it fun but its a fad.

Whether you hump a Sanderson and wooden tripod and shoot a few images or take 500 you are neither a better photographer or worse. Real photography took place in the Crimea and has never been superseded. Even by 2018 hipsters using film. Lol
 
You make many good points, however...... thay are all wrong :D

Film is great and good and will never die, also it makes you better looking and infinitely cleverer than ordinary humans. Without film, film cameras and film photographers the world is a much poorer place. Fact, its science look it up. :thinking:
 
If modern digital cameras are so much better than film cameras then they must be many times better than those old-fashioned film cameras that the likes of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston used all those years ago, correct?

In which case, you're almost certain to have taken lots of photographs with your digital camera that look so much better than the ones they took? If so, could I see some of them please?
 
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We have a member here who has access to the adverts in vintage photography magazines from decades ago, and also an inflation calculator. He has demonstrated to us many times that film is now cheaper than it has ever been! (Though that might have been before the recent hike in prices...)

There are quite probably more black and white emulsions available now than there were 50 years ago, too. Sadly not so true of colour emulsions.

And @Andysnap is a living demonstration that film does make people better looking and cleverer...:D (all except him, of course!:exit:)

Actually logic, measurement, money and sense have absolutely nothing to do with it. You either get it, or you're wrong... hang on, I mean, or you don't. Happily those who are wrong don't get it don't worry us too much! We just get on with enjoying it.

BTW, I think the sense of this thread when started was, how many FILM cameras do you have, but maybe I'm wrong...
 
BTW, I think the sense of this thread when started was, how many FILM cameras do you have, but maybe I'm wrong...

H'mm you can't win arguing against brain washed digi guys, they have no sense in realising there is a place for digi and film whether used by a pro or for a hobby. :rolleyes:
 
Seeing this is in the film section.....

I have too many film cameras. The problem is, they all handle differently and shoot different formats. 35mm SLR, 35mm rangefinder, 35mm rangefinder panoramic, 35mm compact P&S, 6x6, 6x7, 6x4.5, 6x9 and then there’s instant in peel apart or integral.

I know I need to simplify and sell some and I will soon.

As for the whole “film is dead” rigmarole and digital results are ‘better’. It’s a pretty tiring argument and better is usually defined by a load of technical parameters that are either inaccurate or irrelevant.
 
It’s a pretty tiring argument and better is usually defined by a load of technical parameters that are either inaccurate or irrelevant.

Exactly.

And might I add, spouted usually by those who don't *really* know what they are talking about who come to threads like this, impart their opinion from well behind their keyboard and then swan off.
 
Please don't feed the troll.
 
The thing that amuses me most is the use of the word 'hipster', he's obviously never attended an F&C meeting. (Apart from @Andysnap who is a trendsetter and fashion guru fro the rest of us.)
 
I particularly liked the bit where it opens with Let us all be serious, and then spouts the most poorly considered and ill conceived stringing together of words I've seen in quite a while. I would say you couldn't write this stuff, but I would be wrong!
 
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Please don't feed the troll.
A fairly quiet troll, must have been asleep on under his bridge since 2014, only 8 posts and only 2 of those remotely positive or helpful. Though I am not really interested in his opinions on what mount mats camera clubs prefer. [emoji99]
 
The thing that amuses me most is the use of the word 'hipster', he's obviously never attended an F&C meeting. (Apart from @Andysnap who is a trendsetter and fashion guru fro the rest of us.)
You're right there, I don't remember seeing a beard on anyone who's attended any of the F&C meetings I've been to, let alone a hipster type one!

Talking of F&C meetings, I think it's time we had another 'locals' mini-meet. It's Smallwood Vintage Rally again (Near Sandbach) at the bank holiday weekend at the end of May if anyone fancies going there again?

Also, for the ones who attended the Black Country Living Museum meet, we still have those 12 month passes to use, so does anyone fancy another trip there perhaps some time in mid to late June? It was a good venue with lots to see and photograph, and the fish and chips were great! If you didn't make the first trip there I think it's well worth considering as a day out if you fancy making a trip over Birmingham way? :)
 
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You're right there, I don't remember seeing a beard on anyone who's attended any of the F&C meetings I've been to, let alone a hipster type one!

Talking of F&C meetings, I think it's time we had another 'locals' mini-meet. It's Smallwood Vintage Rally again (Near Sandbach) at the bank holiday weekend at the end of May if anyone fancies going there again?

Also, for the ones who attended the Black Country Living Museum meet, we still have those 12 month passes to use, so does anyone fancy another trip there perhaps some time in mid to late June? It was a good venue with lots to see and photograph, and the fish and chips were great! If you didn't make the first trip there I think it's well worth considering as a day out if you fancy making a trip over Birmingham way? :)
Smallwood and BCLM meet ups sound a good plan perhaps we should start separate threads for them.

And done - BCLM - Smallwood
 
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Smallwood and BCLM meet ups sound a good plan perhaps we should start separate threads for them.
Good idea.
 
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