How many bodies is too many ?

GTG

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,660
Edit My Images
Yes
Feeling quite guilty about ending up with 5 bodies from Canon and Nikon.

Although nearly all of them were old and used so its not like I spent £10K on them or anything.

Still how many is ridiculous, I know pro`s can end up with several but that is for work and I assume they pay for themselves after a while.

I keep thinking I will finish off their life and wear them out but never do. They are reliable little suckers in my experience.
 
2 hands = 2 cameras max :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: GTG
If I walk out with one camera (of my several) I may grieve for the ones I've left behind. On the other hand I greatly enjoy the discipline of simplicity - one body with one (prime) lens.
 
Last edited:
I should say that I normally just take two bodies with me at a time - one film and one digi.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GTG
I have 4 Nikon digital bodies - D70, D700, D810 and a recently acquired D4. (The D70 was on loan to my niece for her degree for a long time and is now being used by my dad, so technically I'm in possession of 3).
I never take out more than 2 bodies though, but it's useful that the controls are broadly similar which makes it pretty seamless to transition between them.
I've also got a Fuji XT10 and three Nikon film bodies, but that's another story!
 
  • Like
Reactions: GTG
I ran in to 6 Fuji, 4 olympus, 2 canon and 3 Panasonic at one point with about 25 lenses between them. I've now moved everything on leaving just a pair of top end Fuji bodies about about 8 lenses. I would have once said you can't have too many however now I would beg to differ and push the notion that 2 is plenty.
 
As many as you can find space for I have well in excess of a hundred :):fuji::nikon::olympus::canon::pentax: In fact anything photographic but I have OCD and GAS a terrible affliction I have to live with :(:runaway::lock: me up
 
Im convinced cameras and lenses breed in corners, drawers and cubbords or evolve from dust. Thats the only explanation cause I swear I didnt buy them, honestly :rolleyes:
Are you sure?
:D

I have one FF CSC and two MFT CSC's and AF lenses and old film era manual lenses plus a 1" compact and a couple of older digital compacts and a few film cameras I no longer use but even so my very lovely GF offered to buy me a Sony A9 when she saw me reading about it so I guess I don't have too much kit yet :D
 
Are you sure?
:D

I have one FF CSC and two MFT CSC's and AF lenses and old film era manual lenses plus a 1" compact and a couple of older digital compacts and a few film cameras I no longer use but even so my very lovely GF offered to buy me a Sony A9 when she saw me reading about it so I guess I don't have too much kit yet :D

She's a keeper :)
 
Are you sure?
:D

I have one FF CSC and two MFT CSC's and AF lenses and old film era manual lenses plus a 1" compact and a couple of older digital compacts and a few film cameras I no longer use but even so my very lovely GF offered to buy me a Sony A9 when she saw me reading about it so I guess I don't have too much kit yet :D
Yes, managed to lure some of them out in the open and make a quick gradshot. Only managed the one, after few secons the bowl was empty and they were gone. Sorry for the bad IQ it happened so fast
DSC00043.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
haha! :D

A good laugh is just what we need in these depressing times.
 
You can never have enough!

I have 4 Nikon DSLR's at the minute and 2 x EM film bodies.

I'm hunting for an F3 at the minute. I also want a Ricoh GR. I also want (read: need!) a Fuji X-T2!

I'm greedy :-)
 
Not a good question, particularly as Bestbeloved might get to read this.

How many bodies is nearly enough?
 
I think I still have room for another. ;)
Currently I have one DSLR, 3 film SLR bodies that I use, 1 film SLR that I don't have any lenses for (anyone interested in a Minolta Dynax?) and a Nikon 1 CSC that I don't like using (bought for the wife who never uses it).

Ideally I'd like to add a medium format film camera and a good CSC. Is that too many? Who knows, but there's only one way to find out ;)

I have to say though, that the more you have, the less use each of them will get and some may get neglected completely, which makes them a waste of money.
 
2 max..
One to take photos with
One to pose with
 
  • Like
Reactions: GTG
Just realized. The question was "How many bodies is too many" so the correct ansver is.
N+2
The equivalent rule from the cycling world can easily be adapted:

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#12

'While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.'
 
I have around a dozen film cameras,of which only four are interchangeable lens, 'bodies'. Probably half a dozen electric-Picture-Makers, of which only one is an interchangeable lens, DSLR.

A few of the Film cameras are just for sentimental value; I have a Voiglander TLR, that is almost unservceable, but my Granddad bought in a bizzare in Palestine in the 1940's to take his wedding photo's! And my first Olympus XA2 that has done moon and back mileage with me over twenty years, that one's an old freind!

There's a novelty Minox sub-mini that is basically a museum piece; but my other Grandad's Konica C35 is both sentimental and functional and gets more occasional use, with a couple of others.

Of the film SLR's, a loft-find M42 mount, all metal, all clock-work, Sigma MK1, quarter of a century or more ago, endeared itself to me and I built up a 'perod' all prime kit around it, and that is probably still my most used film camera, now that the two Olly OM's have been relieved of front line duty by the EPM.

In use; I would usually carry the two Olly's and the XA compact, for most stuff. One body loaded with slide, other with B&W or mounted with different lenses, depending; the compact for incidental shots.

DSLR.. interesting switch here.. the more compact of the breed D3200, with three lenses, and no film, has FILLED the space in the gadget bag, that was once once occupied by two winder equipped OM Bodies, and three or four lenses and a converter, and a bunch of filters! Spare batteries, spare film, and a ruddy great flash! So much for the miracle of miniaturization electronics was supposed to have wrought!

Before the DSLR, the rather battered XA No1 compact was bottom drawed in favour of a digital compact; of which there has bee a succession in the last fifteen years... yeah.. NOT as durable as film cameras of old, that, apart from the much used and abused XA No1, are all still going strong!

But demise of the last Digi-Pact was actually prompt to get the DSLR, when reviewing compact digital offerings, squeezed in the market place by ever cheaper entry level DSLR one end, and camer-phones the other. Which has lead to an irony, in the switch, seeing the Film-SLR's backed by digi-compact, replaced by Digi-SLR backed by.... another XA2 film compact! (which I now have to find pocket space for, as there's not enough room to squeeze it in the gadget bag, lol)

So, all depends really; I can justify owning pretty much all the cameras I have, except perhaps the Minox Sub-Mini; AND most of them do get some 'use'. I mean, once upon a time, there was barely one camera per household, and the 'family-camera' took on average something like 20 pictures a year, if it was lucky, usually during the annual family holiday, and maybe the odd Christening or Wedding, and spent the rest of it's time sat in a draw.

So, for me, it's a question of picking from the shelf what's appropriate for an outing, and what I would 'actually' like to use! The 'Three Camera' outfit of old, probably hasn't changed much as a basis; only now it will likely be a Film SLR and the DSLR, plus one of the film compacts; probably one of the XA2's or possibly Granddad's old Konica, or as likely, I'll leave the EPM behind, and take a digi-pact instead; Or I'll just take the EPM and an XA2; but I can mix and match; and I may take nothing more than a film-compact, or just the DSLR OR... gasp! NO CAMERA AT ALL! - You know, some-times, it is nice, to just sit and watch the show, or enjoy the scenery, and NOT take photo's!
 
  • Like
Reactions: GTG
SO, have you ever gone out and found in your camera bag a Canon body and Nikon Lens???

or Vice Versa??
 
6 is the correct number I believe. I have whittled down too 4 nikons and 2 Fuji and have no plans to buy anything else until something new comes out. :)

Cars on the other hand is possibly going to become a bit of an issue. Now have 4 plus the wife's little run around and am going to look at another today. Wouldn't be so bad if we had the room but we really don't and the neighbours are starting to get a bit annoyed at the lack of parking, me telling them that it sucks to be you doesn't really seemed to have helped either. :D
 
6 is the correct number I believe. I have whittled down too 4 nikons and 2 Fuji and have no plans to buy anything else until something new comes out. :)

Cars on the other hand is possibly going to become a bit of an issue. Now have 4 plus the wife's little run around and am going to look at another today. Wouldn't be so bad if we had the room but we really don't and the neighbours are starting to get a bit annoyed at the lack of parking, me telling them that it sucks to be you doesn't really seemed to have helped either. :D
Dude take public transport or cycle...

4?potentially 5 cars?
 
Had four with me yesterday. Sorry six, if you count the phone and iPad. It's like the Boy Scouts say "be prepared"!

:wideyed:
 
I have 5 - but that does feel like too many to me. I'm in the process of selling a GM1 (I do like m43 but the camera is just too small). The remaining 4 all have their merits and uses but I can see a time when if the right camera came along I might get down to one...
 
Ipads and phones don't count lol.

My cheapo £10 phone does - it has a calculator built in :exit:

As far as removeable lens cameras go, I think I have 19:
35mm 13
6x6 1
6x7 2
5x4 3

Ignoring the 35mm for the moment, the other cameras are all unique in that they offer different tradeoffs (no camera does everything equally well) that makes them more suitable than any of the others in particular circumstances.

35mm has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For most of my photography, the advantages don't help me, and the disadvantages do impact. The big divide in the 35mm cameras is in fixed/removeable prism, built in meter and degree of automation (from none through to auto everything including focusing).
 
2 hands = 2 cameras max :D

2 hands, 3 (might be more!) tripods and several other supports!

As for the original question, one can have too few bodies, enough bodies or more than enough but NEVER too many! (Unless, as suggested by Mark, the patio's bulging!)
 
Eadweard Muybridge used 12 bodies (on tripods) to capture the first stop motion photos of horses. In this case, although he (probably) only had the standard number of arms and hands he needed a non standard number of bodies :D.

If you take the line that a camera is just a tool, it makes more sense to have more than you can use simultaneuously - just as I have more than just a single hammer as sometimes screwdrives, spanners or chisels make make a better job of it. Provided that they serve different purposes. Some are decorative...
 
Well I just bought another a couple of hours ago to bring it up to 6.

A Fuji X100 that may be regrettable but I tend to listen to Ken Rockwell a lot ( possibly very foolish to listen to him but I find much of what he says is true despite many calling him a fake )

I know the X100S was a much better option but it has a much higher price also.
 
I'm hoping the figure is going to be something in excess of seventy!


Steve.
 
(anyone interested in a Minolta Dynax?)
Which model? 7 or 9 yes :D

I have way too many Minolta film bodies, my excuse is it was cheaper to get the lens I wanted buying it with the body.
 
Back
Top