Burn The Ships!

 

Columbus may have sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and forever changed the world...... But it could be argued the things didn't really get going until 1519, when Cortes landed in Mexico and gave the fateful order to "burn the ships"! What does this have to do with me? Well...., awhile ago, I made the decision to give up my full-sized DSLR Nikon gear (APS-C) based around the D300 and bought a Panasonic Lumix GX-7. This last weekend, I burned the ships! About 3 weeks ago, I sold the D300 rig, but a few days ago, I cut my emotional ties.

For some time now, I had been collecting an ad hoc selection of old film 35mm cameras from the heyday of Japanese manufacturers. They ranged from the old and quaint such as Topcon Uni, and Miranda RE to true classics such as my Minolta XE-7 all the way to the hi-tech from last years before digital as represented by a Contax 139 Quartz. The group was so varied that I collected a number of Tamron Adaptall II lenses so I could use the many adapters made for the numerous cameras. Unfortunately, this little hobby, while fun was getting stale the last few years and it was a vast clutter of jumbled and dusty hulks. So, between meeting a guys who bought several lenses on Saturday, and another guy on Sunday who bought everything else; I'm out of the "big/old camera" business. 

It's not as simple as cleaning out, or even just switching gear. There's a lot of emotion associated with those old cameras. In a many of ways, it represents my youth, my most abiding hobby interest, and even some professional aspirations. On the other hand, it's a lot of stuff that sits there and did nothing, but collect dust. And, although, I probably didn't sell it for as much as I could (or should) have, it did bring in some money and to a large extent, was a relief as well! Those ships got burned!

What did I do with the money? I used some of it to replace the cameras and lenses I used. I had previously picked up a Lumix GX7 with a 12-32mm (24-64mm eq) lens. After selling the Nikon D300 gear, I decided to use some of the money to replace the Nikon 18-200 lens with a Lumix 14-140mm. Uh..... I did that by purchasing a GH1 with that lens! And along with it came a FL-360 flash (which I needed), and an Olympus 14-42mm lens, along with misc accessories. Why? The whole thing was about $50 more than what I was going to have to pay for that lens anyway at about $300 total! Those lenses alone routinely run anywhere from $200 to $250. 

After I sold all the old camera gear, I decided to give myself a little reward. That is in the form of one of the "littlest" Lumix lenses around.

The 20mm/f1.7 (40mm eq), considered one of the sharpest for the format. They typically sell for $125 to 175. I paid $145.....

 ....for a 20mm/f1.7 and a Lumix GF-1 attached. Yup, I found it on eBay for $150 after shipping (down from the original listing of $200) with an "OBO". So I offered $130 for it. So, now I have a Lumix micro-4/3rds system. More to come.