Camera Zen: one camera at a time

I was crazy about film cameras a few months back. I looked through e-bay and Carousell every day to find deals.

The process was addictive but hurtful. Because superb deal is gone in split second.

Although there were a few good deals coming and going, but I couldn’t commit to buy it because my gut said no.

Thank you, my gut.

Right now, I am very sick of hunting for cameras. I have since deleted Carousell and eBay apps.

I want to grow my savings.

And I don’t want to fuck up my mind and mess up my house with under-used cameras.

I want to slowly transform to minimalistic lifestyle.

I want to achieve camera zen.

For those of you who own more than 2-3 cameras, do you feel messed up when you are deciding which camera to bring out?

I do.

And they call it ‘Paralysis by Analysis’.

I will be like ‘hmm… shall I bring Nikon FM2 or Leica today? But I rarely got a chance to shoot, should I also bring Hasselblad or Rolleiflex?’

‘But I am shooting street, Hasselblad is too slow.’

‘Nikon is 50mm lens, but Leica is loaded with Fuji Pro which I don’t want to use it on random shots’

The inner conversation goes on and on…

Many occasions I ended up bringing one medium format and one Leica/Nikon.

Heavy man.

I couldn’t walk a lot because of the blazingly hot sun in Singapore and the weight of my bag.

F*ck.

So, one day, I decided to only bring Nikon FM2. That was a gathering with film gang. Some of them asked me why didn’t I bring my Rolleiflex or Hasselblad.

I was like ‘oh, I want to focus on this camera.’

Trust me, focusing and using one camera, one lens gives me so much bliss.

First, the bag was light. I could walk from 11-5pm, no problem. Second, I focused on only searching for interesting scenes, and not think ‘oh, this is nice on Rolleiflex, wait, let me take it out from my bag’.

To be honest, I am very pleased with Nikon FM2. The Nikkor lens produces sharp images too. I need no Leica.

If I were to give advice to the old-me, I would ask her not to buy Rollei B35, Contax TVS, Olympus XA and Hasselblad 500CM.

Stick to the amazing trusting Nikon FM2, the gift Leica M6 and Rolleiflex 2.8D. Oh, and the pinhole camera (review here).

So much money saved!

I am pleased to say, right now, I am not interested in getting more film cameras.

I want to be like Fan Ho, he only used 1 camera his entire life or Vivian Maier, only used three.

And they produced amazing astounding shots.

 

 

If you are new to this film photography blog, Start Here. Or head over to Film Look to see image of each film.

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