Ejecting the Gear-Head Mentality

After posting my Nikon D300 and battery grip for sale for two weeks on a local online photography forum, I finally found a suitor which propose the right market price. With that, we arrange a place to meet, and I bid "farewell" to the best digital camera I ever had for 18 months.


P1010446
Good condition Nikon D300 camera. Unfortuantely, digital products loose it's value too soon.

P1010459
Battery grip MB-D10, seldom used.


It's been two weeks since then, and within this two weeks, there was this withdrawal syndrome I experienced, where I felt the tendency to grab a new camera ASAP. However, I've constantly reminding myself not to position myself in a situation, where 18 months later, I have to go through this same cycle again, painful, due to the depreciation of the gears is so damn fast.

It's time for a "time-out"
In my opinion, the D300 is a very good camera, capable of shooting various kind of shots. I've done lots of weddings with it, and a dozen of other things just for fun, such as portrait with CLS, GT racing, hiking/nature photography, interior design photography, social gathering etc. As for post-editing, Nikon's own suit of software is so feature reach and easy to use, that I find myself not using any other additional tools. Most importantly, colour rendered from Capture NX is an exact match with what was seen on the camera LCD. So why would I let go of a camera with such caliber performance?

1. Price is (or going to be) dropping like mad. Curse the Moore's law.

2. I'm sick of the weight of the camera. Whenever I go out for some social gathering, I contemplated whether I need to bring the camera or not. If yes, which lens to bring, then which bag to use, then should I bring a flash or two? Should I bring a tripod? Which tripod? On and on... Even if I just bring the camera and a prime lens, it is still a kilo worth of weight and bulk.

3. I'm not shooting events as often as I used to. In my honest opinion, one reason of getting the D300 instead of D90 is for the hard buttons, which provide quicker change to some important settings in the midst of a photo shoot, and the 51-point focusing point which fills almost the entire frame and track my subject very well. These are features that are important for making important changes fast and for shooting events. Other than that, D90 by itself is already a very capable camera and cheaper price, and it captures video too.

4. Most importantly, due to reason #2, I find myself not bringing the camera when I should have. That is equal to missed opportunities to capture memorable events. Down the road of my life, I know I will regret for it.

What's next?
Since I've had a taste of general photography for a few years now, I felt that it is about time to take a breather, two step back, and evaluate where am I now. I need to pass the phase of being a gear head, and wanting to try all kinds of photography, which roughly translate to buying more gears, and being a victim of mass marketing. I have no idea where I am heading for now. Would I be changing to a different system? Leica M9? Micro 4/3? Sigma DP2? Or just scale down to Nikon D90? I still need more time to reflect and make the right decision. Moving forward, I want to make photograph as something that I enjoy, not because some bloody magazine tells you to do so, or shooting someone else's portrait while neglecting capturing the life of my own family and friends in stills. The next direction or system must integrate well with my goal of photography.

How to live without a camera?
As a photographer, I would have felt like a lost soul if I don't have a camera ready for some action. Fortunately for me, I already got myself the Panasonic LX3 last year. Small, pocketable, yet produce satisfactory images (check out here and here). This will serve my photography need for now as I go through this transitional period. Other than that, I still have my Nikon F3 film camera. Perhaps it's time to resurrect it and go back to film?


Nikon F3

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About

I remember my first experience of using a SLR was about 10+ years ago. My father own a Nikon F3 with a Nikkor 24mm f2.8 prime, and a push-pull zoom-Nikkor 35-105mm. With his permission, I took the small dry box containing the gears from him and started playing with it photography. Still a student then, I learned about photography through the F3 manual, and seek advice from some of my friends who were also into photography. Taking photo is the best way to learn, but I do not have the luxury of experimenting too much since film isn't cheap, and developing a 36-shot row would cost around RM30 (I think) for 3R prints, not to mention not all shots are good. Eventually, I stopped due to cost, and my studies. I was reintroduced back into photography about 3 years ago through a colleague. He also came from the film era, and were still shooting with his fully manual Nikon FM2 before getting his first DSLR, Nikon D70. While working on a project in Singapore, I bought my first DSLR, Nikon D70...
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