No, I found the cure is quite easy: Before getting any OM stuff get a
really special Medium Format camera, like (in my case) a Lihof
Technorama 617S. I sold my
extensive Canon EOS kit to finance that.
Now, there is no arguing the absolute mechanical, optical, and image
quality superiority
of a camera like that. Nothing, I mean nothing, comes close, or will
come close for some time
to come. This thing is (proverbially) hand-crafted by German elves
from unobtainium, and when
Linhof hand-selects the Schneider lenses they deem worthy to grace
their cameras, they put
some kind of magical spell in the lens' glass elements. (OK, OK, just
kidding... but you get
the idea). e.g. the original of this image I took straight into the
sun resulted in a grain-sharp
240 megapixel scan:
http://www.deviantart.com/download/128841557/Berlin_Falls_by_philosomatographer.jpg
Then, make sure your first OM body is an OM-1. Now, when you regularly
use both, you'll feel like "cheating" when you
switch on the OM-1's meter, and heck - you will have your hand-held
meter with you all the time
in anyway. So later, you'll stop buying batteries for the OM meter.
Now, shoot like this for a year. In the meantime, acquire a couple of
special OM lenses,
but only ones which you actually use. Put them in a tiny e.g. Pelican
case (all four of them)
so that they *just* fit, and marvel at the cute compactness. But make
sure they are *the best*
OM lenses for your needs, like 24/2.0 or 90/2.0 in my case.
Now, you will quickly find that there is no lust after any other body,
because they all just
add gizmos which any *real* photographer using said special medium-
format does not need. The only
reason I want an electronic body is for Macro flash, and Clay's
generous donation (which is
reportedly arriving early next week, yay!) will satisfy that fully.
But otherwise, I must say, I am usually a compulsive person, but my
OM-1 kit with the four or five lenses,
shooting exclusively black+white film, really is all that I need for
the current phase of my
photography (in 35mm). Ditto with the Linhof Technorama for landscape
- I couldn't ask for more,
short of a 4x5 or bigger view camera, but I would not be able to use
it in the same way hand-held.
So - don't start at the bottom, and acquire a heap of gear n a
'journey to the top'. Get, for your needs,
a couple of top items, and you will immeidately feel that nothing else
is necessary.
Well, *I do* , in anyway.
For you closet-collectors out there, on the other hand, I don't have
any advice :-)
On 14 Aug 2009, at 5:23 AM, Russ Butler wrote:
> DrT (George Themelis) wrote:
>> You spend all your time buying Olympus gear and have not had time
>> to run a
>> SINGLE roll of film through any of the cameras or test any lenses,
>> flashes,
>> etc., that you bought!
>>
>> I am describing myself... For the past few weeks I have done
>> nothing but
>> buy, look to buy, worry about buying, deal with the issues related to
>> buying, selling to finance more buying, etc., Olympus gear and have
>> not had
>> time to shoot any pictures!
>
> I was almost as bad a few years ago. But at least I ran a roll thru
> each
> body to test it & checked lenses while I was at it :-)
> You've got it bad. Unfortunately we have yet to find a 12 step program
> that works for this addiction.
--
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