The Agony of De-GAS'ing

**Ed Richards** · 21-Dec-2014, 11:49

I am working through cleaning and de-cluttering my office/studio/rat hole. I shoot 4x5. Over the past decade I have upgraded my equipment for better performance in my target work, architecture, including things that I have to hike to. (Depending on my finances and what I could get a good deal on.) Some has been to lighten the load when hiking, or to allow more extreme/precise movements when I am working from the car. In the process I sold gear I was replacing when I could get what I saw as a fair price, but I kept stuff that I thought was below value or that I was attached to.:-) I also accumulated a bunch of case alternatives.

I am putting off the hard decision - can I do what I like to do with digital and stitching, making my prime kit surplus? What I am looking at are a few lenses. a couple of Sinar F2 cameras, case stuff, extra old style holders, and misc. bits and pieces. Dump it for what I can get and hope someone uses it? Keep the lenses as potential shutter transplant donors? (Prime lenses, so this would be a shame.) Just put it in a box think about it later? (The most likely outcome of this will be annoying my kids sometime in the future when they have to clean out my camera crap when I have passed on.)

I am guessing that I am not the only person with this problem.

**rfesk** · 21-Dec-2014, 12:59

I wish I had stuck with just 4X5. My de-GAS'ing would be easier.

**mdarnton** · 21-Dec-2014, 13:22

I'm the wrong person to ask. A few decades ago I decided I would never shoot film seriously again, and off-loaded all of my Leicas. That lasted for about 10 years, then I ended up buying again pretty much what I'd sold. Then a decade later, I thought the same, sold again, and a decade later from then was sorry about it, and re-loaded. About 2 years ago I sold my 30cm Heliar, nearly the last of my LF stuff, figuring what with Polaroid being gone, I wouldn't ever shoot big film again, then last year I totally flipped on that, and LF is all I've been shooting for the last six months.

However, this time, having learned what I didn't learn two times already, I'm keeping the Leicas.

**Ed Richards** · 21-Dec-2014, 15:59

mdarnton - that is why I am not selling off the prime gear. I can afford to let the few thousand I might raise sit in the gear while I figure out the balance between what I want to do in LF and what I want do to with stitched digital. (I am interested in church interiors and stitched HDR digital is the only way I have found to balance the stained glass and the interior while preserving microcontrast. Plus I can work in color. Getting the same effect in LF would require movie set level lighting.)

**invisibleflash** · 21-Dec-2014, 16:10

Originally Posted by Ed Richards

I am working through cleaning and de-cluttering my office/studio/rat hole. I shoot 4x5. Over the past decade I have upgraded my equipment for better performance in my target work, architecture, including things that I have to hike to. (Depending on my finances and what I could get a good deal on.) Some has been to lighten the load when hiking, or to allow more extreme/precise movements when I am working from the car. In the process I sold gear I was replacing when I could get what I saw as a fair price, but I kept stuff that I thought was below value or that I was attached to.:-) I also accumulated a bunch of case alternatives.

I am putting off the hard decision - can I do what I like to do with digital and stitching, making my prime kit surplus? What I am looking at are a few lenses. a couple of Sinar F2 cameras, case stuff, extra old style holders, and misc. bits and pieces. Dump it for what I can get and hope someone uses it? Keep the lenses as potential shutter transplant donors? (Prime lenses, so this would be a shame.) Just put it in a box think about it later? (The most likely outcome of this will be annoying my kids sometime in the future when they have to clean out my camera crap when I have passed on.)

I am guessing that I am not the only person with this problem.

Same boat, exact thoughts, only worse...have many cam formats. I started selling a few months ago...in a small way.

**John Kasaian** · 21-Dec-2014, 22:16

I have the same problem!
Some stuff I've given away to new photographers. Other stuff collects dust. A lot of stuff no one wants. I should purge some more this new years.

A couple of thoughts---

You can't have too many good film holders.
& one's reputation is too important to pass on leakers to others so I keep them to cannibalize for parts. I've actually rebuilt and made useful several film holders this way.

It is worth having a spare lens. If an x focal length lens starts misbehaving and needs to go in for a cla (usually just before a shoot,) you'll have a back up to keep working with. Very handy that.

**Michael Cienfuegos** · 22-Dec-2014, 10:33

I've thought about it, but I have decided to keep all my stuff. As a result of keeping ALL my camera gear in the various formats I have been accused of being a Pack Rat.

m

**Old-N-Feeble** · 22-Dec-2014, 12:00

Is De-GAS'ing the same as farting? If it is then I try not to blow things out my a$$... at least not during a lady's presence. I try to be logical when it comes to my equipment... but I fail FAIL FAIL... all the time. It's just not possible to be logical with lust.