GAS Therapy & Cure

How to enjoy the gear you have

The only picture I’ve made at 24mm in the last 3 years that came close to actual use. It was shot at f/8 why does that 24mm 1.4 keep calling my name?

We’ve all experienced gear acquisition syndrome. My own has been tempered somewhat over the years. I am in the enviable position that I get to handle and use a ton of gear that other people own which helps. I’ve made grave mistakes spending money and regretting my purchases which has informed subsequent gear acquisition impulses but still suffer those pangs causing me to buy photographic equipment I shouldn’t.

There are many pitfalls with this insidious GAS disease. The worst form is the impulse to change brands and systems... that one hurts a lot both financially as well as other horrible distractions that detract from the entire photographic endeavor. Other forms of GAS manifest in disguises such as upgrades to new bodies and lenses, especially when those items are first released.

Even minor forms of the dreaded GAS I’d advise be treated seriously. Some people just cannot help buying one more camera bag. I personally suffer from the following:

• More lighting gear of every kind

• Cool film camera bodies and lenses that are too cheap to ignore virtually free (if added up would probably finace an entire modern system)

• Glass, more and more and more glass that provides infinite ways of shooting the same limited range of focal lengths I gravitate to.

I am not interested in things wider than 18mm or longer than 135mm (from a 35mm full-frame reference). Technically I could use one zoom and be done. I have an idioticly large number of ways to shoot from 24mm to 100/105mm on just my main work-a-day Canon system. If I include my other “specialized” camera systems that gets even more out of control, especially in the 35-50mm zone. Even right now, this moment I have a 24mm f/1.4 Canon prime continuously gnaw on my better judgment.

Here’s how I beat back the urge for those fast, wide prime lenses that seem to be a specific weakness of mine; metadata is the first step. It’s a simple cure that really works. Using the wonderful workflow tools we all have at our disposal it’s easy to look at every single image you’ve made in the last decade or two at specific focal lengths. Go and do that each and every time you are tempted to buy that prime already covered by your kit zoom, pro zoom, or close enough prime. Ask yourself the following:

• Do I actually use that focal length much?

• If so, what aperture do I use it at?

• Do I really want to carry it with me?

• Would it replace the lens I am using now?

• In all the situations I use that focal length, would anything about the prime be useful in most cases?

If all I used my zoom for was a very narrow range when using it that matched up well with the prime I am looking at then I would absolutely buy the prime. It would replace the zoom but I’d not want to carry both. If it wouldn’t replace the zoom I’d opt out. I’ve been through this countless times, I always leave the prime at home when faced with either or and taking only one lens. The exception is a 50mm or a 35mm as a single lens option. What about two primes instead of a zoom? That gets tricky. That’s also where the second prescription I have helps a lot. Use your zoom to pretend you have two primes.

The only thing that’s stopped me from buying a really fast 24mm (and other wider primes) is going out and shooting a project using only the 24mm and 50mm zoom positions. Without fail that 24mm end gets used far less than I expect. Heck I’ll even force the situation and use only the 24mm end only as if my zoom is that prime. In every case I find the larger aperture makes very little difference on how I’d use it in the real world.

Could I and would I make use of a fast 24mm and fast 50mm kit as a substitute for my “normal zoom”? Yes, I would. That combo would be great for me and would be the same or more compact. It might be better and cover more ground than my normal zoom but that definitely would be limited to edge cases. Here’s the rub; looking at my metadata there’s a far better prime combo for me. A fast 28mm and fast 50mm combo would be far more useful for me. Too bad Canon only makes this crappy old 28mm prime, that’s not super fast, worse it’s not exciting. Why bother, my standard zoom is close enough and arguably has better image quality.

And there it is, that 28mm 1.8 is just not as exciting as the red-ringed 24mm 1.4. The 28mm is not really that crappy. It’s smaller, lighter, performs well, and for me would be perfect based on what focal lengths I actually use. It’s wide-open performance or anything around f/2 is probably not as “measurably good” as the 24 L lens but in the real world would be fine wide open as nothing is in focus anyway. Why don’t I have one of these cheap f/2 class primes as a smaller and lighter alternative to my standard zoom? I don’t need it, that’s why. I wasn’t really trying to solve a problem, I was looking for a dose of gear related excitement. Trust me, metadata is your friend when battling GAS or making purchase decisions. If that doesn’t work, go and use what you have that’s close enough exclusively for a few days, see if you have any real problems, this goes for everything gear related.