Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is a really bad thing. You can lose days to it, you can lose nights sleep due to it and it’s a syndrome that creeps up on you almost constantly.
I’m a GAS addict, there I’ve said it. When I first stepped into photography with any real interest, I was pretty happy with the photographs I made with a digital camera. I didn’t spend hours pouring over them, thinking if I just went for this kind of edit – or that kind of edit, I didn’t sit there thinking, damn a certain lens would have made this photograph in front of me so much better. I made the photograph and moved on.
All that changed when I first starting become more interested in photography. All of a sudden I came across presets to make my photographs look different, presets that would replicate film (pah!) and from there, for me I believe my spiral into GAS started.
The pinnacle of my own personal photography journey
I was lucky enough late last year to buy not just one camera I had dreamt about, but two. The Leica M10-P & Leica M6 film camera were for me the pinnacle of my own personal photography journey. I even told the Wife that, proudly boasting to her that they would be the last cameras I ever wanted (brave I know)!
And so for the past ‘couple of months’ or its proved itself. I am, and I’ll be honest well chuffed to put it mildly at the small Leica arsenal I’ve acquired in such a small time. They far weigh expectation and they make me want to go out and take photographs.
But, have they cured me from GAS – well absolutely not! I have GAS for ‘different’ photography things now. I’m looking on yearning for that full frame Hasselblad 500 film camera. I’m sat here thinking an additional Leica film camera would be nice so I can shoot black & white film in one camera and colour in another. There’s that well known nagging feeling that a nice black paint M4 with the brass creeping through would be a cool addition to the collection.
Of course, the Wife has cottoned on to this. She knows when I start to suffer from GAS, I become very slightly withdrawn, conversation dries up as I pour over online reviews drawing me ever deeper into the syndrome and of course, she reminds me that the two camera bodies I bought last year were the last cameras I ever wanted!
So, I am a GAS addict and for sure in need of a cure…
Analog Dave 