Nonsense Ramble: Can Reverse G.A.S. Be A Thing?

This is a full on camera nerdery ramble where gear mentioned will be for the sake of context regarding the ramble at hand. The related lens blog posts will follow. As always I do not pretend this makes any sense while simultaneously trying to apply “logic” to what could be argued is an illogical pursuit. Welp. Here we go.

Gadget Acquisition Syndrome typically has two unfavorable outcomes.

Even more stuff to keep track of.
- I have walked into my local camera shop, looked at a camera in the display case, and then asked myself, “Wait. Is that my camera? I did not mean to trade that camera. Seriously. Wait. No. I still have that. Phew.”… I have done this more than once.
Money spent.
- Self explanatory.

This is the reason for my opening question.

Gear nerd ramble begins.

As mentioned in prior posts after years of gear churn I have settled upon the gear I want and the gear that I need. Little on the market or new to the market interests me. I have tried enough stuff. With that, I have pivoted from getting more stuff for the sake of getting more stuff towards gear consolidation. Lenses in this instance. Put another way seeing if there are options that may make more sense than what I currently have. The hope is to further lighten my load and simplify things where possible. This post discusses two recent instances of this working out quite well. One planned and one unplanned.

Planned:

I was staring at my Tamron 17-28mm and Sony 40mm f/2.5 G in my camera bag which are the two lenses I use most on my A7C and all of a sudden the Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 made a lot of sense. Suddenly “I already have the 17-28mm, why would I get that?”, turned into, “This lens could replace both of these.”.

Based on my past success with Tamron glass, especially the 35-150mm, I ripped off the bandaid and sold both the 17-28mm and 40mm and picked up a 20-40mm. It arrived and I am well pleased. The reviews were accurate and it is a perfect lens to replace those two and I left with a bit of change in my pocket.

So:

Less gear.
No money was spent.

Unplanned:

I walked into my local camera shop to sell off the 17-28mm and 40mm and had my M 240 with the ZEISS Planar 50mm f/2 with me. On the shelf was a recently arrived used Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.2. Gave it a test spin and really liked it. Then it hit me.

Not ZEISS Planar f/2 level IQ wide open but Nokton was nothing to sneeze at, especially stopped down a bit.
Almost as fast as my wonky 50mm f/1.1.
Almost as wide and faster than my 7Artisans 35mm f/1.4.

So… Based on my past success with Voigtlander M glass (50mm f/1.5, 40mm f/1.4, and 15mm f/4.5) I ripped off the bandaid and sold the ZEISS lens and two 7Artisans lenses and went home with the Voigtlander 50mm f/1.2. So far it is a perfect compromise between the three lenses. Better than the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 wide open but still a bit wonky like I like and seems very well behaved like the ZEISS f/2 stopped down to f/1.4 or f/2. I also like the bit wider field of view close to the 35mm. 40mm has become my favorite focal length lately which makes sense since my two favorite primes are 35mm and 50mm. …and I left with a bit of change in my pocket.

So five lenses down to two in one day and no out of pocket expense.

So once again:

Less gear.
No money was spent.

Cool.

That wraps up this ramble.

A point? Sure. I will take a swipe at it.

The 20-40mm.

New lenses are on the market, from the relatively tame Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 mentioned above and Sony 24-50mm f/2.8 G to the kind of wild SIGMA 28-45mm f/1.8 Art, that really make a strong case for a bag of primes zoom.

The M lens.

There are an insane number of new and legacy 35mm to 50mm-ish M lenses on the market. You have your Leica lenses of course but you also have quality brand options like Voigtlander and ZEISS, less expensive and increasingly competitive “value” brands like 7Artisans and TTArtisan along side new entries like Thypoch which make a strong case for your money. A lot of options. I had made a case for different lenses in this range and perhaps other have done the same. But perhaps, like me, there can be one lens that can do it all.

Did I succeed at making any sense? Probably not. Anyhoo.

Happy capturing.

-ELW