I sold all my camera gear for THIS camera…

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Yesterday I went drawer surfing, found everything I was looking for, went to the office, found a box and some packaging tape, headed over to FedEx and shipped out about $800 worth of camera gear.

“Where to?”, you may ask.

Welp, let me give a little backstory first.

I have been a photographer both professionally and as a hobbiest ever since I was influenced by the likes of travel photographers like Ben Brown and Steve Booker back in 2013-14 days. Since then, I have been obsessed with photography. Even before that, I took a film photography class in high school that was extremely enjoyable.

Like most hobbies and careers, camera culture can be expensive… like really expensive. But, much like I am with my guitars and many other things (thank you, minimalism), I have this tendency to want to find the ONE “perfect”, all-round tool for any type of job. In the case of guitars I own one acoustic guitar - my Martin 000-15M. It has served me well for years now and I never see a reason for buying another until this one craps out on me.

The same goes with camera gear.

Ever since I started my own business, back in 2016, I wanted to find the best professional camera for my budget and pair that with the best all round lens for the work that I do. A couple years ago, I found this pair. My daily professional camera set up is a Sony A7iii with a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens. Slapping a rode video micro on top gives me the best all around photo and video camera I could need for my current line of work.

But, I ran into a problem.

This camera is bulky and heavy. For professional work that matters little to none, for family and hobby shoots (especially when pushing around a stroller and carrying a toddler in your arms), this becomes cumbersome. I still want to be able to snap photos of the family, go on the occasional photo mission, and have something on me at all times that takes great photos.

The not-so-minimialist in me started to buy things to figure this out. This resulted in the 3 pieces of camera gear that I just shipped out yesterday.

The Sony ZV-1 - the gen z-er

First, I decided I could use a vlogging camera for family trips. I grabbed what is arguably the best vlogging-geared camera on the market today — the Sony zv-1. For reasons I’ll share at another time, I’ve come to discover vlogging just doesn’t work for me, at least not at this point in my life.

This camera has served me well and I have used it for many overhead shots in my YouTube videos, but it’s a chunk of cash sitting there when I could certainly use my A7iii to get the same shots for those videos.

As a stills camera, the ZV-1 didn’t work the way I had hoped.

So, I went cheaper and older.

The Fujifilm X10 - the slow, old grandma

I then purchased a FujiFilm X10 from a guy who wasn’t using it and had it sitting on his shelf a decorative piece. Long story short, though I loved the old menu system and bare bones ability of the camera, the quality of the photos just bothered me. So yes, it ended up on my bookshelf as more of a decorative piece.

My next step was thinking, “hey, I love my main camera, and though it is bulky and heavy, most of that is due to the lens… what if I bought a fixed 35mm lens that is light as a feather?”

The Samyang 35mm - the featherweight

So, I found the Samyang 35mm lens. Shooting with this setup has been my favorite of the three options and I considered keeping this lens as I’ve enjoyed the fixed lens game of having to physically move closer to the subject instead of having a zoom, but I realized that if I do find the perfect camera, then I will never use this lens again. And I found that even still, this camera (A7iii) is still just too heavy, bulky, and a huge problem is it draws a lot of attention. Further, I don’t want to be downtown with my family and have my professional camera that helps make our income be stolen from me because my attention is drawn away from it.

So, I now think I’ve found it…

The Ricoh GR III - the street photographer’s dream

I had heard of the Ricoh GRiii before and had seen YouTube videos on it as well, but I never thought a small point and shoot camera would ever be for me. I mean, that’s what our parents took on vacation and looked so touristy using it all the time and making us smile for dumb pictures in front of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not mannequins, right?

But the more videos I came across praising this little camera, it started to turn my head. I’ve come to find that this camera is highly praised in the street photography world. It is small, discreet, and packs an incredible punch when it comes to image quality. I won’t get into all the nerdy specs, but this thing is a beast. Best of all, it can fit in your pocket.

Just as a quick side note, I have always had a fascination for street photography more than any other type of photography, but I’ve never taken the time to really understand the art or indulge in it myself, so having such a highly praised street photography tool at my side might help me finally dive in.

So, the image quality, paired with the portability is what really sold me on this thing. I don’t want to bore you with why I’m so excited about this camera and I hope once I get my hands on it, the images I share with you all (probably mostly of my daughter, tbh) will speak for themselves.

Where did the other stuff go?

Oh, right! I was recommended a photography buying/selling site called mpb.com. On the site, I punched in the two cameras and 35mm lens and noted what condition they were in (I keep my stuff cleeean 😉) and they gave me a quote on how much it was worth. Conveniently, they were all worth the price of the Ricoh GRiii, give or take a few bucks.

BINGO!

I boxed up my old gear and sent it via Fedex. MPB will then check it all over, give me an updated quote, and send me the pristine used Ricoh GR iii I found on their site. Simple as that. By the way, the site is well known and has been around for years, so I trust the exchange. And their pricing is spot on with the used marketplaces, so I was happy about that as well.

And that is the story of how I minimized my camera gear and found the perfect camera (fingers crossed) to fit my needs.

What are some ways you have consolidated, or sold/got rid of a bunch of stuff in order to replace them with a better, singular product that serves each function well?