What's your shortest lived photography-related purchase?

Hardware
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Well, I think I have a new one to add to this thread. I recently bought a “clutch” strap called the Black Mamba for my X-T5. It’s from Smallrig, who I’ve had positive experiences with in the past. But within 1 minute of putting it on my camera, I realized it just didn’t work very well. To be fair, I don’t think it’s a problem with the strap per se, but it just isn’t suited to the X-T5 because the shutter button doesn’t protrude out on a large grip like many other classic SLR cameras.

The clutch hugs your hand and keeps your hand in a fairly rigid position against the side of the camera, so my index finger struggles to reach back to the shutter button. It’s uncomfortable so I have just initiated a return for it. So, pretty much instant buyer’s remorse as soon as I tried it!

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82

Not short lived but not used until it was ready to be replaced:
2013 Sony Alpha 65
2016 Fujifilm X E2s
2022 Canon Eos 850d replaced with the 90d one year later, with glasses it was impossible for me too look in the viewfinder correctly that thing was too small compared to the X E2s or the Sony.

I think today the Sony is the one I should have kept using. Spend money, lost money, GAS syndrome. Shot jpeg only until the 850d and thus was probably sometimes frustrated before I understood tools like Darktable.

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83

Let’s revive this topic.

For me it was (for now) short-lived excitement for long exposure photography that made me buy K&F ND 1000 filter and then 64, 8, CPL filter kit. More than one year later, I barely got 2 very long exposure photos that I like, roughly a year apart. It wasn’t exactly expensive since it was a cheaper brand and small diameter but still.

I got excited about the long exposure possibilities like making busy places seem empty or blurring objects like storm clouds that you normally see sharp, but it just didn’t happen… yet?

It kind of goes against my photographic nature of taking a load of pictures that keeps me busy in darktable for 3 weeks. And also it feels like selling them would make me miss them right after!

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84

Slightly off-topic. My first digital was the Nikon Coolpix 700, small and light and easy to carry around and took decent images.
After taking only one picture I dropped it from about 2 meters onto concrete. It bounced randomly a few times for what seemed to me like forever before finally laying still. Much to my amazement absolutely nothing happened to it and it stayed in use for several years afterwards without any signs of having been dropped. Awesome build quality.

On-topic: ND-filters and stuff with the ambition of doing some long exposure photography - lost interest or never had the time/patience after a single test photo. Lies around in a box somewhere in the attic.

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85

Lucky stiff… :laughing:

Dropped my Z 6 once, trying to carry too many things at once. Fortunately, it was on a more-forgiving surface, none the worse for wear.

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86

Exactly. I don’t like to anxiously walk around the camera that’s sitting on a tripod while having no idea what the result would be. Did I focus properly? Did I calculate the exposure correctly? Am I missing out on something else while I have to wait?

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87

You can just take 5–10 normal images (with preferably the same aperture and focus settings) and overlay them (using the mean). If you are on a tripod, you will not have to align, otherwise Hugin works great.

Experiment with a different number of images, I find that about 6–10 smooth out water just fine, depending on waves/wind, fewer preserve some of the original quality which can be artistic. 3–4, taken a few minutes apart on a busy public place, gives you “ghosts” when people are present. You can still max out the shutter speed without an ND filter, when people move around they get blurry.

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88

That’s a very interesting approach, thanks for sharing! :+1:

I suspect the limitations of this method are objects that leave continuous trace, like cumulus clouds or car lights (which are already during the dark hours so not having an ND filter is probably not a problem).
But I think I’ll try it out, it could give interesting results. I could also try doing for example a mean of 10 consecutive 30" exposures instead of a single 5’ exposure to preserve quality. The resulting image will depend on the time between exposures, so I will likely need to use remote shutter, since I’m not sure if the camera has delay between images.

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89

There was a time when I was searching for the perfect prime lens. I knew 18mm was too wide, and 35mm too long (APS-C). There weren’t many 27mm available, so 23mm was the obvious choice.

The first was a Viltrox, my first fast prime ever. Also one that didn’t focus reliably, and had a color cast. And taught me that I don’t like a swirly bokeh. Then came an X100T, which was soft up-close, expensive, and annoyingly had an unwieldy camera body attached.

Then came the Fuji 23 f/2, and this was indeed my shortest lived purchase: something about it rubbed me the wrong way. The weird conical shape that looked small but wasn’t. The stiff rings, the swirly bokeh. It’s probably a fine lens, but not for me. At this point I gave up on 23mm.

A long while later came a Sony RX1, which had many flaws, but a lens that hit the spot exactly. The camera I had to pass on, but then found the Fuji 23 f/1.4, which finally slaked my thirst for a good 23mm.

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90

I like this lens and still have it, though that camera has been converted to IR now.

I also had the 35mm f1.4, but never understood why people liked it so much, it was a nice lens but nothing to write home about. :dizzy_face:

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91

Funny how lenses and cameras are such personal items.

I still have my 35 f/1.4, mostly because it’s so small and light. But it doesn’t see much use…

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92

Also check out:

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93

Only just found this thread and I can’t complete with Martin’s dog and I ought to keep quiet about how long I kept the Cokin filters, to be fair I sold some slides taken with them via a photo library

There might be other reasons for getting a premium compact other than weight: speed of use, high depth of field on a one inch sensor, unimposing on the subject matter so getting relaxed shots, quiet mechanical shutter etc

1 inch sensor camera seem a bit of an endangered species I think I like to speak in their defence even several months on

There was quite a significant price differential between Sony and the others at one time which seems to have closed I wish they would have back button focus on the expensive models

I can’t see any other option for professionals than being weighed down with a fair amount of equipment though that might mean you lose some shots

camera equipment is relatively more expensive in some countries to others

Unfortunately it’s difficult to have tried everything to give a good answer from experience and I have neglected the Fuji for a long time although the respect they get from a lot of people means there likely to be a good option and have a bit more resolution along with excellent color I’m told

never had a chance to try these either

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94

I bought a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro Pack (camera tracking mount) and didn’t use it for three years. I tried it for one night and now it’s for sale. That was $450 down the drain.

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95

Ah, yes, the ND filters… I got a very cheap 2/4/8 set long time ago. Did a test once and realised that they are not strong enough for what I want. Around 2 years ago, I bought a much higher quality 8/64/1000 set. I still have plans to actually use them eventually…

But shortest lived is probably my Sigma 30mm f1.4 Art, which I got for my Nikon. Soon after I upgraded my camera to one from Fujifilm. For some reason, Sigma doesn’t sell the Art for mirrorless mounts but has a Contemporary equivalent for them. I really liked the lens, thought. I’m still undecided if I should exchange it with a C-version with X mount or rather invest in a fringer adapter.

96

I wish I had an X-mount buddy so I could try out their lenses. All the lenses I’ve ever tried have been purchases (or gifts), which is not a very smart way of trying out lenses. But I don’t have a lens rental place near me.

I can’t say I love any of my current lenses. I like them, but don’t really love them.
In order of preference:

  • XF70-300mm - the closest to being a lens I love, but big and heavy to carry around
  • XF27mm - I’m close to loving this little lens, but the focal length doesn’t always excite me, it’s definitely growing on me though
  • XF16-80mm - my workhorse travel lens. Very useful but doesn’t have any magic
  • Rokinon 12mm - I think this does have a little magic, but it’s just too wide for everyday shots
  • TTArtisans 50mm - a cheap lens I bought for trying out the focal length, don’t love it
  • TTArtisans 35mm - a cheap lens I bought for trying out this focal length, don’t love it
  • 7Artisans 60mm - a cheap macro lens I bought for trying macro, really hard to work with and poor quality

I used to love my 60mm macro (APS-C) on my old Canon DSLR, although it’s hard to know if I would still love it or if it was just because it was my very first prime and I was blown away with the quality after decades of point-and-shoots and kit lenses.

I’m not sure if I ever will have a preferred focal length, in which case maybe I’ll only fall in love with a lens that has some undefined magic! Still looking for it though…

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97

A Bronica 645, around 1975. So much mirror slap nothing outside of a studio strobe shot was sharp. 1 week and back it went.

98

Funny, at least one of those is a definite favorite of mine: the 16-80 is unusual in Fuji’s lenses for actually having a nice bokeh and rendering. I used to merely see it as a workhorse, but it has grown on me tremendously, and is now my most important lens. I could write a whole lot more about it, but we’ve probably taken this thread off topic enough already.

The other one I like dearly is the old 23 f/1.4.

I’ve tried most of them, by buying and selling used lenses. But it takes so much time and effort. And the true character of a lens usually only reveals itself with prolonged use. It took me several years to find the few lenses I like.

Should you ever travel to Bavaria (southeastern Germany), drop me a message and we can talk Fuji and try out a few lenses.

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99

Interesting. I was wondering whether to trade it in for the Sigma 18-50mm (for its smaller size) or save up for the new XF16-55mm red badge. But having repaired it recently, I want to get more use out of it before getting rid of it :slight_smile: I love its focal range, and nothing quite compares apart from perhaps the Tamron 17-70, but that’s really big and probably not much of an upgrade.

Would love to!

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100

Ok, that’s my cue to talk about another short-lived purchase: the Fuji XF 16-55. In late 2022, I had accidentally dropped my 16-80, and badly decentered it, just a few days before a photography trip to Ireland. But as luck had it, just then a used 16-55 popped up on MPB for a reasonable price, so I sent my 16-80 off for repairs, and ordered the 16-55.

For the uninitiated, the Fujifilm XF 16-55 f/2.8 LM WR is one of Fuji’s “red-badge” lenses, which denotes their highest-quality, professional grade lenses. It is also called “the brick” by many, as it weighs more than most full-frame f/2.8 equivalents.

This was on the X-T3, with no sensor stabilization, so I anticipated the lack of lens stabilization on the 16-55 to be an issue. But I mostly just set my minimum shutter speed to 1/125, and that worked fine.

What did turn out to be a problem, however, was the lens’s weight. In particular, how very front-heavy it is. It actually gave me hand cramps, something I’ve not ever experienced before or since. I bet I could have changed my grip or stance to compensate, but be that as it may, it was the only lens ever that I found uncomfortable to hold.

Coming back from the trip, I looked through the photos to find some magical rendering, some noteworthy micro contrast, or at least some particularly pleasant bokeh. But on the contrary, I actually found the bokeh a bit busy, with a nervous outlining that I don’t particularly enjoy. The lens was sharp, of course, but not noticeably moreso than what I was used to.

When I got my 16-80 back from repairs, I also did a formal comparison between the two lenses. As already mentioned, I prefer the 16-80’s bokeh. It has less outlining, and looks calmer and smoother. At its long end, the amount of blur is actually identical, as 80/4 = 55/2.8. My evaluation of sharpness was largely inconclusive. Sure, the far corners at 16mm of the 16-80 suffer from distortion and field curvature. But I never found that to be a particular problem, just a characteristic to work with. Beyond 16 mm, both lenses perform very similarly.

Thus, very shortly after I got back my 16-80, the 16-55 went up on ebay. It was an interesting experiment, and checked off another what-if in my GAS chart. Nit a lens for me. I actually prefer the 16-80.

It is my pet theory, that Fujifilm decided to change their lens design ethos a few years ago: instead of focusing solely on sharpness, they now take a holistic approach to aim for nice rendering overall, with sharpness being only one variable of many. Personally, I very much like this. I enjoy the 16-80’s rendering a whole lot, especially for such a versatile travel zoom lens. The calm bokeh and nice focus transition actually makes it a good portrait lens, in a way the 16-55, 18-55, or 18-135 can not match (for my sensibilities).

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