Hoarding old gear - just me?

[Paul R Johnson]

I'm really short of space in the store, and have been pulling old stuff out from where it's been stored for a very long time. It's made me think. Pretty much all the old stuff is not worth selling, but I just cannot bear to get rid of it. There must be people out there who do the same things?

My camcorder history is scary when you add up the money I have spent. I can't even remember the order I bought some of the stuff.

The introduction of Sony Hi-8 professional - I went to this promo session, played with the camera, and I bought the one you see the people handling here - the Hi-8 recorder bolted onto the back of the camera - and you could have a Betacam back instead.

sony hi-8 pro launch on Vimeo

I've still got the Betacam SP I bought a while after, and then I moved to JVC - 500 first - my first DV full sized camcorder which I bought because I didn't get on with the Sony 150. Then I bought a 5000 series, then 100, 200 and 700 series versions. I never buy thing when they first come out, and perhaps stupidly often buy them at the end of their shelf life, when the prices drop with the arrival of new models. I bought the 750 when they announced the 800 series, and looking back, apart from that 1st Hi-8 I did that every time.

Am I alone in my 'collecting' of kit? I have two report that I've also done the same thing with guitars - I still have the one I had when I was 17, and every one since then, bar one that got destroyed.

I asked my wife if there was a name for this? She said "Yes - idiot!"

What other old kit do people have for sentimental value - because I cannot pretend I ever go back and use the old ones.

[Bill Ackerman]

I've held on to my first video camera- Nikon VN-910 8mm camcorder. No idea if it still works, but it has sentimental value since it was used by me so heavily to record many milestone family events and adventures. I've always been a Nikon SLR (and now DSLR and soon ML) shooter so getting a Nikon camcorder was a no-brainer. I didn't realize at the time that it was just a relabeled Sony. Turns out all my video cameras since then have been Sony. But the old Nikon is the only one I have hoarded.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Most of my old video gear is long gone, but I still have quite a collection of old tapes and have been gradually capturing them all to preserve them. My first acoustic guitar was a 1974 Gibson J-50 Deluxe and a couple years ago I gave it to my son in law because he liked it so much. Wish I still had my 1972 telecaster, but only kept it for a few years.

Still have my Nikkormat and several lenses that I got in high school, somewhere around 1966. Had a Nikon F with the big viewfinder with the light meter (photonic?), really loved that camera but it was stolen when I visited New York back around 1971. I have a small trunk up in the attic of very old cameras that my father collected, including a couple speed graphics, contax, leica and minox.

Also some old computers up in the attic including a dead Power Macintosh G3 and PowerBook G4. My 2008 MacBook Pro still works but the battery is dead. My current computers (quad core 2012 Mini Server and 11" 2013 MacBook Air) are not getting any younger. ;)

My current video camera is an original Sony EX-1. Did a big video shoot last month with my family and am still very happy with the image quality. And it's ready for the next generation... here's my 8 year old granddaughter operating it!

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Paul,

It's not just you, we all do it to some degree! My wife had been after me to clean up my studio space forever (in spare bedroom at home) and I finally did it several weeks ago.

I tossed my first wedding video camera, the Sony CCD-V801 and also a VX-2000. Both non-working, but had dreams of putting up a display shelf in studio showing a progression of technology...there was also a Sony shoulder-mount miniDV camera that I had acquired used many years ago that I thought just looked cool because it had dual ANALOG audio meters on the side. But the foam windscreen had been just disintegrating sitting on the shelf, black stuff everywhere! They all went in the bin...but the studio is definitely looking better, can walk around in there now and find stuff!

Be careful though..always told my wife I kept stuff because I might need it someday. Well, there was an old Windows XP computer under my desk that got recycled (along with two others) because I didn't think I needed it for anything. Well, I shot a wedding Saturday and used my 3 vintage iRiver audio recorders, then realized that iRiver never released any newer drivers for their recorders past XP, so I had no way of recovering the audio files!!! Luckily, I was able to connect a short stereo mini cable between the iRiver headphone OUT and the LINE IN port on a Tascam recorder and just manually "transferred" the audio and that worked out okay.

Thanks

[Greg Smith]

I mostly dispose of my old gear eventually, but do still have an early '80s vintage Ikegami HL-79D that I got when a local TV station was dumpstering it - it's just too iconic of the technology of that time to let it get away. It still makes a picture, sort-of, but I don't have anything that will record its output now. I use it as an exhibit every now and then in the TV production class I teach for high school students.

I also have my first "serious" still camera, an Olympus OM-1 that I bought in 1973. It still works just fine, and doesn't take up much space, so there's not much motivation to get rid of it, and it brings back many good memories when I handle it every now and then.

- Greg

[Gary Huff]

I always sell everything as soon as I replace it. What's the point of holding on to it? The longer you do, the less it's worth, and if it's just sitting there on the shelf, it's not earning you any money.

[Chris Hurd]

I didn't own the first camcorders I ever used, since then I try to sell them off before they lose all value (note my two RED listings in our Private Classifieds). I've even got a Rebel T4i that I should have been shed of long ago, and now I'm wondering if it'll fetch a couple hundred on Ebay.

But for some reason, I've never been able to let go of my laptops. Well, actually I managed to get rid of a broken Sony Vaio, because back then Best Buy was offering a little bit of cash for those. However, out in the Conex box behind the barn, I've got a row of old laptops, and I don't know what it is, maybe it's all the money I sunk into 'em (acquired one at a time every four or five years since the early '90's), or the fact that these days I'd probably have to pay out something to make them go away.

So no, Paul, it's not just you! Much to my wife's chagrin.

[Mark Williams]

I used to keep old gear. Now I sell or donate any equipment I don't use. It is really scary how much $$$ I have spent on gear over the years and how the price of new gear keeps going down while the capability and image quality goes up. I don't think a lot of new video folks who complain about gear prices have a grasp of how expensive stuff was 25 years ago.

[Rainer Listing]

My first film camera. Pentaka 8mm, manufactured circa 1960. So much easier to acquire gear than to get rid of it.

[Andrew Smith]

I've got an untouched Matrox RT.X2 card that I'm thinking of getting around to posting unboxing photos of.

Andrew

[Ed Roo]

There is a good reason for keeping old gear around (cameras, computers and software)... you may need it in the future to resurrect old files and tapes.

Unless you constantly update your old files to current formats, you may never see them again.

[Jeff Pulera]

"you may need it in the future to resurrect old files and tapes."

That was my rationale - needed to keep old cameras to play old tapes (Hi8 and MiniDV), and they were too old and worn out to have any resale value anyway. It's great if you can get new cameras every 2 years and sell the used ones for decent money, but not always practical in real life.

Thanks

Jeff

[Paul R Johnson]

I'm glad that I'm withy the majority. I wish I was like Gary - sell it when you buy the new one. I just can't do it and I dream up excuses, because that's what they are. It just doesn't seem right.

[Andrew Smith]

I've still got my old HDV deck and every now and then it comes in hand for passing through video from a VHS playback and the frame (or something) stabilisation it does within the deck.

Andrew

[Bruce Dempsey]

for the past 5 years I have been sending my obsolete gear to an aspiring video/photo guy in Uganda with the hopes it can still enrich some lives as it has done mine in the past.