Topic: Creating some "order" - a cathartic experience

[Late Developer]

Through 2014, I've been paring down my kit and consolidating what remains.  Yesterday, after a trip to Cambridge, I went up to our spare bedroom (now used as an office and photographic gear storage space  ) and had a serious tidy up / clear out. 

I must have spent 3 hours or so emptying out contents of camera bags and boxes, matching up kit by maker / camera model and re-assembling it into the most suitable camera bags so that I no longer have to look for needles in haystacks every time we plan a trip out or holiday. 

The other thing I will do (very soon) is produce an inventory showing serial numbers and replacement costs for insurance and also take photos / store on the "cloud" for insurance - just in case the worst happens.

Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone else has done, or has plans to do, anything similar - but I can definitely recommend it as it really makes you take stock of what you'd forgotten you had, what you'd never miss, what you use regularly and what you really couldn't do without.

[John Robison]

Know the feeling. This coming April I plan to rent a table at a local camera show and do a massive dump of equipment. I've gotten to the point that most hardware is not touched for more that a year and then I may are may not run film through it, just fondle and dream. Not good. Probably 75% of my 'stuff' has no resale value to speak of (adapter rings, accessories, etc), but that stuff does not take up much volume and is useful for projects. But the cameras and lenses desperately need pruning. We have a liberal arts collage in the neighborhood that still runs a wet darkroom and has courses on film photography. If the table does not move enough stuff I'll resort to Craigslist although it is not my first choice.

[gsgary]

I don't have this problem I just have an M4-2 and a 70 year anniversary M4P and a Mamiya C330 C220, digatal all my Canon stuff is going and will only have the Sony A7

[Bryan]

I'm planning on doing the same thing in the next few weeks.  I have several non-working cameras that I can easily get rid of.  I also need to figure out what I want to sell to make room for stuff I really want to keep.  Like John said, adapter rings, filters etc don't take up much room it's the cameras that I really need to make a decision on.  I bought several 8mm movie cameras just to get the lenses so I need to slap on a lens I don't care about and sell some.

[KevinAllan]

Me too. I've recently sold off almost all of my 35mm camera gear - I think the only remaining working 35mm camera is Zeiss Contina 1a which my father gave me. I'm now concentrating on medium format with 2-3 main cameras + a pinhole,  with 80% of the use being with one camera, an RZ67.

[Rafael Morales]

Same here. Going through cameras by brand and gathering lenses together by mount. Shooting loaded cameras and getting rid of broken ones.