Early 1950s Buick. Tennessee Hwy. 33, Tazewell, Claiborne County.
Blog Note: I felt like writing an equipment post, but was concerned that my readers might consider it repetitious. However, looking back through the 700-plus posts I've written over the last six years, I found that the most read post, by a factor of nearly three times, was The Underequipped Photographer (October 16, 2020). You can read it here if you like.
Over the past few years I've become more and more of a minimalist with my photographic equipment. When I started my business in 1978, I had two Nikkormat 35mm cameras and a Mamiya C220 medium format TLR. In 1979, I sold the Nikkormats and bought two Olympus OM1 bodies and a more extensive array of lenses.
By 1992, when I regretfully sold my Olympus OM system because of aging eyes and switched to autofocus, the inventory had grown to four bodies and thirteen lenses.
After a brief and unhappy flirtation with Nikon autofocus, I settled on Canon, where I remained for 24 years. With the Canons, I used zooms much more and had fewer lenses, although I still held onto some fast primes. Almost all the photos in the Rock City Barns book were made with the Canon 24mm f2.8 or the 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 on the Canon A2.
In 2003 I switched from film to digital with a Canon 10D.
From 2011 on, I had a parallel system of two Olympus E-M5 bodies and several lenses, which I used for almost everything except weddings. A Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm zoom was pretty much glued to one of the bodies and got most of the use. That was the most versatile combination I've ever owned.
By 2017 and '18, I was feeling the need to reduce my equipment load and settled on the Fuji-X system as a good combination of smaller bodies with not-too-small sensors. The fact that I could set shutter speed and aperture manually if I preferred appealed greatly to this old manual camera/film shooter.
None of this takes into account the medium and large format cameras I used in my commercial photography studio. I had a 4x5 view camera with a pair of lenses, and at various times, Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya RB67, Pentax 6x7, and Fuji GX680 medium format cameras and lenses. When I closed my studio in 2000 I kept only the Pentax and Fuji GX, which were later sold to pay for the Canon 10D. It soon became obvious that the 10D, with only a six megapixel sensor, was good enough to replace the medium format cameras.
When I wrote the "Underequipped" post five years ago, I had three bodies and only three lenses. I still have the X-Pro1 and the X-T20 bodies, but the X-T1 has been replaced with an X-T3. I've added an XF16-80 f4 lens and switched the XC50-230 telephoto zoom for an XF55-200. I've also added the XF60mm f2.4 macro lens for making digital copies of my slides instead of scanning them. The XC16-50 kit lens remains as a backup.
Three bodies and five lenses. Am I now the Overequipped Photographer?
The old Buick above was photographed with the X-T3 and the 16-80mm lens.
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Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
Dear Dave, Been much too busy to be this old...but it is getting better every day...God is always good and knows just what we need to keep us close to Him. Have missed your blogs and catching up. Need also to get in touch with Jane Barnard...She also has been a great encourager for me . Bless you and yours. fleta
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