Dealing with a bad case of GAS
Anyone who is into any hobby is familiar with Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Like screen addiction, it’s easy to tell when you have this disease and difficult to cure it. Photographers talk about GAS often, but it’s not unique to them. Any time a large enough group of people express interest in an activity, the gears of capitalism get greased and amazing must-have stuff is marketed incessantly toward those people. Sometimes the marketing isn’t obvious. Sometimes it’s just noticing the lens being used in a video about composition, or the camera used in a beautiful photo on Glass. Our brains make a connection between the quality of the work and the equipment being used. Add some disposable income—or a willingness to take on debt—and we make purchases we never would’ve dreamed of making when we first decided a smartphone’s camera wasn’t quite good enough.
Like most addictions, the first step to a cure is admitting the problem. So here it is: I suffer from a chronic case of GAS.
Well, that was easy. Problem solved!
But really, what am I going to do about it? Here are some immediate ideas I’ve been contemplating:
Return all gear that is returnable. At this point, that includes my favorite camera, the Fujifilm GFX 50R, and a couple lenses for it.
Pros: best case financially. Leaves me with a good X-mount system and low financial obligation.
Cons: will lose the camera that is helping me define a look I’m very happy with. I feel like crying when I think of it.
Partial solution: really only one of the lenses is must-have, return the other (and some other random stuff).
Leave everything as it is now but buy nothing else.
Pros: get to continue using the camera and lens combo I really love.
Cons: doesn’t do much to help the immediate financial situation.
Alternate solution: leave everything as it is, buy nothing else, but figure out a way to make a little extra gear money on the side.
Sell some gear that’s no longer returnable. For instance, I find myself using my X-T5 and its lenses less now that I have the GFX. Maybe I don’t need them?
Pros: would leave me with my favorite kit and help pay it off.
Cons: I have a full range of X-mount zoom lenses that I have used often for landscapes, wildlife, etc. Dealing with eBay is a headache, dealing with MPB or similar gives you very little for your gear. I feel like I would regret this, would want to rebuy at least some of it, and rebuying things you already had is worse financially than the initial acquisition.
Quit photography.
Pros: the stress I feel about acquiring gear, returning it, getting more, and watching its cost add up will cease. I can still take photos on my phone. Even the cost of this website could go away. No more trying to edit a big batch when I really just want to relax and listen to music.
Cons: I love photography. Shooting photos calms me. To think of not having a camera in my hands is more stressful than the GAS-related issues. Other hobbies have the same GAS issues, and I’d definitely need some other hobby, so this is just moving problems around.
One of these—or a mixture—might be the answer to my current state of affairs. But what about next time I love someone else’s photo and realize I could be shooting with the same lens + camera combo? Or I watch a video and love the strap the guy is using? What then? I need a plan moving forward.
Since I’ve always struggled with this issue and don’t really know how to proceed, I decided to pause here and go looking for help. Surely others have addressed the problem—without trying to sell me a book or app or something—right?
[googles stuff]
Here are the best points I’ve compiled from around the internet. I’ve condensed these into my own list, but here are the search results if you’d like to read more. (Don’t miss this piece on the science behind GAS).
Go out and shoot. When you’re shooting with the gear you already own, you’re focused on nothing but taking photos. We tend to want what we don’t have when we’re browsing the web, watching YouTube, scrolling sales.
Revisit information about your current gear. Read reviews or watch videos that were created when your current gear was new. If you’re like me, that might’ve been within the year. Remind yourself that what you have already is really pretty good and gives you all the leeway you need to create epic masterpieces.
Let someone else control the credit card. One small change that could help my GAS problem moving forward is to let my wife change my B&H password. No more buying one more thing because it’s interest free anyway…
Avoid known GAS-triggering sources. If a photography forum makes you want stuff instead of improving your work, it’s a net negative for your bank account and mental health. Block YouTube channels that feature nothing but new gear reviews. If you have a legitimate need for another camera someday, you can always find the information. But make it intentional, active not passive.
Stick to one camera and one lens. This is actually a fun constraint to impose in general. It makes you seem really cool to other photographers, and saves you a metric butt ton of money. Plus, the positive effects of self-imposed constraints on creative endeavors are well documented. In my current predicament, my immediate thought would be the combo I should probably be returning…
Don’t chase bokeh or sharpness or other non-compositional image characteristics in gear. This one gets me. I even published a post recently comparing very similar lens + camera combinations and decided on the more expensive option largely because the bokeh and focus falloff was a little better. I still think that money and GAS aside, that’s the look I love and therefore the GFX version is better. But convincing ourselves of things in that way can be a never ending road of chasing the next slightly-better-in-one-regard version of something we already own.
Gear can’t bring happiness. If money has any association with happiness at all, it’s in financial security. Not enough is a problem. Too much is usually a problem. Spending what you have on things you don’t need so that you add even a small amount of financial stress for yourself or your family is a recipe for unhappiness. Money in the bank lets you breathe a little easier. Money wrapped up in (depreciating) gear brings stress.
Showing off is for children. If I’m honest, some gear purchases have been made so that I appear knowledgeable or just plain cool to other photographers (usually on Glass). I’ve asked for and received gear recommendations from others. And many of those recommendations I’ve bought and tried out, if for no other reason than to be able to show the person that suggested the product that I’d used it and be able to have an opinion about it. This is silly, I’m an adult. (Side note: even the best social media platforms make it hard to not fall into this trap. We’re social, we want our peers to think highly of us.)
I think that about covers it. I haven’t decided on my own next step, but I hope that laying this all out helps someone else struggling with pants-ripping GAS.
Update: I’ve decided to keep the GFX 50r and the Mitakon lens and return the rest. I’m also implementing a hard moratorium on additional gear purchases for the foreseeable future. I think this will work for me—a little reward to ease the pain of no additional buying. We’ll see.
New update: Nope, I’m returning everything I can. My goal is to make my photography gear pay for itself. Someday, I’ll add that sweet chonky GFX boi back to my stable. I can’t wait.
