LBA control - new year resoultion

Not normally one for new Year's resolutions, but I planing an LBA related one this year.

I've had a DSLR (K-m) for a couple of years and in the time have been bitten by LBA so have had far more lenses than I need for quite a while, however, I also now have a significant collection of lenses that I don't want and haven't used that came as part of packages.

My LBA isn't as significant as some (well under 100 lenses, anyway), but it seems a shame to have a lot of kit I don't use that other people may be able to get out and shoot with.

My plan is to do the following:

- Make a wishlist/roadmap of lenses that I want and will use
- Review my collection to find out what I have actually used during the past year
- Get rid of anything I haven't shot with regularly and that I can't see a specific use for in the future
- Get rid all of my unused kit on e-bay
- Only buy new lenses that are on my wishlist
- Only fund new lens purchases from the sale of my unused kit

I appreciate this may well sound familiar, but I'd be interested in to hear from anyone else who has tried a similar approach. I'm under no illusion that it will last very long, as the lure of eBay and old glass and excellent engineering for beer-money hasn't diminished!

Part of the joy of amateur photography is following whims, so don't beat yourself up about it too much!

You can enjoy your plan and then enjoy a new and different plan later!

errrr - for those of us here with limited funds , what's wrong with our own Sales board before you go to the evil bay route ?

OK I don't as yet suffer from LBA and have a very limited collection of lenses but I've bought 4 lenses from PUF members and also sold 3 to other PUF members - all through PUF

Indeed it does, I tried this aproach last year, now I have 5 lenses covering 50mm, and 4 covering 60mm, 4 or 5 manual lenses from ebay that have only ever been looked through, oh and extension tubes and teleconverters I have never used

Perhaps it`s time for a clearout. But I do not have the time for all the photo`s of kit. and anyway, I have to have a fast 70-200mm before I can possibly sell anything, the excuses go on and on.
LBA sneeks up on you regardless of funds or good intentions.

As TT says above, always try the forum first for sales, why fund ebay?

Davex.

Food for thought for you guys, I recently went through the same clear out process and sold off a whole bunch of stuff I rarely used. The money from that, plus the sale of my K20D, bought me a K5

The bolded part is, IMO, the ultimate cause of LBA. I'd take that off your list, otherwise you'll never sell anything!

Was going to start a very similar post as I'm doing almost exactly the same thing!

The trigger for this was getting the F* 250-600mm. Buying it meant moving money allocated for other things to get it and intensive research is showing a further £1100+ to spend on tripod and head to get the best out of it.

Because of that I decided to take a good look at what lenses we had and what we actually needed as some of it had to go to fund the new lens. Same also applies to our collection of tripods and heads, to help fund a more stable support.

So, the rationalisation began. First to go, macros. Had bought the new WR with full intentions of selling the FA but never got round to it. After chatting with Fiona we decided we didn't both need 100mm ish macros, so thats 3 down to 1. (BTW the FA is still for sale if anyone wants it!).

Had bought a 2nd 35 Ltd Macro so I could have 'competitions' with Fiona with us both going out with identical kit and seeing what different photos we could manage between us. Thats a luxury that quickly came unaffordable so has now been sold! Anyway I can put a bit of tape on the 16-50 to keep it at 35 if I want to play that game again!

DA* 300mm was a no brainer to go. Why? Already have the 60-250, 300 hardly got used, prefer zooms, lots of money sat there not being used. Sold, new lens has now been paid for !!! Yippee!!

FA Limiteds already sold due to lack of use, and duplicated with existing zoom range that I prefer using.

Others have been and gone and now I'm left with:-

10-17 Fisheye
12-24
16-50
50-135
60-250
250-600
55
100 WR Macro

Most of these are definate keepers, with decisions to be made on the 12-24 (which looks like staying as Fiona wants it) and the DA* 50-135 being likely to go as it hardly gets used with the 60-250 around. Fionas kit consists of 35 Ltd for 95% of the time, 18-55 WR and whatever I keep!

Getting rid of a lot of lenses, especially the ones we've had and then sold on might horrify some of you but it's actually becoming quite liberating. Lack of choice means just getting on with it. Do I take out the 60-250 or the 300? If I take the 300 do I take the 50-135 as well? These questions don't happen as much anymore because they are not there.

With the current DA* zoom range being as good as it is, it has made the decision making easier. The only primes I have now are the DA*55 as I do want one fast lens and the WR macro. Everything else just hasn't been that much better for me to warrant keeping (i'm looking at you 31 Ltd! Nice, but not £1000 better than the 16-50 at 31mm).

If the 50-135 goes, the rest (apart from the 250-600!) can fit in my normal camera bag, so I can take my entire kit with me at all times covering fast, macro, fisheye and focal lengths from 12-250 with some of the best zoom lenses you can get!

With fewer lenses to choose from I will also have more time to learn the ones we've kept and that is one of my resolutions for this year, especially where the 250-600 is concerned. It feels kind of good having done this, weird but true, but I'm glad it's been done.

For me, at least for now, less is more!

Looking through the forum classifieds, I think that a lot of my surplus kit is unlikely to be of much interest to other forum members (cheap 70-200 manual zooms and M42 teleconverters etc).

I'll certainly put some of the nicer Pentax stuff up there before eBay, though.

I have to admit that the idea of a K5 did cross my mind, too. Nice to hear that it worked out for you.

As TT said though if you are planing on selling kit please try on the forum first rather than going straight to e-bay. It saves you money and gives your fellow forummers the chance of a bargain. If it doesn't sell here after a while you can always put it on e-bay later.


I don't have LBA, never have had. I do have a lens I am thinking of selling. Like Danny the 50-135mm gets little use with the 60-250mm around. However I do like the F2.8 on it on occasion so haven't made up my mind on that one yet.

With the exception of the fisheye I admit to being envious of Danny's collection, but know I don't need and wouldn't use some of them, and have other areas covered by other Pentax and non Pentax lenses.

This is the main reason why I haven't just sold the 50-135, the 2.8 keeps it hanging around, and wondering if having a K-5 will negate that completely?

My funds are now more limited than they were, so selling stuff to fund purchases is the way to go (good thing though as we have far too much unused unsold gadgets lying around!) This makes the K-5 'out of reach' at the moment, especially with the new tripod / head purchase as well.

Selling the 50-135 would bring the K-5 back into play which would go down very well on the new lens, I could even find an argument that says the K-5 is an essential purchase for it! Whilst selling both the 50-135 & K-7 would easily get me the K-5, the thinking is that a back up body when I go out for dedicated trips with the new lens would be very important.

Question is Gwyn, now that you have the K-5 with it's far better ISO range, is the F2.8 important anymore? Could you sell it and not miss it especially owning the 60-250 as well?

Tempted to put the 50-135 up for sale now before I think too much about it!

Depends what you shoot with it, doesn't it... if you're like me, f2.8 and iso 6400 still isn't enough sometimes... but I've never had a shot off the Sigma 30mm 1.4 I'm happy with, either, so f-stop isn't the answer, but I don't think the K5 will give me anything more than one stop better than the Kx, and my ISO 3200 shots are noisy, too. Hello D3s oh dear, that CBA not LBA...

a completely random DA* 50-135 F2.8 ISO 6400 shot...no noise reduction apart from whatever Lightroom does by default - its very noisy at full size.

Flossie, there is severe front focus on that lens

On topic..

I had a substantial collection of lenses two years ago, too many overlaps in some ranges, and the occasion where I would spend time deciding what to take out (MZ-S - Z-1 or Z-1p and Sigma 70-200 or 100-300) - now I have ended up with the range in my signature.

So I understand your need to refine your lens collection.

Of course, it was also prompted by the desire (not the need:blush for Full-frame so I went feet first for the D3, and my lens collection has been tailored to avoid too much duplication and maintain quality. next stop is the AF-S 24-120 G VR, and then the next plug will be the DA*300 to fill the hole left by the Tokina 400 and Sigma 100-300.

Na, I went through a long spell of having the camera set to focus only when I pressed the "AF" button, due to annoyance at missing so many shots whilst the Kx umms and ahhs about finding the focal point in the dark (particularly with the DA 12-24 - its infinity you idiot camera...).

Anyway, maybe I wanted his hand in focus not his face...

apologies for thread hijack!

What is this LBA that you all talk of ?