Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Well, as this picture of a cat says, you can't unmountain do what's already mountain done. So I guess I'm still in this campaign to brutally pound one of these flaming hot mountain dudes in an effort to get Kodak to bring back AeroKrom. Well the new M6 re-issue is got me thinking, not about Leica, but instead about shuffling some gear around. There comes a time in everyone's life where they have to let go of some of their film cameras because they got way too over addicted and now they have too many. Think of it kind of like rehab. I mean the cameras I'm letting go of will just be replaced by other film cameras, so guess I'm not really rehabilitated. But first, why might someone want to downsize their gear? There are a plethora of different reasons, like too much gear. Photographic style is moving in a different direction. Or if you're like me, you spend too much time on Instagram looking at gear and want to explore some options. More realistically, I prefer to use some cameras over others, which means that some cameras get left on the shelf and that ain't right. After all, film cameras are meant to be used. That's probably by them. The cameras that I'm letting go of all have one consecutive theme in common. They don't really fit into my typical field workflow and thus they're not conducive to the type of photography that I want to create. Let's start with the Polaroid SX70. I have two of them. One that can shoot standard SX70 film and one that can shoot 600 film. Here's the issue though. I don't ever shoot these. I find Polaroid quality to be total ass and I never really know what to do with the images when they're done. Some people say just give them to your friends, but you have to have friends for that to happen. So I've never been happy with SX70 film. I just can never seem to get the results I was hoping for. 600 film on the other hand is fine, I guess. I plan on keeping the SX70 that can shoot 600 film. The plan for now is to use it to take pictures of guests that we have over in our apartment, like the usual scholars, diplomats and home intruders. And I'm going to put those Polaroids up on the refrigerator of shame for eternity. I think it'll be a cool project, but not so much an artistic one. So in my current workflow, there really isn't much room or need for a standard SX70 camera. Next up, the whole gun. I think it's fairly obvious why I don't want this anymore. I shot this camera once and it was cool for the time, I guess, but overall this camera's plastic building, sh**, smear image quality is not really doing it for me. Friend of mine did ask if she can have it and I'm more than willing to hand it over to her. I'm standing over the cursed Jumaji board to the next person. Will I ever miss it? No. Is this camera secretly an underground gem? Definitely not. On my deathbed, will I ever regret getting rid of it? Probably not, but we'll find out in a year or two. It's definitely a camera for some people, but it ain't for me. So it's going to be departing my film camera armory. Okay, well, no one said this would be easy and I'm sorry if I cry a little bit, but the next camera I'm getting rid of is going to be a hard goodbye. The Pentax 6x7. This camera was my first 120 love and you never forget your first medium format camera. The problem is the more I shoot with it, the more I realize that I prefer a lighter and I guess more stealthy set up to carry around and the Pentax 6x7 is literally the antithesis of that completely. It weighs about as much as a baby gator if that helps you visualize it and the booming shutter slap will 100% give away your location if you're shooting an enemy territory. It's the kind of shutter slap that makes babies cry and grown men tremble in fear. Because the Pentax is so bulky and heavy, it's just not the first camera I pick up to go shoot with most of the time. It's cumbersome and the more I used it, the more I realized that that camera was meant to be a studio camera or at least a barbell at the gym. It's going to be tough for me to let it go because I've taken some of my favorite photos on that camera. It literally began my journey into analog superficiality. The lenses on this system are truly unmatched as well. The 105.2.4 is godlike. It's why people get into this system. If you've ever used it, you know what I'm talking about. It's just a longer lens overall and I typically don't like to shoot that close. I mean, I can't even remember the last time I used the 105. I'm also going to be getting rid of this 75mm 2.8, which is a totally ridiculous statement to some people because a lot of people search far and wide for this light sucking beast. This lens is also on the daddy tier of lenses out there as illustrated by the price and lack of supply online. This is one of the sharpest and most well corrected lenses I've ever used and I'll be sad to see it go. But all good things must come to an end as my proctologist often says to me. The 55mm is going as well. It's a fine lens. It's just a really big and impossible to use filters with. The Pentax soft lens, however, I am keeping. I ordered an adapter to mount Pentax 6.7 lenses on my Nikon F cameras, which makes it look totally ridiculous. That soft lens is just such a unique look that I just can't let it fly away. While the Pentax 6x7 is a great system, but I just cannot justify its continued ownership if I don't use it very often. More or less because it doesn't fit into the typical workflow that I use out in the field. Next up is a camera that I'll have no issues getting rid of because it's annoying and I hate it. You can guess what it is by solving this little riddle. What's worse than puking and sh**ing at the exact same time. That's right, the Nishika N8000. When was the last time I even used this thing? Who cares? The camera is super plastic. The kind of plastic that'll probably be melted down one day and injected into someone's ass. Every time you wind the thing, you're unsure if it's working correctly and if it's one wind away from snapping completely. I mean, the results are cool and all, but the amount of work on the back end to process those photos and then turn them into gifts or whatever you want to do with them is just too much and it's not worth it. It can be artistic, I suppose, but most of the time I'm not even in that creative mindset to shoot that camera. So with that, it's hitting the open market quite soon and I'll probably forget about it two seconds after it's out the door. Last but not least, probably the biggest upset of this video and the camera that I had to think long and hard about because it makes you hard when you think long about it, the Plabble Makina 670. Yeah. I had to have Monica tortilla slap me several times to make sure I was in my right mind. You see, the seed was planted a long time ago when I talked to somebody else who also owned a Makina. Unfortunately, their copy was plagued with issues and it was kind of an expensive pain in the ass to get it fixed. And frankly, I already have enough ass pain. These Makinas are fantastic cameras but I kind of get the impression they aren't really made to stand the test of time. There are countless stories online about the light meter cable within the bellows snapping and the more I use the camera, the more I see it as a work of art instead of a machine that can handle a little abuse. And if you're writing with me, there's always going to be some version of roughing it and awkward conversation because I'm not a very social person. I'm definitely sad about it and I'll be dealing with my sadness in the usual way. Getting a gallon of raw cookie dough until I get salmon yellow poisoning and throw up. I feel like I've taken some absolutely beautiful photos with this camera. The Nicarolle lens on it is a dream lens that automatically makes all your shots look good somehow. It is a bit of a tighter lens than what I usually shoot and the lens itself is not interchangeable. So I don't really see much of a reason to own both the Makina 670 and the Mamiya 7. Especially if I'm starting to grow more and more interested in shooting 35mm anyway. It would just kind of feel like I was missing the point. Like the Leica M6 reissue. The focusing knob on the back of the body always took me some time to get used to anyway and the shutter speed and aperture selector being on the front of the lens was not really ideal. The Makina suffer the same fate as a lot of the other cameras that I've mentioned here. It just doesn't get used very often. Mostly because I'm afraid of taking it out and breaking it with my big meaty claws. What did you say, punk? Big meaty claws! So after much sad deliberation and finally understanding the pain involved for why wolves howl of the moon, I have decided to free this beast back into the jungle. It's a decision I'll probably come to regret but it's better it goes to a good home then sitting around in my office collecting dust and stray ksidiya particles. So what does the future hold? Who knows. As I said before, I think I'm moving into an era where 35mm is the way to go. I mean I love 6x7 but it's not always the perfect choice for this stuff I'm shooting. Especially because I've been seeing myself trend more towards 35mm lately. Even though Ken, the hammer rock well, says pros don't use 35. That and seeing the grain and overall imperfection of the film is what I'm after. I think the texture is something that is slightly lost sometimes on bigger formats. Especially when it's scaled and compressed down for YouTube on your phone screen when you're taking a dump at work. Not for nothing though, I still like shooting those bigger formats in different scenarios. But for most of my work, I think 35mm is a sweet spot. But speaking of things that are sweet, I'd like to quickly thank today's sponsor Squarespace. Squarespace is an all-in-one website building platform that can deliver the website of your dreams. The only ceiling is your own creativity. Start from the ground up by picking from hundreds of professionally designed templates that feature all sorts of classic style. From there build your website with add-on modules like photo galleries and text blocks. With Squarespace's intuitive user interface, it's incredibly easy and fast to make on the fly adjustments and additions. I've been using Squarespace to host my own photography website in portfolio for a couple years now and it's incredibly easy. Especially for someone like me who has never built a website before. Plus if you run into a snag, Squarespace offers award winning 24-7 customer service. 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