OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We all have experience buyers remorse. Ya know, your dying to get a camera or lens whatever, and finally you drop the bucks and for 97 seconds you are like happy. The problem is, that at second 98, you start to wonder if you really needed that camera or even wanted to spend the money. Ya start thinking ya made a mistake and your gut is twisting and turning and there just ain’t no peace of mind. Eventually in time ya get settled and the remorse goes away. Well, let me tellya about sellers remorse. Oh yeah, it’s a true and ugly thing it is.

See, the Ladies got me the Fuji X-Pro2 and I have the Fuji X100F. Sweet. oooops, photo time….

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Well, I have other cameras also but the Fuji’s are demanding and it’s a quality demand so I go with it. There, there on the shelf where the cameras live… is Serendipity the Olympus Pen-F. She’s sitting still and quiet. A few months pass and she’s still sitting still and quiet. So I get to thinking and it’s not always a good thing when I think. Sometimes I just need to act and not think. This becomes one of those times. I get to figuring that the Oly Pen-F is not getting used and is replaced by the Fuji cameras. Make sense to me and I start to get the idea of selling the Pen-F. I am not using names of the cameras now because it’s easier to detach without an identity.

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So, to make a long story shorter, I plan on selling my M-43 gear off again for the umteenth time.  Ok, I don’t have Alzheimers yet but i do have Partheimers. I forget some of the things some of the time. No joke, I have a memory issue getting worse. A few years ago I met Ray Sachs in town. We were at the Independence Park and Ray had a m-43 camera and the 12mm on it. He showed me the lens and I fell in love quickly. A few days later I had the 12mm. Ray told me he was selling off his M-43 gear but would always keep the 12mm. I mounted my copy on the Oly EP-5. That’s one heck of a screen camera. I loved it. So flash back is ended and now we are in the here and now. I decided eBay was hungry for my M-43 gear and was ready to list it all. I told a friend of my plan and he immediately wanted the Pen-5 and the 12mm-40mm 2.8 Zoom. I’m like real happy and know that everything will sell quickly.

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So I pack the Pen-F and zoom lens and get ready to ship. Ok, here’s the sentimental ole’ shooter in gear. I take the package to USPS near my home. I ship it to XXX and kinda happy. All I have to do is list the lenses. As I get in my car to drive home, I notice a sick feeling in my gut. I kinda try to ignore it. See, elders know that if you ignore things, most of the time they go away. So I get home and I go to my office and I look at my lenses to get ready to sell. I pickup the 12mm to make sure it’s clean to I can make a photo and then list it. As I look at it in my hand, I get a tremor thru my body. I’m kinda freaking out man. I have essential tremors anyway but this is different, it’s like my heart and soul are upset and making waves thru my body.

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All the sudden this cloak of emotional darkness is covering me and won’t let any light in. Now I really am sick and upset. I look at my cameras on the shelf for comfort. Everyone is looking at me like I’m a bad father or a prick or some damn thing. I realized that all things have a place in the world. It’s not important if you grok that or accept that at all. What matters is that when you see your place, you recognize what is missing. I now am a victim of my own doing and I need to rectify the situation immediately. I realize that Serendipity the Olympus Pen-F is gone and never to return. I felt a loss that I never had with a camera before and don’t want again.

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I knew I made a crucial mistake. I took the Pen-F for granted because I have the Fuji cameras and the Ricoh’s. The 12mm lens was just here on the shelf and I knew I needed that magic again. It’s now 4 hours since I shipped the camera. I called a friend that has the Pen-F on my say and does not use it. I make a deal and the next day I have the Pen-F in my hand. She needs a cleaning and has a cracked screen protector. So I take it to town today and the repair man says 2 hrs and $150.00 and it’s like new. I sat at the Liberty Bell waiting for him to call. Then, he calls and says it’s ready. I made it to his shop in 10 minutes flat, paid him and put my 12mm on. I felt a sense of well being that no camera has ever given me.

The moral of this story is that there exist a place for everything in life. The most important place is your heart and what you allow to live in it. Everything in the universe has a mission and we need to accept that we are not always in control and that maybe cameras are tools. Maybe they don’t talk. Maybe they just serve the shooter.

….but maybe, just maybe… a camera has a name and a place in your heart and souls. If you accept that and welcome that, you no longer question what value a camera has. You just know that it’s your partner in doing your life’s work and brings you the most satisfaction, more than any inanimate tool.

Here ye here ye one and all. Garry the Olympus Pen-F is home.