Down the Road

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My camera cabinet

Jim Grey
35 comments on My camera cabinet

For the 40-plus years I’ve collected cameras, I’ve kept most of them in boxes that I stored in closets and under the bed. For years I’ve dreamed of storing them all in a single, visible, easily accessed place. I’ve just fulfilled that dream by buying this cabinet.

This would not have been possible had I not said goodbye to so many cameras in Operation Thin the Herd. I would have needed at least three cabinets this size to store all of the cameras I owned!

Here’s a tour of my camera cabinet! I said everything here off the cuff so forgive me for calling my Olympus Trip 35 an Olympus Trip 75!

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Comments

35 responses to “My camera cabinet”

  1. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Nice! I did the same things, ie, boxes, under the bed etc. I need to thin the herd too! My wife says my cameras hanging out are like roaches, I say they’re like my babies 😀👍🏻

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Fortunately, my wife encourages me in my hobby! She’s happy that I’m happy to finally have one central place to store my gear.

      Reply
    2. Doug Anderson Avatar
      Doug Anderson

      I’ve found having a defined and easily accessible storage space for camera gear very helpful in limiting further acquisitions. The LTM Leicas and lenses are in the upper cubbies of my roll top desk. The Nikon F’s (one bought from you) and lenses are in one drawer of the desk.

      Reply
      1. Jim Grey Avatar
        Jim Grey

        That’s also part of my plan: this is where I store my cameras, ALL of them, and that naturally limits the collection.

        Reply
      2. Sam Avatar
        Sam

        Thanks for your advice Doug! I tried to group cameras together but they always end up getting mixed up. I shall try your methods. Appreciate the advice, thanks!

        Reply
  2. brandib1977 Avatar
    brandib1977

    Love the cabinet! Isn’t it nice having everything in one place and protected from damage?

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      It also just makes me happy when my stuff has a good place to call home.

      Reply
      1. brandib1977 Avatar
        brandib1977

        I hear ya. It is a satisfying feeling.

        Reply
  3. bodegabayf2 Avatar
    bodegabayf2

    Very cool! Nice to have them all in one place and easy to get to!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Very much so! And it’s six feet from my desk in my home. Very convenient! For the first time in my life.

      Reply
  4. Joe shoots resurrected cameras Avatar
    Joe shoots resurrected cameras

    I’m still surprised they all fit!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      There’s room for a few more!

      Reply
  5. Dan James Avatar
    Dan James

    Very good idea to have them all together. But really, is this all of them Jim? I thought you still had dozens more!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I really have sold and given away a lot of cameras over the last few years! This really is all of them.

      Reply
  6. Marc Beebe Avatar
    Marc Beebe

    Wonderful! This is a dream I too had, but could never achieve with the hundreds of cameras I’d accumulated. I’m actively trying to reduce my herd to three, believe it or not.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      If you achieve it, you won’t need a cabinet like this — they’ll all fit in a drawer!

      Reply
  7. Victor Villaseñor Avatar
    Victor Villaseñor

    Pretty nice! I’ve considered this, but I really don’t want to just collect, all cameras must be user cameras. I have managed to stay at 3 shelfs on the wall. Once shelf space runs out, something has to go (this includes lenses).

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I used to be primarily a collector, but now I’m primarily a shooter — so all of my cameras must remain users or I will sell them on or give them away. ATM I have 50 in the keep pile, which still feels like too many.

      Reply
      1. Victor Villaseñor Avatar
        Victor Villaseñor

        I have keept to the Minolta SR mount and the A mount, all the lenses work great on the Sony A7 with an adapter (even AF for the A lenses), with that approach, I have 3 P&S, 1 fixed lens Rangefinder, 4 SLR’s, it already feels too many. I am 100% sure my CFO (wife) wont let me jump into another system, nor my shelf space.

        Reply
        1. Jim Grey Avatar
          Jim Grey

          When my wife and I married I let her know that cameras are a thing for me and it’s unlikely to change. She’s been good about it all along!

          Reply
  8. Katie Yang Avatar
    Katie Yang

    Gorgeous, spacious cabinet – so jealous haha!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Thanks! I can hardly believe that after all these years my gear finally has a home like this.

      Reply
  9. DougD Avatar
    DougD

    Nice tour. Anybody ever tell you that you’ve got a voice for radio? :)

    Having stuff in one area would be great. I’ve got guitars hidden all over the house. Sometimes I take one out to play in church and my wife goes “Hey, I’ve never seen that before, where did that come from?”

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I feel so much better when everything of one type is in one place!

      Your method, however, lets you sneak new guitars into the house undetected…

      Reply
  10. kennethwajda Avatar
    kennethwajda

    Nice one, Jim! I only have one small cabinet that I keep a handful of non-bagged cameras in, the rest are in bags on shelves ready to go.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      For a good while I had most of my SLR in bags with lenses and other stuff. The bags just take up so much space! So I got rid of them, all but one. 95% of the time when I travel I take a body and one lens and just carry it.

      Reply
      1. kennethwajda Avatar
        kennethwajda

        I can see how that would work well, too!

        Reply
  11. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    That’s really smart, I am very jealous. My stuff is taking up all the space space in my bedroom. One day, one day :-)

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      It takes two things: (a) space and (b) money. Turns out I had a little of both, and so could fulfill this longtime dream!

      Reply
  12. Kodachromeguy Avatar
    Kodachromeguy

    Nice work at culling and organizing! You have inspired me to look st a cabinet the I have with glass front and reorganize my cameras. I have found that I still need separate plastic boxes for filters, straps, and miscellaneous items specific to each brand.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I have an old Instamatic box serving to store filters and 620 spools, and a small plastic box storing my batteries. Little bits just need a little box.

      Reply
  13. Steve Mitchell Avatar
    Steve Mitchell

    Very nice! I have a cabinet in my study, half is for books and half for cameras. I made two extra shelves for the camera half, but is is now full to the brim. And it doesn’t contain the cameras presently being used. My wife has recently started shooting film and has commandeered two of my Contax bodies and three lenses, so I have breathing space for the time being ;)

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Maybe your wife will go all in on film and you can buy a bigger cabinet!

      Reply
  14. Zoran Vaskic Avatar
    Zoran Vaskic

    That’s impressive. I say that because being more a collector still rather than a shooter of my film cameras, I know it’s not easy to want to part with any camera I have. And I see that there are many others who are like this. Having checked in on your blog the past 3-4 years I am surprised at the seeming small number of cameras in your cabinet. This took a bit of time to achieve! My biggest issue is not so much having too many, I’m okay with that. Rather its letting the whole thing become a disorganized mess, recently I tidied and organized and it feels and looks way better. Now to start some shooting, the collecting bug has definitely waned. Hats off to your work in getting things down to a small and cozy herd.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I was like that. I had probably 300 cameras at peak. But they just atrophied in the various boxes I had them stored in. I’d like to thin my herd a little more, maybe down to 30 or so, but man that’s hard.

      Reply

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