The Gear Acquisition Syndrome - March 16, 2026

Since starting on this website and starting to upload the 'old' photos from my HDD, I was bit ironically not much on photography until very recently. With many reasons behind - seasonal depression, current events, career pressures, etc and etc - I want to more talk about how I broke the hiatus and lack of motivation this time: buying a new gear.

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This is what I have recently bought, Viltrox 85mm F2 EVO. In many ways it was a new kind of purchase for me - buying a lens as brand new, my first telephoto prime lens (I have tried 80mm prime before, but as by using Canon's 50mm prime lens on their crop sensor DSLR), and also with an aperture ring I have been yearning for.

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And it was a fun experience. Since I am more used to taking photos in wide angle unless in certain situations such as zoos and macro photography, it was a little disorienting to use at times, but re-experiencing such shallow depth of field on the narrow field of view - now with great details of the lens and the full frame sensor, and the new experience of rotating on aperture ring instead of constantly flickering the camera rings were simply a lot of fun.

This had me thinking about the term 'Gear Acquisition Syndrome', where many photographers have mentioned it as something to avoid and as a 'lesson' in appreciating what you have got. Which, while I greatly agree with, also made me think that such syndrome may be less about avoidance but more of a 'tool' in searching what you need.