How many cameras do you have?

Update: I've been mentioned on a friend's blog:

http://saponebolla.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-pictures-from-pro.html#comment-form

Nikon D50, my workhorse camera

I have heard that question every once in a while, but I think the more important question is this: how many cameras do you need and if you have more than one, why? I have 4 cameras that everyone would call a camera plus a video camera plus all 3 cell phones in the house have cameras on board. Now I know most people discount a cell phone camera, but back in the day my very first digital camera was only 2 Mega pixels and I thought it was the most awesome invention I had ever seen. It was even a major reason I became interested instead of tolerant towards computers. All of these cameras are digital, and I have found that the lack of film encourages everyone in the house to shoot pictures without feeling like they shouldn't because they aren't artists.

Point and Shoot Cameras in my household

As you can see from the photos, there is quite a selection of makers too. The video camera and the top silver camera are both Canon. The silver camera in the bottom of the photo is a Samsung, and the red camera is a Vivitar. I don't have any strong brand loyalty towards my cameras and more than I do towards the maker of my wrench set. They are tools and they have different uses, fundamentally their use is to allow me to make the images I want when I want to make them. The Canon point and shoot went with me daily to the construction site to record our progress on building the house. It has paint and drywall mud on the case and it help up brilliantly to the abuse of the work site. The Vivitar I purchased when I had lost the Canon on the job site for a few days and I needed a camera to record our progress. The Samsung is the camera that goes in the car's glove box on our adventures geocaching, and the video camera is used only for shooting video. And then there is my big camera, the Nikon with the telephoto lens.

Now that I am not working on a construction site daily, I tend to carry my camera bag with me most of the time. Now that I have my camera bag with me, I most frequently shoot with the Nikon. But this is the key, I am an artist before I ever pick up a camera. The camera is only a tool I use to make my art, and the tool I use is the tool I have on hand. There have been photos that I took with a cell phone camera, because it was the only tool I had with me. It might not have been the same as using a different camera, but I still have some beautiful images that I deliberately designed as art for that format.

So I have access to 8 cameras, and I don't feel like I have too many. When we go on a family trip somewhere, everyone has a camera to record whatever catches their attention. When I am out and about, I nearly always have a camera available and that is a good thing. None of these cameras gathers dust, so I would say that I don't have too many cameras. I do have my favorites, and there are a couple of these cameras that I wouldn't buy if I had to do it over again, but it is the same way I have my favorite paintbrushes. I don't throw out the brushes I don't like, I just use them differently.

How many cameras do you have? And how many do you use?