gdanmitchell
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 p.22 #4 · After 13 years of all Sony, I'm trying Nikon | |
Erictator wrote:
Man, do I know that song well...totally agree! Sure we pursue perfection, but if you can't hit a hole in one on all 18 holes do you quit golf? Or can't bowl turkeys every time quit bowling? No, so we accept our limitations and try to do our "personal best" hoping it's better than the competition.
Same here. If you are doing paid photography, you tend to buy what you know will make you money, and you work it to death until you squeezed every dime back out of it until you feel it is holding you back from making money or getting clients because its not up to the job anymore and the competition is squeezing you out. This upgrade wagon is only more of a thing recently with the addition of tech to the equation, like stacked sensors leading to better video, which people seem to want even more than still photo's in wedding work lately. A lot of guys shot 120mm formals and ran around with a 35mm for everything else. In the old days there was some shifting around between formats, 645 film was a game changer for me with the Pentax 645, AF and a built in motor drive and multiple pre-loaded 220 back's I thought I had gone to heaven, compared to a twin lens hand crank Rollie or Mamiya and my Nikon F3 HP, it was a rocket ship. Once I got the Pentax 645, I just shot everything on that, it was just so simple and good.
I was never full time, it was always a sideline, but I'm out of the game and have been for a while. I still have some friends/colleagues, etc actively shooting for pay. I only do occasional head shots and web graphics stuff for my IT clients who happen to know my background.
For hobby/enthusiast stuff these days, since switching to Sony MILC I have to work hard to fight the temptation to constantly try new stuff. Yes, there are lenses I think about, but I stop and ask myself, is it a want or a need? Am I just bored with what I have? Is it going to just sit on the shelf? And will I take the time to sell the old one it is replacing, if it is an upgrade? I don't want to accumulate too much like I did back in my old system, and the memory of that has helped me keep a saner approach this time around with Sony.
Don't get me wrong, there are lenses and bodies I would really like to have, I'd love an A-1 II, and the 600 F4, and the new 400-800mm, and the 85mm GMII, but then I remind myself, I'm not making a dime off this anymore and I have already got great gear and get great shots already, I just need to get out more often and multiply the opportunities, not the gear. Of all those, the 400-800mm is really the only one that still gets serious consideration from me, and I would have to decide if I'd keep my 200-600mm or if would be a swap out. At the moment, I'm in a holding pattern with what I have.
There is another saying for you Scott from when I was younger and actively in competition, it is about performance and winning, but you can correlate it to what we do here. "Almost everybody serious about competing in your particular field of interest can get to the top 90% of performance at one time or another, it's that last 10% and doing it consistently that is a B!tch!" Heh heh. You can add the word "expensive" to the end of that quote, which I have used interchangeably as well when it comes to equipment to compete with.
For enthusiast stuff, I will admit that if you get in a creative slump, a new piece of gear can get the creative juices flowing sometimes, like a new lens with a different field of view than anything you already own, or a body with a new capability, etc. If you can afford it, and you think you will make good use of it, more power to you. But if you think a new lens with 5 more LPMM of resolving power is going to change your photography in a big way, I think that is just setting yourself up for disappointment. Copy variation of even the best lenses can make that advantage moot. I'd rather spend the money on travel, go see something new and get inspired to go shoot something different.
That is my .02 anyway.
Eric...Show more →
I don’t make a full time living from photography. I sell and license some stuff, but my income comes from someplace else. But my world includes folks who do make full time livings from photography, and there’s so much about that reality that is misunderstood and misinterpreted by folks who aren’t familiar i with it.
For example, while the folks I know do upgrade equipment from time to time, they are typically very much not the “buy every new thing that comes out” sort of people. There are lots of reasons for this, inclduing:
- In most cases, there’s a financial calculation involved. Buying the new thing has costs, and if those costs lead to a net loss in income they are not worth it for the “fun” of buying new stuff. As an example, they tend to not jump on each new upgrade, more likely making more thoughtful upgrades when necessary over a longer interval of time.
- they generally tend to be more rational about the potential benefits of new things and how much (or little) they will improve/change their photography. While they do keep up with what is coming out, they’ll look at that new iteration of a lens and ask how much it will really improve their photographs. (One acquaintance, an early adopter of digital MF, took several years to test it against scanned 4x5 before he finally moved.)
- Because the use of their gear becomes second nature, they hesitate to make overly-frequent changes that will require them to learn new instincts, thus interfering with their photography. They’ll occasionally move to something quite different — a different format or a new brand — but usually only after careful research and consideration.
- they rarely (I can’t think of an example) buy into the “perfect” gear syndrome, and they recognize that everything has its pluses and minuses, and that it is more about getting excellent gear that is fit for purpose and they using it well.
- after owning and using a lot of gear (very good gear in some but not all cases), the thrill of acquiring yet another new thing diminishes.
And, of course, there are all kinds of different working photographers. The range of folks I’ve known spans people making a living from landscape photography (and writing and teaching it, with other commercial work on the side) to a guy who was in charge of a corporate office pumping out product images for a catalog.
One final aside: There are exceptions, but I’m generally unimpressed by people who constantly jump from camera to camera, lens to lens, format to format, brand to brand, seemingly compelled to buy every new thing. I’m more impressed by those who might make a change or two over the long term and who can demonstrate their competence through their photographs rather than how much stuff they buy.
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