Addicted to Gear ....is this normal?

[Andrew Reid]

The internet allows you to make better decisions on what you DO buy.

However it never stops, there is always something new and better on the internet.

I find Flickr and YouTube compel me to buy stuff quite often... Flickr is a good way to find out if you like the look from a certain lens, but there are always great shots with every lens, so it's hard to be critical browsing through them all. While YouTube is very personal, very charismatic, it's like the great team of salesmen the camera companies never got themselves

[kye]

I see two mindsets when it comes to overall consumerism, people who concentrate on what they have and people who concentrate on what is for sale.

The people who concentrate on what they have follow this logic:

• Use what you have to do what you want to do
• On some kind of regular basis evaluate how well you did (at the end of each project, maybe annually, etc)
• Identify what are the most significant shortcomings are in your work, then work out how to address them
• If any of those shortcomings are from equipment, then have a look at what is available and if something will help you then buy it

The people who follow what is available do this:

• See a new camera is available
• Read many reviews, trying to sift through the vast discussion about their positive features to find the little 'gotchas' that indicate the limitations of the equipment
• Watch endless sample footage, fantasising that they are somehow a different style of film-maker living in a different part of the world
• Try and compare multiple products that are all designed for different applications against their poorly understood requirements
• Buy something, maybe multiple things
• Spend ages working out how to make them work
• Discover all the hidden limitations that weren't in any review because the reviewers were all trying to be first to beat the YT algorithm
• Maybe film something
• Then, 2 weeks later another camera is released and back to the beginning with you!

Out of all of my many flaws, one thing I can claim is that I started with a $97 point and shoot camera on my first overseas trip, and every upgrade since then has been based on me using the equipment I had in the real world, looking at the results, and then upgrading only when the weaknesses I wanted to address required equipment, as opposed to education or practice.

I love equipment and technology, but I'm far more interested in getting the most out of what I have rather than buying new stuff because it looks shinier than what I already have.