DO YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOUR CAMERA? [HERE'S THE ANSWER]

Your camera is obsolete! Aren't you going to change it or what?

Don't worry. She was joking, he was trying to provoke you. But it's true, we are extremely susceptible to this type of comment.

We photographers launched into a frenzied race to get hold of the latest cameras: it fills us with pride to have a state-of-the-art camera, one that is the maximum expression of state-of-the-art technology. After a year and a half, two at the most, we already began to have that feeling that our team has become obsolete. And so we enter a shopping spree in which we spend more time buying equipment and changing it for another than taking photos.

What was the means and what was the goal?
Wasn't the ultimate goal to take good photos?

It seems that the camera, a simple medium, matters much more than the photos that we will be able to produce with it.

Do you identify with this situation? Anything, even just a little?
Go. confess.

WHERE IS THE LIMIT?

It is possible that our camera becomes "really" obsolete. It is legitimate that after a certain time, we feel the need to grow photographically speaking. I'm not saying you don't have to change cameras, of course you do, but only when you really have to . The problem is that many times we imagine that it is time to change it, when in reality it is not the case.

If you use to change cameras every 1 or 2 years, let me tell you that "there is something wrong". It is important to know what you want before making an important investment such as the purchase of photographic equipment, but once made, it should last you at least 4 or 5 years.

In the past, the cameras were renewed much less frequently. A model would come out and photographers would use it for 10 or 15 years. It shocks me how happy those photographers were when I think about the poor performance those cameras had, compared to any amateur SLR today. At the same time, it makes me wonder: how come we photographers today feel so constrained and unhappy with today's DSLRs, which far outperform most older SLRs?

THE CAMERA INDUSTRY GAME

Don't worry. If you feel an irrepressible urge to throw away your camera and buy another one, it's not your fault. That is someone is doing their job well. Yes, a commercial, an advertising director or a marketing team.

The camera companies themselves leave a beastly money every year in advertising and marketing campaigns strategically designed to make us believe that our current camera is limited and that it is time to invest money in another, one that will solve our problem. life.

It doesn't matter if you have the best camera in the world. There is a man out there who, in order to collect his salary at the end of the month, pay a mortgage, or feed a family, needs to convince you to buy more . It works like this.

In addition to commercial and marketing strategies, the camera brands' own engineering departments contribute their bit so that you buy more, more and more cameras. I eat? With what they call “Planned obsolescence”.

This basically consists of producing an intentionally limited camera so that it doesn't last your whole life, and after a very short time you feel the need to buy another one. This is a reality recognized by many brands. If you want to know more about the subject, I recommend you take a look at « Buy, throw away, buy…«, an excellent documentary that was recently broadcast on 2 Spanish Television, and that is worth watching.

BEFORE YOU BUY: ASK YOURSELF A FEW QUESTIONS

As I said at the beginning, not all camera purchases are impulsive or unnecessary. Sometimes we really need a makeover. But: How do you know if this is the case, or if we are falling into the brand trap?

Ask yourself the following questions:

What will change in your life or in your photography when you have that camera and that lens capable of autofocusing 2 thousandths of a second more than your current equipment is capable of?
When you abandon your 12-megapixel cameras and get a 28-megapixel camera, how do you plan to change the world?
Do you really think you're going to revolutionize photography when you can shoot at 12 frames per second?
What bothers you about your current photos? Not from your current camera, I said from your photos. Forget about the camera ?

HOW TO DISSUADE YOURSELF FROM THE IDEA OF CHANGING PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT?

If with what you have read in the article you still want to renew your camera, try the following:

1. Search for photos on Flickr, Pinterest, 500px and other social networks of photographers, made with the same model as your camera or lens. See what others are capable of producing with the same equipment as the one you have. What makes you different from them? Why do you need a top camera?

1. Invest the money you have in a good photography course, in a trip or photographic project.

1. Acquire additional equipment and accessories that you need to evolve as a photographer, but without changing cameras (lighting, flashes, accessories, the king of lenses , etc.)

Check the number of photos you have taken so far with the camera you want to change, they usually have a useful life of between 100,000 and 150,000 photos (for more information on how to check the number of shots on your camera, visit this post ) What you only have 20,000 photos? Then it's time to wait (and take photos, by the way).

Sorry to be honest ? Thank you for spreading this call for resistance.
Happy photography.