Let's get cynical, cynical...

If you NEED a camera upgrade (read: buying a new camera before the old one is dead) to take your business to the next level, I have some cooking pots to make you a better cook and a special hammer that makes great houses as well. Before continuing, let's note that we all get pissed when someone says, "Wow! Your camera takes really nice pictures!" but for some reason we don't recognize that we are being told by the industry (and believing enough to spend money!) that we can't take nice pictures without a new camera. Listen up.

A brief history of the camera can be found at Wikipedia. It's a pretty good read - you should check it out. I'll sum it up: we've come a long way, baby. The biggest challenges faced by photographers - understanding the mechanisms, developing the chemistry, figuring out how to add light (magnesium powder in a trough - BRILLIANT!) and to make permanent prints and how to make moving pictures and... that's pretty much all ancient history. When affordable DSLR cameras first started hitting the shelves a little over a decade ago, they were a whopping 4MP. Nikon's top of the line DSLR with a $5000 price tag stayed there right up until 2007, and those 4MP images were used to print in fashion magazines and on giant billboards and canvases and even 4x6's for scrapbooking. It's interesting to note that by that time, Canon had already made the jump to 16MP. 2009 and 2010 saw the introduction of HD video being added to DSLR cameras, with even entry-level DSLRs at 14MP or more, and it's safe to say that we had already far surpassed what was ever available in the days of film both in terms of ease of use (using a knob to change ISO instead of having to use a knob to reel in half a roll of ISO100, mark the canister with how many frames were used so you could reload it later, then pop in and reel out the half-used roll of ISO400 was a HUGE breakthrough) AND quality/resolution (from what I've read, I believe a film image shot in large format on ISO50 would be a lower resolution than a digital image shot at ISO50 on a 22MP 1.5x crop sensor camera.)

When industry forerunner Canon (the company who pushed hardest to saturate the market when they introduced the first DSLR for under $1000 with their "now everyone can shoot like a pro" campaign) I'm sure they hoped for but couldn't have imagined the sheer quantity of fledgling photographers who would embrace this philosophy, heading out in droves to pick up their entry-level DSLR and shoot, shoot, shoot! But of course, with all these newbs around they had to keep upping the ante and creating bigger and better and more technologically advanced (and expensive) cameras for the eternal pissing contest that often reduces industry insiders to labelling people as "pro" or "not pro" based on their equipment.

I have to - I must - reiterate for the thousandth time that it is NOT about the camera, it never has been, and never will be. Now. I would be a liar if I said I didn't drool over some of the new features that have come out since I bought a second camera and my older one became a back-up (I'm not up to filmmaking technology on either of my ancient beasts yet) but I can't justify spending right now, not when the equipment I have has served me so well and is not falling apart or malfunctioning or carrying a weird odour that makes it repulsive to hold up to my face and use. I refuse to fall victim to the marketing machines behind the new camera culture who every year come up with some new fandangled thing that really doesn't add anything to my craft, but certainly adds to their profit margin.

What does this have to do with pots and hammers? Here's what:

Logically, if you can't take your photography to the next level with the camera you have, you are not ready for an upgrade because an upgraded camera isn't going to make you a better photographer anymore than buying a new pot will make you a better cook or getting a state of the art hammer will make you capable of building a house. Your crappy images will just be high-resolution debt-bearing crappy images. And if you are the type who is susceptible to the BS that some so-called "pros" are throwing around when they look down their nose and say, "THAT's what you're shooting with?" the only advice I have is for you to learn this phrase: "Yeah, and...?" The FUN part will be listening to them spew off the marketing spiel posted on the manufacturer's website making it the best and only choice for real pros. ~insert eye rolling and gagging noises here~ They will ice the cake by letting you know it's what you need to remain competitive in the industry (one that the manufacturers incidentally themselves set the standards for) so we always have a reason to feel insecure because we are judged for our proverbial cooking pot instead of the food we created. ~insert heavy sigh here~

The real question isn't if new equipment has benefits - sure it does, of course it does - but what is the motivation behind developing all this new technology? So the camera manufacturers can make money. First they sell you a camera that is good for several hundred thousand shutter clicks (I am personally over 200,000 on both of my fully functioning and problem-free cameras) but of course if the camera isn't breaking (that would hurt business, selling cameras that die too fast) and you've already bought all the lenses you want and/or need, HOW on EARTH can they get you to spend again? Well, by changing the rules of the game so you have to upgrade, change platforms, and spend more money, of course. They sell the idea that a bigger better camera with ~insert features here~ will propel you to the next level of photography and earn you not only more money but the respect, perhaps even the envy of your peers. Using megapixels and programmable whatchamacallits and the addition of an X and a new number to the previous model they will distract you from the fact that unless your camera is busted you probably don't need a new camera. And then they will do it to you all over again the next year so that you're always left wanting, waiting, watching for what you don't have. I believe this process diminishes our value as talented photographers, making our credibility dependent on the equipment we own and turning our cameras into accessories that go out of style like last year's shoes.

What you NEED is a camera body that works. Invest in good glass, buy glass that you LOVE. Learn, learn, learn, then learn some more. Network. Hang out with fellow enthusiasts and artists and hobbyists. Play. Explore. Become a master at your craft so that any camera you get handed is one you can work like a true blue die hard camera-totin' rock star. A camera is just a tool, and while nice tools are nice to have, they don't (and shouldn't) define me as a professional much less as an artist. In my view, a photographer will be able to create beautiful images with whatever camera they happen to have in hand. When a camera wears out or breaks or dies, there is a NEED to buy a new one, so have fun shopping (I'm hoping mine doesn't die for a bit as Pentax hasn't announced its next model yet!) but if your camera ain't done for, you might want to consider if you've simply fallen victim to keeping up with the Joneses mentality by overlooking that whole, "My camera doesn't take nice pictures, I do!" thing.

Here's something to consider, too, if you've upgraded in the past and felt like you had a quantum leap in your career because of it. Over time, your skills are bound to improve. With experience and education, regardless of what camera you're using, you're going to grow as an artist. As you gain more confidence and develop a style, your pictures get better and better. As a direct result of your hard work, learning, and diligence, you have become a better photographer, but if you upgrade your camera once a year, it's entirely possible that you are attributing this improvement to the camera instead of yourself. Because we all know that a nice camera doesn't take nice pictures, right? We expect our clients to respect that, so it's high time we learn to embrace it too and stop allowing ourselves to be made to feel inadequate by both the industry and our peers.

Of course getting a new camera is exciting. New toys are always fun. Our desire to scroll in closer and closer with computers, closer than we could ever have magnified a standard negative or print, is addictive and a little unhealthy. When designers and magazine editors who print magazines to a standard 8.5 x 11 format, who might print a billboard or large ad on the side of a bus where we will never be inspecting with a magnifying glass for clarity, who might post a couple of low- to medium-resolution images on the web start dictating that RAW files must be sized 12MB or greater, it means that the industry standard for a "professional" photographer has been set by whichever company is making the cameras with the biggest sensors. While on one hand this might eliminate a few hacks who seriously don't know how to use their camera yet, I can name at least 5 people who shoot on 16MP or smaller cameras who would automatically be out of a job because unless they are taking a picture of something with a lot of information to be recorded, there is no way digitally possible to provide a RAW headshot of one guy on a white backdrop that meets that criteria without buying what we've been sold. I, for one, am not buying it.

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I think if you owned the coolest most expensive hammer on the planet, I would personally be more impressed if you still managed to hammer together a mansion when you got handed a last season's peep-toe high heel to use.