No not that kind of gas. G.A.S. other wise known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome is the act of buying new gear often. Most commonly thinking it will make you better. Most of the time you just end up with gear you never use. Why is that some wonder. Well, frankly, its because it doesn’t “make you better” the way you think it will. I am a firm believer that you do not need to buy gear until you can provide a valid reason to get it. Here are some questions to ask yourself before buying gear or upgrading your gear.
What am I trying to do that I can’t do now?
How is my current gear limiting me?
Is this a need or a want?
What are 10 images I create with this new piece day one?
If you can’t give valid responses for all of these you do not need to buy the gear you are looking at. Do not get me wrong you absolutely can! But I don’t see the need to waste the money.
Now lets look at some answers to those questions!
When I had a Canon 60D I was vastly limited by the iso performance or lack there of. The 60D is a great camera but pushing iso maxes out at 6400 and is unusable. As a photographer that mostly shoots at night this is a problem. I need to be able to push my iso to get some of the shots I was going for. Knowing this I knew the camera I needed was a full frame with great iso performance. It took many years but I finally upgraded to the Canon 6D. Full frame 20mp with usable images pushed to 12800. This solved many of my problems. I also upgraded my 50mm to the 1.4 I have now bought myself at least 3 full stops of light while keeping shutter speed. Again this took many years to get to. For a very long time I did what I could within the limits I had. And had many frustrating nights of shooting.
Currently I am a photographer at my church. Let me tell you how hard it is to shoot in the dark. This was when I upgraded my 50mm from the 1.8 to the 1.4 and what a huge difference that made. Now I don’t shoot at 1.4 unless it’s needed and it’s rare but having that option when shooting faces in near darkness helps. Also having the 6D helps with iso performance when pushing those stops.
Most of the time I think its a want. But that want does stem from some sort of need. I think in these moments we can look at how is this going to further my business. If you shoot for money of course. Do you shoot real estate and the widest lens you have is a 24-105mm then I think buying a 16-35 is a valid and great purchase. It will also further your business in being able to get those nice clean ultra wide angle shots you just can’t get with a 24mm.
10 images I needed to get that I couldn’t with my 60D was clean and crisp portraits at night. I am known for chasing neon lights. Being able to push to 3200 iso keeping my shutter speed at least 1/250 allowed me to play with my f stop to get cleaner tac sharp images. The biggest problem with shooting wide open at f1.4 is the plane of focus is very small. Now take into account you and the subject moving. Even is its the slightest movement undedicated by eye can make your focus move to their nose and off their eyes. Being able to move to 2.8 or even 4 helps with this. And for me shooting with neon light allows me to get the source of that light blurred just enough to make the image pop. One thing I learned in my 18 years is to not shoot wide open unless it’s needed. I thought all the pros did this but they do not. Unless wide open is 2.8 haha
Needless to say you are free to do what you want and buy whatever you want/need. I am just here to help you focus your money to areas you really need it and how to think about it. If you put your money into the right places you will not feel ripped off by a terrible purchase that the “hype” didn’t live up to. Just because something is a trend doesn’t mean it will work for you. Through all of this I want to say:
Gear does not make the photographer. If you can not see the image to begin with gear won’t magically do that for you. Gear only allows you access to capture what you see and want to create.
Now go out there and start creating!!!!
Peace
J
uncommonsight 