The Interwebs abound with gear lust, gear stories, gear advocacy, and gear worship. Every new product that comes out gets its share of “best gear yet” comments.
But the real “new and better” you should pay attention to is your own work. Are you trying new things photographically? Are you getting better photographically? If the answers to those things are no and you’re also still buying gear, you’re probably buying gear pointlessly. You’d be in a limbo area where you’re going through the motions (buying new gear) but not progressing in any way (not new or better photography).
Of course the general belief is that gear will make you a better photographer, and sometimes it does. One reason why DSLRs took off is that these cameras removed the uncertainty of whether you got the image or not (e.g. just check the photo you took via the Rear LCD: is it properly exposed, is it focused, is it framed properly?). With film, you had to wait (one hour or less, but more typically days).
Mirrorless tends to make better photographers in two ways: exposure and focus. Exposure because you see the exposure in the viewfinder as you are composing (but watch for blinking shutter speeds and other indicators!). Focus because many of you now are no longer focusing and reframing, which always introduced a small miss in the focus (geometry was not your friend).
The trend has always been towards Auto functions in cameras. I believe that most photographers misinterpret this. Auto is not “do the perfect thing.” You don’t just set a camera with everything on Auto and point click point click point click. The real function of Auto is this: with photography, the moment in time is all important. But you have literally hundreds of other things you need to take into account to make a great photo (otherwise you’re relying on luck). Where Auto is useful is that it can help make some of those decisions while you concentrate on something else.
However, Auto functions should be considered “trust, but verify” on cameras. I might get into a heated photo session because the animals (or players) are doing something intense and I’m trying to keep up with that compositionally. Auto exposure might be my friend in that circumstance. But not if I don’t keep double checking to make sure the camera isn’t doing something I don’t want it to do. As you probably know from my other articles and my books, I use autofocus, but I ruthlessly micromanage it. I long ago went from Back Button Focus to Hybrid Button Focus methods because of this, and the mirrorless cameras also give me instant viewfinder magnification and focus peaking when get really picky.
In short, seeking out new gear and Auto functions isn’t usually the answer. You have to know what the question is, too, and that question is “how do I do new and better things photographically?”
I just got back from a trip where I wasn’t doing new and better things photographically. Am I going out and buy a new camera? No! I’m going to sit down and try to figure out the why of that problem. I’m the one responsible for making my photographs, not my camera. The camera is just a tool, and I didn’t come up short because I needed a better tool.
