Adriana Glackin

You need to upgrade your camera so officious bastards can mistake you for a Pro, so you can drop it on a rock, so you can spill coffee on it, so you can then enter the expensive never-ending tunnels of wides, zooms, primes and tilt+shifts, so you can build your muscles in carrying ll that sh*t, so you can be ..um … exposed to totally niche accessorising to make your new camera look like anything but a camera (You’ve seen a Lee Universal Hood fully extended!), so your kids can roll their eyes, so your husband can give you a queer look, so you can pretend to have a “back-up” camera (with you will never use), so you can right really long and technical Descriptions. I mean, why else?

Now how did you guess!!!! :) That’s what i used today! Need to get a new card though.. do you think they deteriorate over time?

I can’t believe I wrote right not write

At least twice a year, I go see Lee in our local, independent & brilliant camera shop. Each time, I play with an SLR. Each time, Lee forfits a huge sale & tells me I don’t need an SLR for what I do. But I lust after the Panasonic G1!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t want to let it go, and it wasn’t even PINK! LOL. I can’t answer your question, because I ask myself the same one day after day. Good luck in your research & I hope you get some useful answers.
j

And don’t even get me started on tripods, heads, filters, angle finders and remote releases !!! :) Wait until you see my new camera bag Adriana, you’ll flip!

I know I need to upgrade my 300D everytime i play with a pro camera and see just what a difference those lenses make and the more sophisticated sensors can make. If you can’t see these differences, then you don’t yet need to upgrade. (A year ago, I couldn’t see them) If you start seeing a difference, then you know you need to upgrade.

Honey if it feels like you need a new camera….. you need a new camera….

now Adriana… I really love fine Italian leather boots and good wine and all sorts of stuff like that…. but I know I just want stuff like that…. but when I see a camera I haven’t handled before… I know I need it…. I just need new eccentric cameras all the time….. like I need air and water and a bit air in my tyres…...

:)

Don’t listen to Juiles, Adriana!! I mean, she shoots with … ahem… hand-made cameras forchrissakes! (Just ignore the fact they are brill). Listen to Faith and that little voice in our head (40D, 40D, 40D)

Jeez I’m a righter an I can’t type toonite for quids!

Yep, my tripod is pretty big and has that bit that swivels, as you noticed. Carrying it around all the time can be a drag. I’ve noticed lately it needs a good oil. More money, I suppose.

It doesn’t stop, but see it as growth. A growing child needs new clothes as theye grow out of the old ones? As you ‘grow’ out of your camera, you may develop more sophisticated needs. Or you may develop more sophisticated ways of using your existing camera. But if you’re feeling frustrated then that in itself should be telling you soemthing! ;-)

Seriously though, it ain’t a question of upgrading. It’s just that you have outgrown the operational limits of your existing camera with what you now know, and because you know more and want to do more, you need a camera that will allow you to do it. And you have come to realise that. It doesn’t need justifying, but it needs acting upon, as the niggle will only get worse. Making a pinhole camera is a step in that direction, so is a Leica M8, and so is a DSLR.

now Adriana…. don’t listen to Peter… he’s been overdosing on the Fishermans Friends again…..:)....and a hand made camera can be a thing of joy…. believe me it’s the only reason I buy cask wine…. so I can make a camera out of the cask when I’m done with the wine…..

you are on a journey and pinholes and SLR’s and rolls of out of date film are all part of that journey…. and they will all make you a much better photographer in the end…. and as good as you are now….. when you decide that you believe in yourself and your potential enough…. you will know that a new camera is a need and not a want…... it’s part an important journey and it’s a journey that you are already on…..

would you run in the olympics in tap shoes? would you write your first novel in pencil? would you go to the ball in trakky dacs….... ? I don’t think so…... do the maths and then stratagize….. marge not butter…. St Vinnies not St Laurent….. a bus not a parking station….. these are viable ways to achieve your desire…. you can imagine it…. you can do it…...:)

Peter and I are both across desire…. it just comes packaged a bit differently…... and no name baked beans?.....mmmmm yummy…... well maybe not….. but where there is a will there is a way…. and you are ready to step up to the next level honey?.... perhaps what you need to do next is some more study…. as a lead in to the next thing… what’s the local tafe offering on a thursday nite?..... wea….? be serious ….do the work and don’t rely on just the camera…..

had a chat to a young girl the other day…. she said… so your a photographer hey? says me…. well sort of…. says she …. any one can be a photographer…. says me… no anyone can have a camera…. says she… huh what’s the difference?...... says me… don’t make me slap you honey child your far to pretty…. the point….. it’s not just the camera…. the camera is your tool….. you are the camera…. learn more …. know more…. get right into the essence of the image and how to make a great image with whatever you have to hand….

having said that…..

I have a feeling a new camera is somewhere not to far off in your future….. enjoy the anticipation…. and while your waiting for it to materialize….. wait productively…. learn more…. take a course….waste some film…. read some books…..experiment….. get ready for what comes next…...

and how exciting it that…...:)

i’d say you only need to upgrade if you feel the current camera is holding you back…. or you eat sleep and breathe the new toy you have your heart set on :)

There is only one reason to upgrade….....because you want too!!

Hi Adriana …I just felt I needed to upgrade …felt that my first camera wasn’t giving me enough …since buying my second..I’ve also upgraded my lenses too …and feel very satisfied now :)
Go with you gut feeling…because that is where your art comes from…

Upgrade any time you can get away with hiding the credit card statements. :-)

In reality I upgrade when I find a new model has features that I know I can use fully – as opposed to features I just “like”.

If you need to ask in order to justify it, you ain’t ready for an upgrade. ;-P

Since I got my DSLR a little while back, the missus is now thoroughly sick of my saying – “you know what would make this even better would be [insert name of horrendously excessive accessory here]”

Don’t have doubts. Just do it.

If you need to ask in order to justify it, you ain’t ready for an upgrade&

You’re very right in making that statement, but I’m afraid my hesitation goes a little deeper – I think it’s the terri-tight-arse in me that feels that an upgrade should be justifiable only if there’s a good reason. Is outgrowing a current camera’s features enough of a reason? Why do I want more? What will I do with *more? It’s not like I’m a professional or anything like that, nor am I intending to pursue that avenue…So, is it not greedy to want a better camera simply for the sake of a hobby? That’s the hesitation, I think…

is it not greedy to want a better camera simply for the sake of a hobby?

nope! go for it!

So, is it not greedy to want a better camera simply for the sake of a hobby?

given that I got a Nikon D300 recently, I think my answer to that will have to be “nope” as well…

You upgrade when you know that your current camera is not going to give you what you know you want.

Don’t know if you already have your answer (although Mark G’s is pretty much what I was going to say), but if you find you can’t do what you want to, or can do it, but it could be done much more easily with a different camera AND you’re willing to pay for that facility, then it’s time.

Understand the difference between ‘wanting’ and ‘needing’ though! This can be difficult – you want a particular camera, but it’s an emotional thing, rather than a rational decision. Emotion can cost you plenty of moolah while returning little in improved results. I’m not kidding…

Better to push your current gear to its limits, really explore your creativity, and get to know your camera thoroughly, than to splash out on new kit with all the bells & whistles going, but which doesn’t add to your capability. Just think of the wonderful images that were shot in the past by people with manual cameras, and where TTL metering would have been a huge step forward :)

So, is it not greedy to want a better camera simply for the sake of a hobby?
Not at all, as long as you’re happy with what you end up with (& if simply owning the camera floats your boat, then that’s fine). I had a mate – a decent photographer when he tried – who, having bought himself a Nikon F2AS, a Hasselblad, who-knows-what-else, plus the Rolex to go with it all (all things he’d always wanted), then bought a Billingham bag (which he’d always wanted), put all the fancy gear in it, and put it all back in the cupboard, where it remained, largely unused. Really quite sad. At least I hold mine occasionally and look at it lovingly, even if I’m not using it ;-)

In fact, as I write, I’m fresh from avaricious thoughts about lovely vintage gear. I’m going backwards, I tell you. I laid hands on my nephew’s 40D recently, and I have to say, it didn’t give me any thrill at all; none whatsoever. But holding a classic Canon, Nikon, Hass, etc just sets my heart beating faster. Somehow, there is just too much technology in the way with modern gear. I just seem to prefer laying hands on shutter speed and aperture controls – although I grant you it’s much easier doing it digitally, once you have snapped the pic – but the process up to that point is much nicer with old gear.

Good luck with your decision :)

In all seriousness for a moment though. I did start to get frustrated with the limitations of the old P&S that I had. I found I was asking it to do things of which it just wasn’t capable. That was when I started thinking, “I need an SLR”...

When you have enough money :)

Think It Do It…........you can always downgrade after!!!!.....hehehe…..x

@Doreen: wicked – but I like it ;-)

Just think – you’ll be helping to stimulate the global economy. It may be your purchase that brings the recession to an end… Think of all those lovely people at Nikon who will thank you for keeping them gainfully employed. The way I see it, it’s your duty to buy a new camera. For the sake of the world’s economic well-being!

Is the one you have doing what you need it to do. I’m currently working on figuring out how to extend the life of my camera for about another year.

I need a few new cameras.. lol

- paul

Lol.. well I’m aiming to get a Canon EOS 5DmkII by the end of the year, I also want to get a Fuji 617 (panoramic film camera) and I want to buy a hassleblad digital medium format in the next 2 years :-D

Well I’m 6’2” tall and have the appropraite sized hands for someone my size.. lol, so I have no troubles handeling the bigger cameras.. plus I want to get the right tools for the job. I love landscape photography and I want to do enormous prints.. so I have to upgrade :)

Sorry to disappoint you and the people over at Nikon, but I would really only consider a Canon, so I’m actually thinking of all those lovely people over at Canon that are waiting in their lunchroom for me to decide what I’ll go with so they can go and make it for me

Well, I’m sorry, we can’t be friends any more. Canon. Pcha!

Hehe. Well, I can always make an exception in your case! :-)