Avoid Costly Mistakes With Camera Reviews & Photography Equipment Comparisons 2023

Photography is a fast moving target, the entirety of photography from concept to perception is always changing and that is challenging. Unlike carpentry which still uses wood, hammer and nails since the days of Jesus, photography is not what I learned in college and that brings us to the topic of hammer and nails of photography, equipment

There is a great lure of systems and new cameras, specs and sensor designs which disrupts the average and novice photographers into spending money on all kinds of equipment which is under utilized and over rated, meaning that many would be wannabe pro photographers overkill when it comes to equipment and I admit being one of them

In the camera reviews & photography equipment comparisons 2023 article series I will try my best to address many topics regarding usage, utility, cost and effectiveness of the systems, equipment and options available to photographers both novice and professional

Why Purchase New Camera Equipment

Because…. because what

Is the money you are going to spend on a new camera upgrade a wise decision? for instance should this money be better spent on marketing your business or improving your skills by attending hands-on workshops, this is a valid question to ask

As I have stated before we have 3 classes of photographers, novice, wannabe and pro and all 3 are part of each other, like colors in a rainbow, there is no separation or hard borders between the 3. All start as novice, didn’t we, now some do end up pro

And that brings us to the question of the business of photography, if you are a wannabe and weekend photographer and your wages comes in from a full time job, then chances are you are spending as much or more on equipment as the pros do! especially if you have a high paying job, because you believe that the equipment is the ticket to entry to the pro market

Yes and no I must say, so far none of my fashion clients has ever asked me what camera I am using and none have requested a CV or diploma or nothing else. There are instances when you reach a point where you want to shoot for a specialty market such as yellowkorner art gallery, then the question of equipment and sensor and resolution and color bit depth comes up, for good reason

Those large $5k prints justify a Fujifilm GFX100s and all the other associated expenses such as a really fast computer system to handle the gigantic files. Yes the rumors are true, to be a pro in some segments of photography market certain equipment is the key to entry

But are you there yet? a friend of mine who is a professional in a completely different field loved photography as a hobby and shot thousands of photos from his grand children with the Canon 1D XII which is built like a tank and heavy as one, a completely wrong choice for shooting children playing in the backyard! in fact after a few years he could not hold that camera any longer and was shooting with a Samsung phone while the flagship Canon made for journalism and sports with the L series lenses were gathering dust

The Business Of Photography

Photography as a business is an extremely tough nut to crack, it will break your teeth

Now the pros know what I am talking here, you don’t and can’t be a full time professional photographer and splurge on equipment, it just doesn’t work and the circumstances of business and all the costs of running it from having a real website to all the costs, fees and taxes will not allow you to do so. I am not saying what to buy or not to buy in this article, the conversation is avoiding overspending on the wrong equipment and not utilizing it either

The competition is stiff out there, for some reason photography is a business where its the wild west, completely unregulated unlike the medical field, and the big elephant in the room which is your cellphone is adding massive fuel to this fire

Imagine if everyone who purchased a certain device would call themselves a Doctor and started treating others, well thats what people are doing now, everybody with an iphone feels that they are a photographer!

Conversely imagine a world where the government would require photographers to pass a board and be licensed, then force the public into buying “photographer insurance” and pay these photographers hefty fees to promote their business…. not a bad idea

Back to reality, as a pro you are on your own, gladiators in the arena of photography business competing for jobs, and thats why you must choose your equipment carefully and spend the money on all the moving parts wisely. Simply because if you can actually improve your photography business you can end up with a higher budget for equipment, not the other way around

Improving the business of photography which has 100 hoops to jump through, requires a. time b. effort and lots of both, don’t take this advise lightly, I have been there and done that. When I started shooting fashion I was found on page 16 of google and now I am organically ranking on page 1, this is one of the more important keys to success in photography, not what camera and lens I work on the set tomorrow

A good photographer can shoot with a good camera, a great photographer can shoot with any camera

I have shot with many cameras since I was five years old, starting with the Diana plastic lens 120 roll film camera, the Sedic 110 cartridge, the Canon QL 17, Canon EF, Canon AE1, Canon A1, Canon 1D C, Canon 80D, Nikon F3, Hasselblad 500C, Sinar, Arriflex, Panavision, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic… at the end of the day you have to survive the business to be in business and as such photography has morphed into an extremely complicated and time consuming business to maintain

I am still in school of photography, and you will be too, for life

We all need equipment, it has to be right for the job and pay for itself first, don’t jump from system to system and from camera to camera, notice how the flagship camera technology trickles down rapidly into the price/performance camera category of the same system, I spot the value camera and go for that instead of the biggest the best the most expensive etc

You can change value cameras faster than you will the flagship cameras, improve your photography skills, your website, your social media, your marketing, your savings, we are all one wo-man companies, do you have a 401k? A well known photographer whom I worked with in LA had a great studio in downtown LA and the landlord decided to transform the building into residential, he lost his lease after 35 years, his business, his customers and forced to retire. How much can you save at the end of the journey, how much can you make during the journey

You should have equipment that makes you money, not the other way around, thats what the manufacturers want you to do

In the upcoming camera reviews & photography equipment comparisons 2023 article series I will talk further about the usage and utility of camera equipment for the right job so you can use this first hand knowledge and improve your business and your life

Cheers to that