When should you upgrade your gear? (With Nigel Barros)

Morning Cup of Joe

When should you upgrade your gear?

It can be a struggle these days to know when to upgrade your gear. With all these new cameras and camera accessories it can be so tempting to buy everything that pops up with an ad on your instagram. With that being said in my personal experience there has always been 2 main reasons for me to upgrade gear.

1. The gear doesn't work how it's supposed to i.e. your tripod leg slips when your camera is on it or your lights flicker. The biggest reason to upgrade your gear is if it hinders your ability to create content. That tripod and those lights in this example become more of a liability than an asset. This is the biggest reason to upgrade again.
2. The second reason that I upgrade my gear is when I outgrow it. When I say this I mean when you've had a camera so long that it limits what you can do with it. If you're running a professional photo/ video business and you're using a crop sensor canon t6i and a kit lens... you should upgrade. When you feel as if there isn't anything new to learn about your gear OR you feel that new piece of equipment would better suite your needs and skillset... you should upgrade. Basically what it comes down to is this: When you need to upgrade your gear you'll know it. Or you'll have an idea. Just don't get stuck on the idea that a new camera is going to make you a better creator... it isn't. Your skillset with that camera and the gear you have will make you a better creator.

You don't have to get the most expensive gear out there. If the price of gear correlated to your success as a creator everyone out there would have RED cameras and anamorphic lenses. Most of the time the more expensive gear either doesn't make sense or isn't necessary. As a beginner/ amateur creator you don't need pro series lenses and every prime lens a company makes. As you make more money and as it makes more sense for your business that's when people start to do so, my simple rule of thumb is this: If a piece of gear doesn't make or help make you money why do you need the most expensive or high end items? The difference between a 24-70mm kit lens and pro series 24-70mm lens isn't significant enough to justify the extra money (unless your skill set or business could directly benefit from it). Those pro series lenses aren't going to do anything for you if you aren't doing everything else right. If you shoot auto instead of manual mode, if your lighting is off, if you don't know the basics of composing an image, or you don't know how to edit images correctly those lenses aren't going to make you a better creator. The gear you use doesn't define you as a creator.