I didn’t write this article for you, I wrote it for me. And I will probably ignore my own advice and buy a new camera anyway.
Recently I’ve fallen out of love with the FujiFilm x100. Somehow it doesn’t speak to me, or fill me with passion. It’s an unbelievably beautiful piece of tech that takes stunning photos or at least it can. Really, the FujiFilm x100 is the height of technical mastery, but I don’t love it. The best thing I can do now is sell it and by the Leica Q2 Monochrom.
Ok, be honest now. [1]
Right. The truth is I want to buy the Leica Q2 Monochrom and I’ll have to sell the x100 to fund it, plus I need to justify the purchase.
No, be really honest!
Fine. I haven’t been taking photos recently, I feel bad about it and I’m rusty, so I’ll blame the camera and fantasize that I’ll immediately reconnect with photography if I have a new camera in hand. Buying another camera allows me to feel like I’m a photographer without actually putting in the work.
Was that so hard? It was brutal. But if we are truly honest with ourselves we can put our energy into what matters, what will actually change our lives rather than doom scrolling through a thousand shiny ads and product placements for overpriced device that won’t actually change anything about our photos.
It’s like the fad diet effect. We find a new diet, go on it and magically lose weight! We then tell everyone who’ll listen how great the diet is. But the truth is with the new diet we start to pay more attention to what we eat, we go to the gym, and we quit drinking for a while. Basically, aside from the diet, we do all the things we’re supposed to get to the shape we want to be in but haven’t done because it’s hard work and we struggle to self-motivate.
When we get new gear we play with it, try out new ideas, but most importantly WE SHOOT EVERYDAY. We practice our craft, improve our muscle memory and invest time in our passion. So, we get better. HUGE surprise.
It really isn’t about the camera unless you have a very specific genre you shoot. My phone is a bazillion [2] times better than my Leica M4-2 when it comes to features and technology. [3] There’s so many tired truisms on “the camera on you” but there’s an element of accuracy there. I, and probably you, have all the camera(s) we could ever need.
Now if only I could buy motivation…
[1] Said in the voice of David Beckham
[2] it’s a word, look it up
[3] Not so much when it comes to UX and ability to beat off attacking bears