Upgrades: a potential obstacle

[noimmunity]

The history of photography is partly a history of technological innovation. Yet the core part of it isn't about technology, but rather about innovation. Still photography has always been about the creative use of limitations to produce interesting images.

Now, upgrades admittedly may be necessary for certain professionals. But how much do we need upgrades? Or maybe the question is better asked as: how often do we need upgrades? Using equipment takes time to learn it and have its use become second nature. Are there upgrades that work with this apprenticeship and those that work against it? How to upgrades change the way you see images? Do upgrades make yesterday's images less interesting?

My own feeling is that upgrades can easily become autonomous. Perhaps "getting hooked" is the best way to describe it. Getting hooked on upgrades potentially exercises a destructive effect on photography to the extent that it is allowed to divert attention from the principal photographic task: the creative use of limitations to produce interesting images.

 

[Keith]

One word, or should I say acronym ... 'gas!' 🙂

 

[noimmunity]

I guess we need a term that is specific to the digital-era: DUH

Digital Upgrade Hype 😛

 

[Keith]

I guess we need a term that is specific to the digital-era: DUH

Digital Upgrade Hype 😛

Yessss! 😀

 

[Keith]

I was chatting to a guy at the shopping centre recently with a beautiful Peugeot 307 ... three years old and about forty thousand ks on the clock. When I asked him what he thought of it he said he loved it and rated it as the best car he's ever owned ... but was about to trade it on the latest model. I asked what the newer model offered that this one didn't and he admited his only reason for upgrading was because it was 'newer!' 🙄

 

[noimmunity]

his only reason for upgrading was because it was 'newer!' 🙄

Methinks the word "no-brainer", which is commonly applied these days to upgrades, often says more about the person doing it than the actual benefits involved. "Duh, it's a no-brainer!" really means, "DUH, I'm a no-brainer." 😛

 

[noimmunity]

But seriously, to pursue the comparison further, GAS could be aimed at all sorst of things that don't constitute a DUH no-brainer. Like getting a 50 year-old lens because of the way it renders vs. trading from a Zeiss ZM Planar 50 to a Leica 50 Apo Asph.

 

[Prest_400]

In some sense, aren't many of us; users of film and classic cameras that obviate a couple or more decades of upgrades... people who don't upgrade much?

You mention lenses... Yes, perhaps going up from a f2 to f1.4 lens, or a newer model... Yet we still use a manual body. It's quite relative, isn't it?
I'm not criticizing anything as I quite enjoy using a manual camera and its own era lens (OM-1). Yet might want to upgrade in a future to medium format.

But its surprising that many of these "old cameras" do really great and keep up with what the latest offer (think Leica M3 with a decent lens compared to a Canon FF DSLR).

And there are those (think digital) who can't keep up with the latest updates.

BTW, it is curious that I saw the thread on the main page... 6 views and 5 posts. It brings quite some attention I see!

 

[Sparrow]

... there is some very clever marketing going on at the moment ... this; hint, rumour, tease, cycle targeted at a very precisely at a particular market segment within a cultures that increasingly measure their worth by their possessions, what result would one expect?

 

[Godfrey]

I've never "upgraded" any cameras.

I buy new things because they work better or pique my interest. Some of the new things work out to be better than the old things. Some do not. I keep the ones that do, I sell the ones that don't.

I ignore most advertising entirely. Waste of time and energy.

G

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

there is some very clever marketing going on at the moment ... this; hint, rumour, tease, cycle targeted at a very precisely at a particular market segment within a cultures that increasingly measure their worth by their possessions, what result would one expect?

It was ever thus, from the creation of the consumer culture in both Europe and America, during the nineteenth century, until now. Lucy Worsley's BBC4 series "History of the Home" cast a fascinating sidelight on how this all got going.

You could be building an ever expanding collection of porcelain. 😱

 

[Sparrow]

It was ever thus, from the creation of the consumer culture in both Europe and America, during the nineteenth century, until now. Lucy Worsley's BBC4 series "History of the Home" cast a fascinating sidelight on how this all got going.

You could be building an ever expanding collection of porcelain. 😱

I don't really agree, this targeted marketing on the interweb is far more insidious than that "brush your teeth with colgate" stuff on the telly of my youth ...

... now each time one of these vondercam comes out they refine the methods, and we get more 'promoters' on here, I spot some of them but I'm not conceited enough to claim I see them all ... or that I'm immune to the millions the manufactures spend on promoting them.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Of course a lot depends on how you define "upgrade". From the point of view of pure technical quality with the camera on a tripod -- plates > rollfilm > 35mm > (early) digital -- it was downgrades all the way. But shooting styles change.

Cheers,

R.

 

[back alley]

we really are becoming jaded when a company upgrades a camera's ability and we see it as a plot.
the recent fuji x100 upgrade made a good camera even better…how has fuji altered my brain/buying habits with this move?

 

[daveleo]

I guess we need a term that is specific to the digital-era: DUH

Digital Upgrade Hype 😛

That's a classic !

I am a "late adopter", who relies heavily on a year or two of real (and intelligent) user commentary about a camera before I exchange any of my cash for it.

I agree that the "upgrade" funnel sucks in too many people and in reality it hurts their growth in photography.
The people who get caught in this funnel simply aren't thinking enough.
They are simply "drinking the KoolAid".

 

[noimmunity]

I am a "late adopter", who relies heavily on a year or two of real (and intelligent) user commentary about a camera before I exchange any of my cash for it.

Me too.

I picked up an M8 three or four years after its release. Same for the M9.

But when it came to the Sigma DP Merrill series, I was an early adopter. The unique image quality in such a small package won me over right away.

I'm content to allow boredom to stretch its feet in my life. So I don't need to use early adoption as a way to remain social.

 

[GaryLH]

For the last three or four years, I have been trying new cameras.. But since getting the Sigma, Ricoh and Fuji cameras.. I am at a point where I am happy with what I have. I use these different cameras for different aspects of my photography.

I am current at a point where I really don't feel an urge to upgrade. The only announcement that would change my mind is if sigma announced a mirrorless interchangeable lens system.. Then I am afraid the GAS will kick in big time. Until then, I will be content to watch the first adopters of the Sony a7 and other ff sensor mirrorless cameras. 😀

Gary

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

I don't really agree, this targeted marketing on the interweb is far more insidious than that "brush your teeth with colgate" stuff on the telly of my youth ...

... now each time one of these vondercam comes out they refine the methods, and we get more 'promoters' on here, I spot some of them but I'm not conceited enough to claim I see them all ... or that I'm immune to the millions the manufactures spend on promoting them.

I don't think it was in the Worsley programme but there was a piece on BBC4, late last year, in which they showed how this same tactic was used by the sellers of early cookers, vacuum cleaners and so on.

Middle class women would be enthused (or simply paid) and encouraged to hold parties, at which they would show off the item in question. There was even a conscious effort to "improve" the items, so that the victims, sorry, customers, would feel the pressure to upgrade to the latest version.

I don't think anything much changes.😕

 

[noimmunity]

if sigma announced a mirrorless interchangeable lens system..

You've hit me at my weak point, Gary! Low blow!

 

[rpsawin]

I think the upgrade path is more about consumer electronics than photography. It feels a great deal like the cycles in computing.