Great Article from DVXuser Member "puredrifting" (Dan)....!!!

There is another component of GAS that we don't normally talk about or sometimes want to face.
Sometimes getting something new makes you temporarily feel better.

I noticed this in the past with myself. There were times through the years when I was distraught, working 100-120 hours every week and dealing with a lot of people who had loads of problems. Being a caring counselor means you share their burdens and I was involved with trying to help save the lives of dozens and later hundreds. It cost me a lot on all levels. Then dealing with liars, scoundrels and adulteresses also had an eroding effect. And having my business destroyed by my life long best friend and his likewise crooked CPA father brought much added stress. Time off was non-existent so there were days when the highlight of the day was looking forward to my peanut butter & jelly sandwich for lunch as I tried to pick something positive every day to look forward to.

When a new piece of gear was on the way to make life easier or add a new ability I looked forward to it as many do.
How many of us have tried to deal with a bad situation or relationship by going and doing or buying something?
Another thing I noticed is that sometimes I would buy this gear to be more capable but finding the time to try to learn to use it was a real problem so it would take all the fun out of getting the thing and become more of a chore.

Whether it's buying a new camera or a car, things don't fix problems even though we are bombarded with the message that this new thing is the answer.
I wish I'd realized some things earlier I know now because the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the Bible teach that everything gets worse/erodes/falls apart/waxes old with time, not better as Darwinian evolutionism teaches. I remember a guy saying those rich guys with the expensive yachts aren't happy; they are always upset about some pump that failed, etc.

So the more stuff you have the more stuff you have to deal with and everything will eventually go back to dirt anyway, whether it's a Ferrari or Arri. I am trying to get rid of everything that cannot be used for my business or ministries including my house. The less I have the less time I have to spend on it. No matter who you are and how much you make you can't buy even one more minute of time :)
 
TubEfingers said:
@filmguy123 - Surprised you find the GH's easier to operate than the EVA1, I love the UI and functionality of the EVA,
what do you find clumsy/lacking - curious to hear how others get on with it. Other than the joke monitor, lack of assignable black balance shortcut - theres not much i feel missing since the update
(apologies to OP for going on tangent here)
Click to expand...

Ooohh my favorite topic! Kidding, but, I do wish they'd fix some things.

I should say that I work one man band, live event and docu style very often (often international shooting stories, etc.). Things happen fast. I might change my ISO setting between indoors and outdoors 2-3 times in a minute. I might swap from VFR to 24p to 60p all in a couple minute stretch, back and forth, all day. Need audio for this clip? boom. Need subtle slow motion? VFR. Need slowmotion with backup audio? 60p. Etc.

On GH5S, which has Dual ISO, I can tap ISO and slide from 400 to 6400 in seconds. Because there's almost no scenario where you don't always want to switch to the other base ISO at a certain threshold (that's another topic), and there is a menu setting to allow for manual selection and a menu setting to allow for auto, which is what you want 99% of the time. On EVA1 it's manual only, I have to clunk around in the menus to change base ISO and then select desired ISO and it takes 5-10 seconds, which is 5-10x too long. And that's assuming I don't hit the wrong button in the heat of the moment with sun and sweat in my eyes, which I do 50% of the time, adding another couple seconds to fix my mistake.

On GH5/S i can hit a button and roll a switch with my eyes closed and switch codecs, base frame rate, 4K to HD, etc. in a second. On the EVA1 it's a clunky roll through the menus that eats 5+ seconds, and then often a reboot! They added presets on 3.0 which I'm glad for, minus the fact that it makes it a single slot SD card camera, annoying, and that even with presets it's still slower than the GHx line to switch! The GHx line you can also set the rotating dial to specific settings on the top Custom switch menu which speeds things up even more.

I also can't make a quick custom menu on the EVA1 like on the Lumix line, so I still unneccesarily have to drill through menus whereas on Lumix it's a custom menu with my own things. The boot times on the Lumix are faster, which is kind of a control issue if you need to work quick. White balance is more robust on the GHx line, I can have a ton of custom presets from a manual balance, pretty accurate built in presets, or dial exactly by kelvin, and all very quickly. The EVA1 isn't bad but it's still slower and less configurable. Syncro shutter for dealing with flicker in slow motion is rather annoying to swap back and forth with on the EVA1, it's a breeze on the Lumix. On EVA1 it makes it a pain if I need to go from 24p 180d to 60p 144 or 172.8 or whatever to deal with light flicker or find the right frequency.

There's a handful of other things like this on the EVA1 but I think that suffices.

I find the DSLR layout and button placements in general just much faster to work with now too, even though I "grew up" on DVX/HVX/AF100. I had a hard time switching from AF100 to GH4, but a harder time switching from GH5 to EVA1. It's just not nearly as fast or intuitive once you get the hand of the DSLR setup.

Again this is for a OMB live/docu situation. Many of these things don't matter on a set with specifically setup shots. Narrative, who swaps settings anywhere near as much as I do? Then again, they branded the EVA1 with a dude on a skateboard putting the camera in his backpack, and mentioned it being great for wedding and docu filmers. I have to disagree. IQ wise, DR wise - YES! Menu speed, etc... NO!

And why is there no modifier button option? I wish for the handle I could hold a button and then use the scrool wheel as a second function.

Ok, I'll stop.

And just to tie this together so it's on topic: that's why I have camera GAS. Because they can't get it right the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. The EVA1 solved a bunch of my problems, and then created a bunch of new ones... hence why I have the S1 preordered.

BTW, I like my EVA1 overall, but I'm slightly bitter that the support on fixing basic things hasn't been better for such an expensive camera. I mean, the display still doesn't even show text on which Zebra setting you're on and what percentage when you scroll through the zebras!! And we're on 3.0!!

/over.
 
You guys are ballsier than I am (maybe that’s good, for me?). I agonize for about 2-3 years before buying most expensive things, only getting them if I know I need it (replace failing computer), it will bring me joy (electric drums), or I can live without it paying itself off quickly or being used regularly, but would rather have it around then not (C100 package).
 
filmguy123 said:
Again this is for a OMB live/docu situation. Many of these things don't matter on a set with specifically setup shots. Narrative, who swaps settings anywhere near as much as I do? Then again, they branded the EVA1 with a dude on a skateboard putting the camera in his backpack, and mentioned it being great for wedding and docu filmers. I have to disagree. IQ wise, DR wise - YES! Menu speed, etc... NO!
Click to expand...

These video cams are basically a joke for those who shooting doc need to continually peddle between slo mo, audio, and 4k.. FS7 is equally poor.

Designers have no clue. Many DSLR on the other hand seem well tested and work.
 
I think we had this discussion in the other thread. It’s basically impossible to design a camera because everyone has different needs/wants/ways they shoot. This will all be remedied when the cam just hooks into your brain directly and you can simply think “Aperture” and stop down instantly. Sure, there will be privacy and hacking concerns but these will be well worth it for never again having focus that is just slightly soft.
 
Josh Bass said:
I think we had this discussion in the other thread. It’s basically impossible to design a camera because everyone has different needs/wants/ways they shoot. This will all be remedied when the cam just hooks into your brain directly and you can simply think “Aperture” and stop down instantly. Sure, there will be privacy and hacking concerns but these will be well worth it for never again having focus that is just slightly soft.
Click to expand...

Well Im happy with manual control

An iris and focus on the lens.

A pot wheel on the camera to cycle through
WB in kelvin
ISO
FPS
Shutter Angle
ND
Mic Levels
Resolution.

Because there is nothing else to actually change.
 
I don't think it's impossible to design these bodies UI better, as long as there's some small flexibility on what you mean by pleasing "everyone". I swear I could consult on upgrading the EVA1 ergos and UI to make it ideal for 95%+ of people, and I think many others could too. I think it's more a question of internal resources for the small niche market to execute such things. Some of that camera architecture feels straight out of the 90s. And seriously, I am not exaggerating that.

BMD had more of a clean slate and while they're not perfect, the interface on the $1300 Pocket 4K shames the EVA1. I don't see why for $7000 from a major established brand, Panasonic can't be shaming BMD's UI + adding the same level of perfection to their menus, physical button layout and design, etc. as say the Lumix S1 which from all I've seen KILLS IT in usability. Well, I do see why - volume, bureaucracy, etc. - but it's still very frustrating to have your $$$$ pro purchase lagging behind consumer level gear in a number of bullet items...

It is ironic how great the DSLRs are for that over the FS7/EVA1. Oh well. That aside, the EVA1 is perfectly great to work with in slower paced settings (which to be fair, I tend to shoot less of) and regardless is sometimes simply worth the squeeze, because 14 stops of 5.7k oversampled footage, 240fps RAW, and the presence it brings to a shoot are all worth $$ in the right scenario.
 
I've been fortunate in a way because my wife being in school prevented me from succumbing to any GAS. I couldn't afford to even if I wanted to, and frankly I had to deal with a lot of sub par and frustrating gear as a result. I would laugh to myself when I noticed how pretty much everyone on here, eoshd and other forums had more gear than me. Heck, often people doing it solely for a hobby had more than me.

Now that she has a great job, the temptation is there to go wild and sow my wild GAS oats, haha. But I know it's a bad trap.

Plus I prefer smaller, lighter set ups. I hope lights continue to improve in terms of power to size, and I'd much rather work with smaller cameras for the most part.

I'm with filmguy123. Used the FS7 on a reality show, and used the Eva1 on a film BTS documentary. Hated both. I could've moved way faster with a GH4, and probably gotten more interesting shots as a result. The major con for DSLRs is lack of built in NDs. If they ever solve that, hallelujah.

On controlled sets, I do like the FS7 and Eva1, and they do look more impressive to big clients. I'd buy one of em' for that, if nothing else.

I've had a GH4 forever, about to buy a GH5. I have a sneaking suspicion the IBIS is going to make it my favorite camera I've ever used.
 
some of that camera hate is probably just lack of familiarity don’t you think? Something with audio built in (vs having to use a recorder/adapter), all the proper image monitoring tools, buttons for settings rather than having to dig into menus would be objectively better, to me. BUT, if I was used to working with a thing that didnt have all that, and had the muscle memory, and that piece of gear that didnt have all that felt like an extension of me, to the point that I could make adjustments almost as fast as I could think, of course I’m going to hate anything else...until Ive had a few weeks or months with it. Only thing I might never come to terms with is the added weight of the more sophisticated cams.
 
Well, I've had it since Oct 2017. Sometimes I think the rhetoric around the DSLRs not having that is flawed by unfamiliarity more than vice versa. I have physical buttons for almost everything on the Lumix line, only a few things require a menu but the menu is lightning speed compared to the EVA1. I actually find myself down in the menu on the EVA1 more. The GHx line has good monitoring tools, and an attached a SmallHD adds the one it lacks at minimal size/weight. The audio unit provides quality XLR inputs and its modular.

So yes, I agree, but after plenty of time with either I don't think I'm just at lack of familiarity. But hey, I don't hate the EVA1. It's good. I have it, I've kept, I'll likely keep it for a while. I just don't reach for it when I have a mission critical live action scenario. Corporate b-roll, low key stuff, slow motion, high contrast challenging DR stuff, or what not - definitely.
 
DBP said:
I've had a GH4 forever, about to buy a GH5. I have a sneaking suspicion the IBIS is going to make it my favorite camera I've ever used.
Click to expand...

It may well! Also consider the S1 now if you already have larger glass, it's a GH5 + GH5S, essentially (lowlight + IBIS)... well, once the vlog/10-bit update comes out. And only $2500 for the body. You'll probably need to give it a little time for L mount adaptors to come out as well (Sigma MC-21 for EF to L is on way soon-ish).

Re: the NDs, it's not a perfect solution but 77mm Step Up Rings + Xume Adaptors + VND filters work very well for me. As long as you don't have flare issues. But I am interested in the Power XND Mark II since they have a front thread, you might be able to attach a metal lens hood AFTER the VND with that (maybe a weird setup, dunno). In any case, give that 77-Xume-VND combo a shot.
 
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DBP said:
I've been fortunate in a way because my wife being in school prevented me from succumbing to any GAS. I couldn't afford to even if I wanted to, and frankly I had to deal with a lot of sub par and frustrating gear as a result. I would laugh to myself when I noticed how pretty much everyone on here, eoshd and other forums had more gear than me. Heck, often people doing it solely for a hobby had more than me.

Now that she has a great job, the temptation is there to go wild and sow my wild GAS oats, haha. But I know it's a bad trap.
Click to expand...

I have a few pieces of gear myself... but TBH I've learned to treat it more as library. Less is more on most days. I too started with less and limited funds and I think it served me well. This seems to be universally true.

Have a friend really into writing music, and he was sharing how as he's gotten better in the producing world it becomes very obvious when you put lipstick on a pig. Dressing up a mediocre song with high production value. The good stuff you can hear even through bad production, it has something special to it. And this something special almost always comes from time spent in craft focusing on the core aspects of the music, not screwing around with polish, tweaks, filters and plugins. It's the core song writing and progressions and voice. He shared about a podcast where they talked about an art school that did a blind study, group A had a bunch of students who spent the semester coming up with the SINGLE BEST ART PIECE they could. Put all energy and focus and attention into making it great, best produciton values, etc. Group B had a bunch of students who were forced to make a new piece of art every week and turn it in as soon as it was ready.

At the end they had a panel of judges. Almost unanimously, all the judges selected all the best pieces from Group B - the quantity group. Because quality came from repetition of the core craft.

I think this happens with video and film too. Too much gear makes you focus on all the wrong things. Strip yourself to a GH4 and 2 primes and you can't crutch it on gear, or be distracted. You'll learn to focus on story. Shots. Composition. You'll be pushed to perfection on each take because you can't hide behind anything else.

Same with motorcycles. I started on a small little Suzuki GS500 (500cc twin street bike) for thousands of miles. I took the advice of riders on forums and started there instead of an R6 (600cc 4 cylinder race bike). I stayed with it longer than needed because I couldn't afford to step up. Man, I got good. I was faster on back roads than guys decked out in leathers and the hottest new gear. I had dorky bright yellow low level gear and a kiddie bike. But I can't tell you the satisfaction of outrunning the decked out racer crowd with better bikes and having them say, "hey, you're pretty fast...". By not having access to more, I couldn't get distracted with leathers, modding the license plate, bar end mirrors, this that and the other thing. I couldn't rely on "Catching up in the straights". The only thing was me, the bike, and the skill. So you just learn. You learn to ride well, to master cornering theory. You learn that you get BEHIND in the straights, so you're only choice to come out ahead is to win on the corners.

Take that to film. If you've got a GH4 and 2 primes, you can't win on the sizzle of a RED Epic. You can't win on production value. You can win by having someone say, "man, that's a little rough around the edges... but wow, that has heart. It has soul. The story and the content - WOW. It doesn't look as good, but it's just... better".

Kinda like my musician friend cutting through the noise of shallow production value and polish to hear a good song. Look around YouTube. All these guys with their hot new gear, I rarely ever watch something actually really GOOD from them. I watch cool b-roll footage set to music and snazzy transitions. It's not emotional. It's not a wow story piece. It's just stock, run of the mill stuff that looks snazzy. None of them are going to get picked out like Chris Nolan or Rian Johnson or whoever.

They have gear to make up for having no je ne sais quoi.
 
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filmguy123 said:
Have a friend really into writing music, and he was sharing how as he's gotten better in the producing world it becomes very obvious when you put lipstick on a pig. Dressing up a mediocre song with high production value. The good stuff you can hear even through bad production, it has something special to it. And this something special almost always comes from time spent in craft focusing on the core aspects of the music, not screwing around with polish, tweaks, filters and plugins. It's the core song writing and progressions and voice. He shared about a podcast where they talked about an art school that did a blind study, group A had a bunch of students who spent the semester coming up with the SINGLE BEST ART PIECE they could. Put all energy and focus and attention into making it great, best produciton values, etc. Group B had a bunch of students who were forced to make a new piece of art every week and turn it in as soon as it was ready.

At the end they had a panel of judges. Almost unanimously, all the judges selected all the best pieces from Group B - the quantity group. Because quality came from repetition of the core craft.

I think this happens with video and film too. Too much gear makes you focus on all the wrong things. Strip yourself to a GH4 and 2 primes and you can't crutch it on gear, or be distracted. You'll learn to focus on story. Shots. Composition. You'll be pushed to perfection on each take because you can't hide behind anything else.
Click to expand...

You're on to something here, this times a million. Way too many gearheads out there with not much to say in their storytelling. That's one of the reasons I gravitate toward documentary storytelling.
Because you don't need an Alexa, a driveway of 10 tons and a crew of 200. I love doing big shoots and I love quality filmmaking. But I am also realizing if you can't tell compelling stories with just your iPhone, you're not a storyteller.

I was doing someone a favor and drove them to an outdoor sporting event recently. I wasn't planning on shooting at all, it was just as a favor. When we unloaded the car, they had a Go Pro and I had my iPhone. Because I was bored waiting, I very casually shot some coverage of them prepping
to go do their event and then they had the Go Pro with them and they shot some footage. I just threw together a quick down and dirty edit together for them yesterday just using my admittedly badly shot iPhone footage and their Go Pro footage.
None of it looks particularly good but it did tell an interesting little visual story in around :60, I showed it to them this morning and they loved the little clip, even though for one crucial quick shot, my iPhone was totally and 100% out of focus because I couldn't see the screen and didnt realize it.

I have two documentaries in production. The first we have shot over two years using a huge selection of cameras and gear, everything from crappy Go Pro Hero 4s to a RED Epic. The other
has been shot mostly on our C200 in RAW with a little Canon 80D and Fujfilm X-T3.

I'm really thinking when we are done shooting these two films, my next project will be shot solely on the iPhone XS, a gimbal and some of the little Tascam DR-10Ls to record sound. Honestly, pro video gear gets in the way of telling great, real life stories.
It's big, bulky, expensive, a hassle to power and use and to grab moving shots with and we used to tell ourselves that if we wanted the images to look good, we had to use a pro camera. I've seen some footage from iPhones that looks amazingly good.
This is why I am hopping off the GAS train and probably not buying any pro video cameras ever again. I will probably shoot for another 15-20 years or less, maybe even just 10. I am betting that the mobile tech is getting so good for what I want to do that I won't need to buy another
pro digital cinema camera again. It's game over for them for my needs, at least for my own films, not necessarily for clients though. Gear, to me, while it's fun, is just a means to an end. And the end result is telling real-life stories so why not use what makes that unencumbered as possible
if I can get what I need? That's the cool part about making your own films, they won't be judged on what gear you used or didn't use, they're pretty much judged on are they entertaining and worth watching.

Most of us here need to break out of the equipment/fantasy bubble and just make films using whatever we have available and see how far we can push it instead of fantasizing about how some stupid new camera, lens or light is going to make us a better filmmaker. I've been guilty of that as I bet
most of you have been too?
 
I think a genius can make great stuff with any gear but I’m an idiot so I’ll take a little help from a decent cam/lighting/general production values, at least have a fighting chance of appearing competent.
 
It's an interesting thing for me now, because I'm at a point where new gear is unlikely to make me more money. And that's the principal Dan is after here - don't buy gear that doesn't make you money.

Most gear purchases for me now save me headache. I want a QNAP, and an S1 as my 2 big items. I don't think this will change my revenue. I do think the S1 will make my work look better, but I am not so sure the clients I have need that. None of them are asking for that. The QNAP is invisible to the clients.

But both of these things make my life better.

Some may look at gear as compensatory, a sort of savior for lacking what matters most. Others may look at gear selfishly (ahem!) as a way to improve their work for their own sake, or to improve their workflow to either be faster, easier, or less annoying - but without much change in revenue. My purchases mostly fall in the later camp these days.

There was a tipping point. A used AF100 with a used Olympus 12mm and a used Voigt 25mm, a monopod, a Rode NTG2 is what I built from. It was hard to compete with 5Ds image quality, or the FS700, etc. I do think the addition of gimbals, drone, class, better bodies, better audio, etc. really upped my competitive game.

Now? They mostly make life easier. I do think the S1 will free me up creatively. I don't love having to swap between the GH5 and GH5s for different shot types when I work, and sacrifice IBIS on the 5S. So the S1 becomes a creative assist - one streamlined camera with IBIS to do it all in those scenarios that currently call for two. I could make an argument that this makes me more focused, streamlined, more present, less distracted by gear in a shoot. I think that's true. So maybe there's an indirect correlation to the quality of my work. I also think the S1 image will look higher end than the GHx images, and it may catch the eyes of a new client better. So that could be an argument.

But all in all, is there ever a time to buy gear now if it doesn't directly impact revenue? What becomes the metric for personal workflow improvement? What if it saves you TIME (like a QNAP) - but not time that allows you to bill more, just time that allows you smile more and relax more?

I think if we're honest, the majority of us here are not buying gear to hit that tipping point to go from rags to stable anymore. We're either buying gear because we falsely believe it will make us better than we actually are, or because it will personally make our lives easier but not change our revenue much. How do we quantify the later to know if its justifiable or not?
 
filmguy123 said:
It's an interesting thing for me now, because I'm at a point where new gear is unlikely to make me more money. And that's the principal Dan is after here - don't buy gear that doesn't make you money.

Most gear purchases for me now save me headache. I want a QNAP, and an S1 as my 2 big items. I don't think this will change my revenue. I do think the S1 will make my work look better, but I am not so sure the clients I have need that. None of them are asking for that. The QNAP is invisible to the clients.

But both of these things make my life better.

Some may look at gear as compensatory, a sort of savior for lacking what matters most. Others may look at gear selfishly (ahem!) as a way to improve their work for their own sake, or to improve their workflow to either be faster, easier, or less annoying - but without much change in revenue. My purchases mostly fall in the later camp these days.

There was a tipping point. A used AF100 with a used Olympus 12mm and a used Voigt 25mm, a monopod, a Rode NTG2 is what I built from. It was hard to compete with 5Ds image quality, or the FS700, etc. I do think the addition of gimbals, drone, class, better bodies, better audio, etc. really upped my competitive game.

Now? They mostly make life easier. I do think the S1 will free me up creatively. I don't love having to swap between the GH5 and GH5s for different shot types when I work, and sacrifice IBIS on the 5S. So the S1 becomes a creative assist - one streamlined camera with IBIS to do it all in those scenarios that currently call for two. I could make an argument that this makes me more focused, streamlined, more present, less distracted by gear in a shoot. I think that's true. So maybe there's an indirect correlation to the quality of my work. I also think the S1 image will look higher end than the GHx images, and it may catch the eyes of a new client better. So that could be an argument.

But all in all, is there ever a time to buy gear now if it doesn't directly impact revenue? What becomes the metric for personal workflow improvement? What if it saves you TIME (like a QNAP) - but not time that allows you to bill more, just time that allows you smile more and relax more?

I think if we're honest, the majority of us here are not buying gear to hit that tipping point to go from rags to stable anymore. We're either buying gear because we falsely believe it will make us better than we actually are, or because it will personally make our lives easier but not change our revenue much. How do we quantify the later to know if its justifiable or not?
Click to expand...

Not to harp on the financial aspect too much, but I guess as you get older, "retirement - semi-retirement - or financial independence" means a lot more than when you are in the your 20s and 30s. The cruel part of it is, if you are a freelancer, you will look back on all of the cameras, computers, lights and lenses and decide if they were a wise expenditure. I really don't plan on ever "retiring" because in my viewpoint, humans were created to work. In that sense, we are no different than a mule or a Police dog, we need to have a job, purpose, hard work, easy work, something besides Hedonism to give life meaning. Most guys I know who "retire", retire are dead inside three years. But what if nobody will give me paying work as I get old? What if I become physically unable to work? Unless I have been wise with how much I earn, how hard I worked and what I wasted money on and what I put away in retirement, savings and investments, I'm going to be a victim, dependent on the government for handouts to sustain even a sustenance lifestyle. What about your kids? Personally, I want to leave all of my real estate to my kids and leave them a somewhat decent estate because life has only become more difficult and they have far fewer financial and business opportunities than me and my wife did at their age. I bought my first condo at 21. My kids will never afford a house in California and possibly not even elsewhere.

Most of us agree that having to work into your late 60s and 70s sucks. And many people on this board, I predict, will end up doing that. Not because they want to like me, but because they have to, to survive. And that's the end result of poor financial and business planning. Many of them because of not being smart business people with their opportunities, earnings and saving. If you do this as a hobby, that's a whole different ball game with different rules. But for those of us who check the mailbox with bated breath every day to see if the client's check arrived, this stuff is important. Consumer debt is a cruel joke in most people's lives and most people aren't conscious enough to recognize that the credit card companies and financial institutions have structured modern life in a way that makes astronomical debt and wasting money on paying exorbitant insterest fees a "normal" way of living, which is insane. All it takes is taming down the artistic, free, spending Muse side of our personality and dialing up the practical, pragmatic and realistic side a bit more. It just takes some self-discipline. if I did it, ANYONE can do it.

For me, I have decades of stupid equipment decisions. Some were wise decisions, but a lot of it, in retrospect, were dumb decisions that didn't pay off, didn't make life any easier and didn't up my game artistically. I still cannot believe how many people buy gear in the hopes of getting hired by a higher level of client, that's the most deluded and pathetic business strategy, so common in our business, that there is, the "buy it and the world will beat a path to your door" school of logic. I think you are a smart person but with all due respect, reading how you are justifying having and "needing" four cameras just sounds crazy. Filmguy123 in ten years will read this and think, "WTH was I thinking?" Another way to think about it is, "How much money have each of the three cameras you have that you list made you, to date, in billable charges to clients that have paid for them? If all three cameras have been paid off and are into profit, then you are leaving money on the table in a buying and selling them off cycle and to obtain your probably closer to $4k or $5k S1 "creative assist" (thinking camera body, extra batteries, three or four new "L" mount native lenses to go with it? Is that realistic?) Am I overlooking another $500.00 for an audio module also or will one of the ones from your GH5/5S work the same with the new camera? Or are you going to hang on to the GH5/5S and EVA 1 for another two or three years when each will basically be close to worthless? See what I mean, it's the gear treadmill, you're on it, at least with cameras, if you have three that you could shoot a feature film with but are trying to justify to yourself buying yet another? It's your life and your money and I am not trying to tell you how to spend it, I'm just trying to provide a third person view, based upon your posts. You sound like a "camera-holic" and I want to be your sponsor ;-) All of those cliches are true though, if you don't see it as a problem, then you won't solve it 'till you hit bottom. Even if all of the cameras are profit centers for you, you are on a treadmill that seems wasteful, at the least.

Something to check to see if I am crazy and misinformed, which I very well may be since I only know you from here and not IRL (these are obviously all rhetorical and not meant to be answered, just things to think about that I always do and that the majority of people in our business just don't) These are the hard questions I asked myself a few years ago, even though they sound so obvious:

1. Are you financially stable? Do you always have enough when the bills are due? Is there always food in the kitchen, the mortgage is paid (please don't tell me you are throwing away money on renting!) are all of the bills up to date? If so, great! If not, uh oh!
2. How much consumer debt do you carry? At what interest rates? Student loans? Car payments? Hopefully no HELOCs or second mortgages? The worst is going to be credit cards. Do you pay off any and all credit card debt monthly?
3. Do you have kids? Plan on having kids? How much is in their college savings? Or savings for going to tech school? Or starting their own business (After seeing my daughter get her degree at Davis and paying for half of it and seeing where she is three years
after graduation, college is a terrible financial decision for most kids today, unless they are going to be a professional/lawyer/doctor/engineer and have drive and a realistic plan, trying to steer my 20 year old son who is in Community to go learn something that pays, not getting a cool but basically starvation degree like my daughter and an entire generation has)
4. Investments and Retirement Saving? Do you have a 401K and put money into it monthly? SEP IRA? Stocks and bonds? Investment real estate?

IMHO, people who buy a lot of video gear, like many of us here, are being financially irresponsible unless they are debt free, have a ton of savings and retirement, have a plan for their kids. Forget the technical/artistic justifications, this is the financial justification. I was just jarred into this reality a few years ago when I took a good, hard, objective look at what I was spending my money, profits and earnings on and I discovered that none of it was smart, it was an unsustainable financial treadmill. I hire an investment planner, sucked it all up, sold off what I could as far as unused gear and have vowed that I will not waste any money ever again on production, post gear, computers or anything else unless it makes me money, pays itself off quickly and generates billable line items. Yes, and I am being realistic, I bought the Luxli Cello light specifically because it made my working life better and easier, I was using my old Arri 650s with gels to try to paint BGs for interviews and it was a PITA, generated heat and consumed gels, had to worry about amperage draw and I couldn't obtain deep, dark, rich, saturated color washes, so I spent the $329.00 for the light, $50.00 for the softbox and probably another $150.00 on some big Watson NPFs and a charger. The light does get billed out as part of a G&L package so in that sense it makes me money. But it doesn't make me any more money than the Arri 650s did. So I am trying to be realistic, not militaristic about spending.

In our business, you will spend money on gear, you will need new batteries and bigger memory cards and a stupid amount of hard drives. Those are unavoidable. I think I tend to see the most money wasted on cameras, lenses, computers, not to say that all of these items can't be profit centers, they can be and I am not against that, if it's a well thought out business plan. But when I see people's sig lines and they list out six, eight, even a dozen cameras they own and the majority of them are more than a year old models that are today basically worthless as a business asset, that makes me think those people are not stepping from GAS at all. And they will regret it. Hopefully they wake up before it's too late and time has ran out, or worse yet, they have to declare bankruptcy. Thats pretty common here in LA, production houses and post houses go under weekly, they just made the same mistakes many of us are making on a larger scale.

Sorry for my rant. My true hope is that people in their 20s and 30s will read this and that it will at least make them think hard about how they are spending their money, what gear they are buying and why. I so wish I could have read this post when I was 30 and charging into the production business. If I would have heeded my own advice, instead of blindly feeling my way through this business, I can say without a shred of doubt, if all of my contracts, pay days and business opportunities were identical and I had this wisdom then, I would easily have 5-10 million dollars in investments and real estate and I wouldn't have wasted millions of dollars on stupid gear, just a few hundred thousand over the decades on smart gear that would have made me lot more money. When I examine my path as a business person and not as an artist, a lot of wasted money was spent and I regret it. Hopefully you won't.
 
I guess we all have done good and bad purchases but if something is learned it could have been worth it. It's just that having had so much equipment it should be easy to give advice but it's actually harder when someone asks. Apart from lemons most things ends up in the grey zone - good and bad sides.
 
Well, the S1 would be $3400 with the 24-105 Kit which would be my only native L-mount + $500(?) EF to L adapter to use existing glass, so $3900. 3rd party batteries and charger, $300? Vlog addition, $200? $4400 total. Already have the audio module that works with GHx, etc. All other gear I paid cash for... zero debt... I own everything I own outright, except home mortgage. No car loans, student loans, etc. I don't do the debt thing.

What I haven't been doing is proper 401k savings. I say "proper" because I have been saving, but I should do more. I have no kids, but probably in a couple years, so I should probably be saving for their future now.

I think my point was that I'm not really justifying my multiple cameras, I'm saying i no longer see purchases increasing revenue only decreasing headache. That doesn't make them good investments, was my point!

Though to be fair, the GHx cameras are super cheap. 3 cameras sounds like a lot, but a GH5, GH5s and EVA1 bodies all cost me less than $12,000, which pays for itself rather quickly. But maybe I am a camera-holic... I don't feel like one... but then... that's exactly the sort of thing a camera-holic would say!

I do hope I don't look back and think, WTH was I thinking? I might. I like your article. I'm not very excited about gear purchases anymore, but I am excited about the S1, if only because all of my cameras never actually satisfied what I was looking for. Then again, like you said, that's not an investment thing. I need to put me first.

Most of my purchases have been good, but, I definitely have a pile of stuff I didn't need to buy and have hardly used. I don't like that.
 
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