The price of tools is irrelevant for professionals. It is only relevant what you earn with it and how fast you earn the spend money back.
. . . Money should always matter be you a pro or an amateur. Spend wisely. Don't go into debt unnecessarily; I think that there are many maxed-out credit cards financing much of the fancy gear that is discussed on DPR. Place a greater emphasis on developing and mastering the core skills of your chosen craft vs. acquiring more and better gear. If you can pull off the latter without financial and personal stress, congrats! But the former is what really matters in the long run, through good times and bad.
we are in full alignment here - maybe I was too imprecise with my statement - so let me elaborate.
I am a part time PRO and main time Manager. I've learned in my business decisions that not what you spend is important but what you earn with it. My photo business brings in much more than I personally spend for it and since it is also pleasure this is fine for me. In case it would be my only income I'd search for the jobs that bring in even more money. But since most other PROs I know have less financial resources than me my combination of two jobs seem to make monetary much more sense ;-)
I only think in terms of return of investment - when I acquire a piece of gear ( I am personally extremely limited in the number of lenses and cameras - have a look at my gear list ) I alway look for an elegant, worthwhile and long term strategy including sales price in in a few years from now. That was extremely beneficial with my Canon gear that I sold with a very good return of investment after eight years of using it.
I guess most photographers tend to look at the money spent - I look at total cost of ownership and money to be gained with the investment.
It is a given that traveling, upping one's craftsmanship and getting lots of kisses form the muse are more important than the gear. No doubt about that!
But when I read that someone
wants a pice of gear and starts with money I get the feeling that this is the wrong way of viewing it.
In case you don't benefit from certain functionalities or features any price is too high. In case you benefit from a certain functionally or feature the only question you should have is how much value lies in there for you. Value is predominately income and 2ndly handling and maybe joy.
Steve Jobs once said that life is pretty hard for him - he doesn't find good things to buy since most things are either ugly or not doing their job the right way. I could not agree more with him. Most things we see are either bad taste or not well thought out or simply utterly ugly to look at.
MACs are as good as it gets when it comes to computers and beautiful to look at. Price is no measure for that since even older or used MACs will do most jobs nicely - my mother in law has a 10 year old base line iMac 21.5" and she can do everything with that device - of course a bit slower.
I'd advice to keep gear longer and invest wisely in features and functions on a task driven base.
I guess we are in alignment. Talent counts more than gear. But sometimes you have to deliver also in a certain way and for that you need certain gear - rating is always an option!
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