Hey Folks,

My equipment is aging but how do I justify buying a new mirrorless dSLR and RF lenses that will set me back about $10,000 plus?  Just a few years ago I would upgraded without a thought but today and the future it seems stupid to spend that kind of money. 

I will keep my old camera and lenses for now...

Hey Folks,

My equipment is aging but how do I justify buying a new mirrorless dSLR and RF lenses that will set me back about $10,000 plus?  Just a few years ago I would upgraded without a thought but today and the future it seems stupid to spend that kind of money. 

I will keep my old camera and lenses for now...

.
My newer camera is a Canon 60d 18 mp,  i bought it about 2012 year. Besides i have a Canon XT 8.0 mp (bought on 2015) and an old Canon 5D 12,8 mp (bought on 2016). I will never buy a camera again. I don't have money for that. I'm selling some photography accessories for buying some food and paying bills. Microstock is not my main income. I would be nice if i have joined to microstock world in the beginning, because this going down hill.

Just to replace my main work lens 24-70 is $2,300!

https://www.adorama.com/car2470.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw9uKIBhA8EiwAYPUS3JsUjtSX9pX4a5opX7SBY2fpvn_IWYHDjw3Zn_kbdmDVsy-zmOtbxhoCh0UQAvD_BwE&gclid=CjwKCAjw9uKIBhA8EiwAYPUS3JsUjtSX9pX4a5opX7SBY2fpvn_IWYHDjw3Zn_kbdmDVsy-zmOtbxhoCh0UQAvD_BwE&utm_source=adl-gbase-p

Let's see $.02 to $.25 per image would take a lot of sales and that's not including the new body which is probably from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on which options. 

Quote from: alexandersr on August 15, 2021, 10:46

Quote from: For Real on August 15, 2021, 08:47

Hey Folks,

My equipment is aging but how do I justify buying a new mirrorless dSLR and RF lenses that will set me back about $10,000 plus?  Just a few years ago I would upgraded without a thought but today and the future it seems stupid to spend that kind of money. 

I will keep my old camera and lenses for now...

.
My newer camera is a Canon 60d 18 mp,  i bought it about 2012 year. Besides i have a Canon XT 8.0 mp (bought on 2015) and an old Canon 5D 12,8 mp (bought on 2016). I will never buy a camera again. I don't have money for that. I'm selling some photography accessories for buying some food and paying bills. Microstock is not my main income. I would be nice if i have joined to microstock world in the beginning, because this going down hill.

I suspect that most of us "regulars" on this forum will keep shooting with the camera gear we already have, because there's no longer any financial incentive to upgrade.

And the same is probably true with computers and processing software.

I heard a rumour if you give Adobe $5 you will get free software for a year

I suspect that most of us "regulars" on this forum will keep shooting with the camera gear we already have, because there's no longer any financial incentive to upgrade.

I'm still using the 70-200mm I bought in 2006.  Still amazing.

It's funny that nowadays if you see someone with latest and expensive camera gears, he/she would probably be a hobbyist  or "influencer photog".

The best pictures are taken with the camera you are more familiar with, stock doesn't require more.

That said, if you want to buy a new one... you don't need an expensive one. Even the cheaper cameras  nowadays have incredible capabilities.

Upgrade if it's something you want and can afford.  But if you are using MS for the decision diamond then only you can make that call.  None of us knows how much you make from MS, but my guess is that there are very few who make enough money to use MS as the decision diamond for new gear purchases.  I have a day job.  I buy gear when I want it. If it's expensive, then I budget for it, setting a little aside each paycheck.  I really never buy anything specifically for MS anymore aside from perhaps some cheap props.  My income in MS has gone from about $4k a month to $1k a month and keeps going down.  How could I justify buying new gear for MS with that kind of trend? So from my lens, if I was basing a purchase decision on MS alone, new gear would get nixed.  Your mileage may vary.

$1k a month, woow, that's a lot of money, i make barely almost $50 a month i'm very screwed in microstock, but thanks to God, my main income is not microstock.

Quote from: alexandersr on August 16, 2021, 09:10

Quote from: Mantis on August 16, 2021, 07:55

Upgrade if it's something you want and can afford.  But if you are using MS for the decision diamond then only you can make that call.  None of us knows how much you make from MS, but my guess is that there are very few who make enough money to use MS as the decision diamond for new gear purchases.  I have a day job.  I buy gear when I want it. If it's expensive, then I budget for it, setting a little aside each paycheck.  I really never buy anything specifically for MS anymore aside from perhaps some cheap props.  My income in MS has gone from about $4k a month to $1k a month and keeps going down.  How could I justify buying new gear for MS with that kind of trend? So from my lens, if I was basing a purchase decision on MS alone, new gear would get nixed.  Your mileage may vary.

$1k a month, woow, that's a lot of money, i make barely almost $50 a month i'm very screwed in microstock, but thanks to God, my main income is not microstock.

a vast majority of us make money outside of the MS business for sure.  Just a few years ago some folks thought about quitting their day job to do MS full time--- we all know that they are still working their day jobs...

If I was making $1,000 a month on Microstock, I'd keep my day job, which is also making $1,000 a month.  Some months I make more profit on eBay (for one item) than Microstock and that's just some auctions and flip things that I can find under the market value.

I have my pretty much same old cameras. I did buy a new/used lens today. Last year the new toy was the Pocket 2 which I hope to use for some video.

Quote from: alexandersr on August 15, 2021, 10:46

Quote from: For Real on August 15, 2021, 08:47

Hey Folks,

My equipment is aging but how do I justify buying a new mirrorless dSLR and RF lenses that will set me back about $10,000 plus?  Just a few years ago I would upgraded without a thought but today and the future it seems stupid to spend that kind of money. 

I will keep my old camera and lenses for now...

.
My newer camera is a Canon 60d 18 mp,  i bought it about 2012 year. Besides i have a Canon XT 8.0 mp (bought on 2015) and an old Canon 5D 12,8 mp (bought on 2016). I will never buy a camera again. I don't have money for that. I'm selling some photography accessories for buying some food and paying bills. Microstock is not my main income. I would be nice if i have joined to microstock world in the beginning, because this going down hill.

I suspect that most of us "regulars" on this forum will keep shooting with the camera gear we already have, because there's no longer any financial incentive to upgrade.

And the same is probably true with computers and processing software.

I suspect that you are pretty much, right.

I only updated to WinDoze Ten because too many things just won't work on XP. I never had any OS in between. Desktop and laptop and another laptop now working 10 and I like it. But I had to be dragged by my heels into the next OS. 

I know I've never mentioned this before  but a good lens lasts much longer and through many cameras. As an investment, I've slowly collected all l lenses, and top end lenses. Sold some too, as I adjusted my needs. Now I'm buying for specialty purposes, but I'm not buying new equipment for Microstock. Oh except that Osmo Pocket 2 I suppose, because it was just too much fun to pass up?

Microstock is not a growth industry for us or many of the agencies. Not saying that it's impossible, but investing for the future of shooting Microstock is a negative expectation for the majority of people.

There are 100,000 garage bands and young musicians who dream of making it big time. One of them, maybe two, will actually do that. Nothing is impossible, with talent, individuality and skill and a little luck. Microstock is hardly different at this stage. Some will make money, most will not. A couple will be able to build their own agency to supply images.

I recently chucked all of my old DX camera equipment, lenses included.
I first bought the Z6 with the 14-30mm and the 24-70mm because doing video with a mirrorless is a breeze.
Video was my motivator.
Those two lenses plus the Nikon 200-500mm I kept and use with the adapter left me kind of lacking in lens coverage.
So I added the 70-200mm. Great lens I use this lens a lot.
Then I got to thinking that the Z6 is an OK camera but maybe I should add the Z7 ii because it was being hyped so much.
This was actually a stupid move. I use both cameras but to tell you the truth for stock photography the Z6 is more than good enough.
I also added the 50mm macro. My reasoning was the 100mm macro I had did not fit my needs for what I shoot most of the time.
I got to thinking back to some of the cheaper point and shoot cameras I had and enjoyed using because they had that macro option. So I decided to go against the main stream and get the 50mm macro. I love it! It's a great lens for photo walks especially when I encounter a beautiful flower or interesting object.
The 50mm works better for me. I have no need for the 100mm. This is for my photography and how I shoot. Others will find the 100mm macro more suited to their purposes.
Yeah, I have a much better system now. The electronic view finders on both cameras are the bomb. They allow me to see things and do things that were very difficult with the DSLRs.
Will I ever get my money back?
Probably not.
Is full frame better than DX. Probably not.
It depends but since I don't shoot sports and I don't do much if any indoor shooting without lights, I don't really see the advantage.
One real surprise for me was that both of my full frame mirrorless cameras are smaller and lighter than my old D7500s.

When I first started in Microstock in 2007 I had a Nikon D50 a widely praised camera at that time.  Actually it was rubbish.  I upgraded to the D60, an amazing 12MP.  Again the results were poor (looking back with years of experience).

Everyone at iStock wanted to produce XXXL sizes and the nly way of doing that was via the Canon 5Dii.  So I sold all my Nikon gear and bought the 5Dii and a selection of lenses.  It was good, but man was it heavy.

Then a few years ago I went for lighter mirrorless.  I chose the Fuji X-T2 and a couple of lenses.  Wonderful camera, and the leses are so sharp it's incredible.  Quality of images is exceptional, shooting RAW and processing in Fuji's own RAW software.

This camera and two lenses are exceptionally good and so light I can take them everywhere.  Never felt the need to upgrade again once I'd switched to my Fuji X-T2.

Nowadays you can just use a smartphone for microstock, no need to buy any equipment