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145 - Old Gear is Still Good Gear · The Nerdy Photographer Podcast

• 0:01
  Casey Fatchett: Hey, welcome to the nerdy phonographer podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm your host. Casey Fatchett, back again for another nerdlet
• 0:05
  episode, and in this short episode, I'm going to talk to
• 0:09
  you about how old gear can still be good gear. I know there's
• 0:16
  this obsession with gotta have the newest, latest thing, but I
• 0:21
  see all these posts on social media from photographers going
• 0:25
  like, Do people still even use DSLRs anymore? Yes, absolutely.
• 0:31
  I know tons of professional photographers who are getting
• 0:34
  paid plenty of money producing amazing images shooting DSLRs.
• 0:38
  You don't have to shoot mirrorless. While mirrorless has
• 0:41
  some advantages, it also has some disadvantages, like, you
• 0:44
  know, shorter battery life, and, you know, there's other issues
• 0:49
  that you have to worry about. While it has advantages, it also
• 0:53
  has, you know, things that are, there are some cons there too.
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  But here's the thing, you don't always have to be upgrading to
• 1:00
  the latest and greatest gear to you know, produce images that
• 1:07
  are of high quality. I can produce high quality images on
• 1:10
  my my film cameras that are 50 years old. I can produce high
• 1:16
  quality images on my oldest DSLR, which is probably 15 years
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  old at this point. There's the thing is, but when you're
• 1:26
  especially for photographers who are just starting out and
• 1:28
  they're worried about being able to compete, you know, on a gear
• 1:34
  level, they need to have something that will produce an
• 1:36
  image. You can get a good DSLR for, you know, like, for not a
• 1:41
  lot of money, you can get a Canon 5d mark four for like, two
• 1:45
  grand. It's a great camera. It is still a great camera. I've
• 1:50
  been using even I got a mirrorless I got an r5 a couple
• 1:55
  of years ago, I've still been using my 5d mark four as my,
• 1:58
  like, backup by my second body at weddings. It takes incredible
• 2:02
  images. There's, you know, there is a lot they can still give you
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  and don't sit there, like lenses, a good lens, as long as
• 2:12
  it's it works, can last for decades. I'm still using lenses
• 2:17
  that I've got, you know, 10, 1215, years ago, they work
• 2:21
  great. It doesn't have to be the newest version of a lens.
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  Obviously, there are upgrades whatever. In a lot of times,
• 2:29
  people will be like, oh, you know, it's more megapixels.
• 2:32
  Stop. Like, with the megapixel, the pixel counts, whatever.
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  Here's something to keep in mind, if you want to double the
• 2:43
  resolution of an image, you want it to be twice as big, you have
• 2:47
  to triple the number of megapixels. So 24 megapixels is
• 2:53
  kind of a standard size for a lot of cameras these days,
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  especially for like, cameras that are geared towards sports,
• 3:02
  like the Canon r3 is a 24 megapixel. I believe there's a
• 3:07
  lot of these, these cameras that are like 24 megapixels. If you
• 3:11
  wanted to have an image that is twice the size of what you're
• 3:14
  getting for 24 megapixels, you'd need a 72 megapixel sensor. That
• 3:19
  is a huge, huge sensor. So just from, keep that in mind, there
• 3:25
  are, yes, there are great things that come from, you know, my r5
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  if I shoot something and I want to crop in and still have a
• 3:31
  pretty big image, I can do that. But if I still, still get
• 3:36
  fantastic images out of a DSLR, there's reason they were like
• 3:42
  SLRs and DSLRs were around for 100 years. And, you know,
• 3:49
  mirrorless is, you know, a next step in evolution. You don't
• 3:54
  absolutely have to have it too, if you're, if you're starting
• 3:57
  out and you want to get a nice setup fairly cheaply. You can
• 4:01
  get, you know, a DSLR and some of those lens mount, you know,
• 4:07
  those, those older mount lenses for for a DSLR, even though the,
• 4:16
  you know, the camera, camera manufacturer has, like,
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  discontinued them, or whatever, people are selling those off,
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  and you can use them on your new mirrorless if you get one
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  eventually, by just getting an adapter. And you can use those
• 4:26
  old lenses. So there's no rush to have the, you know, the
• 4:32
  newest gear. Don't like put yourself supremely in debt
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  trying to get the latest, newest camera or lens, or whatever that
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  other stuff. Here's the thing you have to worry about, if it's
• 4:44
  used, how many, like shutter actuations has it had, and what
• 4:49
  like the lifespan? That's one thing to consider. If it is
• 4:54
  refurbished, it's should be as good, if not better, than new.
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  Ref. Refurbished from most camera manufacturers. If it was
• 5:03
  refurbished by the manufacturer, have to go through additional
• 5:06
  tests before they can be sold again. So that's something to
• 5:10
  keep in mind. Canon, I know, has like refurbished again. Mark
• 5:15
  fours, they're cheap. They're cheap. It's a really great
• 5:20
  camera, but you know, like, that's the thing you can you can
• 5:23
  get a really good camera for less money if you're willing to
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  have something that's a little older and will still last you a
• 5:31
  long time. These cameras don't have to be like, you don't have
• 5:35
  to roll over every couple of years and get a new camera. And
• 5:39
  I hope that that helps some people out there. I hope that
• 5:42
  you find found this this helpful and reassuring, that you don't
• 5:46
  need to have the the newest stuff, and it's okay. It's okay.
• 5:50
  Take a breath, relax. We're all gonna get through this together.
• 5:54
  Please follow along with the nerdy photographer on social
• 5:57
  media. At the nerdy photo. That's at the nerdy photo, no
• 6:02
  dots, underscores or dashes. On Reddit, Instagram, Tiktok
• 6:09
  threads, blue sky. Yeah, that's, I think that's about all of
• 6:13
  them. So follow along, and until next time, stay safe and stay
• 6:17
  nerdy. You.