It's raining here in Japan today so I've spent the day looking around the various message boards. There's a lot of interesting things, and a lot of crap also.

One of the most common questions seems to be about upgrading. Should I upgrade to ......... This seems to be quite an issue, even here with the recent release of the XL1s.

Here in Japan having the latest and greatest is a big thing, you have to have the latest gear to be considered cool. Vanity, that's all it is, vanity and the human need to be better than the next guy.

OK so we all would love the new XL1s, the latest DV capture board, or perhaps the IBM/Avid DV Express workstation, or the new Sony workstation. The big question you have to ask yourself is do I really need it. I look around at the gear and systems people are using and I think, wow, I must be the poorest guy on earth. I saw one guy who was using a Dual Pentium 4 system, some 140GB raid array, a Canopus DV REX RT, and an XL1 for home videos. He was complaining that his XL1 just wasn't good enough and he was upgrading to the XL1s. The XL1 is more camera than most people will ever need, and then if it isn't there are how many accessories, (Hank this is yours) you can buy for it.

What I'm getting at is before you write off the gear that has served you well and you know works, for the wiz bang v2.3.1, ask yourself do I need it, or is my hat just getting too tight

That's a question I've been asking too, Adrian. And my answer, albeit it an answer from an amateur in video (but not photography), is that you should read a book I've just finished and decide for yourself.

It's called "Rebel Without a Crew" and is written by Robert Rodriguez. Reading it will definitely influence your ideas on how much high priced gear you need.

Better yet, send me your snail mail address to john@zchildress.com and I'll send you my copy since I've finished it. It really gets you inspired to buck the system and make a movie.

After you finish it, you can pass it on to another videophile climbing snowy peaks in search of answers.

Ok sensei, after all that's what this board is all about isn't it. The passing on of knowlege and inspiration. Right now I could use the inspiration, it's hard here in Japan, the language, the Japanese way etc, so sometimes it gets disheartening.