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I mean, is it:
a. Big enough?
Are you still using the small size when the clients and judges expect the quality that you get from the big size? Ask carefully - but don't give them any hints. If they are perfectly satisfied with what you produce, with what you've got, don't poke the bear.
If they are not, start poking and begin with your wallet. You may have to spend actual money on actual goods, and it is just about to be actually the end of the financial year. Poke fast, if you are going to poke at all. If you need to spend to earn, spend now.
b. Small enough?
If you are going to do a holiday trip riding in anything smaller than a tank transporter, you'll need to think about size and weight. The heading image from Sydney Vivid was taken last week on my little Fujifilm X-T10 with a 27mm f:2.8 Fujinon pancake lens and the results as well as the experience was all I could have wished for. The freedom from zooming provided by taking one lens only meant I was looking more than manipulating the camera, and I saw more than I normally do.
Oh, the joy of one small camera when you are bumping through a crowd of drunks in the dark...
c. Cheap enough?
If you cannot afford that which you desire, perhaps you are better off with that which you can afford. Or not, depending upon whether you wish to enter into the financial chariot races. Do so if you wish, but remember that every race has those who are riding and those who are ridden. The former have the whips.
d. Expensive enough?
Well, if you are in a position where it is important that you be seen to possess expensive cars, clothing, foods, wines, and all the accoutrement of success, perhaps you should give a little thought to upgrading your camera and lenses. It only needs one slip of the social cog to be seen as a lesser being...even if you are making perfectly good pictures with the old camera you own. Consider it your duty to society, if not to the trade to think of adding more megapixels and faster focusing.
e. Fast enough?
If you're going to be picturing things that come and go rapidly - dancers on stage, motor cars on a circuit, birds in flight...you need a camera that will respond to what it sees quickly and repeat the action within a small interval of time. It may seem like a shotgun approach to set a camera to take high-speed bursts and then cherry-pick the files to find out where the best capture is...but then it is also a shotgun approach that gets you a duck dinner.
Grit your teeth and admit that the newer cameras can capture things far better than the older ones - and even if you pride yourself on having the Cartier- Bresson eye, you have to realise that many things can slip past you if you are going to rely on one shot only. Cut yourself some slack and get a camera that can do multiple shots when you cannot.
f. Slow enough?
Take a tiny little compact tich camera into a studio environment and discover for yourself how limiting it can be to have to rely upon the programmed exposures that the factory puts in. You really need to think for yourself in many circumstances, and your camera needs to be able to take orders rather than take charge. Look carefully, too, to see if you are going to have to navigate five minutes of menus before you can make any sensible changes. Go for simplicity - if you cannot use Occam's Razor, you will eventually be reaching for Occam's Ball-Peen Hammer...
For any of these, and many more of the photo-life's questions, come down to a Camera Electronic shop and talk to the staff. There are enough minds available to formulate a good answer.
