Nikon D300

You don't need to use every capability of a device to make it beneficial for you. Let's stick with photography. Can someone who knows what they're doing get great results with cheap equipment? Yes, in many situations. Is it WAY easier with the right gear? Absolutely. Finding the right balance is tricky - no, you don't need a flagship body and lens to get started, but having a flagship or pro-grade body/lens from 1-3 generations ago can be huge. I shoot Nikon, not Sony, but going from a consumer D50 body to a Pro D300 body was huge just in terms of ergonomics - more buttons to allow me to quickly adjust things without having to pull the camera from my eye and fumble through menus. In the current generation, I finally moved to Mirrorless with a Z6ii which blew my mind and enabled so many more things - no, I wasn't "getting the full use" out of it and yes, I got some great shots with my old DSLR gear, but it made so many things so much easier that it made shooting fun and got me to carry the camera and take photos every day, which has been the biggest factor in improving my skills. Within the last few months I splurged and upgraded to a current-gen flagship (Z8) which amazed me once again - the Z6ii was more camera than I could fully exploit, but the Z8's ergonomics are just incredible - so many buttons, most of them remappable, allowing me to truly develop an instinctive way of shooting and allowing the equipment to get out of my way. It's important to try to avoid lovin…

- Laptop: 13-inch Dell XPS, 4GB RAM. My original model (XPS M1330) literally went up in smoke and Dell kindly sent me an updated and upgraded version (Studio XPS 13) for free. I like the size, but it runs very hot and has some terrible design features like the air vents which are half blocked when the screen is open. Next time I'm getting a Thinkpad. - OS: Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit. Rock solid. Launcher/dock: Gnome-Do, Browser: Chrome, Editor: Vim, Version Control: Git (though my Git skills are still a bit shaky), Music: Songird. - Special mention goes to Redshift ( http://jonls.dk/redshift/ ), which is one of those colour temperature programs. Recommend you try it or f.lux for a few days. If I turn it off at night I can barely look at the screen it's so bright. - Second OS: Windows Vista 64. This was pre-installed. I can't stand using it (not sure which of the home/business/ultimate editions it is), but I've kept it around for occasional Sky Player (for watching Premier League games - needs Silverlight), Photoshop and Portal. Other electronics : - I had a pair of Ultimate Ears Super-fi 5 Pro headphones and they were incredible: Total isolation and excellent clarity, even on the tube, but they have gone missing. I'm going to order another pair soon. - Nikon D300 Digital SLR with a few manual primes. I love the heavy, solid feel of these lenses. There's no going back to a kit zoom lens with a plastic mount after you've learned to focus quickly, which doesn't take long. My favo