When is it time to upgrade?

[pierces]

My rule of thumb has always been, "when the item to be upgraded can no longer do what you require of it". That can also be tweaked a bit if technology has advanced so far that your current piece of tech has become "classic". The most obvious indication that it's time to upgrade is when that beloved unit just ups and stops working altogether or doesn't survive a random impact event.

 

Why am I rambling on about technological obsolescence? It's because I just ordered a new phone to replace a perfectly good one and am wrestling with premature upgrade guilt. My Pixel 8 Pro is only a year old and has one of the best camera systems currently available in a phone. Until today. 

 

The Pixel 9 Pro XL represents the first time in a decade that I've upgraded in less than two or three model generations. Is it worth the upgrade? I guess I must think so, eh? 

 

Cameras:

Wide Camera:  50 MP - ƒ/1.68 - 82° field of view
Ultrawide Camera: 48 MP - ƒ/1.7 - 123° field of view 
Tele Camera: 48 MP - ƒ/2.8 aperture - 22° field of view - 5x optical zoom - Super Res Zoom up to 30x

Front Camera: 42 MP with autofocus - ƒ/2.2 aperture1 - 103° field of view

Multi-zone laser detect auto focus. Spectral and flicker sensor. Optical + electronic image sabilization on wide and telephoto.

 

Fast charging – up to 70% in about 30 minutes

 

Video stuff like 8K at 30 fps. 

 

Plus, Magic Eraser and a whole gaggle of adjustments both before and after the shot.

 

To be honest, it was just over the threshold of wait a generation versus buy now. But it was over the threshold. 

 

I will update when it shows up. 

 

Dave

Edited August 13 by pierces

[tom808]

Age (91) and bad hands has made it difficult to use my Sony A6xxx with the 70-300mm lens.

 

 Like the reviews of the Pixel9 pro and the telephoto lens it has and the rave reviews making it almost a “time to sell” the camera and lenses on eBay!

 

But I’m waiting to see what Apple is coming up in the next two weeks.

 

i still have an iPhone-11 and to date just use it as primarily as a phone and for reading at various appointments.

 

But as you often have said It’s a great time to be a photographer!

[Jon054]

14 hours ago, tom808 said:

Age (91) and bad hands has made it difficult to use my Sony A6xxx with the 70-300mm lens.

 

 Like the reviews of the Pixel9 pro and the telephoto lens it has and the rave reviews making it almost a “time to sell” the camera and lenses on eBay!

 

But I’m waiting to see what Apple is coming up in the next two weeks.

 

i still have an iPhone-11 and to date just use it as primarily as a phone and for reading at various appointments.

 

But as you often have said It’s a great time to be a photographer!

What lenses do you have for your Sony A6xxx? I own the A6700 and A6600 but am considering selling the A6600

[tom808]

18 hours ago, Jon054 said:

What lenses do you have for your Sony A6xxx? I own the A6700 and A6600 but am considering selling the A6600

I thought answering quickly and discovered my Word document (for insurance purposes was missing and so I had re-do.

 

Probably have too much glass but ...

Sony 18-50 OSS

Sony 85FE 1.8

Sony SEL 10-18

Sony SEL 18-135

Sony FE 70-300

Rokinon 12mm (Dave's influence - rather good lens)

 

I was surprised by Sony cameras A6300 and A6400 were so old.

Thinking of getting the new A6700 (A7000)

[Jon054]

I moved from the Sony A100(a mount) to the massive jump to a A550 to A580, my memory leaves me on some things) t the A6300, which I liked but jumped at the A6600.  Massive leap in autofocus.  Then my bride surprised me with an A6700 and my A6600 is never touched.

 

if you decide to go to a point and shoot, there’s one or two of your lenses there might be some interest here.  

[tom808]

Upgraded today in a sense - not camera or phone.

 

with all the upgrades coming out with Adobe Photoshop, Topaz, Skylum etc, thought I should get a new iMac M3 with 16gb memory.

 

Been using Apple products after TRS-80 (you mean you don’t remember or know of TRS-80?) and been with Apple since then.

[pierces]

1 hour ago, tom808 said:

Been using Apple products after TRS-80 (you mean you don’t remember or know of TRS-80?) and been with Apple since then.

 

Do you mean the Tandy Trash-80? 😮

 

I can see why you didn't follow that lead. 

 

I went down a different road since I was doing IT support and some use-specific application development in my early computer years. Apple just wasn't a thing in offices and larger businesses. They owned the graphics arts world up until Photoshop 4 or so, but the lack of a viable network solution in the early years (AppleTalk didn't "talk" well) pushed businesses to Windows. Naturally I followed.

 

Home hardware? The Commodore 64 was our first "computer" (mostly as a toy bought for the kids), but my first actual computer was a 386-SX 16 PC with a 40MB hard drive and 4MB...count 'em, 4MB of RAM! It came with Windows 3.0 and a super fancy 15" COLOR monitor (that weighed more than my current 42" LED unit). Cutting edge! At least for the time. My current smart watch's CPU runs at 1000x the speed (1.7GHz vs. 16MHz), it has 500,000x the amount of RAM (2GB vs 4MB) and 800x the storage (32GB vs. 40MB). Let's not mention phones...

 

Things have changed a bit since then, but I stuck with Windows and have avoided all things Apple since, including phones and tablets. I don't hate Apple and don't disparage their hardware, it's just that their ecosystem and pricing are just not for me. 

 

Almost time to start planning the next PC! 😉 

 

Dave

[pierces]

22 hours ago, tom808 said:

... thought I should get a new iMac M3 with 16gb memory.

 

Tom, 

 

How do you like the M3?

Oddly enough I am the exception in my wider family with most of them using Apple. 

 

Dave

[Heidi13]

On 9/3/2024 at 1:47 PM, pierces said:

 

Do you mean the Tandy Trash-80? 😮

 

I can see why you didn't follow that lead. 

 

I went down a different road since I was doing IT support and some use-specific application development in my early computer years. Apple just wasn't a thing in offices and larger businesses. They owned the graphics arts world up until Photoshop 4 or so, but the lack of a viable network solution in the early years (AppleTalk didn't "talk" well) pushed businesses to Windows. Naturally I followed.

 

Home hardware? The Commodore 64 was our first "computer" (mostly as a toy bought for the kids), but my first actual computer was a 386-SX 16 PC with a 40MB hard drive and 4MB...count 'em, 4MB of RAM! It came with Windows 3.0 and a super fancy 15" COLOR monitor (that weighed more than my current 42" LED unit). Cutting edge! At least for the time. My current smart watch's CPU runs at 1000x the speed (1.7GHz vs. 16MHz), it has 500,000x the amount of RAM (2GB vs 4MB) and 800x the storage (32GB vs. 40MB). Let's not mention phones...

 

Things have changed a bit since then, but I stuck with Windows and have avoided all things Apple since, including phones and tablets. I don't hate Apple and don't disparage their hardware, it's just that their ecosystem and pricing are just not for me. 

 

Almost time to start planning the next PC! 😉 

 

Dave

 

Although I didn't work IT, we had similar systems in the early days. I started with a Sinclair ZX81 with 2 K and no storage device. After the Commodore 64, I also had a 386 with 4M Ram and 40MB drive, then upgraded to a 486 DX2 with 16M RAM.

 

DW uses an ipad, but I have never used any Apple products, as they aren't compatible with anything and pricing is ridiculous. I'm used to the Windows system, so when I have to troubleshoot her ipad, I don't find it user friendly.

[pierces]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

I'm used to the Windows system, so when I have to troubleshoot her ipad, I don't find it user friendly.

 

It all boils down to what you're used to. Both ecosystems have their quirks, but basically do much the same things. As I said, I don't dislike Apple products, but I tend to do some pretty heavy editing chores and the bang-for-the-buck with a PC-based machine is a no-brainer for me.

 

Same with phones. My first real smartphone was a Motorola Droid with its somewhat clunky skin on top of Android OS but way less $s than the contemporary iPhone. Next was a Nokia Icon running the ill-fated Windows Phone OS. Really an awesome piece of hardware with a great camera and Windows OS was actually pretty good. After that path swerved off a cliff, I went straight to a Pixel XL with its pure Android OS and have never gone with anything else since.

 

Inexplicably, all three of my kids use iPhones. Like you, I'm definitely an iSL student (iOS as a Second Language) when they run into an issue.

 

Dave

[tom808]

On 9/4/2024 at 9:31 AM, pierces said:

 

Tom, 

 

How do you like the M3?

Oddly enough I am the exception in my wider family with most of them using Apple. 

 

Dave

 

[tom808]

Hi Dave:

 

Don’t know whether I like the M3.
 

 I’m still loading - Topaz, Neo, Word and Excel.

Still wondering whether the hubs or ports are going to be a problem as when I attached them, I got rolling start ups so I guess I have to attach one thing at a time into the hub to see what may be the problem.

 

My other iMac is late 2017 but I got 32gb memory in it!

[Re-tired]

I went over to the dark side a few years ago to ease video editing, and not pay for the annual Adobe subscription for premiere pro.  Perhaps not the most sensible financial decision.  I think it is really a Ford or Chevy thing when the smoke clears.  M3 MacBook was stupidly expensive but it does everything I want it to do.  Besides, it challenges my elderly brain to learn a new operating system.

[tom808]

Hi Dave!

 

The M3 Mac loads really fast as compared to my old 2017 Intel chip Mac.

Still fooling around getting my hubs and related devices loaded.

 

Have not really had confidence in internal drive(s) and like to connect external hard drives and use cloud memory as well  - my reason for still “fooling around”

 

But am happy with the M3

Tom

[tom808]

Sorry 2217 - not 2017