A Letter to My Readers: It’s Never About the Gear

Yesterday under my video “Canon Rebel T7 in 2025” I received a comment that said:

“You use it because you can’t afford decent gear.”

I’ll be honest: I could have ignored it.

Instead, I decided to reply, and now I want to take it further and share my thoughts with you here, because this mentality is something that goes beyond a single YouTube comment.

My Confession

I’m not chasing the latest camera. Most of the gear I own today I bought second-hand. Sometimes this is practical, sometimes it’s also a political choice. I don’t feel the need to keep feeding the market with every new release.

What matters to me is this: the photograph, not the tool.

There was a time I was also a camera brand ambassador. After that experience I realized that I am not interested anymore to feed the monster. Because it is simply wrong to stay linked to a brand, without having the freedom to choose just what it works for you in a certain period.

An Example from My Work

At the end of 2024 I had the privilege to shoot an assignment for L’Équipe. For that job, I used two cameras: a Canon EOS 5D Mark II (released in 2008) and a Canon Rebel T7 (an entry-level DSLR). Hardly “state-of-the-art” in 2025.
The result? The work was published in France Football, in the printed edition. A prestigious magazine trusted images taken with cameras that, according to some people online, aren’t even “decent.”

This alone should be enough proof that photography isn’t about showing off the latest specs. It’s about vision, timing, and the ability to connect with the story in front of you.

But then, if a Canon EOS 5D Mark 2 made very important covers and newspaper coverage 15 years ago, why shouldn't it be more suitable today, especially in a world where even smartphones are used (which is a technology aimed at computational and not optical photography anyway) ?

Arti directors, in fact don’t think that way, the way of that comment I mean: because art directors usually are more intelligent and knowledgeable than those who think that the latest cameras are the only decent gear we can consider for photography.

Why I’m Writing This

The idea that only expensive, new gear makes a “real photographer” is dangerous. It intimidates beginners. It creates unnecessary divisions. It turns an art form into a shopping competition.

I’ve worked with Nikon, Oltympus, Panasonic, Leica, Ricoh, Fujifilm, Pentax,Canon, Sony. I’ve held cameras worth a few hundred and others worth thousands, for example the medium format by Fujifilm. The constant in all of this is not the brand or the sensor: it’s the eye behind the viewfinder. Otherwise a rich kid or even the the Queen of England who had a Leica would be better in this game than me or any other professional photographer and the reality shows that is not.

My Truth

I don’t feel ashamed to use a Rebel T7 in 2025. On the contrary, I feel proud. Because it reminds me, every time, that the value of an image is never in the camera. It’s in the story it tells and the life it holds inside the frame.

So if you’re reading this and you’re just starting out, don’t let anyone discourage you because of the camera you use. Make photographs. Learn. Grow. That’s the only thing that matters.