I love enthusiasm, but I am not a big fan of extremists. In part, I'm sure this is because I see the world in shades of gray rather than black and white.

So I'm often a bit concerned when someone posts a comment or sends an email stating that they are going to "sell all my old equipment and invest in a compact system camera with all new glass. "

What's the red flag?

In my opinion, no single camera set-up is going to accommodate every photographic challenge. I think we need a variety of tools to capture the world as we envision. It's like having a set of screwdrivers instead of just one.

As we move forward and add new gear to our kits, I recommend that we sell off the redundancy. A perfect example is when I bought the Canon 70D DSLR. My 60D, which I absolutely loved, was sold to help me finance the new camera.

What I didn't do was sell the 5D Mark II full frame body because it is my only full frame camera. And I certainly didn't jettison the OM-D kit just because I was suddenly enamored with the new Canon APS-C.

I sell equipment all the time. My goal is to stay light and be ready to meet a variety of photography assignments. I love the little cameras. But I'm smart enough to know that I need the big ones too.

-Derrick