Does gear matter in photography is a question that I get asked quite a lot. There is no one answer to this. You can answer No and you can answer Yes. It all depends on the perspective you take on this one.
Let’s start with No.
Many of us think that getting new gear will make you a better photographer. In my opinion that is false. To be better you must learn how to use your existing gear. Getting new once won’t help in that at all.
Sometimes limiting yourself will be a better solution. Having limitations makes you think more. You need to solve problems and that will make you better. You might come up even ith new ideas and totally new kinds of images.
For example, in landscape photography, most of us think that a wide-angle is a must. Yes, a wide-angle lens is often used in landscape photography. If you do not have an ultra-wide-angle, what then?
Why not try a standard lens or even a telephoto lens. That can give you a totally new kind of landscape photos.
When the answer Yes?
When you get better here might a time to start thinking about better gear that actually will make you better. Well it is maybe a bit too much to say that it is the gear, it is the possibilities that the new gear gives. What I mean by that is that it might open up all new ways of making photographs. Sometimes it might even give a possibility to try new genres.
One example is bird photography. You can photograph birds with a wide-angle, but getting a longer lens will give new possibilities and new kind of mages that was possible for you before.
In the video below I talk more about the No and Yes.