I think that photographic technology is still developing and we will see a lot of new and interesting stuff in the next decades, but (…drumroll…) it will have little marginal benefit to the quality of my photos since technology is rarely my constraint.
It would be great if it was (if only I had less noise, better IBIS, better tracking AF, etc) because then I would not have to invest a lot of hard work and I could just spend money. But it isn’t really.
I decided to get back into photography as hobby bit more than a year ago, because I wanted to take better family and travel photos. One decisive experience was in 2022, when we called a professional photographer to take family photos with our 2 year old daughter (“in the wild”, not studio). They turned out beautifully: expressive faces, moments captured, everything in focus that needs to be, nice bokeh for the rest, etc.
From the EXIF data I see that all of them were shot with an Olympus PEN E-PL7 that was 8 years after release, and nothing else than an Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens. From the file numbering I don’t see a lot of gaps, which means that almost all (more than 90%) photos taken by the photographer turned out well. While the lens is still considered good, reading reviews of this camera today makes it look like great-great-great grandpas daguerreotype camera. But in expert hands it is a great tool. Skill and experience matters a lot.
Also, with my recently acquired Panasonic GX9, I realized that I barely know my current camera and lenses. I have been learning about its focusing modes for a month now, and I am getting much better photos as a result. I have so much to learn about the body and my lenses that to buy anything else at this point would simply mean that now I know even less about (ostensibly) better gear.
Finally, I am also learning that constraints are enlivening. I have not removed the 50mm equivalent lens from my MILC camera for a long while, and I try to shoot everything with it. I cannot always take the picture I wanted, but I can almost always shoot something, and often it turns out to be much more interesting than what I originally intended.