What is your skill level?
Does your skill level match or exceed you gear or is your gear waiting around for you to catch up?
For me, it goes something like this;
For sport, with the EM1x’s and a variety of Olympus and Panasonic lenses, I am nearly a match for my gear or if I am not, I am not aware of the short fall.
I get what I see, when I see it, I just sometimes don’t react as quickly as my gear can. When I am “in the zone” it feels amazing*, but if I have failed to practice, had a recent coffee or sugar hit, maybe just not trying that hard (or maybe too hard), then the gear patiently waits for me to catch up.
Netball is an ideal example.of a “zone” sport. The less I think about it, the “luckier” I get.
In the studio, I have too many modifiers, lights, backgrounds etc, but my skill level, probably my experience level actually, is a little behind. More time, more experimentation, equals better results. This is really a case of understanding the gear and it is what you need it to be when you need it, rather than it being technically ahead of you.
My early G9 video was a good match for my skill level, especially processing. The camera set to Standard/422/10 bit/1080p, graded with little effort. The camera became second nature to shoot with and still is, the Sennheiser MKE-400 generally producing quality balanced sound as did the Zoom F1/SSH-6 kit for the sport podcast and my turn around was super quick.
My upgraded video and audio kit** is above my pay grade at this point, but I am working on it. Grading V-LOG (or not), using nodes (or not), applying LUT’s (or not), even being generally consistent, shooting quickly and confidently, using my best-for the job-sound and lighting gear, are not yet native to me in this space, far from it, but that is all about application and practice. I probably have too many options in balance for my needs.
Sometimes you can apply one skill and gear set (sport) to another field (birding) with hauntingly familiar results.
The “gear does not matter” thing is a myth in reality. It does, but not as much as the user.
The gear should not hold you back, but if you over invest in hardware and under invest in knowledge and experience, then you have wasted money.
*The “zone” is found with practice and then not chasing it. It is all muscle memory and being in the moment. You know you are there when the process seems seamless and you find your self anticipating things faster than mere thought would allow, a bit like falling asleep.
**S5, S5II, G9II, lots of mics, The Zoom H8 etc.