More like a drinking kool-aid rehab center. Whenever a member expresses his desire to buy a new gear, others would say, "Don't do it man. Get a grip. Calm down and let me show you how to use built-in EVF." Sorta group therapy.

Exactly. Then one day I will appear with a monster rig!!!! Supersize!!!!

In fact I need a heavy duty WF717 tripod.

@ Rambo
I live in SF. Do you need a grip? (no charge)

@ Stonebat
If others' buying makes you feel good is that Kaufenfreude?

@sfbay_jon Who?

@last_SHIFT I hope you are joking cuz that doesn't sound funny.

@stonebat

Unfortunately not a joke but staying positive :)

@TommiH
Best I ever got was handheld with a TRV900. Happened to be at the right place at the right time.

I try to consider digital camera more and more like a consumable, not kit. Our government does the same, letting us write-off the full cost at purchase date. The "depreciation schedules" must have just got ridiculously unpredictable for the tax-man: "What, zero-value already?"
Accordingly, I try to make electronic stuff pay for itself in its first job. Then I don't feel so bad seeing it gathering dust. But tripods, lenses, reflectors? Still earning their keep after many years of service!
Of course, we're all buying more kit because we've suddenly got cheap Chinese labour. Once our shelves are full, this will end like it did with all our kitchen appliances.
Thanks for the brilliant satire, Stonebat.

Hold on with our "hold on" talk..
Australian English does not refer to items as "cheap" meaning "poor quality" as Americans do! The labour (labor) is cheap and the cheap (inexpensive) goods are as well-built as any dear (expensive) kit we've seen!

If I can start all over again...

I would readsome books about lighting and color. Then I would use existing gears to take video. No HD? Fine. No 1080p? Fine. No 24p? Fine. iPhone, old compact camera, or whatever. Just take some video. Import into editing tool. Learn how to edit first (e.g. Premiere Pro CS5, Avid). Learn how to apply color correction (e.g. MBL, Colorista II). Try various effects (e.g. AE CS5). Try all necessary plug-ins. No need to buy any of them. Use trial versions. Trial expired? Reinstall OS. Try again. 60 days should be enough to learn basic stuff. Also use a laptop's built-in audio recorder to record audio and try to edit it.

While learning the softwares, start looking for "cheap" vdslr deals. e.g. GH1. Usually good idea to get a cheap zoom kit lens. Panasonic or Canon or whatever. Also cheap MF old lenses from ebay. Just a couple of lenses good enough to start. Normal and short telephoto FOV will do it. e.g. 24mm and 50mm lenses for 2x crop system. Just learning a body takes... a while. Try to get decent footages with the basic gears and make sure to edit nicely.

That might take months. 3 months... tight. 6 months... maybe. Possibly a year. Total cost so far is $1K + software. To bring down the cost of software... FCPX or something like student discount.

Then buy a tripod and a shoulder rig. Try to get good footages with new gears. Then Sound? FF? MB? Filters? Cage? Sound? Lighting? It depends. One at a time. Each time try to improve footages. Actually there seems no order. Sometimes cage first. Sometimes audio gear first. Sometimes cage and shoulder rig at the same time. At the end I gotta have a working set of gears.

When everything is ready, start advertising and moonlighting. As I'm making money, start upgrading a body and getting better lenses. And stop feeling guilty about spending :)

If I could start over again - I would have started this 20 years ago :-)

@stonebat Lots of wisdom there! Also I love your fantastic last quote: "Do it until it becomes boring, then keep doing it until it becomes beautiful". That applies hugely in music too - if I've rehearsed so it's boring to me, chances are I've just about got to the point where I can be inspired to make it beautiful for a live audience. There's a similar but not identical quote around this same subject of expertise: "Amateurs practise until they get it right; professionals practise until they don't get it wrong".

I think one of the hardest (for me) challenges in doing video work is in knowing what will work in editing, and what can't be rescued and needs to be redone (and having the guts to ask for it to be redone when everyone's under time pressure or getting tired).

From another life, spent doing broadcast audio work for many years, you definitely learn that it's easier to get it right at the time than to try to rescue it afterwards. And with experience, you get to know exactly what to ask your colleagues / the "talent" for, to make it right. If that makes sense!

Anyway, yes, it's not (totally) about the gear. My own pet hobby-horse is that the best gear won't make you better, it will give you the possibility of better.