I go back and forth on gear and my own obsessions but most of the time, what obsesses me is not so much whatever camera or lens I have or am using (or think I want) but the mystery of taking pictures.
Susan Sontag pretty much summed it up, for me, when she said - “The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.”
Seeing things through other people's eyes (and cameras) affects me ... and I'm sure affects both the pictures I take, and the gear I use to take them. A lot of it is being in the right place, at the right time, and having a camera that works. But then, the mysteries of seeing a photograph emerge, either in the darkroom (in the good 'ole days) or on my screen - and often being surprised by the results - is rather addictive. Sometimes I think it\s the surprises that keep me wanting to take pictures. And (yeah I'll admit it) occasionally buy more picture-taking gear.
I think the most beautifully made camera I ever used (and briefly owned) was the Leica that belonged to my late father---
But it definitely did not take the best pictures. At least, not in my hands. In spite of years of studying (or at least thinking about) photography, I was fairly clueless when it came to actually making pictures. Fast forward to decades later when another 'surprise' - turned into one of my favorite photographs---
But it was not taken with anything resembling a high-end or state-of-the-art camera: I took the picture with an inexpensive (cheap) used Lumix GX1, and maybe the cheapest lens I've ever owned, the all-plastic Olympus 15mm BCL ('Body Cap Lens'). Compared to some cameras I have now, the GX1 seems crude and has a limited dynamic range - and the lens will never make anyone's lists of fine photographic glass - but it worked as well as and better than considerably 'finer' cameras I've used.
One of my favorite photographers, J.T. White (aka jtinseoul) has taken brilliant (to me) photos over many years with...a bewildering variety of different cameras. Including both small-sensor and more modern Ricohs, Leicas, Olympuses, Fujifilm X100s, Voigtlander Bessas and---the list goes on and on. Including iPhones and smartphones. And somehow, when I look at his different photos, from so many different cameras, I (really) can't tell which he took with which. Or when. He has a way of seeing the world which seems personal no matter what his gear is or may be. JT says "I don't take photos with my mind....I think I do everything with my gut." He then goes on to expound on something that always seemed curious but real to me - that his inner or emotional state dictates the choice or use of a camera more than anything else. "I usually have a jump in my step" he says, characterizing what it feels like to work with his Leicas - while other cameras match more chaotic, brooding or depressed states of mind.
When you look at it from that point of view, the gear we own or use or seek out isn't so much an obsession - as finding the right way to reflect our own inner landscapes....in the world around us. Or at least it's a damn fine rationalization...for that next piece of gear I can't seem to live without