Your experience
Purchased an awesome device and never used it?
- I know the problem only too well.62%
- It happens, but rarely.34%
- It has never happened to me before and I have never lied in my life. Pinky promise!4%
The competition has ended.
Awesome gadget I would never buy
7/5/2021
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
Purchasing a device and then never using it: a mistake I’ve made a few times. But by now I know better and don’t give in to the must-have-it feeling.
The Pocket 2 is a cool device. I can use it to record smooth handheld videos, connect a microphone, and film myself walking around. Or record a time lapse with panoramic view. Yeah!
I could do all that, but I never will.
Imagination vs. reality
The Pocket is just one example. I know from experience that liking and buying something doesn't mean I'll ever use it. More than once, wonderful devices have ended up in a box, where they stayed until the battery was broken. This is what happened to my old GoPro.
Me in my imagination: I film multi-day bike tours with the GoPro or record hikes with it. I attach the GoPro to the top of a sailing boat mast, to a SUP or to the fender of a car for sensational perspectives. I use it to go to Alpamare or snorkelling. I take a time-lapse video of a flower opening. I place the GoPro between the pins of a bowling alley or in the playfield of a pinball machine. Or I go straight into the dream world of GoPro promotional videos.
Me in reality: I create a time-lapse video of a scruffy flat roof in bad weather.
Give it to someone who doesn’t need it either
What do you do with something you don’t need? Sell it, give it away or lend it to someone. I don’t care if the next person uses the device. The Pocket 2, provided by DJI, is now in the hands of my colleague Thomas Kunz instead of mine. I lent a friend one of my three analogue cameras because I never use it. She now also never uses it. The only difference is that a film is inserted now.
What action and analogue cameras have in common: the work starts when the pleasure is over. I like recording videos, but the extensive post-editing scares me. It’s very similar with celluloid. The film is quickly full, but afterwards it needs to be developed and digitised.
For action cams you also need ideas. Realistic ones, too. The chances of me doing a handstand on a motocross bike while sailing over an erupting volcano are rather small. Resisting an impulsive buy also means knowing yourself well enough.
David Lee
Senior Editor
David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.chMy interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
