Hello Tom,

I know i just produce BW pic, an it is not of the taste of everybody ;o) but imho, the hardware in pure classic photography is juste a detail, because you are using film (no matter of full/not full frame, to loose pixel or not, etc...)

So, the image is the goal, and the only thing you can trust is your heart & soul.

The body i'm using has been created in 1985, lenses (35, 50, 135) are from 1975 & 89, so old, but so 'my friend' !!!

Our brain must learn 'the' pure technique of photography : speed, diaph, dof, composition, and some little bonus that you acquire with time (like taking pic with both eyes open, or use hyperfocal).
Once this has been done, you can forget everything, and just follow your feeling/heart/soul .. your brain will do the rest without thinking about it, you can follow or break rules, normally lol it will be nice !

I think hardware is important in Digital photography because of the big risk to don't capture enough details (due to ccd or something like this) to print a exhibition picture (nobody knows, it could happens to everyone of us).

But don't forget one thing : a camera is like a car .. you need to learn it, to understand it, to make it your best friend ! Nobody can do that in a short time. So, time with the same material is good too. 

Like my dear Chrissy said : the most important is to have fun, ffrom the 'clic' to the print/web

.. ok this is just my opinion ;o)

See ya :oD