Why did I buy a new camera

I am now on my 3rd expensive digital camera.
1. My first one was a Fuji Finepix S602 Zoom. It was awesome and I would probably still be using it except I dropped it :(
2. Next I bought the Olympus E-500 with the two kit lenses. Wow! It took amazing pictures was fun and flexible. BUT my daughters took up indoor sports (volleyball) AND its flash was annoying in that it strobed when trying to auto focus in low light conditions, effectively blinding everyone. So I got rid of it and got...
3. My new Nikon D80 with the amazing 18-200mm lens and an 85mm 1.8 lens. I am still learning about this camera and what all it can do.

So why talk about this. Well I was reading tonight about "Why Your camera does not matter" (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm). He points out that the camera and even a cameraphone can get great pictures and then Ken states: "Maybe because it's entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools. Even Ansel said "The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.""

So why did I buy a camera with lenses twice as expensive??? Was I an idiot I wonder? So I started going back through my photographs and felt much better about spending the extra dollars on my Nikon. I bought it to capture the memory of my kids growing up and having fun. And heck...I like taking pictures. Compare the two shots below:




Both of the above shots are without adjusting colors or anything. I just cropped and reduced them to approximately the same size. The one on the left with the action frozen and a bright look is the new D80 camera. The one on the right is my E500. Granted a lot of the diffence is in the lens. Which is another reason I chose Nikon...they have great lenses. I still have a lot of practice to go to get a good shot during the extremely fast action of volleyball in a dimly lit gym! More on that another time.