The answer to this question changes with time. A decade and a half ago you absolutely needed gear worth a few thousand dollars at minimum to take a good photo.

The answer to this question changes with time. A decade and a half ago you absolutely needed gear worth a few thousand dollars at minimum to take a good photo. Today you can put something taken from your smartphone camera on a billboard or magazine. As tech improves every field has such jumps in baseline quality. The most complex software in the world can be written on a $500 laptop. You can record a chart topping song on a $100 microphone in your bedroom. In most sports the average enthusiast today is using better gear than the top professionals in the world had a generation ago. The cost of the gear you need to be "good enough for all practical purposes" is constantly getting lower.