For a while now I’ve been really keen to buy a small compact camera, that I can take everywhere with me, so that I’m not as reliant on my phone. I’ve been finding more and more, that I’m not really happen with iphone photos, as they look so over-processed. Plus it’s nice to have an excuse to not pull my phone out of my pocket, as I’m sure like a lot of people also feel, I already go on my phone way too much.
There are loads of options out there, especially if you are willing to consider slightly older cameras. The only feature that was a dealbreaker for me, was that it had to have a viewfinder. This narrowed down the options quite a bit (which to be honest was a good thing for my sanity, as I’m terrible at making decisions) and there are some absolutely tiny cameras that would have been great, but I just know I would only end up resenting having to compose with just the rear screen, maybe I’m showing my age, but I just find it so awkward.
After spending way too long online looking up the pros and cons of each camera on my shortlist, I thought I had made a final decision, only to read another comment or a review, which sway me, and I would be convinced that actually, this other camera would be better.
In the end I found a reasonably priced second hand LX100 on LCE. Terrified at the prospect of wasting even more time making a decision, I decided enough was enough, so just took the plunge and bought it. After that short feeling of relief, that a decision had been made, I then had a pang of anxiety that I had been too impulsive, and should have spent longer comparing the options. After a bit more panicking, I figured that even if I hated it, I could sell it on for pretty much the same price I bought it for, which I think is one of the real benefits of buying used gear.
There is a lot to like about this camera, the main ones for me are:
- Digital viewfinder
- Micro 4/3 sensor
- 24-75mm equivalent zoom range
- Leica branded glass
- f/1.7 lens
- Small and compact
- Physical aperture dial (as well as lots of other buttons all over the camera)
There is a really nice looking version of this camera that is Leica branded (it’s been rebadged you fool) which looked great until I saw the price. It’s a steep old mark up to pay, just for that little red dot.
One potential downside of this camera is that it’s pretty old, it was released in 2014 , which is makes it ancient in digital camera terms. To put it into perspective the original XT model was released at a similar time, and has gone from the XT-1 to the XT-5 in that same period. The pace of new camera releases is relentless, and the specs seem to be constantly improving. I don’t mind it though, as each time a new model is released, the used market is flooded the previous gen, and there are some real bargains to be had.
I like older digital cameras, that are a bit rough around the edges, I don’t mind dealing with their quirks and outdated specs. I’ve written before about how much I love my Fuji x100s (which was released in 2013). Lewis Collard’s great website talks about how fun it can be using older kit, and sums up the appeal perfectly:
“I’ve had a couple of people asking me about why I write about old stuff. It’s partly because I don’t like spending money, partly because I find it amusing, but also because I’d like to think the results I get from old crappy cameras are good enough that people might stop and think before blindly buying stuff just because it’s new and/or not terrible.”
I can live without a lot of the newest features. I tend to focus manually, or I’m shooting static objects like buildings, so I don’t care about autofocus speeds, and the – small by todays standards – 12MP sensor, should be more than enough for snapshots – which is why I bought this camera. With the zoom lens, I shouldn’t need to be cropping too much digitally, so I can live with a smaller resolution sensor.
Another thing I love is there are so many physical buttons and switches, it’s even possible to change the aspect ratio with a switch directly on the lens – I’m a big fan of anything that prevents having to dig into the fiddly in camera menu, so that is a bonus. The only dial I wish it had is an ISO dial, then I would never have to even check the screen to change settings.
One of my first priorities was finding out how much background blur I can achieve. I know that is quite basic, it reminds me of when I bought my first ever DSLR and I was obsessed with having the ability to shoot wide open, and my main priority was to get as much background blur as possible, at all times, something that I arguably haven’t grown out of. I’ve never shot with a micro 4/3rds camera before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Both of those shots above were taken with the zoom fully extended to 55mm at f/2.8, and has some decent blurriness, which makes it really useful.
In the photo above, the separation isn’t huge, but I feel it is just enough to give the photo some depth, and I way prefer it to the equivalent photo I took on my phone, which just feels uncannily sharp from front to back. There is a softness to the Lumix image that I much prefer, both in the background slightly fading, and in the tones, as the m43 sensor provides so much more latitude when editing than a tiny phone sensor.
The lens is leica branded, which inevitably leads to fairly high expectations. I don’t know how much direct input they had, or if Panasonic are just licensing the name for credibility. But either way, the lens is amazing. It has a maximum aperture of f/1.7, which is not something you usually see on a small kit lens. It was another reason I opted for the Lumix, some of the other options, just the zoom lens by itself would have cost more than the Lumix camera.
For building shots, I’m obsessed with making sure all of the verticals line up perfectly. It’s usually when I’m correcting the converging verticals in C1 that any ugly distortions become apparent. If the lens has mustache distortion, then you may as well forget about trying to fix it, as it’s going to be impossible. The lack of obvious distortion with the lens is pretty incredible.
I forgot just how much fun a zoom lens can be, I’m so used to shooting with a fixed prime, being able to zoom from super wide to up close feels so liberating.
Having a bad lens can just suck all the enjoyment out of photography. Years ago I had a really bad Sigma zoom lens, it was the cheapest f/2.8 zoom lens I had found, but it was awful, shooting any lower than f/5.6 and the results were always blurry. The reason I remember this lens so vividly, is because of a photo it cost me. It was late in the evening, and I saw a deer for the first time ever at this local nature spot (I never saw a deer there again) it was just below me in a clearing, I fired off a few shot before it was spooked, got home and was absolutely gutted, because inevitably they were blurry, because of that lens that just wouldn’t get sharp. I think about that quite a lot. I do like the photo, but it just isn’t quite sharp, and I think that really could have been one of my all time favourites. Which I guess is a long way of saying, if the lens is shit, you may as well forget about it.
On the subject of blurry photos, I always prefer to shoot with manual focus, but on this camera I just can’t quite seem to get to grips with it. This might be because I accidentally knocked the diopter on the viewfinder without realising it, or just plain old ineptitude on my part. I haven’t any issues with the autofocus, so I’ve been using that instead at times. It’s been fun, a bit like enjoying the freedom of the zoom, it makes things so much more spontaneous, it’s just point and shoot, I can just get quick snapshots without having to worry about anything other than pressing the shutter.
The other one is IA mode – this drove me absolutely crazy for an entire evening. Suddenly whole sections of the menu settings were missing, options that I could remember and were in the manual, were no longer there. I thought I was going mad, I felt like the camera was gaslighting me, as the manual was showing me menus that didn’t exist. It turns I had pressed the button which switches the camera to IA mode, which is a super stripped back simple mode that reduces a lot of the extra settings and features.
I still don’t really understand why this mode exists, but lesson learned I will make sure to press the IA button ever again. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that button can be swapped to do something less annoying.
Despite a few little quirks I am so happy with this camera. There are already photos I’ve taken that I would have missed without this camera, as it’s always in my bag. This photo below is one of those, I was on my bike riding to work just as the mist was starting to life, and I managed to stop and get a few shots.
There is a mk2 version of this camera that comes with image stabilisation and more megapixels, but at double the price, I couldn’t justify it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they never make a mk3, as these sort of cameras seem like a dying breed, I feel that people are still buying bigger ‘proper’ cameras, but smaller point and shoots have been replaced by phones now.
lloyddavid.com 