LX100/2 the upgrade that wasn’t.

Been using a compact Lumix LX100 for a while now, it’s a great solid camera, metal body, great Leica fixed zoom lens (24mm – 75mm in 35mm film terms) f1.7 and f2.8 at the long end, a nice range for street photography, 4/3rds sensor large for a compact. The only negative thing I can say about it is because it’s a fixed zoom there is a bit of delay in changing focal lengths, no big deal really. But I don’t get the upgrade? Apart from a couple of insignificant changes it’s the exact same camera! Same lens, same size sensor, maybe a few technical tweaks to the sensor but nothing thats going to make any difference to the end result! It even looks identical apart from a minor change to the grip? One of the “upgrades” is a few more pixels, but on the same size sensor so that means each individual pixel is smaller, larger pixels are able to grab more light. It’s an irrelevant “upgrade” to me? After processing raw images from the LX100 I end up with jpegs around 7 and 8mb more then big enough for large prints (how many people even make prints these days? Most simply share on various social media) I rarely print larger then A3.

My first DSLR was a 6.3mp Canon 10D a crop sensor camera, and the A3 prints from it were beautiful, not all pixels are born equal. I upgraded to a 40D only because the 10D was a bit slow in using, especially shooting in raw. I still use the 40D, it’s considered an old camera now, but it made good quality images when it was produced and still does today. "The photographer is the instrument not the camera" - Eve Arnold. An upgrade for me from the 40D would be a full frame DSLR but that would mean spending money on more lenses, and I like the lenses I have now. But its inevitable I will go full frame at some time. Anyway back to the LX100 2, the other main “upgrade” is a touch screen, another meaningless thing to me, why on earth would I want a touch screen on a compact camera, or any camera? It might cause problems accidentally changing settings? If I wanted a touch screen camera I could just use a “smart” phone camera. I think the EVF on the LX100 2 is slightly better, but on a compact it’s just as easy to use the screen for framing images. A real upgrade for me on the LX100 would have been a good dedicated lens hood, it does suffer from sun flare in the summer. 

 

 

Street Portraits Exhibition.

Street Portraits, varied and interesting characters I have captured while out and about doing my street photography on show @ my Pop up Gallery in Hull City Centre, (across the road from the Cheese Pub) Paragon Street. From the 2 July to 14 August 2018. Taken over the past few years in Hull, Leeds, London and N.Y. City