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Levels of commitment

What on earth is an ‘un-camera’? I think I’d better start by explaining the title of this post a bit better. I often find myself in a bit of a conundrum: I’m sure you are undoubtedly all aware of my role with Hasselblad and longstanding affinity for their hardware. I’m sure many of you are aware that I continually push the envelope for what’s possible with medium format and achieve some pretty unique results in the process. On top of that, I have the added benefit of having access to pretty much anything I need from the product catalog. I also still have a full Nikon system kicking around. So: what possible justification could I have for yet another camera?

There’s one small hole left not filled by any of the above. A Hasselblad, by its very nature, is not the kind of thing one uses casually. Partially because there’s little point in shooting sloppy medium format and having massive files to curate later, partially because it’s not always socially acceptable to wield something that large, partially because it requires some physical weight commitment (getting harder and harder with current airline restrictions), but mostly because I’ve always felt that the output is quite binary: either it makes you look like a hero, or you crash and burn. Needless to say, casual use tends to result in the latter. If the sole purpose of my excursion or trip is making images, I’ll carry the H6D-100c, with either the H5D-50c or X1D as backup. I know I’m going to get the images I want, at the best possible quality, and the camera isn’t going to be what holds me back.

The conundrum left behind is when this is not the case. Yes, as part of my new role and various other non-photographic projects, there are increasingly times when I do things and go places that are not 100% dedicated to the creation of images; at these times there may be some opportunities for photography and you’d like to not compromise too much, which makes an iPhone perhaps a bit too frustrating – especially when you encounter a situation outside its shooting envelope*. Times when for instance you might want to grab a bit of video for family, or you’re not sure if there might be something worth capturing but don’t want to be frustrated later if there is; times when you’re running and gunning and know you’re not going to be able to extract all of that information from a MF sensor, but still would like to make an image. Or times when you’d like to try a longer exposure without packing a tripod.

*Not difficult; too bright, too dark, requiring a longer perspective, moving subjects, strange colours/ambient WB, if you want DOF control, the possibility of a decent print later, etc. The iPhone has gotten exponentially better with every generation, and replaced small sensor options, but a proper camera – it isn’t, nor was it meant to be.

Medium format is all about pursuing the ultimate image quality – but I’ll be the first to admit there are tradeoffs, and sometimes it isn’t the best tool for the job. I could use my D810 and a fast prime or the 24-120/4 VR Swiss Army knife, but what I think of as the overall ‘commitment factor’ – size x weight x personal pressure put on by carrying a properly serious photographic tool – is just too high, and if I’m willing to accept it, I’d rather carry an X1D instead. (As you might have guessed, my Nikons haven’t seen much action of late – in fact, I think the batteries may all have fully self-discharged by now).

I suppose this is the role that was traditionally filled by the compact point and shoot or pocket camera – be it something fixed lens like a Ricoh GR or Olympus Mju II – or perhaps a Leica and small lens, which would still be better than lugging a 4×5 or medium format. Sadly, in the digital era, we saw a proliferation of really quite bad and generically fiddly small sensor things that have gone extinct post-smartphone; the serious enthusiast options are very, very limited. You’ll probably recall I was very fond of the 2013 APSC Ricoh GR (V) and Nikon Coolpix A, and subsequently, the Leica Q. The D Lux 109/ LX100 weren’t bad, either. The newest of those cameras is two years old now, and whilst age doesn’t necessarily mean implicitly guaranteed degradation in quality, there were enough color issues with the Q (especially in the red channel) that it was causing me some serious frustration in matching files, and the others had quite limited shooting envelopes. I tried the GR II and LX100 again recently – and they really do feel quite slow and uncertain compared to the latest mirrorless gear. Needless to say: I didn’t feel like buying any of these again, because I remember why I sold them to begin with.

Here’s my question: it’s been several years, there’s an obvious hole in the market, and there’s been plenty of time for more than one development cycle in some cases – so where are the proper enthusiast compacts? In other words: either the non-photographer’s ‘serious camera’, or the photographer’s ‘un-camera’. The kind of thing we chuck in a briefcase when you’re going to a meeting but want to make sure you’re covered just in case, or the kind of thing your mum might bother to learn when she’s going on the trip of a lifetime. Sure, there are a lot of spec chasers: the unmentioned elephant in the room being the RX100 series, of which I’ve owned the Mark I and Mark III – but what Sony is asking for the Mark V is borderline criminal. You can buy a midrange DSLR or mirrorless camera for that kind of money, with much better image quality and a lot more flexibility if you need it. The biggest problem I find with the newer non-interchangeable lens enthusiast compacts** – RX100, LX100, TZ10, TZ100 etc – are that they tend to be rather ambitious with the lens spec, but underachieving in practice. This is either because the lenses just have to correct for too many focal lengths, or because marketing decided f1.4 was necessary, or because there are production tolerance issues: understandable with complex aspherical designs that must also collapse. In short: no go.

**Fixed prime lens excluded, because I find myself often wanting a more compressed perspective, and the fixed prime ‘compacts’ like the RX1RII, X100F, Q – other than the GR – aren’t really compact or cheap enough to justify as an occasional use camera.

What about the E-M1.2, you might ask? For somewhat convoluted reasons mostly to do with little video work on the horizon, I didn’t land up buying one in the end – and it’s a significant investment to make. That, and it’s not a very small camera especially once you put its ideal partner 12-100/4 on it. We’re back to X1D levels of commitment factor, and I’ve already got one of those. But I didn’t rule out a system camera entirely; some of you may recall my dalliance with the small DSLRs: a whole string of Nikons ending in the D5500, but then jumping to the Canon 100D (because they have AF pancake primes, which Nikon does not), which in the end went to a cousin who needed something for a media studies course. I thought about going this route again, but decided against it: with a Nikon mount body, I tended to land up putting my other lenses on it: i.e. the big guns. And that defeats the point of small and light and unobtrusive entirely.

That leaves the mirrorless formats: M4/3 being the obvious one, but also Fuji X and Canon EOS M. (Nikon 1 is in no-mans’ land, and the cameras are neither cheap nor is image quality per dollar particularly impressive.) I landed up back in the M4/3 camp because it’s the only one of the three with serious stabilisation options, plus a much better price-performance ratio than the other two. I realise this is ironic coming from a medium format shooter, and owner of three Hasselblads – but it honestly pains me to overspend on something that will never deliver any return on investment. Really, my priority list looks like size > image quality > price; the best fit is the Panasonic GM5 or GM1, but those were honestly a bit too small to be comfortable. The GM1 has a small shooting envelope thanks to its lack of finder; the GM5’s finder is one of the smallest EVFs I’ve ever seen (and an uncomfortably tiny EVF was the reason I sold the RX100III) – and both are much older cameras, which are extremely difficult to find. Both are also only 10-bit shooters.

A viewfinder being necessary, the LX100, GX85 and E-M10 Mark II were left in the running. I was seriously looking at the LX100 because of its external mechanical controls and overall haptics, which remain excellent; but its limited resolution and overall feeling of being slightly sluggish in operating speed, focusing certainty and stabiliser performance ruled it out. That, and it was nearly the most expensive option here. The E-M10 Mark II felt like familiar ground, but I didn’t like some of the materials and the bundled kit electro-zoom pancake; it was quite a bit cheaper than the Panasonics, though – so I suppose you get what you pay for.

I suppose you can guess by this point the GX85 was where I landed up in the end – it comes bundled with the excellent (and importantly, mechanically zooming) 12-32 pancake zoom; it has 5-axis in body stabilisation that synchronises with most of Panasonic’s OIS lenses for additional stabilisation like the E-M1.2; it shoots 4K video, it charges off a USB powerbank and included a second battery. Feature-wise, speed-wise and operationally, it feels like a halfway house between the E-M5.2 and E-M1.2, but with a kit 40% of the price of an E-M1.2 body only. There are some very interesting things they’re doing here; and in my position, it would be remiss of me not to survey the market. So, ladies and gentlemen: presenting my un-camera camera for 2017, the Panasonic GX85. I’ve got a lot of non-photographic travel coming up; I’ll let you know how it does. Who’d have thought it’d be so difficult to find a compact point and shoot these days? MT

The Panasonic GX85 is available here ($697 at time of writing, in kit form with the 12-32) from B&H and Amazon.

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