Before every vacation....oh, who do I think I'm kidding?....before every job, road trip, day out to the park I am plagued by having to decide which camera and lens(es) I'm going to select to take along with me. I am loathe to sell off stuff anymore even when it becomes clear to me that I've lost interest in it because I have a miserable track record of then missing what I've sent away only to have my resolve weaken, and in some cases even buying a new copy of the very thing I disposed of earlier. It's not a good way to build systems or keep a tight grip on money. But it does seem to be a pattern.
Lately I seem to be operating with more logic and resolve. I've been very good about dividing my photographic gear into three discrete categories. They are: video tools, work tools and personal tools. These categories reflect, for the most part, how I end up using the various cameras I am lucky enough to have held onto.
The video cameras are represented by my micro four thirds cameras. Specifically three Panasonic camera bodies: The G9, the GH5ii and the GH6. In my mind their highest and best use is for video production. They have tremendous powers of stabilization, the lenses available for them are great and well suited for shooting video and two of the three represent the state of the art when it comes to codec and format choices. Adding in the audio interface and the great slo-mo abilities and, for commercial work, they tick all the boxes.
The video system is supported by a bunch of good lenses. In fact, one of my favorites is the Leica 42.5mm f1.2 lens, the results of which are represented here in the blog post. There are several Pro Olympus zooms as well as the Leica 12-60mm zoom and the Leica 25mm f1.4 (fixed after publishing. Thanks Helmut). Since all three cameras can run on the same batteries and take the same lenses it's a great closed system with good back-up resources. It's the system I'll shoot with for my upcoming testimonial video project.
The work system includes the cameras I use for corporate portraits, still life shots of products, lifestyle and environmental images. My main cameras in this "work" system are the Leica SLs and the SL2 but I also press the Lumix S5 and the Sigma fp into service from time to time within the same compartment. I have ample lenses to support this format and use profiles as well.
And then we come to the personal tools which I'll also couch as the "vacation system." In this category I've pretty much landed (at last) on the most recently discontinued system; the Leica CL. But in this regard ( APS-C ) I've always been conflicted about lenses. Recently I've dumped every single lens I've bought over the last year or so for this system and have rebuilt the inventory from scratch. I tossed all the manual focus lenses, all the weird and slow optics and all the stuff that was redundant. I finished my last acquisition for the system today. Now the whole of my "play" cameras fit in one smallish bag.
Today's purchase was the 16mm f1.4 which is the full frame equivalent on a CL of a 24mm lens. Something that's wasn't my highest priority but then again, I am learning to love the wider angles more as time goes on... I blame my smartphone's wide camera lens...
The system now consists of two black Leica CL cameras and four lenses. All the lenses come from the Sigma Contemporary product line and include: the 16mm f1.4, the 30mm f1.4 and the 56mm f1.4. The fourth lens is a "convenience" lens and it's the 18-50mm f2.8. When I pack for a vacation I'm planning to take the two bodies and the three primes. All the prime lenses are quite fast and all are optically very, very good. Lately I've had very good luck with all of the Contemporary Sigma lenses I've purchased, regardless of format.
I thought I could get by with the zoom for the wide end of the range but having all three primes with the same fast apertures is a keen draw. All the primes are relatively light. The 56mm is counter-intuitively the lightest and the smallest but all deliver very nice images. While I like the little zoom I like the three primes just a bit more. Since the system is for fun and self-directed creative work I don't need or want to add a flash to the system. I'd rather have grainier files or files that are a bit less perfectly sharp.
It seems comfortable to have the systems sorted by their strengths. Fewer decisions to make from mode to mode. The nice thing about the "work" and the "personal" systems is that all the lenses are also interchangeable between the cameras. I can add and subtract to or from each system as needed.
All of the images above and below were shot yesterday with the (fabulous) Panasonic G9 and the 42.5mm f1.2 lens. I tried to shoot everything around f2.0 but caved in when I felt I needed more depth of field. I used the D. Monochrome L profile and shot the photos as Jpegs.
All good here.
10 comments:
I share the love for the G9 but for an entirely different use case, paired with the incredible PL100-400: birds, flowers, butterflies, and such. The 100-400 stays on the G9, while the equally wonderful Olympus 12-100 f4 Pro is glued to a G95 for landscapes and general walk-around use. I firmly believe that most of the people rushing to full-frame systems would be much better served by m43 or APS-C gear. For long reach with minimum weight and size, m43 is certainly the best choice.
I feel at least some of your pain. I'm currently on my ... fifth? (X-E1, X-E3, X-T1, X-T100, X-T20) yes, fifth Fuji body, trying to decide whether I really like the sensor output enough to offset their often fidgety bodies. A certain camera retailer MUST think when I place an order, "Oh geez, HIM again." Sometimes you have to date a handful of cameras until you find the one that fits. That's what I tell my bank account anyway.
Hi Kirk,
regarding a „bunch of good lenses“ for micro four thirds cameras, I think among others you wanted to mention the Leica 50mm ( equivalent ) f1.4, should read „Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25 mm 1.4“. Great post and great images like always. I am a bit cautious in acquiring more m43 equipment currently, but this lens is definitely on my list. Hope there will be a new stills oriented rangefinder style body any time soon. Compliments,
Helmut the Austrian.
Just wondering, for video work, how do you get around the 30 minute recording limit of the G9?
Just back from a vacation to Germany and the Swiss Alps. As usual, I sweated over camera choices: compact digital, mirrorless system, iPhone. I settled on a Fuji X100s, but mostly just used my iPhone 12 Pro. I’m sure I missed some photo opportunities but had a great time and my wife was happy.
"...Just wondering, for video work, how do you get around the 30 minute recording limit of the G9? ..."
-Anonymous
I own several more recent Panasonic models (GH6 and GH5ii) that are capable of recording video until their batteries or memory cards run out. Far beyond the 29.97 minutes quoted for the G9 running 4k. My workaround for any long form recording is....to choose one of the cameras that can do this.
I'm not sure but I do think the G9 will run for longer if you are recording the files to an external drive. I haven't explored that in quite a while. Most of my recent use of the G9 for video was in conjunction with a hand held gimbal and I can't think of any scenario where I would need to do a take for anywhere near that long.
Finally, If I was recording a stage show with two cameras and needed to use the G9 as one of them I'd set a silent timer on my watch (vibration) and turn off the camera, turn it back on again, hit record and capture another 29.97 minutes using the material on the second camera in editing to cover the gap.
I had wondered if a great travel kit would be the CL along with the sigma 24/3.5, 45/2.8 and 90/2.8. Add the full frame sigma FP body and you effectively have 6 prime lenses at 24, 36, 45, 67, 90, 135 just by putting them on different bodies. No fast lenses but with the sensors on the two bodies it should be fine. Add to that that these 3 lenses are very compact and all use a 55mm filter thread.
Russell, Good suggestions. I do go out and shoot with the Sigma fp and those three Sigma i-Series lenses and I'm never disappointed. I chose to buy the faster APS-C Sigmas for the CL to get the wider angle at 16mm but also to have access to the fast apertures since I don't usually bring along either a tripod or a flash on family vacations.
Also, don't discount the opposite approach of using the APS-C lenses in the crop mode of the Sigma fp, or even better, on the SL2. For most fun, casual images the 10 megapixel resolution of the fp crop or the 22 megapixel crop on the SL2 is more than enough. And it sure lightens the load versus fast, full frame lenses on the bigger cameras. That's why, in my book, a lens like the Leica 24-90mm zoom is pretty much consigned to being a "work" lens...
This is timely. I have my annual ParisPhoto trip coming up next month. Last year I opted for the Fuji 50S with the 32-64 zoom and my usual monopod/cane. At the last minute I put a Fuji XT-4 with a 35mm lens into my suitcase. Almost 300 exposures during the week, and only 2 of them were with the smaller camera. Printing the good ones has been a delight. But did I miss a longer focal length? Yes, in fact.
This year I'm thinking about only the Sigma fp and the Panasonic 24-105 zoom. I'm not yet very fluid with it but I've got a month before I go. It should be said that when I'm there, I'm almost always solo and a large part of my trip is to make photographs, so I'm not inclined to compromise on image quality any more than absolutely necessary to accommodate days of walking. (The most important choice is shoes.)
Really nice monochromatic images, Kirk.
It doesn't surprise me that you took them using the "l.monochrome.d" internal (jpeg) preset in your G9 - or that the photos you posted were basically jpegs. That monochromatic preset - developed by Takayuki Tochio, the brilliant Panasonic imaging engineer who spent months shooting Tri-X on old Pentaxes and came to the conclusion that the nature of monochromatic prints was equally if not more important than the nature of the negatives themselves - has become my favorite all-time in-camera black&white preset ever. So much so that years ago I acquired the G9's littler sibling, the GX9 - because it has l.monochrome.d as well - and I use the GX9 as a dedicated small black&white camera with it.
There's something about the tonalities - which I see in your pictures - that really gets me.
I know and appreciate that you are enamored of your smallish digital Leica CL as a personal photography tool - but (and this is just my prejudiced and subjective personal opinion) I've never seen black & white images from any CL which come close to the monochromatic tone & balance of what the new Lumixes (your G9 and my GX9) can do in l.monochrome.d mode.
Hope you have a wonderful vacation. Everyone deserves at least one, and these days, it helps being able to leave one's normal stomping grounds... and see other bits and pieces of our world while it's still here :)
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