Testing the LX2
Spring's Gloaming
I hate getting new kit. I mean to say, I actually love getting new toys to play with, but I hate the time it takes to learn how to make the damn things work. There's nothing quite as a nice as a camera that you've had so long that you don't have to think about it. My Nikon SLR just works. My fingers have a muscle memory for most of the controls, it always does what I expect and I've learned what is and isn't reasonable to expect from it. It's safe to say we've reached an understanding.
This morning I took delivery of an entirely alien little thing called the Panasonic LX2. I've wanted a lighter, more portable alternative to my SLR kit for ages. The LX2 and it's Leica counterpart the D-LUX3 were the first compacts I'd come across that fit the bill of being both pocket-sized and usable by us photographer types. Manual focus, manual exposure, control over white balance, almost everything I could want. OK, no optical viewfinder, but you've got to give something up if you want smaller/lighter.
So, unfamiliar interface, all kinds of weird buttons in odd places and my fingers are very confused. I think 'stop down two thirds' and my thumb hunts around for a control wheel that doesn't exist... Dozens of terrible shots of girlfriend, the dog, my laptop and random pieces of furniture later, I'm starting to get the hang of it. And even thinking, 'coo, wish my SLR did that' from time to time.
Which leads me to the worst part of new kit, which is testing. OK, I know that it works, but is it going to work for me? Is it going to produce the kinds of files that lend themselves to being processing into the kinds of stylized landscapes that I have a tendency to make? There's no way to tell until I've shot some. Which is a problem in itself, because my subject matter is basically the Cumbrian weather, which is somewhat unpredictable.
So I went out for a walk this evening, resigned to fact that it could be days or possibly weeks before I really get to see whether me and the LX2 are going to get on.. And ten minutes later I take the shot above. A couple of hours of work in photoshop later, I think I've got my answer: Yes, I think we're going to get on very well indeed.
Updates on the LX2's progress and the weird and wonderful world of small format photography to follow...