I bought a new pocket camera just before Christmas. It is a Lumix camera with an amazing Leica lens. It has a 30-1 analog zoom and takes photos in both JPG and RAW. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I use a Sony NEX-6 mirrorless DSLR camera most of the time…but also use a Nikon D-200 camera (big and heavy) and an iPhone 6+. The problem with the first two is they do no fit in my pocket. And while the iPhone takes great photos, if you start to zoom in to a subject, the pictures get increasingly bad. It uses what is termed digital zoom…not good.
So, I wanted a small, quality camera that fits in my pocket that will let me zoom when I needed it. The new Lumix more than filled the bill…and I got it at a great sale price!
Of course after receiving it, I gave it a proper workout. The results have been astounding. With that long lens, I recently photographed all the mothballed airplanes out at Davis Monthon Airbase. I shot from one of the high hills here in town. You can barely make them out with the naked eye and only if you know where to look. This camera took a fabulous picture and even with the camera zoomed out almost all the way, I was able to get a good photo just by holding it in my hand. It has an anti-shake mechanism built in that works very well.
Anyway, this is one of my test photos that I took out at Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is located just south of Tucson. It is a very old mission dating back to the 1700’s. You’ve seen a few photos from there in in past episodes of this blog. It is a quite famous mission and was once photograhed by Ansel Adams. His photo, (click here to see it) is very famous. It was taken at the rear of the mission.
My photo here was also taken behind the mission, just a few feet from where Ansel did his.Just to the left in my photo, you see a small part of a dirt driveway that leads into the mission. His photo was take on the other side of the road. Trust me when I say I am not trying to compare myself to Mr. Adams…he is leagues above me. But I do like this image very much. It captures the flavor of the old mission in the middle of the desert.
The mission gets a lot of tourists every day of the week. But few take the time to walk around to the rear. I was all alone back here while taking photos while the front of the mission was bustling with folks walking looking around. Fine with me.
I also took other photos of the mission on this day and again a few days later. It is a good place to test out my new camera. I went inside the church which is very, very dark. I managed to take a few images inside that turned out quite well, even holding the camera for a 1/6 of a second exposure. Now that blew me away.
The best lenses in the world are made by Leica. Many of the most famous shots by great photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, Eugene Smith, Garry Winogrand, and many more were done with Leica cameras. I recently went to a photography lecture by a famous old-time photographer (whose name I sadly can’t remember) who said right up front he made the decision early in his carerr to spend the money and get a Leica. They are expensive, for sure, but those lenses are the best…but of course they are not cheap. That is why I was so happy to get this new camera that came with a certified Leica lens.
But the best part was when I finished my shoot. I just put the camera back into my jeans pocket and drove away. Not a bad deal. It will go with me now every time I leave the house.
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