More Lumix LX1

After using the little (and brother, it's little) LX1 (AKA the Leica DLUX-2) for a month I'm ready to say a few more words about it. It's a step on the road to a place I want to go, but just a step. Getting good results with it is a tour de force. What I want is something I can carry anywhere and use wherever cameras are still permitted, with the expectation of getting sharp, luminous – well, Leica-like – results.

Naturally I've thought about a digital rangefinder. The only choice right now is the Epson R-D1, but entries are expected soon from Leica and Zeiss. I wouldn't turn one away if it came as a gift, but I believe that road's a dead end. The advantages of a zoom lens are too great to ignore, and rangefinders don't zoom. OK, the Contax G2 did have a zoom lens that worked with its Galilean finder, but everything about that arrangement was kludgey. The finder itself was awful, and the zoom range was (necessarily) limited.

The LX1 can deliver surprisingly good results, and I honestly see something Leica-like in its rendering, especially of black-and-white images. With its anti-shake feature I've been able to do decent work indoors at ISO 80. (The photo linked to this entry was made at f/3.2, 1/15, 41mm equivalent.) The sad part is that its tiny sensor pretty much makes ISO 80 obligatory, so subject motion is a problem. The long wait (several seconds) between two RAW shots is an even worse problem if you're trying to make people pictures. Yesterday, at the Metropolitan Museum, I lost any number of good photos because the camera just wasn't done writing my last shot to storage. I keep telling myself this is good discipline (think of Cartier-Bresson winding his IIIc to the next frame), but it does lead to lots of swearing in public places.

Another problem is the lack of a viewfinder. The LCD is good, with a brightness booster for use outdoors, though it's hopeless in direct sunlight. But the camera has to be held a foot or more from your face, and that just doesn't cut it for situations where you want to work gesturally, using the camera as an extension of your eye and your body as a bipod. Sometimes I feel as though I'm working with a tiny view camera – not always a bad thing, since I enjoy composing on a screen I can study with both eyes, but neither is it the best way to seize the fleeting moment.

So I'm having fun, but often I long for a Contax or Leica loaded with Neopan rated at 1600.