New Camera - LX-5

I'm very excited to have a new "go everywhere" camera. I love my Canon 5D but it's a bit unwieldy to take with me to work every day (even though I've done it.) Aside from that, I don’t take it with me either when I go mountain biking or running and I find myself in many situations where I wish I had a good camera with me. It might be just to capture a cool creative shot that I see to share online or a print. While I have loved having the iPhone for those situations sometimes you just want a little more control of your aperture or shutter speed.

Another factor that I have been keeping in mind is the camera bag factor. Often times, just taking your camera with you isn’t enough. The camera bag can be a barrier to the “spur of the moment” shot that is gone before you’d ever get the zipper opened.

So, after much research and debate, I purchased a Panasonic LX-5. I had been debating about going this route or to go with a micro four-thirds camera like the Panasonic GF-1. The GF-1 would have given me images easily acceptable for istock and with the pancake 20mm lens it would be compact, but I would be stuck with a 20mm (50mm equivalent) lens. I know I could have bought their zoom, but that was less compact and I know I could get other pancake prime lenses, but then I’m investing in a new system and I’m back to a camera bag for different focal lengths.

The LX-5 gives me a built-in Leica 24-90mm (eq.) lens with an f2 aperture. The even more compact size, zoom lens with 24mm on the wide end (I love wide angle drama) and not to mention that it was about $300 less than the GF-1, won me over in the end.

I’ve been shooting with it for a few days, but I’m loving it already. I love that I feel like “playing” with photography a little more. I still love my Canon 5D with battery grip and all, but when I pick that up, I feel like I “need to be working”. I’m excited that this new little cam might be an interesting addition to my life that will continue to juice my creativity and expand my personal stock collection of ideas and locations.