Shooting with various cameras certainly gives a photographer different perspectives on gear. After having shot with a number of compacts, dslrs, and m4/3 digital cameras. I’ve come to appreciate one thing the most for my own photographic journey and that is — portability.

LX5 with the LVF1

Having a portable camera can do wonders. First, I started off with the Nikon P7000 which I can now in retrospect say was a great compact (well not so compact, its actually as big as an Olympus EPL1). It had a nice mix of features but again, it lacked — portability. Some months after that I acquired the famous Ricoh GRD III which I still love and adore but it lacked one thing I needed and that was — a wider range of focal lengths. You see the Ricoh GRD III has prime 28mm lens which is amazing and I’ve done great work with it but as a take anywhere compact it failed my other requisite in a true all around compact — varying focal lengths.

Let me give the list of the cameras I’ve shot with other the years.

1. LX3
2. Canon S90
3. Nikon P7000
4. Nikon D80
5. Nikon D90
6. Ricoh GRD III
7. Olympus EPL2
8. Panasonic G1
9. Panasonic GF1

That’s quite a list and I suppose I suffered from the infamous “gadget addiction syndrome” but I’m now shooting with only 1 camera and that’s the GF1. But I must say, as a take everywhere kind off camera I’m still limited despite it being almost pocketable when coupled with the black Olympus 17mm.

What has this 9 camera list taught me? That no one camera is a jack of all trades. Compromises have to be made. So where is the new seemingly desire to get yet another camera. Well, I headed on a couple of short trips this past couple of months and I simply didn’t want to take my GF1 kit, it proved to be not the right size for the type of photography I wanted to do. Don’t get me wrong, I love urban street photography but there are genres which have always interested and sometimes the GF1/35mm combo can’t quite handle.

It does not end there . . . . .

Recently, I purchased the LVF1 for the GF1 and I come to discover it also fits another Lumix —the LX5. What a surprise I said. It looks like a mini GF1, pocketable, with an amazing Leica lens and a great feature set. So it comes as no surprise that the LX5 will be the next addition to my gear kit. It fits my two requirements like a matching ring on a finger plus the added bonus of an EVF.

I’m so looking forward to do some street work as well as landscape photography and my new favorite abstract photography a new spirit with the Lumix LX5 or is it the Leica D-Lux 5. Whatever you want to call it, the LX5 has an amazing 24mm Leica Summicron lens(f/2.0) which will surely be able to capture a wide range of moments.

Here’s to 2012 and a new addition to my kit — the LX5, the ultimate travel companion.
 

Update

Rewind the tape ladies & gentlemen, its the Lumix LX3 which reigns here now, behold, well here’s an going user based review on the LX3 to warm up the new year.