Possibly my next camera

I was delighted to see the announcement last week of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1 -- it may turn out to be my next camera.

I have to admit that I find digital SLRs, like the Canon EOS 10d (or even the much heftier 11 megapixel 1ds) tempting.

But when I look at my shooting style, what do I shoot with? My Leica rangefinder. I don't shoot that often with my Nikon SLR -- mostly the odd commercial job, or cases where I need a 24mm lens, which I don't have for my Leica. (Which suggests that maybe I should trade my entire SLR system in on a Leica 24mm lens... but I digress).

I don't really need the extended lens choices of an SLR. I don't shoot super-wide angle, nor do I shoot long telephoto, both of which require an SLR so you can actually see what's going on. 90% of my shooting is at 50mm. If I need to get a little wider, or a little closer, I switch to a 35mm or a 90mm. That's basically it.

And why do I shoot with the Leica? First of all, of course, is that it's a beautifully made camera that makes me happy to use. As a designer, I like using well designed objects.

But taking that away, it's really a question of three features. First, the Leica is small, light, and inobtrusive. Nobody looks at it twice, because it looks like an amateur camera.

Second, the lens quality is amazing. The arguments over whether Leica lenses are as good as they're supposed to be will continue to go back and forth, but in my experience, using my cameras, the Nikon lenses don't come close to them.

Third, it has total manual control. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I'll quote Mike Johnston's recent comments on the subject:

The issue you're talking about more generally is called "responsiveness," and it's something that a fairly large number of photography enthusiasts (both digital and film) are relatively ignorant about these days, because we have a whole generation that's grown up with autofocus and even a fledgling group that knows digital alone. You refer to it as "oneness with the image." That's maybe a little metaphysical for some people, though I know what you mean. Looked at in a more quotidian way, it simply means that the camera will do exactly what you tell it to, very, very quickly, and you won't have to think about it (i.e., get distracted by it) much.

Automated systems and controls interposed between the impulse to photograph and the recording of the photograph work against responsiveness. For instance, manufacturers have worked very hard to make autofocus more and more responsive since the mid-1980s when it began to become common, but it's still a step between you and the picture. And by "controls interposed," what I mean is anything additional that you have to "set" before you're ready to shoot. This is why, during my entire "career" (I use the term very loosely!) of teaching and writing for photographers, I've consistently been critical of cameras with too many bells and whistles, and of zoom lenses. Neither are sins, but both interfere with responsiveness.

[ . . . ]

It's very important to realize that THIS IS WHAT HIGH-TECH CAMERAS ARE TRYING TO EMULATE. When Garry Winogrand stepped out of his apartment and went down to the street, he looked at the light and set his shutter speed and his aperture. He knew the light and he knew his film and he knew what he needed. No matter how complex the light meter in a modern camera — whether it has 32 metering segments and a complicated algorithm embedded in a chip, or a thousand tiny color sensors — this is all it's trying to do: set the aperture and the shutter speed properly. When Robert Frank learned to set the focus of his Leica by judging the distance to his subject by eye and then the position of the focusing tab by feel, it was so he could focus as he brought the camera up to his eye. No matter how complex and fast the AF system in a Wunderkamera — whether it has a whole fleet of little red spaceship focusing points in the finder, or the latest whiz-bang AF sensor chip — this is all it's trying to do: set the focus properly.

Which brings us back to the DMC-LC1. Bearing in mind that the only things I know about this camera are from a couple of articles (here and here), it seems like this camera might fulfil my requirements: Total manual control (easily accessed, not buried like in my Canon G3), a gorgeous Leica lens (28-90mm equivalent, which is exactly the range I like to shoot with), small (I'm guessing based on the photos), and -- reportedly -- low shutter lag.

That last one is the only real concern I have. Shutter lag on most non-SLR digicams is terrible. It makes them largely unusable for fast-moving subjects (yes, I know about prefocusing, but that's not the same as being truly responsive). If it really does have a minimal shutter lag, then I may be buying a new camera in the spring.