The sheer joy of working with a point and shoot camera!
I love my Fujifilm GFX camera. The quality of the resulting images from a large 51 megapixel sensor and the outstanding Fuifilm GF lenses is incredible.
But, the convenience of a pocketable compact camera with a reasonable zoom range is hard to resist sometimes. I walk two dogs on a daily basis, so handling a large camera and simultaneously controlling these lively hounds is a real challenge. Currently I am suffering from a “frozen shoulder” which is very painful. So using a small camera is helping enormously. Being able to reach into a pocket when needed, rather than having a large camera hanging off your shoulder is liberating.
All of the images in this post were taken on the same morning whilst out walking with the dogs. The camera in question is a compact point and shoot camera with a one inch sensor and a ten times zoom lens. It has all the modes you might find on its bigger brethren. For convenience I used it in “program mode”making shift adjustments to adjust aperture or shutter speeds if necessary to achieve the desired result.
OK image quality is never going to match bigger DSLR or mirrorless cameras with larger sensors and better lens quality. That needs to be said. But the resulting images aren’t that bad, especially for online work. I have yet to try printing any of these images but I will get around to it.
Rather than pixel power I am looking for composition and mood. Whatever takes my eye really. Some days there is nothing worth bothering with. Other days the lighting can be great and you just want to capture some of atmosphere. You spot a figure silhouetted against the sky and you need to react quickly to get a decently composed shot.
It’s an old saying that photographers often quote. “Always carry a camera with you.” Everyone, including keen photographers, has a camera with them now. The ubiquitous smart phone. I often use mine for photos and for video. They are truly amazing gadgets. By a combination of small cameras and very clever software and hardware they can produce outstanding results. It is virtually impossible to produce badly exposed images and in the right hands beautiful imagery and fantastic video are achievable. I have covered the use of an iPhone X on a “once in a lifetime “ holiday in this post here.
Some of the “artificial intelligence “ built into these devices are now starting to appear in more mainstream cameras. But you cannot operate them like you would a traditional camera. Telephoto options are still limited and seeing the screen in bright conditions can be extremely difficult. Of course all of this is continually changing. But in the meantime I prefer the versatility of the compact camera.
