I need some help ...

jor23 wrote:

I post it here since my main gear is m43 - EM1, 12-40, 25 f1.8, 45 f1.8 and 17 f1.8. Also a 40-150 f4-5.6 kit zoom.

I've be pretty happy with the EM1 and don't plan to replace it anytime soon. Also, the lenses that I have cover all my needs. Maybe later on I will add a macro and fisheye, or a UWA lens. But nothing critical. I am quite satisfied.

Recently, I started touting the idea to get a camera that I could carry everyday with me.

I started looking at GM1 and GM5. Of course, I am not rich enough to not to consider cost. To me, $400 for the GM1 and $500 for the GM5 seem too much for what it is. The more important thing is, once I mount my 17 on them, they are not really that small.

I bought a used x100. It's a nice camera and I really like the color of the pictures from it. especially, ASTIA for portrait. But the x100 is not very 'pocketable'. With a hood, it's not that easy to slip in a jacket pocket either. However, I really like this fuji. It got me started thinking of getting a fuji body and couple it with a pancake lens - 27 or 18mm for carry around. Yet again, this will be as big or bigger than the x100 that I already have.

Then I bought a GX1 and EPM2, thinking I could settle with one of these. But same as the GMs, they get pretty thick with the 17mm lens for daily carry.

My problem is that I want to use my 17mm if I get another m43 body, maybe? Should I just get a pancake lens - the 20mm or the 14mm? They ought to make the GX1 or EPM2 very pocketable, I think.

Should I get the Ricoh GR? I am very tempted to buy one, but the price has been pretty high recently. Is it a lot smaller? Much easier to carry?

Or maybe, this idea of having something pocketable is wrong? I seem many are happy with X100 as daily carry.

I am also trying to convince myself that I don't need to get into another system (fuji), as it will not help my skills. But something about the pictures out of the x100 is making me want to try it. A used x-e1 with the pancake lens won't be horrible expensive...

I need help

I have been carrying around cameras every day for years and I have the GM1 and the Ricoh as well as a bunch of compacts like the LX7 and Canon and Fuji superzooms.

This might sound ridiculous to you but for all day carry, my favorite camera is a compact superzoom or else the LX7 or Ricoh if I expect to be in shooting in lower light as well.

This is because these cameras are truly pocketable in a way that even the GM1 is not unless you use the 14mm lens on it and the controls on the Ricoh are way better than on the GM1. Not that I don't like my GM1, I do but it is a fiddly little beast and I tend to carry it with four or five lenses including a 7-14, so its not used as an everyday carry camera.

The amazing things with superzooms is that they are so versatile, sure the IQ is way off but if IQ is my goal, I now use a Fuji XT1 and some primes, to me every day carry is about recording and documenting random stuff and the camera needs to be small enough to be convenient to carry all day even though it may end up only being used a few times a day, it also needs to be versatile and superzooms are super versatile. The IQ from my Canon SX260 and Fuji F900 is more than adequate for screen use and far better than any mobile phone camera.

The new Canon SX720 is surely the best every day carry camera ever made with a 40X zoom and reasonable IQ throughout the zoom range. Add a tiny pocket tripod and low light is often no longer a problem either.

Compact superzooms are the most underrated cameras out there.