Is this the prettiest modern camera you have ever seen?

Well I think so, and if you see that even a year or so after its release, there was and still is, a long waiting list to get your hands on one, then thousands of others think so as well. Even secondhand examples are selling for more than the retail price on Ebay. Bonkers.

So, looking at all my other cameras, this seems an odd choice to add to my collection. However, if you read the reviews and look at the cult following this camera has, this makes an ideal choice for a modern ‘Point & Shoot’ with the ability to run it manually if you feel the need to.

So why would I want something like this?

Old film cameras are great. But if you want to be able to capture that unexpected moment, the chances are your settings are not right. Not normally a problem for me as that’s normally not my style of shooting.

That is until now! I fancy trying a bit of ‘Street’

OK. These examples are nothing to write home about, but it has been very liberating just snapping away at anything that catches my eye, and not having to worry about how much its costing.

While all this new technology absolves me of worrying about metering and focusing, which is why I got it in the first place, the thing I hate about it most of all, is the endless array of menu options. Five sections, each of which have anything up to 3 pages of sub menu. 95% of these I will never ever adjust. The 332-page user manual, while very comprehensive, is awful. It’s taken me about 4 weeks to find what options I may want to adjust and then whittle these down to maybe 5 or 6 items that can be placed in the ‘My Menu’ section for easy access.

There are quite a few knobs and buttons, all of which can be individually programmed to do some function or other, than ‘the default’. All very well in theory, but I forget what I’ve set these to, so end up having to go to the ‘My Menu’ anyway. Hopefully with lots of use, this particular problem, won’t be one anymore!

However, I will forgive this little beauty all of these gripes, as the rangefinder, with all the but the framing display options turned off, is so lovely to use. For the most part it’s accurate and unlike an SLR, you can see objects outside of the framing. I was surprised as to how wonderful this feature is , and is the one thing I love about this camera the most.

The other big bonus is Auto ISO. Just set your parameters and forget about not getting an image under any kind of light. Used in AE mode, I can play with the aperture if I want, and everything else is taken care of. Love it.