For the past years I’ve put together a post on what gear I’ve used over summer. Earlier notes: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
No way. Checking the compass I can hardly believe it. We’ve made a rookie mistake and the fog has turned us around. We’ve headed way off course. We quickly realize it’s far too steep here – it’ll be impossible to get down.
I scrutinize the map, then the compass, and then the map again. We need to head back up, make our way above the top of this steep cliff and then head north. It’ll be a bit of a trek, but after that we’ll be back on track. Not until hours later, when we’re finally down in the valley and our end destination within eyesight, do I put the compass back in my pocket.
Summer tends to be a good litmus test on where I’m at with regards to gear, as I generally shoot more, as well as spend time away from home, requiring me to be a bit more considered in my gear choices. So, as I’ve been in the habit of, I wanted to jot down an update on what I’ve been shooting over the course of summer.
This time around, there’s a number of items long time readers will recognize, but for the first time in ages I also venture outside of the familiar.
This summer was split in to a few distinct stints. For one of these stints – a weeklong hiking trip – I had become keen to try something slightly different. But ahead of expanding on the mindset around that, let’s cover what I used for most of summer:
Most of summer was spent road-tripping around Sweden and Denmark. Spending time with the kids, friends & family, as well as swinging by various sights.
During these few weeks I wanted something nice and familiar to shoot, that’s easy to lug around, and offering solid image quality of course.
For the sixth year running then, the choice easily boiled down to the Leica M262 – my all time favorite camera. It’s fantastic to shoot with, offers amazing image quality and is quite compact.
I very nearly picked something else – the new to me Leica M10. It’s a very similar camera to the M262, but with a few upgrades.
However, a little technical hiccup with the recently acquired M10 meant that I stuck with the M262 for summer. I put together a few thoughts on how the two cameras compare though.
For the third year running, this little 50 has been the main lens I’ve leaned on. The compact size makes it ideal for travel, handling is swell, performance fantastic and rendering very nice. It’s hard to ask more out a lens.
I recently wrapped up my full review of it here.
Another recurring favorite is this fast 75. I’ve yet to finalize my review of it, but it’s safe to say it’s a swell lens – it handles nicely and offers a rendering that’s second to none. It saw less use than the 50, but I was still happy to have it along.
This bag of mine is still going strong. Well designed and clearly durable, it’s an easy choice.
For the week long hiking trip in the north of Sweden, I was keen on something a little different.
Hiking is certainly quite different from my day to day, and presents a wholly different set of challenges as well as opportunities.
On last summer’s hiking trip I brought the Leica M262, along with the Voigtländer 50/1.5 II as well as the Leica 90/4 on the long end. From that trip, there were a few things that struck me:
First off, I got way more use out of the 90 than I had anticipated. And more keepers too. In the vast outdoor expanses, a longer focal length proved really handy. It offers a chance to get visually closer to things in the surroundings, as well as offer a good deal of compression – both traits offering chances to distill some of what you’re seeing. Something I felt keen to experiment with more.
A second finding. Generally I’m a fan of the approach of “zooming with my feet” – the old adage that suggests that you can do anything with a prime, but that you just need to be willing to move around more. This is the way I tend to shoot in my day to day. I like that this reduces one aspect of choice from the image making process, allowing me to focus more on composition and timing. Something that I think tends to lead to stronger images.
On the trails, I’ve found this approach to be less feasible though. To “zoom with your feet” I would often find the need to walk hundreds and hundreds of meters, sometimes in the completely wrong direction. And even when moving around to get to a good vantage point, I would often find perspectives and compositions altered from what I first had in mind.
Simply put, it seemed that this might be one of those instances when a zoom lens would actually be well warranted.
These findings started to lead me away from my regular Leica set up.
I did a bunch of research to suss out the different options available.
I also want to note that aside from the focal length coverage I was keen on, there’s a lot more to choosing a kit for the use case of multi-day-hiking, as it’s a challenging one.
Firstly, there’s a lot more equipment that you need to lug around (a tent, sleeping bag, cooking equipment, food, clothing, etc) so you really want to keep the size and weight of any camera gear down as much as possible. Weather can also change quickly and get pretty adverse with moments notice. On the hike I had planned, I’d also be without power for close to a full week, making excellent battery life and USB charging (for power bank use) prerequisites.
So, to sum up – I wanted something as small as possible, that offered a reach of at least 200mm or so, weather sealing, great battery life, USB charging and sufficient image quality to make some larger prints if I ended up keen on that. Oh, and I didn’t want to spend too much money as this all felt a bit more like an experiment than a long term plan.
With that list of requirements, I was half expecting to end up with a micro four thirds camera. This type of use case is spot on with the value proposition of OM System’s equipment in particular – compact & rugged pieces of gear. Once I started speccing out a kit, it all ended up a bit larger and heavier than expected, as well as more expensive than I was keen on (at least in the context of a somewhat weak second hand market for micro four thirds gear here in Sweden).
Going the APS-C route was also something that sounded good on paper. But once I started looking at some specifics, it was hard to find something ticking all the boxes, at least without ending up with a surprisingly large and heavy kit.
I did also consider going the route of a compact. The newer iterations of the Sony RX100 series seemed quite close to what I wanted (especially considering that I really enjoyed original RX100). But wanting a more engaging shooting experience and a bit more out of the image quality ultimately led me elsewhere.
So, where did I end up?
Eventually the choice came down to something I didn’t quite expect – the full frame Sony A7C.
To an extent, the odds were stacked in its favor, as I had picked up the camera second hand a while back – as an upgrade from my aging (though rarely used) A7 – so getting to a suitable setup for the trip represented less of an investment than most other options.
Still, I had mostly written it off – from an academic point of view, it didn’t seem feasible to reach a small enough full frame setup.
Once I started looking around though, I found some compelling, somewhat recently introduced, surprisingly compact options (to be honest, I’ve not really been keeping up with lens releases for the various mirrorless mounts, as I’ve been so content with the M set up for the past few years).
Realizing that the overall footprint would only be fractionally larger, and the weight neigh on identical, as with some of the other, smaller sensor, kits I was considering, was really surprising!
That the A7C is quite small and light, combined with the comparably small and light Tamron 70–300, resulted in a compact overall kit.
So, let’s sum up what I choose as my kit for this part of summer.
The little A7C is almost exactly the camera I dreamt about back when I was shooting with the NEX–7 (aside from that camera having a much more elegant and compelling design still).
Full frame, compact size, proper viewfinder, great image quality, solid high ISO performance, in body stabilization, great autofocus, excellent battery life, and weather sealing. It’s a difficult spec sheet to beat.
Between then and now, I’ve been quite smitten with the experience of shooting rangefinders, like the M262. So even if I enjoy that camera more, from a shooting experience point of view, I’m still really happy to have the A7C in my arsenal. It’s simply put, exceptionally capable.
During the hike it was an excellent companion. The small size, weather sealing and solid battery life all came in particularly handy.
Once back home, going through the images, I also had zero reservations from a performance point of view.
Finding this 70–300 was key to picking the kit I did. Despite the full frame coverage, expansive range and reach, as well as weather sealing, the Tamron A047 is quite compact and very light for its spec. Plus, it’s quite affordable.
There are some compromises to achieve all that, but overall I’ve found it a great piece of kit.
It’s well put together. The autofocus is quick and quiet. The weather sealing held up, even in awful conditions.
Plus, image quality is swell! The output is crisp and transparent, without significant misbehaviors or shortcomings.
As for the range in practice – it worked great. I got access to a lot of flexibility and the chances I wanted to experiment with longer range, more abstract, compositions.
On the wider end of the range, I did occasionally feel like a slightly wider starting point would increase the flexibility of the lens quite significantly (especially as I was keen to avoid lens changes). But, in most instances I was really quite happy to rely on this lens for almost the entire trip.
A short review is coming soon.
I knew I wanted to bring a wider lens to complement the 70–300. The choice fell on this well rounded prime from Samyang. Overall, it’s a competent little lens. The autofocus and aperture motors are a little noisy, and there’s no weather sealing.
Still, it performs really well and offers a very nice character. It’s affordable and quite compact too, though if I would’ve chosen a lens specific for this use, I would’ve maybe gone for their even smaller and slightly wider 35/2.8. Mostly due to this lens actually not seeing much use during the trip. This was chiefly due to me enjoying the 70–300 a lot, rather than any shortcoming with the 45.
Where to keep a camera while hiking is something of a tradeoff. Ideally you want to keep it at the ready, as you don’t want to stop too often to take stuff in or out of the main pack. But having the camera on you can mean that it gets in your way, and that it can start to weigh on you.
This little addition proved to be a big quality of life improvement in this regard.
The Capture clip is an elegant little contraption that allows you to securely hook your camera to a belt or backpack strap, and then to also easily remove it.
I had the clip on the shoulder strap of my backpack, and this is where the A7C was hanging for the vast majority of the trek. It was great to have the camera out of my way, my hands free, and the weight well distributed. And still, whenever I spotted something compelling, the camera was also easy to access and available to shoot with on moments notice.
I did find the clip occasionally sliding down a little, and if the angle it was mounted on became crooked, it was sometimes a little harder to hook on the camera. Aside from that, it held up great.
So even if I tend to keep extra bits and bobs in terms of equipment to a minimum, this was an addition that felt really beneficial.
I’m really happy with how this set up worked in practice. It’s on the larger and heavier end of what I’d preferred, but still felt very manageable. Performance, handling, flexibility and robustness were all fantastic. Plus, I managed to come away from one of the highlights of the year with a good number of photos I’m happy with*.
* I’ve even made a few large-ish prints from the trip – for my grandma that loves the north of Sweden, but is too immobile to travel there these days – and can report that the files hold up great.
This ended up a slightly longer update than what’s been customary. Mostly due to there being some ground to cover on the thinking around the hiking kit in particular. That it also represents one of the bigger switch ups in gear I’ve made in years. And even if it’s not a change in my main setup, this seemed to warrant a little more focus. Especially as I found it a fun change of pace and a really enjoyable setup to shoot.
Besides that, I find it fascinating that, despite the constant emphasis on new gear in many contexts, the M262 continues to deliver the goods for me.
So, to wrap up – I couldn’t be happier with how this summer’s kit worked out. But what still stands out, more than any gear, is all the wonderful moments experienced. The people, the places, the days. In all, a fantastic summer.
Photos in this article were made using the Leica M Typ 262 or Sony A7C. The images of the camera and lenses were made using the Sony A7 or A7C. Exif-data is intact. Open any image in a new window for a closer look.