I’ve often wondered about adding one of the current crop of mirror-less cameras to my kit. I do have a theory that for many of us (perhaps of a certain age) when we see the offerings from Panasonic, Olympus, Nikon and Fuji etc we subconsciously see the Leica we can’t afford. Compact quiet body, minimal controls, small interchangeable lenses, high image quality it all harks back to that M3 we always wondered about. On the face of it a compact camera with high quality output and small interchangeable lenses offer the dream ticket for many scenarios. In many cases, particularly the newest Fuji offering this holds a real appeal. Being somewhat ‘brand loyal’ I was intrigued to see what Nikon would come up with. In the back of my mind I think I had something like a digital S3 . Naming it after a famous weapon of mass destruction was an early indicator that trouble lay ahead but nothing quite prepared me for the launch. There is one and only one word that describes the image to the left. UGLY. I know ugly cameras take just as good photographs as the more aesthetically pleasing but really. Since I don’t have to make my living from my camera why should I subject myself to picking up something quite so hideous? Its just awful, it looks like a Y1 design student made out of balsa wood before being advised to drop the course. Brand loyalty and technical proficiency only go so far. I want to enjoy using, holding and engaging with my camera not hate it. I expect it will sell well-ish but come on Nikon make something more appealing.
This weekend I finally took the plunge and tried to sort out keeping warm, dry and comfortable while waiting around for that shaft of sunlight. Courtesy of 
They say, like with tree rings, that you can estimate the length of a photographic career by the number of bags. This seems to hold true and many of us have a cupboard like the one above. What stands out here is that this follows the ‘clear out to end all clear outs’ last year in which the pages of Ebay were littered with cast offs, mistaken buys and those that seemed perfect at the time but just never seemed to get used. I wondered if some form of retrospective might enable a rounded view of the current state of play. The cupboard isn’t even as full as it might be. there is a Think Tank holster in the car and a Lowepro Rover in the post. There is also of course the usual set of saved web pages listing what may be the next perfect bag or the next mistake. Some things hold true – buy cheap, buy twice is one. there really is no point messing about with cheap fall apart bags as you end up spending more in the end. There is also the very clear rule forgotten by many that there is no such thing as the perfect bag. The best we can ever get is perfect for that particular time, place, weather and equipment.This of course the golden rule that gives us licence to keep buying more and more as each day is different, each location specific and we of course also change our cameras. In episode two we’ll have a look at the current Baglist.
Thanks to exceptionally speedy dispatch and distribution from 
Today I came across the website of Ted Leeming and Morag Patterson