It’s been a long time since I photographed just for pure fun, without thinking about getting a good picture… or even a correct one. What ignited all that fun was our new baby camera 🙂

It might be a baby sized one, but it definitely not for babies! It’s a beast inside a small body 😀

What I liked about the D-Lux 4 is the fact that it is…. small, obviously, and very smart. The 5D has always been a burden to carry around, and an attention magnet… and I don’t mean that in the good way. Even when I decide to take the 5D out with me sometimes I find it hard to even get it out of the bag in the first place, and even when I do… it’s -literarily- a pain in the nick to carry around for a long time, especially when I’m not motivated enough.

With a compact camera you have no obligations. You don’t have to feel guilty if you carry it and never use it… because it’s just there, ready when you are, and most likely you will use it anyway. Psychologically, because the camera is small and feels like a toy you don’t feel obliged to take the perfect picture, you just.. take pictures! Pictures like these:

In-car reading material.

I think these mugs are still there! I’ve
been looking for them!

It’s been a long time since since I took
a picture of a tumble dryer

..or a button!

Could you take fun pictures like these with a big DSLR? Sure, but not as easily. Most compact cameras, and the D-Lux 4 in particular, are very smart. Most DSLRs lack smart features like face recognition, smart scene selection or even live view. Yes, new DSLRs have live view, but who use it anyway? With a smart compact camera you don’t have to worry about the white balance or even the ISO you are using, the camera is smart (and limited) enough to use the most suitable settings.

Feeling creative? Not a problem. You can have full manual control of every single setting. You can preset your ISO, WB, A, T, ±, MM and Focus, you can even use a (real) flash and tripod or shoot RAW if you want, but why? 🙂

The big question now, will a compact camera replace my 5D?

Not in this life time!

The picture quality of the D-Lux 4 -although great- is still not as good as the quality of the full frame 5D, it’s not as sharp… and lets not talk about the colours! I still have not used the D-Lux in RAW mode, but I’m sure it will make me change my mind a little bit about the statement above when i do. Would I take a compact camera with me to a photography trip with other photographers? … they will laugh at me! And most of all, I can’t use my beautiful 70-200 mm with the D-Lux, can I?

Speaking of beautiful things, here are more fun and lovely pictures: 😀

Full Auto mode. All I did was minimal exposure
and saturation adjustments. I could’ve set the
camera to do that for me though.

Lift (elevator) shots are always tricky, but not
with a compact.

Black and White modes (with an “s”) are very
useful.. and fun.

I usually get this stuff from a T-max.

The pinhole mode is also fun.. and lovely.