For me, photography is about capturing what I can see and feel, with kit that fades into the background when I am using it. If my kit gets in the way, I lose my focus / flow, and that comes across in my pictures.
In this post I am sharing the tools I love and what works for me, along with my journey to finding them and rediscovering my love for photography.
Headlines
Birds, Puffins and Wildlife
Camera body : Leica SL3
Lens : Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280mm F/2.8-4
Everything Else
Camera body : Leica SL2 / SL3
Lens : Leica Summilux-SL 50mm F/1.4
Lens : Leica Super-APO-Summicron-SL 21 f/2
Lens : Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-SL 16–35mm F/3.5–4.5
I am not going to sugar coat it, this is a heavy set up. The camera bodies weigh just under 1kg (2lbs) each. The lenses are 1kg (2lbs) each, except for the 90-280, which is nearly 2kg (4.5 lbs). If I am packing them all, not uncommon, that is 7kg (15lbs).
I carry these in Lowepro GearUp camera boxes, in a normal, waterproof, backpack that is wide enough to take the SL3 + 90 to 280mm set up, and the right width that the camera boxes fit snugly.
I have tried all sorts of camera specific backpacks, but nothing really holds the larger, heavier bodies and lenses of the Leica system. By trial and error I ended up with a Rapha roll-top 20L cycling backpack, which is the perfect size for two cameras and three or four lenses. Sadly these were discontinued, so as mine starts to disintegrate, I think the search will need to continue.
I have a Really Right Stuff (RRS) Versa Mk2 TVC-34 tripod with the RRS BH-55 Ball Head, which I love for its simplicity, steadiness, and robustness. I tried a Sirui and Manfrotto tripod, but found that they were either frustratingly fiddly for me to set up in the field or, with the Sirui, could not hold the camera steady for long night shots; I could see the camera lens drifting slowly, but inexorably, downwards.
In terms of other stuff:
Harness / Straps: I use the DSPTCH heavy camera sling strap (diagonal, over the shoulder), as this means I can carry two cameras, one over each shoulder / at each hip. But also the weight means I cannot realistically have one of my cameras on a neck strap.
I put my cameras on before I slide my backpack on top, so the camera straps can slide up and down under the back of the pack.
Cards: The SL2 uses SD cards, so I use the largest and fastest I can afford from a trusted brand. The SL3 has the option of a CF-Express card, so I use one of these with an SD back-up. I shoot in RAW only, and the file sizes are 85MB+ each, so I need a fast and large storage capacity. Note when I say ‘fast’, I mean the speed that the card can be written to by the camera. If you have a slow SD card, it will make you wait whilst it finishes writing the shot to the card and you cannot carry on shooting.
TL;DR | How I got to that Gear List
I have always loved being behind a camera. From the old 35mm film camera I was given as a child, to the cameras I have now.
I can remember putting the used film into an envelope, with the processing fee cheque, and putting it into the red postbox at the end of my street. Checking the mail daily until the fat folder with the developed photographs plopped onto the doormat. The excitement of getting the photos out and then then rollercoaster of looking at each picture and either feeling the high of seeing something actually in focus with the content you wanted, or the low of the out of focus or moving out of shot. Going through 12, 24 or 36 photos to end up with 3 passable ones… if you were lucky.
I still feel like this when I put my SD card into my computer and start to look at the shots I have taken. The thrill of seeing the picture I thought I was taking come to life on the screen is still there. But the lows of seeing out of focus sea with a pair of bird’s feet just going out of the shot are not nearly as bad, as the digital world means better cameras and more shots. And (more importantly), the ability to delete it and pretend it never happened.
I did a lot of research and progressed from a point and shoot to an Olympus OM-D E-M5. The fact that I have just had to google the name of my camera because it is too hard to remember is telling.
I wanted to be able to carry my camera and lenses easily, but also have the versatility of interchangeable lenses, and the Olympus seemed the perfect trade off.
But I never clicked with it. I will be the first to say this is entirely on me, not the Olympus. It is a very capable camera and I have friends that love theirs and produce beautiful pictures. But it was not the tool for me.
I just never seemed to be able to capture what I was seeing. When I looked at the pictures I was taking, they were never what I saw. Over exposed, no mood, no soul, nothing of me or the atmosphere / emotion.
I chased the image I wanted by buying more lenses, then more expensive lenses, watching hours of youtube tutorials, going down setting rabbit holes, only to have the camera reset all my settings whenever it felt like it, AND still not capturing what I wanted. I was crying with frustration.
It broke my confidence and I put the camera away in a box and decided it was just me, I was too stupid to understand the settings and I didn’t deserve a good camera.
However, something still ate at me. I love to travel and am lucky enough that I can. I had a windfall and in August 2022, decided to buy a Leica Q2 as a point and press. I knew it was an indulgence and I wasn’t likely to be able to use it ‘properly’. And I definitely felt like “all the gear, no idea”. But I figured Why Not and made a million excuses to myself to explain away the purchase. In the well-manicured Leica shop, with iconic Leica photographs all around, sitting there in my scruffy clothes with a trembling hand on my credit card, I felt like a fraud. And a pretentious one at that.
It is not being melodramatic to say that decision, frivolous and over-privileged as it was, has completely changed my life.
I took that Q2 on my next trip and fell instantly and deeply in love. Four settings. Automatic, Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority. No ‘scenes’, no five level deep menus and opaque settings. It was clear I still had (and have), a lot to learn. But for the first time I was taking pictures of what I could see and feel. I rediscovered my love for photography and felt entirely at peace behind the camera.
Leica SL2 and 50mm Lens
Well, small embarrassed cough, it wasn’t long before I was back at the Leica shop asking about interchangeable lenses. And feeling nauseous as I handed over the rest of my windfall (plus a kidney or two), for an SL2 and a 50mm lens that cost as much as the camera body.
However, that camera and lens are my “do everything (except wildlife)” pairing. Landscape? 50mm. Flowers? 50mm. Insects? 50mm. Cities? 50mm. Temples? 50mm. I have taken over 20,000 photos with that camera + lens combination. I am not a happy snapper, I take photos deliberately and don’t tend to spray the camera around, so… that shows how much I love that lens.
I have two other lenses that I use where the landscape is exceptionally epic and the 50mm cannot capture the vastness; a 21mm lens and a 16 to 35mm lens. I always prefer a prime lens as the image quality will, all other things being equal, be better as it doesn’t have to cope with the changing focal lengths, but sometimes having a zoom lens gives extra versatility.
But if I can only carry one lens, and it’s not birds, it is normally the 50mm.
Lenses : Landscape / Wide Angled
I started with the 50mm, and love, love, love it. It is a beautiful and really versatile lens. However, where there are really vast landscapes, the 50mm constrains them a little too much and is not wide enough to really capture the scale and majesty.
I was visiting London and found a small Leica reseller who had a secondhand, but pristine, 16 to 35mm lens on their shelf. Another moment of inner turmoil (and I can hear your silent judgement), and the credit card came out again.
Then, sigh, Leica released (or I spotted), a 21mm prime lens. As noted above, I prefer a prime lens if I can have one, and so… more silent judgement, more internal wrangling and justification and that was added to my bag. In my defense, it is quite small. For a Leica lens.
Øydegard in Norway, sunset from the jetty where I was staying.
This is at 16mm
From exactly the same spot 15 seconds later.
This is at 35mm
This is a completely different mood to the 16mm. Darker and more dramatic, even though it is almost the same time / light conditions.
From the same spot a little later, but from the same sunset.
This is at 50mm.
Again, whilst this is a little later, and so the sun has dropped further, the mood is completely different.
The focal length is important to the mood you want to capture.
Lenses : Telephoto
I love landscapes and had never seriously considered birds as a subject that I would be competent enough to seriously consider. However, I was lucky enough to be able to go on vacation to Iceland at the start of the Atlantic Puffin season in 2024. I did a lot of research and selected a few days here and there in Puffin hot (or cold!), spots and decided to look at lenses for my camera.
Leica have some telephoto lenses:
70 to 200mm with x2 extender
100 to 400mm with x2 extender
And I seriously considered the 100 to 400mm with / without the extender, but was worried about the quality of the images. I trialed the 100 to 400mm lens and it was not as sharp as I wanted.
So I tried the 90 to 280mm and even with the lower zoom capability than the 400mm, when the image was cropped and blown up, it was pristine, so that was the lens for me. The additional quality outweighed the lack of zoom. I have to say I now have thousands of Puffin pictures and none have disappointed me from a lens quality perspective.
Even smaller, and more embarrassed cough, when Leica released the SL3, I was in the process of trying to find a second hand SL2 to buy, so that I could carry two ‘shot ready’ set ups when I was out looking for Puffins. One for the epic scenery and the other for Puffins. So it didn’t need any thought to say ‘yes please’ to the SL3, but it did take a lot of courage, and mental excuses, to pay for it.
The SL3 | Why I have Two Camera Bodies
I am going to make some pretty lame excuses now. The first, and main, reason is that I am far too clumsy to be allowed to change lenses in the field in the excitement of capturing a shot.
Things like this happen.
Fortunately this is just the filter, but I didn’t realise that at the time, and I was sat, stunned, in a street in Japan, with tears pouring down my face. Being stared at.
it also took pliers and some serious courage to bend the filter ring back into a shape that allowed me to get it off, and I was finding glass for weeks in my bag and kit.
I recommend using your sensor blower and lens brush for the glass on the lens, not a cloth, to prevent scratching the front of your lens.
Plus, I seem to be a dust and fluff magnet. I cannot open my camera without the sensor getting covered in dust. I always use a blower when I change lenses, but it seems to blow in more dust. I suspect user error, but if I add up the time I spend in Lightroom on sensor dust removal…
So, if I know I might have landscapes and birds on the same trip, I will take both bodies. I will use the SL3 with the 90 to 280 mm, as the sensor is 60MP, and so handles smaller birds further away better than the SL2. The SL2 works beautifully for landscapes as you don’t need so many MP for a stunning shot, so I will have the 50mm, or 21mm / 16 to 35 mm on that.
My Kit and Autism
I have always struggled with things that are not intuitive or logical, or didn’t work as advertised / expected. I had always just thought I was a bit daft and “hard of understanding”.
But if my kit, like the tripod, the Olympus, even something simple like a camera strap, didn’t work or was difficult for me to use, or needed me to spend hours online researching how to make it work (like really, why does a tripod need 17 levers and knobs on its head each moving it 2mm in a specific direction?), I would have a melt down. Floods of tears, self-loathing, that tight, pent up, feeling inside.
It got in the way. For me, if I have to faff, fiddle or stop focusing on the photograph, I lose the connection with the scene and the inner peace / mindfulness goes with it. I think my pictures are at their best when the camera disappears in my hands and only need to think about what I am seeing through the viewfinder and pressing the button. This where the Leica excels. I literally have three or four go to set ups (more on that in the next blog), which produce exactly what I am seeing and what I want to see in the resulting image. It feels like part of me when it is in my hands.
I definitely form strong bonds with inanimate objects and personify them. I love my cameras and lenses, and they are my friends. I talk to them, and I feel that, through the pictures I take, they are talking back to me. I can’t imagine life without them now.
Contact me : If any of this has resonated with you, and you’d like to share your own experience, please let me know. If you have questions on my kit, or why I chose it, I’d be happy to answer. If you want to judge me for having “all the gear, and no idea”, you are very welcome to your views, but I would prefer your silent judgement.
A note about my kit: I am not important enough to be sponsored or paid to recommend anything. I share what works for me in case it’s helpful, and everything I use has been chosen and bought by me.