Readers of this blog and those who interact with me on social media often comment about what they see as a varied choice of cameras in my collection. The most common comments I get are around the idea that it seems odd that I would get so much enjoyment out of a bog-basic point & shoot when I also have access to and favour a camera like the Leica M3. I usually reply with little more depth than by commenting about how I enjoy different types of cameras. Though, whenever I say this, it only really feels like half of the story.
The other half of the story comes down where I find a specific commonality between the different types of camera that I favour. Without an explanation, it’s possibly surprising to read that I find more in common between a Leica M3 and an Olympus mju-ii than I do the same M3 and a Konica Hexar. This is despite the obvious fact that the Konica Hexar has a much more similar form factor to that of the M3.
Where I find commonality in a rangefinder like a Leica M3 and a basic point & shoot like the mju-ii in is in their simplicity of function, and not in specific functions the cameras have. To my mind, simplicity of function is not the same as function itself. In terms of function, the Olympus mju-ii and M3 are like chalk and cheese. The mju-ii is fully automatic with little in the way of manual override, the M3 is completely manual and doesn’t even have a light meter. They’re very different cameras in terms of function, but where they might not have similar functions, they do have a similar level of clarity of function. In other words, I find neither camera to be cumbersome in terms of what options it provides to me as the photographer.
If this clarity of function is the metric by which we measure cameras, when the Leica M3 and Olympus mju-ii are compared to something like the Konica Hexar, it’s obvious that it’s going to be Konica that stands as the odd one out. The Konica Hexar – whilst clearly a very good camera – is by comparison obscenely complex. You can just switch it on and shoot it in its very good program mode. But the fact that it’s possible to program this program mode to taste, says a lot about what other possibilities it offers. For a start, it can also be shot it in shutter priority, aperture priority and full manual. It’s arguably a native autofocus camera, but it can be manually focused via a menu driven focus distance selector. There are different menus hidden in different modes, and you can even set it so it’s focus and film advance are slightly slower and therefore ever so slightly quieter. One way or another, it’s fair to say it has an abundance of features.
By comparison, the mju-ii only has a couple of modes and is far from as complicated as the Konica. The most thinking I have to apply to using the Olympus is to whether or not I want the flash on auto, or if I want to have it fixed off. If I want it off – which involves about the most amount of thought I apply to using that camera – I only have open the front hatch to switch the camera on, and then press a little button on the back twice. This is not only simple to do, but it’s also a simple decision to make.
Then there’s the Leica M3, which is about as basic as it gets. I know exactly what I’m getting with that camera; I just have to set shutter and aperture to appropriate settings for the subject, the light and film contained within, and I get a predictable result. I could make use of things like a frame-line preview, or even a self-timer, but these aren’t functions that make me wonder whether I need or should be using them. I either need them, or I don’t. Mostly don’t.
With the Hexar, for some reason, I find it harder to ignore all the potential settings I could be using. I quite often shoot it with a mind toward whether or not I’m shooting it in the best mode, and in the end almost always default to the program mode. This is perhaps somewhat down to the fact that I haven’t spent enough time mastering it yet, but the mere fact that I feel like that about not having mastered it, speaks volumes to me. The Hexar provides options; options upon options – this is great if you want a single camera that can offer you a huge variety of methods of shooting, but for my tastes, I increasingly find this sort of approach to functionality slightly (read very) overbearing.
In very simple terms I’m fast coming to a conclusion that I like a camera to be as simple as possible to use. But moreover, I just don’t think I like to have choices when I am out shooting. With a camera that provides all sorts of varied options as to how to achieve the exact same outcome I find myself at best distracted, and at worst completely overwhelmed – this is not how I like to feel when I am out taking photos.
Leica M3 and Olympus mju-ii are pretty good examples of cameras that don’t really offer choice and therefore don’t make me feel this way. The way it’s possible to achieve an image with either of these cameras is by a single prescribed level of function. It’s this prescription of a single type of functionality that I find enjoyable to use in a camera, it’s also what I am increasingly finding to be the lure of the uncomplicated camera.
Thanks for reading,
Hamish
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James on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 10/01/2017
Comment posted: 10/01/2017
ehpem on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 10/01/2017
It is very useful to think of simplicity of use as a primary way of grading cameras that I like because I think that is what underlies my own preferences, and what dissatisfied me about the deep menu trees on DSLRs.
The mjuii is pretty much at the top of my list since it also fits nicely in a pocket (nearly any pocket), and has some options if you need them like spot metering, but which otherwise don't get in the way. I would put the Olympus XA2 a very close second on the list.
I have been shooting some late generation EOS mount Canons and while the results are highly satisfactory, they are not simple to use. For some reason I get more satisfaction from a good picture taken with a camera like the original Olympus Pen (perhaps an equivalent to the M3 in terms of the kinds of decisions that must be made). And strangely, I seem more likely to get that good picture with a simple camera - perhaps because there is more mental space to devote to composition and more inclination to patience.
Right now I have film in a Minolta AL-F, a shutter priority camera that displays the automatically chosen aperture value. It fits well into the simplicity category - choose the shutter speed (and thus aperture), and then shoot. I am enjoying using it, and that is what matters!
Comment posted: 10/01/2017
Fernando Filipe on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
George Appletree on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
It's not really operative, but at least you know what to do.
Many cameras are annoying. You don't know what you have to do to get a picture.
Good point, Hammish
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Stephen on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
I have recently taken the plunge and replaced my M2 and M6 with an M-P type 240 at vast expense, now almost all of my pictures are just as badly composed as they were with the previous cameras, but somehow not quite soulless but in my mind disappointing... Where is the Leica glow?
Last year, I entered your £10 camera competition, I used an mju-II acquired from the local charity shop, I took a couple of rolls of film, one B&W the other Agfa/Poundland Vista. I had to wait until the very last shot to get what I would call a decent composition, but the camera was certainly very easy to use, and pocketable. I didn't get placed :(
Anyway, onwards and upwar....
... I have just ordered an Ondu 6X9, and the onus will be on ME to make nice compositions and exposures... Focus of course will not be an issue, but everything else has to be calculated... Slowlee slowlee catchee monkey.
As for the M-P? Been there and I have found myself looking forward to the nextest and bestest yet from them and wondering whether I should take up dentistry, or whether to pinch myself and wake up... It is not the camera, it what one does with it.
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Stu Williams on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Great insight
Stu Williams on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Finn Calander on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
I avree with your reasoning when it comes to the camera being as simple to handle as possible. With film, however, the comleicated stuff come after shooting - developing, having access to a darkroom, copying, etc. Digital has made the cameras excruciatingly complex, but has also made processing so much easier (if you stick to the classic darkroom stuff). Therefore I bought a M Monochrom. Dead easy to handle after you have done the basic settings. After that you don't really have any options to choose between. And the files are easy to work on, sitting in my armchair, a cup of coffee on the table and my Macbook with PS open on my lap. No chemicals, no complexity, no cost for trial and error ...
/ Best regards, FC
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
anil mistry on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
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Stéphane on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
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George Appletree on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
Focusing, choosing a speed and aperture and shooting.
These days a common word is "interface". What you need to have in mind to take a photograph? The less you need the better? Well, it depends.
I think what makes it better is using your own brain for that task. To mean not the one some other placed in that interface.
Some times needing to think nothing is even worst than going throug a bunch of menus.
JR Smith on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 11/01/2017
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Dexter on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
anil mistry on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
For me, an uncomplicated camera should have aperture priority so that i can focus on... well...focus, and not worry about anything else in the heat of the moment.
That's why i love the Leica M7 , Nikon FM 3a, Pentax ME super, and most point and shoots...
But I think you are alluding to elegance of design as much as of functionality- in cameras these two areas are so closely linked and thats why some cameras just feel "wrong" if they don't nail it. (But I also love an ugly camera!)
Jose Caneda on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
If something I have learned over 30 years working with computers and design programs is that simplicity creates potential and too much complexity of choice restricts it
Your choices of cameras are a true example of this.
PS. A week ago I bought a Samsung AF Slim, after seeing your review, and I'm very happy with it. I love their noise :)
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
Adam on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
Having just picked up an N90 (like the F90 you are interested in), I can say that is not the simplest of cameras, yet still it doesn't feel overly complicated, the one notable exception being the addition of the Vari-Program settings.
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
David Alexander-Watts on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
10 years since purchasing that M3 I still have it and use it and have bought and sold many entirely manual cameras but still come back to the M3 time and again, but I still challenge your definition of it as being uncomplicated as it makes me think every shot I take with it.
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
dreadybarber on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/01/2017
Sometimes point and shoot creates cracking shots in less time then it takes working out exposures , apertures and such like .
I got into photography for fun and making memories, sometimes simple makes you realise why you got into it .
Dan Castelli on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 13/01/2017
It's taken me all those years to come full circle. Thanks for the article, Hamish!
Comment posted: 13/01/2017
Comment posted: 13/01/2017
Daniel Fjäll on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 13/01/2017
I don't know what I'm all on about but I'm all about the meditation through photography. I could just have been collecting coins. But that doesn't give me pretty pictures.
JOSE CANEDA on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 13/01/2017
https://books.google.es/books?id=uj6uHaf-M1sC&pg=PA11&dq=samsung AF Slim&hl=gl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivsv2J3L7RAhVCxRQKHRbFCSoQ6AEIIDAB#v=onepage&q=samsung AF Slim&f=false
Comment posted: 13/01/2017
John Lockwood on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 14/01/2017
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George Appletree on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 19/01/2017
Menus, options, wifi,... not interested
Adrian on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 23/01/2017
Comment posted: 23/01/2017
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Richard Williams on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 10/07/2017
Comment posted: 10/07/2017
david curtis on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 13/07/2017
Photography is like snooker: think about it too much and you'll miss the shot. And let's face it, with regards to the gear? It's a black box with a hole in it.
Get on with it, gentlemen.
Comment posted: 13/07/2017
Dan Castelli on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 14/07/2017
Get on with it, gentlemen."
Using that logic, then wrapping fabric around our body serves as clothing...why worry about design?
Food is just fuel, so why regional or national cuisine?
Why play snooker? just kick a rock across a field.
Fuji X100f - Have Fuji lost sight of the elegant original concept? - 35mmc on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 14/10/2017
Peter Boorman on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 12/11/2017
So when I dipped my toes into AF it was again with Pentax. There was never an AF Pentax that was quite as wonderful as an LX, but the MZ3 and it's slightly less robust twin the MZ5n also fit my criteria of uncomplicated. But then, cue the grossly under-appreciated MZ-S - I'd be very interested to hear what you think of this camera Hamish. Leave shutter speed and aperture ring set to auto and it's on programme mode; change the shutter speed and it's shutter priority; change the aperture and it's aperture priority; change both and it's manual. Not the first camera to work that way, but maybe the first full-featured SLR to revert to it after the "AF revolution". Yes, there's lots of stuff you can adjust in a menu - but that is the "set to personal preference and then forget it" sort of stuff. Fuji made a big deal of the X-Pro1 (which I love) operating in that intuitive way, but Pentax was there way before them. The MZ-S is an unusual looking camera for sure, but I find it one of the best when it comes to wanting a tool that is simply an extension of one's hand (especially with the excellent battery grip - why don't all battery grips attach and detach equally quickly?)
I also shoot Medium Format with all sorts of cameras, and the old Fuji rangefinders are also wonderfully uncomplicated. When Tiger Tanaka suggested James Bond should use his Fuji rather than the Leica Bond had brought to the party he was underscoring just how much the old 6x9 Fuji rangefinder was an even simpler, bigger, M3. Fuji's 645 rangefinders almost qualify as compacts ;)
And then another of the cameras I love to work with is the Arca-Swiss 4x5 Monolith. More knobs, dials, millimetre and degree scales than you can shake a stick at - but not an electronic menu in sight...
Comment posted: 12/11/2017
My Nikon F75 Project - Part 1 - Going off on a tangent from my usual direction of travel - 35mmc on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 17/12/2017
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Comment posted: 14/05/2018
Why I Chose the Leica M10 over the Sony a9 - by Rollin Banderob - 35mmc on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 29/05/2018
Nick Lyle on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 07/07/2018
The Rolleiflex Automat is an interesting example of what you are talking about here. It is actually quite complex when you look at the internal mechanical components, but all of this complexity is directed at simplifying the user's experience, at getting the camera out of the photographers way.
How to Travel Without a Camera - By Elben Shira - 35mmc on The lure of the uncomplicated camera
Comment posted: 01/08/2018
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Comment posted: 04/11/2018
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Comment posted: 29/04/2019
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Comment posted: 24/10/2019
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Comment posted: 05/03/2020
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Comment posted: 16/04/2020
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Comment posted: 31/08/2020
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Comment posted: 10/11/2020
Comment posted: 10/11/2020