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Some six months after the release of GX200, it is gaining growing popularity among photographers. In its hometown, Japan, the GX200 was voted the second most popular compact of 2008 after Sigma DP1. Besides the applause for its surperb ergonomics, it has also won design awards in Germany, Japan and Taiwan. In recently weeks, I have come across a number of undecided bloggers wondering if the GX200 is the right camera for them. For a quick answer, it depends really on the specific photographing style and experience of each photographer. The GX200 can be used by tyros as a full automatic P&S for sure; but it should be put to the much better use it is built for. If you are still undecided and comparing it with other comparable cameras, maybe you will find some of my previous posts/ ideas useful here, here and here. For those who are coming from the film era as I do, I am wrapping up some additional thoughts about the GX200 versus film cameras below (specifically, my Minolta SLR Dynax 7).
Digital Mindset for a Film Photographer
I bought the GX200 six months ago, which is the first serious digital camera I own. Since then, I have left the Minolta Dynax 7 gear largely untouched in the camera cabinet. In the past, besides doing portrait sessions, I would definitely bring with me on a trip the Dynax 7 at its combative best: on a 24-105mm lens plus a 75-300mm lens, a flashgun, filters and rolls of slide films. For the last two trips, one to China and another for bushwalking, I brought the GX200 instead. The relatively short period of working with the GX200 "sabotage" my almost two decades' experience with the film cameras.
The Freedom
Needless to say, I was pounds lighter without the film camera gear clinging to me. The versatility of GX200 gave me a new perspective as a photographer on a trip: I was less buried by the entangling camera bag, the camera itself and the trouble of changing lens. I can finally enjoy the trip per se more! I still love the feel with the film SLR though: the bright, useful viewfinder, the instant start-up time and focusing speed, the possibility to use different lens and filters.
While using a film SLR, I found myself more aware of the technical side of photography like the exposure combo. Maybe the same feeling apply to the use of a big DSLR. With the palm-sized GX200, I can enjoy not only the scenery more but also a freer scope on composition and creativity. This is not because exposure is unimportant for a digital camera. But the very different costs of film and digital images do make me more generous (and carefree maybe) in pressing the shutter of GX200. Also, the extensive depth-of-field of a small sensor and the ease of post-processing reduce the technical tweaks on the spot to a minimum. So, there is much more freedom with a digital camera, especially it is a small one with a 24mm focal length and when you are on a trip, with the caveat about the need of pre-focusing which is put under Coveat Emptor in the later part of this article.
Determining Exposure under a New Rule
There are some classic advice for exposure: "Expose for the highlights, and let the shadows take care of themselves" which works with slide film; for negative film, the classic advice is to bias the exposure towards light shadows. So, maybe you have also met some film photographers who worked around the rule by dialling the camera to, say, ISO 100 for a roll of slide film at ISO 80 and exposed without the rule or the other way round for negative films. In human language, meter light shadows with negative films but meter highlights with slide films (alternatively you may try the zone exposure method but some photographers believe that these methods are not necessary because modern SLRs are fairly reliable with their sophisticated metering systems).
For GX200 or any digital camera, a digital image should be rightly overexposed (i.e. more to the right of the live histogram without overblowing a scene) to retain the largest amount of data. So, there is a widely known new rule in digital photography, "Expose to the right (of the live histogram)", or, in my philosophical version, "overexpose it right".
Finding the "right overexposure" is important because the point of overblowing a bright area comes abruptly under the linear character of digital images, and overblown areas are irreverisable for retrieving data. With the live histogram of GX200, I have found this not difficult at all. Actually, I have found that the instant image review makes the right exposure a near no-brainer achievement. Here, a little tip is to set the image review to the "hold" position so that the image you just took shows until the shutter is pressed again. Then, in case of doubt, press the "DISP." button to check the image out on the white saturation highlights display. This saves you the trouble of pressing buttons for image review shot after shot. So, in relation to determining exposure for a desired result, I am impressed that the GX200 is as easy to use as other digital cameras and miles easier than a film SLR.
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