Having Fun
Molly
I’ve had at least one camera in my life for most of the last 25 years - and on and off before that. For a decade, I had a Nikon D50 DSLR. For the decade after, I had a FujiFilm X-E1 and X-T2.
The rise of the Internet means that there are always people selling what is perceived to be better equipment. Any new lens or camera is met with countless articles and videos from people who talk authoritatively about these things, despite, in some cases, only having it for an hour outside the press event.
In recent years, I’ve “upgraded” and swapped cameras several times, chasing this “there’s always something better” dream.
Reflecting on all of this, I know photography should be fun for me. I had fun when I had a little Canon Ixus camera with a two-megapixel sensor. I didn’t care about its specifications. I cared that it worked, that it was small and light, and that I took it everywhere and used it. I also didn’t care about what a lot of strangers thought about it online. I was happy. I also had very few places to look for temptation to buy something “better”. Tuning all that out and returning to a simpler place mentally has done wonders for me.
Two of my favourite cameras are the Sigma FP-L and the various Ricoh GR series. What they both have in common is the lack of a viewfinder. I did have the add-on viewfinder for the FP-L, but I seldom used it, preferring the smaller camera without it attached.
Years of using a GR had taught me to point and visualise my photo without the viewfinder—knowing the focal length, I had a mental frame in my head, which was fine for me. Other people might find them essential, and indeed, if I was photographing fast-moving objects, I’d like a viewfinder to track them in. But for my fun, day-to-day photography, I can do without.
