Having just wrapped up my 2024/2025 ski season PAD, it’s made me realize a few things about how I shoot and the cameras I use so I figured I’d write some of these thoughts down.  At the beginning of the project I was using my fuji X70 as much as I could but my iphone (13 mini) as well.  As they say “the best camera is the one you have with you!”.  For the entire season I shot an image a day which meant lots of cameras in pockets.  This led me on a search for the best fit for me that gives me the focal lengths I want in a package that also has better IQ than a phone and doesn’t hold me back.  One thing to clear up right off the bat that a LOT of people don’t like with the following cameras; no EVF!  I find when shooting while skiing with goggles and a helmet on I actually prefer just using the screen.  It needs to be bright enough (and bonus points if I can get that adjustment into a Q menu) but it’s easier for me than a traditional viewfinder.  Yes there are challenges with this but I’d prefer the smaller body and to be able to keep my goggles on so I’ve learned to work without an EVF. 

I’ve been a fan of the X70 since it’s launch back in 2016 and it’s IQ still holds up today.  I prefer it’s size and 18.5mm focal length (~28mm effective on full frame) over the X100 series.  It’s a shame fuji hasn’t updated it as it’s biggest negative is the old menu system as well as pretty terrible AF for anything moving.  It’s pretty easy to pre-focus and switch to manual as needed and generally for my more landscape style shooting it’s good enough.  But now that I own a x-m5 it’s pretty eye opening how good good AF is these days.  I have the WCL-70 for it which is nice but makes it quite bulky.  It also threads on which is tricky when outside with gloves on (sony’s version is a bayonet mount which is much better).

After getting comfortable with the X70 I then started bringing my X-M5 with me to see how it’s size was but also to use a wider lens with the sigma 10-18mm 2.8.  This is an amazing package, and the lens is quite small for what it is, but it’s beyond what I’d consider “pocketable” even in my ski coat or vest.  This combo however opened pandora’s box for me in terms of finding the most pocketable option with a wider zoom option… 

I still have my old NEX5 with the 16mm 2.8 pancake.  I’ve said before it was the “perfect pocket ski camera”.  Mine has a broken latch on the battery door so I’d never sold it.  I have both the fisheye and wide angle converters which work surprisingly well.  The 16mm isn’t the best lens in the world but it’s also very pocketable.  The NEX line (before the a6000) is long forgotten by sony but it is a much smaller body -vs- the newer options that all have viewfinders.  It might not seem like it from the specs but in your pocket it’s a big difference. 

After using the NEX5 for a bit I found a 5t on fredmiranda with the EVF for basically what the EVF sells for on eBay…  So I bought that and sold the EVF for a net ~$50 NEX5t.  Back when I was shooting sony I also had the 10-18mm f/4 which I remember is a small lens:

since then sony had made a new smaller “power zoom” version that’s catered to the video shooters.  It’s enough smaller I decided to add one as well which got me to a smaller package -vs- the X-M5 and sigma 10-18mm.  Funny enough from other PZ lenses I thought I’d hate that aspect but it’s dead silent and great on this lens.  This lens is also an internal zoom to keep it balanced on a gimbal but that’s also a feature I love (the 10-18mm gets longer at 10mm):

I sold the EVF and while skiing I used a UV filter instead of a lens cap (so I couldn’t drop/lose it) and the hood stayed home as well.  The NEX5t 10-20mm combo was my most used option once I had the pieces together.  It was smaller than the same body with the 16mm lens WITH a converter.  Some days I’d swap to the 16mm instead for a smaller camera and to be forced to shoot a prime.  It’s funny because the sony 16mm seems like it’d be too similar to the fuji 18.5mm but when you’ve got skis on your feet sometimes you’re stuck in a certain spot and it’s just enough wider to make the difference.

I’m a fan of the X-pan crop of 65:24.  With the sony camera in camera I only get 2:3 and 16:9 but I cropped a shot in post and put it on instagram with the #65:24 tag.  I was browsing images with that tag when I found out the lumix lineup also had this available in camera.  I’d seen pictures of the s9 but never really looked much into it as the initial reviews weren’t amazing as they didn’t really have a great small lens for it yet (the one pancake is MF and slow, the 20-60mm is small but not tiny).  Lumix has since launched the 18-40mm collapsing zoom which is actually smaller than the sony 10-20mm pz when collapsed! 

Down the rabbit hole we go.  Through my video game/gameboy collecting I’ve learned that sendico lets you order things from Japanese used online stores and they’ll ship it to me.  Typically these items are in great shape and enough cheaper -vs- US pricing if I don’t love it I can sell it on ebay for roughly the same price I bought it for after eBay fees…  In looking into the lumix/l-mount lineup I also learned about the sigma fp-L.  So I ordered both with the 18-40mm lens to see just how I liked them.  This is where things get a big tricky, as both are great and neither is perfect… 

The fp is a cyberpunk full frame camera that I absolutely love.  You can even removed the camera lugs (which I’ve done) amd the grip is optional.  Stripped down w/o it’s grip and just the 18-40mm it’s actually similarly pocketable as the NEX5t w/10-20mm (the smaller NEX body makes it slightly smaller but both work for me).  I love everything about this camera except one thing.  It’s AF, while better than the fp (contrast only) is now phase detect, but it’s still terrible with anything that moves.  The fp-L sports the same ~61mp sensor as the sony A7r bodies which is great.  It’s menus are very different as are it’s controls, but once you get used to them and get them setup they’re actually great (although I do wish you could use that big fat record button as a custom button in photo mode).  I love love love this camera but in the end I don’t really want to settle for AF that I have to work around (when the X-M5, S9 and spoiler V1 have amazing AF).  So in the end I’m regretfully selling my fp-L.  If it had AF that could track it’d be my winner.  It also has 21:9 cropped mode which was good enough to get me thinking pano but it was frustrating I couldn’t make a custom ratio like can be done on it’s own video side.

Let me not forget a few other flaws the fp-L and s9 share.  Neither have a mechanical shutter which means you can get weird artifacts in action shots (his pole is not perfectly straight, the fact it’s bamboo hides it).  I haven’t had a huge issue with this but I have seen some oddities.  They also don’t have hotshoes (the s9 has a cold shoe that can’t trigger a flash) and certainly lighting conditions can cause banding as well.  The s9 seemingly handles this better than the fp-L depending on the mode you’re in (I shoot a lot of Av and the camera will “sense” the flicker and make tiny adjustments to shutter speed to avoid it).

Here comes the S9…  For those that know me you’ll recognize my old 5D (classic) and my bread and butter 17-40mmL.  I re-bought them last summer for <$300 for the pair!  Yes this is the eighth copy of the 17-40L I’ve owned over the years…  But this is what excites me with the s9 and 18-40mm so much.  It’s a tiny version of the canon that I’ve used so much in the past.  The s9 has amazing AF that I’d say beats fuji’s current top of the line options (it’s better than my x-m5 w/10-18 2.8 even with the slower 18-40mm lens).  I’d also say it’s at least on par with my old a7riv if not better.  Long story short it has the “sticky”/smart AF that can track what I want in focus and it does a great job of it.  But is it pocketable?  Not as much as the fp-L but close.  For me it’s the better camera if I’m forced to keep one.  It’s menus are terrible but once you get the custom menu setup as well as the Q menu it’s fine.  It’s 24mp sensor is great, it has baked in 65:24, and it can shoot a “high resolution” 96mp mode if motion will allow that to work.  In the end this camera has the most of what I want (full frame, great AF, tiny lens) to be as pocketable as the XM-5 but as we know that was bigger than I really wanted… 

Then mid february canon announced it was bringing back it’s powershot lineup.  The powershot V1 is a “hybrid” camera of course but the lens sounded just about perfect for me: 16-50mm (effective) with the ability to crop in camera to ~70mm, but in a P&S telescoping lens that’s truly pocketable!  Yes it’s chonky and not without its issues, but it’s size can’t be ignored if you’re looking for pocketable and wide zoom.

Yes it’s sensor is slightly smaller than aps-c (it’s not exactly MFT either) but for me the sensor is large enough to do what I need and the lens is small enough to make this a wonderful pocketable option.  Now it’s not perfect, it really is designed around video/vlogging first.  It has a flip out screen -vs- the flip up I’d prefer.  It has built in cooling for the video shooters so they can get long record times.  I much prefer fuji’s X-M5 approach here where there’s an optional add on fan allowing the camera to be smaller when needed…  Long story short I would LOVE a photo specific version of this that was smaller but it’s still the best option available by a long shot.  I will be working on a full review of this once I have more time with it.  I preordered mine and got it with 4 days left of the ski season.  It also made the florida trip with me and was great to have a camera I could use while driving. 

So what does this piece of the puzzle mean to my lineup?  Here’s what I’ve used this winter:

• iphone 13 mini, convenient but mushy files and terrible WB.
• fuji x70 (with WCL70 at times)
• fuji xf10 (smaller but I prefer the X70, will be sold)
• fuji x-m5 w/ sigma 10-18mm was great and proved it’s worthing bringing a wide angle zoom, but it’s larger than I want to carry every day.
• sony NEX5/NEX5t w/16mm (awesome small camera with a wider lens -vs- the X70 and works well with the wide adapter as well)
• sony 10-20mm PZ with the above, great small option that’s just barely pocketable
• sigma fp-L with lumix 18-40mm, also great and small but bad AF and the smaller V1 means it’s also gone on eBay.
• lumix s9 with the 18-40mm is my keeper main camera now.  Not pocketable but it’s replacing my GFX and X-M5 (will keep it with the 150-600)
• Canon Powershot V1, winner!

By the end of the winter 2 clear winners and one new player emerged.  I really enjoyed going back to my old X70.  It’s a great camera that produces wonderful images even if it’s “only” 16mp and from 2016.  The NEX5 was another surprise.  With both the 16mm and 10-20mm it because a favorite as well.  While the fp-L and S9 were fun to try, in the end they’re just a tad too big for this pocketable roll.  The V1 arrived with days left on the season.  I’m very impressed and think it will take over this roll in my lineup.  

At the end of the day where does that leave me?  What am I keeping?  I love my x70 so it’s staying with the WCL-70.  The S9 is the winner of the l-mount bodies with the 18-40mm but it’s not in the pocketable realm.  I’m keeping the NEX5t and 16mm but I’ve sold the 10-20mm at least for now (I really enjoyed this setup so I might have to get another 10-20mm long term),  The V1 is the newest member to the gang and the smallest which has really won me over.  I’m well aware we’re in our honeymoon phase still so we’ll see how I feel after more time.  What this whole thing has made me realize though is I really prefer smaller camera over ultimate IQ.  It needs to be easy to bring with me and I’ll shoot a lot more.

FOR SALE or SOLD:

• sony 10-18mm (replaced by 10-20)
• sony 10-20mm (replaced by V1)
• fuji xf10 great body and easier in a pocket than everything else in the list, but the x70’s controls, screen and wide converter make it better for me.
• sigma fp-L, if only it had modern AF.
• fuji 16-50mm (moved midrange zoom to lumix)
• fuji GFX 50s and lenses (breaks my heart but I got it for 65:24 and the s9 has that in a pint sized option now)
• fuji 15-45mm (tiny but not wide enough for me, was in my xm-5 kit)
• fuji 27mm 2.8 pancake (small but I don’t love the FL)
• fuji x100v (too big, don’t use the OVF or really even the EVF much and don’t love the FL, this is my fourth x100 body I’ve tried, someday I’ll learn)
• laowa 10mm cookie (tried it for a small wide but MF is not my jam)