smoothstones
New Member
Nice work and well reported.
They had already begun the trend with the XZ-1. I don't like it, its a royal PITA. But.. cant be fussed getting one.Which reminds me of one flaw I forgot to mention with the XZ2 - its probably not fatal but its a damnable little thing that seems to be infecting more and more camera makers. OK, I don't know if this is true or not, but it Sony's doing it and Olympus did it with the XZ2.
I guess the upside, as I had thought about it, is that you don't have to take an extra charger with you when travelling. The downside is that its hard to charge and use the camera at the same time. This also means that a laptop or some other USB host device needs be taken to charge it too.
No, you can use one of those USB plugs that come with any number of devices - iphones, kindles, etc. You don't need a laptop and I guess not having to travel with a charger is a good thing, but you have to travel with a cord and I can get most chargers to work without a cord, so its six of one, half dozen of the other. I just don't like it. Maybe in-camera charging can be an option for those who prefer it (all cameras pretty much ship with a usb cable anyway), but don't make it the only choice or make folks pony up for a charger as an "option". I'm sure everyone will be doing it in a couple of years and I'll sound like a bitter old man, but some things just get under my skin a bit.
-Ray
Thanks for the info Ray! Noisy cameras are a major annoyance to me when street shooting and you said the XZ-2 is "dead silent". I just wanted to double check with you on this issue as it's very important to me. Are any of the other cameras you handled quiet cameras?
Actually, the only of these three cameras I own (and, thus, still have access to) is the LX7. Its shutter is basically silent also. I think the G15 is also, but I honestly don't recall well enough to assure you of that. All of these cameras make some noise on startup, but they're pretty quiet beyond that. The LX7 is basically silent focussing, a little sound when zooming, and a shutter so quiet I have to hold the camera up to my ear to hear the tiny little click that happens in there.
Absolutely all three of these are quiet enough for street shooting, where you don't need silent, but you may not want a loud shutter or mirror slap sound.
-Ray