I mentioned a few posts ago that I’d gone hiking in Cornwall.And left my digital camera back at the Airbnb. Well, I finally got that film processed.
The results certainly aren’t perfect. Some frames also seem to have an odd light leak,The light leak is consistent in its location, but doesn’t always appear on back-to-back frames. I need to do some digging to figure out the cause. and the exposures aren’t spot on. However, on the whole, I don’t think they’re too bad.
All shot on my Canon A-1 with Portra 400. I’ve shared them here as they came back from the lab, no post processing.
Despite the quirks, I’m encouraged to keep shooting film. I love the character it brings. And Cornwall looked pretty magical through the A-1.
I turned to Criticker when I was looking for a movie rating website that worked the way my brain does. I used to score films out of 10.0. Yes, out of 10 including a decimal place. That’s massively more precise than any of the major movie rating websites. I appreciate the advantage of using a smaller scale, but I’ve always wanted something more detailed. Enter, Criticker.
9. Flexible and Detailed Rating System. Rate titles on a 100-point scale for nuanced feedback, or if that’s too much, use whatever rating scale you choose! From 0-100, 0-10, or even 1-5, Criticker will understand and adapt to the way you like to rate movies.
While I used to score films out of 10.0, I could achieve the same results just going to 100. And when the reason I sought out Criticker is only number 9 in their list of 10 reasons to use it, you can hopefully understand why my slightly neurotic, nerdy brain was thrilled by what this website offers!
1. Personalized Recommendations with the TCI System. Criticker’s unique Taste Compatibility Index (TCI) analyzes your ratings and compares them to thousands of other users. This means you get recommendations from people whose tastes truly align with yours — not just what’s popular at the moment.
This system is based on percentiles, which allows each user to have their own personalised rating scale. Smart.
There’s a whole host of other reasons to check it out.Well, 8 other reasons if you’re just going by their blog post. Give it a go. I’m sure you’ll love it.
In September 2024, I had the chance to see one of my favourite artists perform live at The Royal Albert Hall. Jordan Rakei is a New Zealand–Australian musician currently based in London. I’ve always enjoyed his music, but his last two albums, What We Call Life (Spotify / Apple Music) and The Loop (Spotify / Apple Music), have been some of my most-played albums over the past few years.Honestly, The Loop took a few listens to fully click with me. But now, a few of the tracks are among my favourites. Friend or Foe and Hope and Dreams are two of my top tracks from the past 12 months.
While you might not have had the pleasure to be my plus-one to the gig back in September, luckily for you, the full concert film Jordan Rakei – Live From The Royal Albert Hall is now available on YouTube. This gig was one of the best I’ve seen in a while, with beautiful live orchestrations of his songs, a spectacular lighting show, all set in one of the UK’s finest venues. I can’t recommend watching it enough.
It was on a recent trip to Cornwall with a friend when I realised that I wasn’t happy with my camera setup. We were hiking along the coast, both of us focused on shooting film,I have a lovely Canon A-1, which I massively underuse. and therefore those were the cameras slung around our necks. However, as is the case with film, we were being a little more cautious about what we shot. So we were regularly dipping into our bags to pull out our digital cameras to ensure we still captured all the moments we wanted to.
However, I actually wasn’t dipping into my bag to pull out another camera because I hadn’t brought another camera on the hike. My Leica Q2 was back at the Airbnb and my Canon 5D was back home. Why? Well, this trip was more about the hiking than the photography, so I didn’t want to lug the 5D around. And while I love my Q2, it still always feels a little awkward to throw in a bag. I feel pretty precious about it, and it’s just slightly too big to put in my pocket.
So that evening, while half-watching The Gorge,Not a great film. I started researching compact mirrorless camera options. The main thing I was looking for was something with a smaller footprint than the Q2, which really meant I was likely looking at something with an APS-C sensor and a pancake lens. The main options that came up were from Fujifilm; however, none actually seemed to be much smaller than the Q2 while retaining the quality level I wanted. While using the Q2, I often found myself wanting just a slightly tighter image. So another thing I was intrigued by was finding a camera with interchangeable lenses, or at least something closer to 50mm.I had considered just trying to upgrade my Q2 to the more recently announced Q3 43 but I would have likely found myself in a similar situation with the overall size.
Then I came across a strange little camera. The Leica CL is a small, mirrorless APS-C camera with interchangeable lenses.Not to be confused with the original Leica CL, a 35mm rangefinder. While the CL has a number of drawbacks (which I’ll come to later), one of the first things that struck me was that almost every review I came across was written by someone who’d fallen in love with this camera. I was intrigued, for sure.
After much research, I picked one up.
The Leica CL came out back in 2017 and is no longer in production, so it might seem like an odd choice for someone buying a new camera in 2025. But its features really stood out to me. Buying second-hand also helped keep the price down — and luckily, the used market had a few CLs in great condition.
The CL with it's 18mm lens
As seems to be the case with others who have this camera, I’ve really enjoyed using it so far. The build quality is great, and the interchangeable lens option is super nice to have. The camera I got came with an Elmarit TL 18 mm f/2.8 ASPH pancake lens, which is tiny, and a Vario Elmar T 18–56mm f/3.5–5.6 ASPH lens, which is closer in size to the lens on the Q2.
Not only is it small enough to fit into a (large) pocket, but it’s incredibly nice to use. It has all the things you’d expect from Leica; the same great colour science and a clean, unfussy interface. But it also has some things the Q2 doesn’t, including this lovely little display on the top showing the current settings. The images I get out of it feel really close to what I got from the Q2, even if the image size is a little smaller. But for what I’m using this camera for, I’m completely fine with that.
ISO 100 | 18mm | f4 | 1/100s
That said, of course there are some drawbacks with this tiny little camera. First off, the APS-C sensor means the images aren’t quite as big as those from my other cameras. It also means that the depth in the photos isn’t quite there. I tend to shoot with the lens as wide open as I can afford to go, but with the cropped sensor the f/2.8 approximates to around f/4.2, which is narrower than I usually would shoot, and I really notice it. Another slight drawback is the lack of any GPS. While the Q2 also doesn’t have built-in GPS, it links to my iPhone using the Fotos app and that writes the GPS location.I’ve read that a lot of people either have issues with this approach or find it unreliable, but for me it’s always been rock solid. But the CL doesn’t have GPS at all. So far, I’ve been adding location information to my images as part of my editing workflow, but this is a pain, especially if I’m hiking and moving around a lot.I know there are better solutions out there, but none of them are great.
These things aside, I still really enjoy this camera. The reason I got the Q2 in the first place was to have a smaller camera than the 5D to take around with me. I’m not great at remembering to use my iPhone’s camera, so having a dedicated camera with me is like a physical reminder to take a picture. When it got to the point where I wasn’t bringing the Q2 because it was still a little cumbersome, then it wasn’t serving that purpose anymore. The CL has really nicely solved that for me. This camera isn’t what I’m going to bring if I want the best possible photo quality, but ultimately, that’s not why I have it.
I’m also in the wonderful position of this camera having interchangeable lenses. My preferred focal length is somewhere between 35mm and 50mm. There’s a Summilux-TL 35mm f/1.4 ASPH which would be great, but the price and physical size aren’t encouraging me to pick it up.At least not yet.
ISO 100 | 18mm | f2.8. | 1/640s & 1/2500s
Now that I have the CL in the lineup, I probably need to re-evaluate my whole camera setup. I’m shooting fewer weddings now (where I’d typically use the 5D), and honestly, the CL has nicely replaced the Q2 for me in everyday use. I’ll always want a “big” camera, but I would consider selling the Q2 and the 5D (along with the plethora of lenses I have for it) and getting something different, potentially going all in and picking up the Leica SL3. Who knows.
But for now, the CL has been the perfect camera for my pocket, encouraging me to take more photos. It won’t replace my main camera for bigger shoots, but it’s already replaced my excuses for leaving a camera behind.
