It’s a new season and I’m dipping a toe back into the digital world to help document those in-between moments

For one reason or another the winter months are always a tough time for me when it comes to getting out there and shooting on film. Even in “sunny” Florida, this time of year can be pretty dreary which personally makes shooting in color less appealing. My preferred b&w film is Ilford FP4+ 125 because it handles the bright sunshine really well, however the intensity of light during the winter can vary wildly – sometimes decently sunny, other times super overcast. This does make loading up a roll of FP4 a bit of a gamble… guess I could switch to a higher speed film, but I’m stubborn like that?

In any case, we only get a couple months out of the year where it’s feasible to wear cold-weather clothing and it got me thinking that it would be really nice to have a small camera I could easily slip into a jacket pocket (or pants pocket the other 10.5 months). At the same time I’ve been going through old files and recognizing that there’s a big chunk of digital photos that are experimental, candid, funny, or really just anything that I wouldn’t even attempt to take on a film camera. For the record, I am not a “death before digital” type of film photographer – I’ve had my fair share of digicams, both cheapos and expensive DSLRs. They’re great!

Feeling that the time was right, I decided to find a compact digital camera that was small enough to pocket, good enough quality, not crazy expensive and had all of the control options I wanted (fully auto, manual and shutter/aperture priority modes). After narrowing down my options and checking prices online, I settled on this one:

The Canon G9X Mark II !

You can find the specs online if you’re curious but I wouldn’t be able to tell you how many megapixels it is or whether it records video in 4K, 8K, whatever. The specs I care about most are:

• It’s small
• It’s quiet
• It takes super clear photos
• It’s fun to hold and to use

So here’s the thing – this camera is seriously small! I know I was looking for one that could easily fit into a pocket, which this does, but holding it in my hands I am always surprised at just how tiny it is. One of the reviews I came across said it was about as big as a pack of playing cards…

yep, that’s accurate

Some sample images I’ve made in the past couple weeks:

Despite its size I have found the image quality to be pretty good. Always been a fan of the colors my previous Canon digital cameras have offered and this one is no exception. The built-in flash has a physical switch that enables it to pop up when needed, which I appreciate because I don’t tend to use flash very often so it’s never in the way or goes off unexpectedly.

Now that we’re officially in SPRING, the colors and sunshine are beginning to return to Central Florida and I’m excited to get out of the house more often to shoot with this thing. Certainly not looking to replace my film cameras but rather add another avenue for taking pictures that I enjoy without having to stress about much.

It’s been great to have the digicam on hand pretty much at all times to capture scenes and moments that pop up, especially ones with my kids (who are notoriously fidgety) or things that I wouldn’t want to “waste” a shot on with film.