Quality isn’t important anymore
Originally sent exclusively to The Focal Point newsletter readers on August 5th. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every week? Subscribe for free here.
Hey everyone, firstly thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of the NYC zine! It’s been amazing to see people enjoying it and sharing it on your stories.
I also got round to updating my website with all my NYC photographs, you can see the full gallery here.
Housekeeping out the way, I wanted to share some thoughts on Pickupability.
Staten Island Ferry - New York City
How a camera feels to use is more important than the capability of it.
I want to caveat this early by stating that in 2024 all modern/new cameras are so good, quality isn’t the important thing anymore. It probably hasn't been for the last 10 years.
I mentioned Pickupability in my recent M11-P review. The camera has one major flaw, it freezes about once a month for no reason. It’s a serious problem.
But still, it's easily my favourite camera.
From the way it’s built, how the mechanical shutter feels to the stripped back tactile experience. It’s an absolute joy to use.
There are not many cameras like it. (there are many cameras similar but they don’t feel like a Leica M body does).
Because of how it feels to use, I want to pick it up, simple as that.
I refer to this feeling as ‘pickupability’ and the pickupability of the M11 is the highest I’ve ever felt.
The reason for my emphasis in this email, is because I saw this happen to someone else, with a different camera.
It was refreshing to see someone else’s interest spark in photography, purely based on wanting to pick up and use a camera, especially as that person has never owned a camera before.
That someone else was my girlfriend Hannah and that camera was the X100v.
We attended a friend’s wedding at the weekend, as Hannah was getting ready and walked past the X100v, she mentioning that maybe she could use it and get some candid photos throughout the day.
Why the x100v? She walks past my Leica M11 and Canon R6 all the time…
I assume the M11 is slightly intimidating? (the price, the manual focus?) and the canon r6 looks complicated? (the size, lens choice?)
For her, this was about ease of use. Bare in mind I quickly set the Fuji in aperture priority so it become a fancy point and shoot at best.
Throughout the day, Hannah, myself and other friends would get involved and use the X100v whenever appropriate. Everyone thought it was easy and fun.
Hannah had no idea what megapixels the camera has, what size sensor it uses, what model or year it was released, she didn’t even know if it was shooting jpegs or raws (jpegs btw) - because, frankly she didn't care, it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was wanting to pick it up because wanting to pick it up resulted in memories being captured (sorry for being cliche).
Wanting to take pictures matters the most.
The argument could be made that just because someone wants to use the camera doesn't mean they shoot anything worth while. But honestly, who cares?
…and to be fair, I do believe if the pickupability is high enough this would lead to the user to inherently improving anyway.
Hannah said she enjoyed carrying the camera around wants to use it more often when we go away.
I think we knew this anyway, but it’s clear the X100v has a very high pickupability factor.
It was what originally led me to the Q2 and then the M11… so maybe Hannah has started down the same journey and she doesn’t know it yet haha
Next time you’re considering gear to buy, borrow, sell, swap… consider how it feels to use because the better the experience is, the more likely you are to pick it up.
It’s not about quality, it’s about pickupability.
Thank you so much for the continued support.
Mike
PS. I finally finished the full New York City video! Check it out here.