Following my last post, which was short and quick as it was written in my iPhone. I had just returned from a 1 week break with my wife. We were in Finland, most precisely in Helsinki and Inari.

Inari, so that you know, is one-and-a-half hour flight from Helsinki heading North. It’s in the Arctic Circle.

Inari is cold. So is Helsinki and Finland as a whole, in fact. But Inari is in a different level. Then let’s say Inari is more than cold, it’s actually f****** freezing cold.

In case you ask. Usually we go to places with sunny weather, places where we can enjoy a glass of refreshing white wine in a beachfront under the shade of palm trees.

So why Finland this time. Well, because it was our honeymoon. We just got married and my wife thought – rightly so – that it would make sense to do something different for the occasion.

Cameras

I took two cameras to this trip. The Hasselblad 907x 100c and the Leica V-Lux Typ 114.

Well, actually three cameras if you consider the Insta360 as well.

And what about the snapshots with the iPhone? Ok, then I had a total of four cameras at my disposal. Imagine the number of photo files I have to go through now that I’m back.

Anyway. In this post I’m covering my experience using the Leica V-Lux Typ 114 in Inari, under freezing cold conditions – a totally new experience.

Why the Leica V-Lux Typ 114

Because going to Inari, I knew in advance this was going to be an action packed vacation. We were eager to experience several winter outdoor activities, such as frozen lake fishing, reindeer ride, snowshoeing and also a snow mobile ride.

All surrounded by nature in the great (cold!) outdoors.

So I thought the Leica V-Lux Typ 114 would be handy in this type of environment. I mean, this is not a place where you want to switch lenses on the go or waste time playing with camera settings.

I reviewed this camera long ago here, in case you are interested.

With its built-in 25-400mm zoom lens and f/2.8 – 4.0 aperture, this Leica is super versatile. All mated to a 1-inch sensor, which delivers decent image quality.

I must highlight the word *decent*, which is definitely not *superb*. And this is not meant to be derogative, but just accepting the fact that everything in life is a compromise and so is this camera.

You cannot expect a camera sporting a 1-inch sensor to be as good as, say, a full-frame or medium format camera in terms of image quality.

The size and weight of a large sensor camera with similar zoom range and aperture would be a beast, certainly cumbersome and uncomfortable to carry around all day.

So this kind of small sensor bridge cameras can generally offer a good compromise between size, weight, versatility and image quality.

They are truly enjoyable to use and under the right conditions, they become powerful all-rounders.

Using it in Inari

Some camera reviewers produce their comments based on spec charts and so-called lab tests while comfortably sitting in their armchair, inside a studio.

They spend maybe a couple of hours with the camera and then produce a review, with millions of followers that take them seriously.

Well, how much you trust their assessment is something for you to decide.

But if you ask me, nothing beats a real life user experience.

All this just to say the following: I’ve owned this Leica for 10 years now and I’d never used it in such conditions. Hence to me, after so many years, this felt like a new test, adding one more layer of user experience to it.

And only now I realize how convenient this camera is for being what it is, especially for having so many buttons and switches allowing direct control of important settings without having to dive into the menu interface.

Because when you are shooting in -5° Celsius, you are wearing gloves. And being able to quickly change AF, WB, shooting modes and the likes with my gloves on, suddenly it becomes a comforting luxury.

Not to mention the convenience of zooming in and out, having all possible focal lengths at my disposal by flicking a switch or turning the lens ring.

The 25mm wide view was surely suitable for landscape and to get the overall feel around us, while the ability to zoom all the way up to 400mm allowed me to capture wildlife, as you will see below.

For all this, the Leica V-Lux Typ 114 works like a charm. Because under these conditions you want to shoot fast and get your hands back in the coat pockets asap to keep them warm!

Mind me, even with my gloves on the camera was so cold it felt like an ice block. Talking of which. It used to be that camera batteries would die under cold conditions, but this was not a problem for the Leica.

Are batteries better now or perhaps it was just not cold enough?..

Bridge cameras

I used to say this camera is a Swiss Army knife and after using it in Inari I’m even more convinced now.

To the point that after an outing, I started searching the internet for new bridge cameras. I was so happy using this 10 year old Leica that I started thinking perhaps I should get a new bridge camera for my future trips.

I know there is a successor to this Leica named V-Lux 5, which is essentially the same camera with updates in some non-essential specs. Then there is the Sony RX10 IV, the 4th iteration of their line of bridge cameras that are known to be among the best.

These cameras were released years ago, respectively in 2019 and 2017. Interestingly, both cameras seem to be discontinued, or at least I couldn’t find them in their official websites.

One thing is for sure, they were released ages ago without any successor, so it just proves either there is no market for them or 1-inch sensor technology had evolved to a point that there is no more room for improvements.

But let’s put that aside for now.

Flatness

I’ve read many things in the past about the challenges shooting in snow, namely getting the correct white balance and exposure. I guess I encountered both here.

Some photos turned out purple-blueish, while others were visibly underexposed. Nothing that I couldn’t rectify in post-production.

But one thing I noticed when I got back home was that some photos came out extremely flat. Perhaps I’m not a good photographer and not really a camera related issue?

Objectively, this is a camera with a narrow dynamic range. If the scene you are shooting lacks contrast, this shortcoming is exacerbated and the resulting photo comes out dull and flat. And there is nothing you can do in post production.

I guess we are used to shooting with our smartphones, everything is set automatically and photos always come out “looking good” with pleasant colours, high contrast, saturation and dynamic range.

And with this we forget some good old practices like shooting with the sun in our back and stuff like this. Modern digital cameras and smartphones eat everything for breakfast, a mix result of high-end sensor performance and computational photography. We shoot in any condition now and expect the camera (or phone) to deliver.

As you can see in the (flat) photos above, it was everything but a sunny day. Am I right to see this flatness as a shortcoming of the camera?.. Back in the days, under these conditions we would shoot black & white. Or simply decide to leave the camera at home.

But with good weather

…things are different and you are rewarded with good looking photos straight out of the camera.

Before I share the remaining photos, a quick note on the Peak Design Capture camera clip. I spoke about this product here before and I’m mentioning it here again. This is a very well thought out product that will change your life – really.

Attached to the strap of my backpack, it felt secure and spread the weight of the camera across my body. It works much better than a camera strap and not having the camera dangling while snowshoeing on soft snow made a huge difference. Best of all the camera was readily accessible whenever I needed to shoot.

With the Peak Design camera clip.

And below my last photos before signing out this Leica V-Lux Typ 114 in Inari post. Taken during a reindeer ride on a beautiful sunny day.

You will notice some photos were taken at the 400mm end, taking full advantage of the long zoom. It allowed me to get close to the reindeers (without getting close). The results are quite decent.

Final thoughts

There is a cliché comment from the internet that goes like: don’t buy new gear, spend the money on a photo trip instead.

This trip to Inari made me think about this comment.

Before writing this post I was not aware I bought the Leica V-Lux Typ 114 10 years ago. This camera was announced in 2014, which for digital photo technology means ages ago. But I had no issues using it during this trip. It didn’t feel like obsolete technology for sure.

As so, why keep spending money with new gear? Digital photo technology is super mature now, so different from say 20 years ago when it was evolving and we had to deal with low standard problems like high noise and shutter lag. This is no longer. Whatever camera we own now, performance-wise they are likely way above our needs.

So, to some extent, I do agree with the comment.