You can consider this as part II of my previous post here, dedicated to my experience using my 10 year old Leica V-Lux Typ 114 in Inari (Finland), under below zero conditions.

And how fit this Leica felt due to its practicality and versatility.

After spending some days in Inari, we flew back to Helsinki. Being the capital city of Finland, we were obviously expecting it to be busier than countryside Inari.

Yet we were surprised. Helsinki was not crowded as we would have thought. Actually, it was surprisingly quiet.

I will never get tired of stressing how congested our hometown Macau feels like today. This is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. And we have to deal with over-tourism. It’s frenetic.

Hence we like to travel to quiet places to get a break from all this craziness. Especially from the noise. We are both very sensitive to noise, particularly to noisy people.

Therefore Inari was perfect and Helsinki turned out to be a very pleasant experience as well.

Heading to Central Market

It was our first full day in Helsinki, we had arrived the night before.

Following a morning slow start – and we always appreciate a slow start, enjoying our coffee and breakfast while we discuss what places to visit – we headed to Central Market to catch a ferry to Suomenlinna.

Our hotel was extremely well located in downtown Helsinki, most attractions a stone throw away. We could walk everywhere, which is the best way to visit a city.

Credit to my wife, who picked the perfect hotel! There were so many good restaurants in the surroundings. Per her own words, they look so good you want to go in and have a meal, hungry or not!

Anyway. It was a sunny, there was a clear blue sky day. I decided it was suitable for the Leica V-Lux Typ 114.

On our way to the ferry, I took the random shots above. And then the ones below, in Central Market.

Weather was perfect, but it was cold nevertheless – around 0 ~ 5°C. I was surprised to see al fresco eating in the Central Market area. Looking at the photos, you would be led to think it was a warm, summer day!

In these places they serve salads, sandwiches and, most importantly, the traditional Salmon Soup. A bowl of hot Salmon Soup on a cold day will warm you up in no time.

Mr. President

While waiting for the ferry that would take us to Suomenlinna, we were actually in front of the Presidential Offices. And that’s when we realized something was happening, with the security apparatus in place.

As it turned out, an official ceremony was about to start with the attendance of no other than the President of Finland.

Time for my Leica V-Lux Typ 114 to show its worth.

This felt like the perfect scenario to test the versatility of this 25-400mm super zoom camera. So rapidly I could take wide shots, showing a general view of what was happening, as well as zoom-in to get close for details to help tell the story.

I wonder why journalists don’t use bridge cameras? I often see them with DSLRs (or mirrorless equivalents), sometimes even carrying two cameras with different lenses.

In case you ask. No, I didn’t take any close-up photo of the President and / or his guests. It didn’t occur to me, perhaps because I’m not a paparazzi.

Uspenskin Cathedral

Turning away from the Presidential Offices, we were just a few minutes from the Uspenskin Cathedral. There was no time to visit (we were waiting for the ferry, remember), so with my long versatile zoom I managed to take some photos from several angles.

Again, having all this zoom power in your hands is good fun and very useful. All in a small and light package, which is this Leica V-Lux Typ 114 bridge camera. You can actually see the details of the gold leaf in the onion domes above. It’s amazing.

Yes, I know the photos are not *super sharp*, nothing close to what you would get by, say, using a full-frame Sony A7 or Canon R-whatever, coupled to a large and expensive prime lens.

But good luck to you if you want to travel around and visit a city carrying heavy cameras and lenses.

Suomenlinna Sea Fortress

Finally, the ferry arrived and we headed to Suomenlinna. Before we get there, a brief note I want to share. I’m 47 years old and I’ve been travelling for many years. I come from the days of Lonely Planet travel books in my backpack.

With the advent of smartphones and e-payment, travelling experience changed so much. In Helsinki, we used Apple Pay for everything. We did not use cash, not in a single occasion.

Using the official app from Helsinki transport authority, we could buy public transport tickets easily. It was just a matter of defining the default payment instrument – a credit card, in our case – and then with a press of a button we got e-tickets allowing us to commute around. Ferry tickets to Suomenlinna included.

Needless to say, this is applicable to every activity that needs a ticket and payment. The life of a traveler had become so convenient now.

Still, some people accept changes with difficulties.

While my wife and I were strolling around, with ferry e-tickets on our phones and plenty of time to enjoy the surroundings before the ferry arrived, there was a long queue of tourists buying ferry tickets the old-school way. Go figure.

Okay, back to Suomenlinna.

In Inari, on separate occasions we were advised by two guides to visit Suomenlinna. It proved to be worthwhile.

It’s a tourist spot, but again it was not over crowded. Being several small islands linked together with lots of green areas and plenty of space, it felt like a big park surrounded by the sea.

We were able to enjoy a slow and relaxing walk.

As the name suggests, Suomenlinna Sea Fortress was a military facility originally built in the 1700’s when Finland was under Swedish rule.

It’s made up of several fortified islands in walking distance of each other, connected by bridges. It is no longer managed by the military and now open to public, since it is a UNESCO heritage site.

From interesting civil and military architecture to landscape and even birds, ducks and swans… Again, this proved to be a good place to extract the maximum from my Leica V-Lux Typ 114.

Till now I failed to mention another handy feature of this camera, which is the ability to capture HD video by pressing a dedicated button. No need to dive into menus, saving you time and hassle.

For the sake of comparison, in my Fuji X-Pro 3 I would need to go to shooting modes, then select video mode.

(I’m aware of the counter-argument that Fuji cameras are made for still photography, not video.)

Below this funny video that shows the enormous zoom range of this camera and its HD capabilities.

I know it’s a dumb video, but why so serious?.. I was on vacation and having fun. And, if anything, this was just to demonstrate the full range of the 25-400mm lens.

And to make my point that without a dedicated video button I would probably NOT go through the trouble of diving into complicated menus just to capture this.

Whatever.

I’m signing out this post with the remaining photos below.

I will now start working on my next post, which are photos from the same places in Finland – Inari and Helsinki – but taken on different days with my Hasselblad 907x 100c.

More to come!

* All photos shot in P mode, with ISO locked at 125 lower limit. EV slightly set to -0.5 or -1 to counter the camera’s propensity to overexpose under bright sunlight.