When You Get That Sinking Feeling.. Leica X-U

Make sure your battery is charged and you have a fresh card in your Leica X-U camera. Down to 15 metres you will be the king of your environment for an hour.

Or you may elect to document harvest time in the wheatbelt from the top of a header in a dust storm. You'll still get great pictures and the camera will be in better shape than you are at the end of the day.

The lens stays on - you don't change it. It's 23mm so the APS-C  CMOS sensor sees a moderate wide angle view. f: 1.7 - f:16 aperture and infinity to 20cm close focus. Just look for a sight and shoot it.

If the lighting on the scene is too dim to be captured  - even by the 12500 ISO setting - there is a dedicated flash at the front edge of he lens that is never blocked off from the subject. (Bravo Leica. This is something camera designers needed to do for years and you have had the courage.)

Note: for the underwater work, there is a apparently a separate portion on the control pad at the back that adapts the white balance and distortion correction to the blue-green light and the diffraction of the water. Too much science for me but it means you will not be attempting it on the computer later.

DNG and jpeg so whatever computer and image editing program you use will not be fighting back later.

And Woo Hoo, a fitted sealed TPE armour coat for the camera that protects it in the situations where you fail to protect yourself. As well, the door to the inside is double locked and rubber sealed as well. Even the darn strap attachments on the ends are sunk in like deck tiedown points so they will not dig into you.

Given the fact that this camera also records full 1080 HD video I think it is a perfectly viable alternative to the little action cam for tough filming. Certainly you'll get better resolution in a hand-held camera.

See the Camera Electronic Leica online store here