500 Series: The Best Camera Is the One You'll Actually Carry

Runner outside the Colosseum in Rome

The best camera is the one you have in your hand.

For years I travelled with my Canon 5D Mark IV, (a brilliant camera by any measure). I'd pack it alongside two or three lenses, spare batteries, a charger, filters and a bag big enough to hold it all. On paper, I was prepared for anything.

In reality, of course, I was prepared for almost nothing at all.

By mid-afternoon on any trip, that bag became an anchor. My shoulders ached, my patience shortened, and slowly the camera started staying at home or in the hotel for the evening walk, the early coffee, the wander down the street that looked interesting. And those, as any photographer will tell you, are exactly the moments where the good photographs live.

That's what pushed me towards the Leica M system.

The maths of weight. One small body. One 35mm or 28mm lens. A camera that hangs off my shoulder all day and never once asks to be put down.

The difference showed up immediately in my health and my photographs, but not in the way you might expect. The files weren't sharper. The colours weren't better. There were simply more photographs of more moments because the camera was there for all of them.

On my next trip to Pisa and Florence, I'll be packing just my Leica M11 and a single 28mm lens. No second body. No bag full of options. Just one focal length for the entire weekend. I'm looking forward to wandering the streets without thinking about gear, simply reacting to moments as they unfold and making photographs. If previous trips have taught me anything, it's that I never come home wishing I'd packed more camera equipment.

Now, this isn't an argument for buying a Leica. There are times I genuinely miss my 5D Mark IV for very specific landscape shots and long exposures. But whatever you own, ask yourself one question, do I actually carry it?

If the answer is no, then the solution isn't a better camera. It's a lighter one, a smaller one, or simply fewer lenses in the bag.

For some people, the answer is a phone, and there's no shame in that whatsoever. A phone in your pocket beats a full-frame body in the wardrobe every single time, and let's face it, they're getting better every year. I love my iPhone 15 Pro, and I know I could do far more with it than I currently do.

For others, it's a point-and-shoot, or one body and one prime. The moment you stop giving yourself too many choices, you learn one focal length so well that you can see the frame before you even lift the camera.

So before your next trip, try an experiment. Take one camera and one lens, and nothing else. No backup body, no zoom for emergencies, no "just in case".

Carry it everywhere, from breakfast to the last walk of the night.

I'd be amazed if you don't come home with more photographs you love, and shoulders that don't hate you.

Buy whatever camera you like. Just make sure you'll carry it.