The heart is a thing to be broken

Fern 1

Fern 2

The photographs were taken in Nuuksio National Park on July 1st.

The Panasonic LX100 camera got broken yesterday, refusing to start. The lens was stuck, resulting in a system error when trying to switch the camera on, or off. I tried gently moving the lens backward and forward (there was some flexibility), but this didn't help. This isn't the fist time I have had similar problems, but earlier a restart of the camera has made the lens start working again.

Yesterday I walked along a beautiful nature trail - the Puijo trail in Kuopio - without the LX100, and tried taking photographs with my Nokia E7 phone, which is not something to recommend. After this walk I was so frustrated that I went ahead and ordered a new LX100 camera to replace the broken one. The price was 640 euro, 1/3 less than what I paid for the LX100 one year and ten months ago.

Why buy another LX100 when the old one had so many problems? The old LX100 has dust spots in the lens, the control wheel in the back doesn't work properly, the zoom switch on top of camera doesn't always work, and the lens gets stuck, disabling the camera.

Earlier this summer I pondered possible alternatives to the LX100, and decided that there are none that would work for me better than the LX100.

The LX100 has excellent controls (including the aspect ratio switch), bright 24-70 mm equiv. lens with reasonable macro capability, and big enough sensor (for bokeh...). The camera is small and light enough to carry in hand on long walks. The only problem is the durability of the camera after 100,000 photographs taken, and the dust issue.

So, I ordered a new LX100, and it should arrive within a few days.

Today afternoon when I got back home from traveling I tried once again to switch on the old and broken LX100. And lo! the camera started to work again, without any apparent reason, except perhaps the tremors, jitters and shakes when traveling. In any case, soon I will have two LX100 cameras, one which has lots of problems due to lots of use, and one which is brand new.

(Posting title is from the poem The Broken of Heart by James Rorty.)