During the film era, Leica's were much favored for war coverage. They had a reputation of reliability, which more complex SLRs did not. The classic lens kit was a 28mm or 35mm, 50mm and 90mm—sound familiar? The big advantage however is stealth. There is something about a big, noisy SLR that seems aggressive, while a RF-type camera is next to invisible.
Any time I was assigned to photography potentially dangerous people, the Nikons stayed in the bag. Photographers are not all that welcome in combat zones and the mortality rate is high. A stealthy camera may be the advantage that keeps one from being targeted. Remember, you are the only person in the area who is not armed. War is governed by rules that are often broken, and photographers are often the only source of evidence. Many have found themselves under fire from both sides. Any advantage—even if it is simply the style of your equipment—is significant when people are likely to be shooting at you.
Slow AF? Bizarrely absurd. The above cameras of war were manual focus and vastly slower than the XP1's AF. Perhaps the difference was that they were being used by intelligent photographers, who had the ability to anticipate a decisive-moment approaching. Brainless snapshooters may delude themselves that cameras can guess correctly what in the frame is the subject. Anyone with the slightest experience knows the camera does not read minds—even assuming there is one behind the camera. Since the beginning of photography, anticipation has always been the most important aspect of great photographs. Sense the coming of the moment and be fully prepared to catch it—whether the camera is totally manual or highly automatic.
Mirrorless cameras use contrast detection, while in normal mode, dSLRs use phase detection which is faster. With even the basics of technique, focus time is a total non-issue. In Single mode, the focus rectangle can be quickly moved to almost any area of the image, and it can also be resized. No need to focus in the middle and then recompose. Place the rectangle on the subject, half-press the shutter and the camera snaps into focus. If the subject makes a sudden move, release and half-press again. The camera confirms focus by changing the rectangle from white to green. When the decisive-moment occurs, finish the stroke and lag will be pretty much non-existent. Even with the almost violently quick focus of my D700, the proper half-press technique means zero out of focus shots. Incidentally, in full LiveView mode, the D700 is
much slower to focus than the XP1.
Automatic systems do not relieve the shooter from having to learn and use proper technique. Understanding how they work, means a much higher percentage of keepers. See:
Automatic Cameras and how to come to trust them
