Traveling to Washington DC with Only the Panasonic Lumix L10

For most photography trips, deciding which camera gear to take is part of the planning process.

Which camera body? Which lenses? Do I need something wider? More reach? What if I encounter something unexpected?

For a recent 2½-day photography trip to Washington DC, I decided to avoid all of those decisions.

I only brought the Panasonic Lumix L10.

Normally, a trip like this would have meant packing one of my OM System bodies along with several lenses. Washington DC offers almost everything I enjoy photographing while traveling: architecture, monuments, street scenes, museums, gardens, and landscapes.

Instead, I wanted to find out whether a compact fixed-lens camera could handle an entire photography-focused city trip without leaving me wishing I had brought my larger kit. I also wanted to see whether traveling with less gear would change the trip itself.

Packing Light Started Before the Airport

The L10 wasn’t simply a smaller camera choice. It became part of an entirely different way of packing for the trip.

I traveled with a small suitcase that I checked and a Bagsmart camera bag that stayed with me on the plane. Inside were the L10, an extra battery, SD cards, a lens cloth, sunscreen, a small water bottle, a circular polarizer filter and a USB-C battery pack.

That was essentially my entire photography kit.

Once I arrived in Washington, I switched to a small messenger bag for walking around the city.

The difference was immediately noticeable.

Instead of organizing multiple lenses and making decisions about what I should carry each day, I simply grabbed the L10 and went out photographing Washington DC.

Traveling Through the Airport with One Camera

One of the differences I noticed had very little to do with photography. Traveling through the airport was much easier with such a small camera kit.

I checked my small suitcase, and carried a small Bagsmart camera bag onto the aircraft where it fit under the seat. There was no need to worry about finding overhead bin space for expensive camera equipment.

I actually kept feeling like I had forgotten my roller bag somewhere. I hadn’t. I just wasn’t carrying one.

That became especially noticeable flying home from Washington Dulles on an Embraer E-175. With several aircraft boarding at the same gate and passengers competing for limited overhead space, I didn’t have to think about any of it. My photography gear was already under the seat.

This wasn’t really an advantage of the L10 itself. It was an advantage of building the trip around a much smaller camera system.

Walking Washington DC with the Panasonic Lumix L10

Washington DC is a walking city, and I covered more than six miles a day.

The L10 rode either in the messenger bag or on a Peak Design strap. Even after hours of walking, carrying the camera never became something I thought much about.

The L10 stayed either in the messenger bag or on a Peak Design strap. Even after walking for hours, it was easy to carry and never felt like a burden.

That was one of the biggest advantages of traveling with this smaller camera. Instead of managing a larger camera kit throughout the day, I just carried the L10 and kept shooting.

That also helped with street photography. The L10 attracted very little attention, and people generally didn’t seem to notice it. 

How the L10 Handled Different Photography Situations

Washington DC turned out to be an excellent test for the Lumix L10 because the trip included several different types of photography.

During the same trip I photographed monuments, government buildings, street scenes, museum displays, gardens, fountains, and architectural details.

Architecture and Landscapes

The L10’s 24–75mm equivalent zoom range worked well photographing around Washington DC.

At 24mm, I had enough width for many buildings, monuments, and environmental compositions. At the longer end, I could isolate architectural details or tighten compositions without physically moving nearly as much.

The multi-aspect sensor also gave me additional flexibility when composing scenes.

I carried a circular polarizer, which was useful for deepening skies, controlling reflections, and helping me reach slower shutter speeds around fountains and waterfalls. 

One of my favorite experiments was at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, where I photographed the waterfalls as a handheld panorama at 1/4 second. I wouldn’t normally associate a small travel camera with handheld long-exposure panoramas, but the L10’s optical image stabilization made the shot possible.

I also used small apertures for sunstars, including an image of the Grant Memorial photographed with the sun positioned above the sculpture.

This was one of the things I wanted to test on the trip. Could I leave the interchangeable-lens kit at home and still photograph the variety of subjects I expected to find in Washington DC?

For this trip, the L10 handled it well.

Street Photography

I plan to write separately about using the L10 specifically for street photography, so I won’t go deeply into autofocus settings and technique here.

For travel, however, its small size, subject detection, and unobtrusive appearance worked well for street photography. The articulating LCD also made it easy to compose from different angles without always bringing the camera to my eye.

Museums and Botanical Gardens

The advantages of the Lumix L10 continued indoors.

Museums often meant working in lower light, and the L10’s fast lens helped there. I was also comfortable increasing the ISO when needed, and the image quality held up well for the type of travel photography I was doing.

The National Geographic covers display is a good example. I photographed it indoors under museum lighting at f/6.3, increasing the ISO as needed while still getting a clean image.

The camera was also easy to carry through museums and exhibits, and the zoom range let me move quickly between wider scenes and details.

The same flexibility worked well in the Smithsonian gardens. One photograph that particularly caught my attention was the White Mussaenda, with its large white bracts, tiny orange flowers, and dark green foliage.

That gave me another very different type of photography on the same trip, without changing cameras or lenses.

Where I Missed My OM System Kit

Traveling with only the L10 doesn’t mean I suddenly stopped appreciating interchangeable lenses.

There were definitely times when I missed my OM System kit.

The biggest thing I missed was the reach of my Olympus 12–100mm f/4 PRO. That lens gives me an enormous amount of flexibility when traveling, especially when I can’t physically move closer to a subject.

I also missed having a joystick for quickly repositioning the autofocus point.

But there is an important distinction here.  The Panasonic Lumix L10 is still considerably more versatile than a compact camera with a fixed focal length.

Its 24–75mm equivalent zoom gives the L10 a useful range from wide angle to short telephoto. I could photograph a building, zoom in on architectural details, shoot a street scene, and then photograph something in a garden without changing lenses. So, the compromise wasn’t as severe as traveling with a single fixed-focal-length camera.

I’ve previously compared the Panasonic Lumix L10 and OM System OM-5 II for travel photography, and this trip reinforced that each has different strengths. The Lumix L10 gives up some of the OM System’s versatility in exchange for a camera that is dramatically simpler to travel with.

Battery Life Was Good, But Not Quite What I Expected

Battery life was one of the things I wanted to watch on the trip. Based on the reviews I had seen, I expected the L10 to easily get through a full day of shooting on one battery.

My experience was a little different.

After roughly four hours of photography, I had used about half the battery. On a full day of shooting, I finished with approximately one bar remaining.

That was still enough for the way I used the camera, but it was closer than I expected. I would definitely carry a spare battery when out photographing for a full day.

The good news is that battery life never actually limited my photography. I made it through the day without having to change batteries or manage my shooting around remaining power.

Would I Travel With Only the Lumix L10 Again?

Yes, but it depends on the trip.

There are still trips where I would choose my OM System kit instead. If I expected a mix of landscapes, wildlife, and more distant subjects, the added reach of lenses like the Olympus 12–100mm f/4 and 40–150mm f/4 would be more important than saving weight.

But for a city trip centered around walking, architecture, museums, street photography, gardens, and general travel photography?

Absolutely.  I didn’t come home from Washington DC thinking about important photographs I had missed because I left the OM System kit behind. Instead, I came home thinking about how easy the trip had been.

There was less gear to pack, less to carry through airports, less weight while walking around the city, and fewer decisions about which lens I should have on the camera.

The Washington DC trip showed me that I don’t always need the versatility of my OM System kit. For the right kind of trip, traveling with only the Lumix L10 can make things much simpler without giving up the photographs I want to make.

Want to Learn More About the Panasonic Lumix L10?

• Panasonic Lumix L10 vs OM System OM-5 II: Which Is the Better Micro Four Thirds Travel Camera?
• How to Get the Most From the Panasonic Lumix L10 Function Switch
• How to Customize the Panasonic Lumix L10 Quick Menu