I feel like my motives for buying a secondary camera shifted with each candidate I looked at. The LX3's RAW color science and dynamic range (which I also saw in the Ricoh GX200, though much later) was closest to the intuitive, film-ish post-processing workflow of my Lumix GF2 in Spring 2025, but with 1-2 stops less dynamic range and even greater depth of field. The Sigma DP1/2's Sigma Photo Pro + darktable workflow was even more film-ish, and SPP's base curve was phenomenal. The Nikon Coolpix A had more modern colors but lots of dynamic range to punch up the files, and the 28mm focal length would have taken good advantage of my Smallrig 28mm (which I got for a steal because of the fucked diopter — correcting that design flaw with a +2.5 stick-on gel lens rn and need to glue it in tomorrow). The XZ-2 that's coming in has much better performance at 800 and 1600 ISO and decently deep colors. But honestly I don't really have a technical need for buying a secondary camera. I think I just wanted something lighter and stealthier for daytime shooting, and to treat myself for a very long 2 years.
"[Growing up] is hard and nobody understands." // https://www.homestuck.com/story/2391