The acronym “EDC,” if you haven’t heard it before, stands for “every day carry.” It’s exactly what you think - something you carry with you every day.
Pen collectors might have an EDC pen that isn’t the fanciest one they own, but one that does its job well and wouldn’t be an absolute tragedy to lose should something happen to it.
I know a lot of people with an EDC multitool, knife, flashlight, or gun.
I have an EDC camera: the lowly Canon PowerShot S100. It’s not the nicest camera in my collection by a long shot. Canon has released no fewer than four successors at the time of writing this in early 2020, which means used S100s can be had for under $100 these days. BUT. It shoots manual. It shoots RAW. It has a flexible zoom range (24-120mm equivalent), and a surprisingly sharp lens for a compact camera. Those four things mean it shoots circles around any smartphone I’ve ever used. And, crucially, it’s tiny. So tiny that it’s really easy to take with me anywhere I go.
The underlying philosophy of an EDC camera is that photography doesn’t have to be just something that you plan and go out and do sometimes. It can be more integrated into your lifestyle if you want it to. I’m a busy guy. I have a 9-5 job and a family, as well as FAR too many hobbies for my own good. That means I need to take photographic opportunities as they come, since I don’t often get to plan a multi-hour timeframe to dedicate solely to photography. And for me at least, carrying around a DSLR everywhere isn’t really feasible.
One time I was fishing at Utah Lake and found myself blown away by the sunset silhouetting some trees against the lake. S100 to the rescue.
And yes, my S100 does have a small superhero cape. It’s actually adorable.
It’s not even the full 12 megapixels, because I had to crop in. But it’s a photo I’m really happy to have in my portfolio, one that my phone absolutely couldn’t have pulled off, and therefore a photo that would not exist if it weren’t for my EDC camera.
Another time I was fishing with some extended family (I’m just now sensing a trend here) and saw a scene that I couldn’t get out of my head. We were up a canyon and the trip was not intended to be a photo trip, so I didn’t have anything better than my EDC with me. I knew I wanted this scene in higher resolution than 12 megapixels though. So I shot a quick handheld multi-row pano.
I did mention I take a lot of pictures of trees, right?
I wish I had a way to stabilize the camera, because then I would have bracketed, and been able to save more detail in the sky. Which is why I also often carry a Joby Gorillapod in my bag or car as well, ever since this photo was taken.
Here’s a bracketed multi-row pano--a landscape that would have been lost to time if I hadn’t been prepared to pull over off the freeway with my EDC and a rudimentary setup to keep the camera still while bracketing exposures.
Mordor on the left, Toy Story on the right.
Chris Marquardt of Tips From the Top Floor fame currently does this thing in his podcast episodes where he encourages you to stop what you’re doing as you listen, take a camera, and go do a 5-minute exercise with it. I’m a big believer in trying to do photography consistently to keep my “photographic eyes” from getting out of practice, so to speak. My EDC is the perfect camera to whip out on a moment’s notice and do one of these #5minuteassignments
As you can see, my EDC has saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Do you have an EDC?