Tobias Pruemm

Hi, my name is Tobias Pruemm.

I live in Germany. Well, I only really live there when I’m not somewhere else in the world, and honestly, I’m usually somewhere else.

As a freelance photojournalist, I’m constantly hunting for stories worth telling. If something feels interesting, chaotic, beautiful, weird, or emotional enough, I’ll probably point a camera at it.

Most of my travels have taken me to India and South Asia. By now, it honestly feels like a second home.

Last year, I released my own large-format photo book about India, and soon I’ll be heading back to the Himalayas again.

But I’ve also spent a few months in Alaska, where I traded my shorts for actual snow pants and discovered a completely different photographic universe.

India is the kind of place where you can shoot great photos all day long without even trying. In Alaska, I was happy if I came home with one or two really good frames after an entire day outside.

I’ve spent basically half my life behind a camera.

Weddings, fashion, press, commercial work, wildlife, I think I’ve done pretty much every type of photography you can somehow turn into money.

But documentary photography work and writing stories, that’s the stuff that really makes me happy.

My camera setup has changed a lot over the years.

I originally started with Nikon and worked with two Nikon D5’s and a Nikon D850. Then mirrorless cameras came out, and Nikon and I kind of drifted apart, so I switched to Canon, using the Canon R3S and the Canon R5.

I’ve put a lot of work into these Canons, but somehow we just never really bonded.

Privately, though, I always had a thing for Leica cameras.

Once the Leica SL system had matured enough to withstand real-world professional abuse, I sold all my Canon gear and fully committed to Leica. For the last three years, I’ve been working exclusively with Leica cameras.

I bought two Leica SL2 bodies first, which were later joined by three Leica SL2-S cameras, including two of those beautiful green SL2-S Reporter editions.

I absolutely love them. They’re proper workhorses with probably the best 24MP sensor I’ve ever used.

Weddings, documentary work abroad, rough travel conditions, they just work. The clean, minimalist design without a million buttons fits my brain perfectly.

I sold my Leica Q2 Reporter 2024 and replaced it with the Leica Q3 43. Turns out my eyes and brain work way better with 43mm than with 28mm.

Then, at the end of last year, the Leica SL3 Reporter joined the family. I mainly use the 60MP files for massive prints.

But honestly? The 24MP sensor in the SL2-S still fits my photography style much better. I just never fully warmed up to ultra-high resolutions. The 24MP is still more than enough for 100 x 140cm prints anyway.

I already sold the SL2 bodies, but the SL2-S cameras will stay with me until they physically fall apart. I also use them more and more for video stuff.

Back in my studio, I print my work on a Canon ImagePrograf 4100 Fine-Art printer.

Since Leica uses the L-Mount system, I can freely mix Leica and Sigma lenses, which is fantastic.

Sigma has become insanely good over the last few years. They’ve released some absolute monsters like the Sigma 135mm F/1.4 and the Sigma 300-600mm F/4.

That said, Leica lenses are still in a different league. Especially once you’ve worked with pretty much every other manufacturer out there, you really notice it.

Right now, my Leica lenses are:

Leica Super-APO-Summicron 21mm f/2 – for dance floor action and when there’s absolutely no space to work with, like super-narrow streets in India. Insanely sharp lens!

Leica SL-APO-Summicron 35mm f/2 – for weddings and street.

Everything you shoot with this lens just looks amazing. It’s the lens where I’d say the special Leica look is real.

Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 – as a daily workhorse, this is the Swiss Army Knife of SL Lenses. There’s basically no situation where this thing feels out of place.

Leica APO-Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280mm f/2.8-4 – is the best telephoto zoom for me. I don’t miss the classic 70-200mm F/2.8 at all. This lens is a masterpiece.

From Sigma I use:

Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8 – for video stuff and for evening shots when I need more shutter speed at lowlight.

Sigma 28-105mm f/2.8 – the newest addition to my line-up. I’m going to give it a try and see how it performs.

Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24–90mm – pretty useful as a backup lens or for video work.

Sigma 135mm f/1.4 – yes, this one is special. I use it for runway shots and have had some fun with it as a street lens as well.

Sigma 200mm f/2 – also for the runway. I thought I’d use it more, but I’m sure I’ll find the right occasion one day.

Sigma 300-600mm f/4 – I just love it. It’s my landscape secret weapon. No joke. I’m not into wildlife, but I love the compression it delivers in landscape photography.

And then there are the Leica M lenses and adapted lenses:

Voigtländer 21mm f/3.4 Color Skopar

Voigtländer 50mm f/2 APO Lanthar

Leica M 135mm f/3.4 APO-Telyt

Leica R 180mm f/3.4 APO-Telyt

But honestly, the manual lenses mostly come out on weekends just for fun.

Most of the time, I have the Leica 24-90mm mounted on one camera and the Leica 90-280mm on the other. Both zooms perform almost like prime lenses and are ridiculously versatile.

The 24-90mm practically lives on one body because I use it constantly. Especially in India, everything happens fast, randomly, and directly in front of your face. You really need a proper zoom lens all the time.

I once tried doing India armed only with a 35mm lens because I got overly nostalgic about simple photography. Not my brightest idea.

If I bring the Sigma 300-600mm F/4 to the Himalayas, I basically cover everything from 24mm to 600mm with three incredible lenses while only losing one stop of light. That’s freaking amazing!

The Sigma is razor-sharp and pairs surprisingly well with the Leica zooms.

I also own the Sigma TC-1401 Converter, so I’m running 24-840mm in f/2.8 to f/5.6 across three lenses flawlessly.

Funny enough, weddings are the complete opposite. There, I absolutely swear by the 35mm APO and probably shoot eighty per cent of the day with it. I barely touch the 24-90mm at weddings.

I usually pair the 35mm with the 90-280mm for close-ups, church ceremonies, detail shots, or whenever I physically can’t get close enough.

For dancefloors, I absolutely love the 21mm APO. I originally bought it for landscapes, but anything wider than 35mm in landscape photography completely confuses my brain. I’m just lost. But for chaotic dancefloor action? That lens is incredible.

I definitely need to use the Q3 43 more in the future because that camera is simply brilliant. It is just that you get weirdly attached to your gear habits.

If someone forced me to only keep one camera and one lens, I’d probably take an SL2-S with the 24-90mm for literally everything. If I had to go even lighter, then it would be the Q3 43.

For capturing short videos, I got myself an Insta360 Go Ultra and a bunch of accessories and mounts for it.

I also use the Sennheiser Profile Wireless mic system for interviews, reports, or recording audio on the cameras. Thanks to a firmware update, it can now connect directly to the Go Ultra via Bluetooth, which is pretty handy.

I don’t use a traditional camera backpack. Instead, I use a Fjällräven Kajka 35L hiking backpack. I can fit the 300-600mm, the 90-280mm, the 24-90mm, two camera bodies, and still have space left for a few cookies and some headphones. The big advantage is that it’s an actual hiking backpack with a real carrying system. That thing becomes my carry-on luggage whenever I fly.

For weddings and for street photography, all my gear fits into a Belstaff Colonial Messenger Bag. Neither the backpack nor the bag screams expensive camera equipment, which definitely helps avoid too many curious eyes. Especially at airports, I don’t exactly look like someone carrying almost 12kg instead of the allowed 7kg.

In general, I also have a few Pelican Cases for when I need to bring more gear. Sometimes they still pass as regular luggage at the airport, sometimes they count as oversized baggage. Depends on the airline. I’ve got Apple AirTags on all my bags and cases, and I always check their location right after landing.

My straps are all from Wotancraft in Taiwan.

I own three Parashooter Neckstraps and two Parashooter Wrist Straps, which are of beautiful quality and look absolutely fantastic. Wotancraft embossed my initials, T.P, in the leather, a really nice service.

For daily carry, I have the Wotancraft Canteneer 6L and the Sling Pouch 3.5L for my Leica Q3 43. For the bigger lenses, I use a Magpul MS4 Dual QD Sling.

For tripods, I use a Really Right Stuff TVC-33 Mk2 for long exposures, especially with the Sigma 300-600mm.

Either I mount the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head on it, which is usually the case, or I use a lightweight Gitzo levelling base with an RRS Arca-Swiss clamp. That setup handles ninety per cent of what I need while weighing only around 2.1kg, and it’s still stable enough for long exposures and multi-shot work at 600mm.

I also have a small tripod, the Gitzo GT3520S-VS1. It looks kind of adorable, but it’s ridiculously stable. I occasionally take it with me for video projects, although not that often. Maybe I should build some sort of attachment and turn it into a stool.

One piece of gear that’s absolutely essential and always with me is my Lupine Blika BT headlamp, along with two spare batteries. In many Indian cities, the power grid is so unreliable that the electricity can go out completely for hours at a time.

The lamp is incredibly rugged and has been with me for years. The company builds exceptionally bright and long-lasting lighting systems. Mine definitely doesn’t look pretty anymore after all these years, but it still does exactly what it’s supposed to do.

For storage, I use Angelbird 256GB V90 SD cards in the cameras, and while travelling, I back everything up to either an iPad Pro or a MacBook Pro with an Adobe Photoshop License, along with some Crucial X10 Pro 2TB SSDs. All-solid, reliable gear drama that just works.

I once had a terrible experience with SSD failures from another manufacturer and had to send both drives to a professional data recovery service. That was not a fun week.

Finally, there are always two or three chocolate bars or oat bars somewhere in my bag, which are absolute lifesavers at weddings. After wandering through a city like Kolkata for hours and finding an old, forgotten granola bar in your backpack feels like discovering buried treasure, no matter how expired it might be.

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