Happy, happy new camera!

I've lost count of the number of years I've salivated over professional digital SLR cameras. So long, in fact, that DSLR technology has passed and gone. The pro cameras these days are mirrorless -- so I managed to miss an entire generation of technology. But --

There's something to be said for patience. The technology came of age, matured, had its bugs shaken out ... and the price came down. I won't say mirrorless cameras are cheap -- they're not, and they're never going to be -- but they're affordable enough, in a sale... 

...and at the same time, the technology matured enough for enormous, gallumphing devices (that's not a word, but it ought to be) of yesteryear to become small enough for a person with extremely small hands, like mine, to be able to manage the camera easily, comfortably. I like it!

It would be pretty fair to say that Dave got sick enough and tired enough of me moaning about the shortcomings of the Lumix FZ-80 to take the initiative: save up for six months or whatever, and get a Canon EOS R50 kit, which included the body plus two lenses. Now, I'm not going to knock the FZ80 too much. It is what it is: a superzoom bridge, with all that means. When you want a 1200mm zoom lens on a semi-affordable (read: under a grand) digital camera that is small enough to use 100% handheld while hiking -- well, when you ask for all that, and the Lumix FZ80is what you get. But. But...but...

The FZ80 has a phenomenal reach, at 1200mm, and it's light enough to carry, and it costs around $900. Those are the high points, and if you want a superzoom bridge at a price you can afford -- take the good stuff and accept the rest with a smile. But there's rather a lot about the camera that could have been better, and I have to wonder why Panasonic pulled up short of building a truly amazing camera. The processor is so slow that it takes a couple of seconds between shots. If you're photographing crashing surf or birds, this can be a serious problem, because the time lag is enormous, when the subject is moving so fast...

...and, sure, you can shoot on burst mode. But with several shots in the buffer, the time lag while the sloooow processor saves multiple images is painful. Your bird has flown away, gone, before you can get another shot. So, don't use burst. I would have to guess that putting a faster processor into the build would have added $200 to the price of the camera, and given the FZ80's other shortcomings, this might have made for marketability concerns. The second issue I have with the FZ80 is that the available, useful ISO is just not enough. So many times, I put the camera away because the day was too dim, or twilight had come on. Above ISO 400 -- forget it. The images are so grainy, you might as well not bother. Yet, at 400, in low light conditions, you end up with huge apertures and impossibly long shutter speeds. 1/8th of a second? That's too long, even for me. I can hold a camera steady at 1/15th of a second, but not 1/8th. Dang.

This shot, above, was done at 1/15th ... nice water blur, at Byards, two days after I got the Canon. And yes, the Lumix would have done this, but you'd have run into the last of the problems I have with is ... and it's not the Lumix's fault!! There's nothing Panasonic can do to change the laws of optics, and physics! To get a 1200mm zoom lens, you need to put a shedload of lenses in front of the virtual film plane, and this gives you a soft image. A very soft image at the best of times. Long shutter speeds and/or big apertures are going to exacerbate the soft-image problem. Result: yes, you'll get a picture, and I've done it many times. You'll also have a lot of work to do in Photoshop, to get a usable image, and sometimes, you just can't get one. Trying to photograph a dawn or sunset, for instance, all those lens elements fill the picture with pink beachballs ... lens flare. It could be the lens coating, but I doubt it; I'm sure it's just a trade-off for the extremely long zoom, and -- nope. Not even Photoshop can get the pink beachballs out of the shot.  So --

--so, why didn't Panasonic provide a useful ISO range? Something to do with the processor again? Some things, they can't change -- like the trade-off of swapping 1200mm of zoom for tack-sharp pictures. But a useful ISO range, and a faster processor, would have made the FZ80 a camera that was actually worth $1,100, whereas at $900, it tends to be a bit of a "one-trick pony." Meaning, its forte is longshots, birding, wildlife at a great distance, and in great lighting conditions, without a weight penalty or price penalty. That's what it was made for, and it does it well Take it off that work, and you might be left moaning and groaning as often as not, because it's a specialist, not an all-rounder -- ah! --

Yes. As I said, Dave was sick and tired enough of listening to the aforesaid moaning and groaning. Result: Canon EOS R50. Small enough to fit my hand perfectly. Powerful enough that ... if there is a weakness to it so far, I haven't found it -- aside from the unavoidable facts of photographic life: when you run  zoom lens to 100% maximum, you will soften the image. That's just how it is, and there's no way around it. Now, the R50 kit has two lenses, both modest zooms: 18-45mm and 55-210mm. Both useful ... and the wide-angle is pretty fabulous for landscapes ... the telephoto is not quite long enough to permit full-pro birding, unless the bird is pretty darned close. Like, sitting on the end of the lens! 

Having said that -- yes, of course I'm using it for birding. At 25MP, there's enough depth in the mages for me to crop deeply inside them, and I judge that, quality wise, I'm within 15% of what a pro would achieve with a looooong lens and good light. And because the mirrorless is a body + lenses, I have the option of adding on a longer lens. Ah! But not a zoom, which will run out to max and soften the images again, right? A fixed lens ... say, 400mm ... and a 2x or 3x teleconverter, which will take me to 800mm or right back to 1200mm, without a whole bunch of lenses in front of the virtual film plane. 

Well, that's for next year, or even the year after. I'm tickled pink to be able to get great landscapes again, and I will grab the FZ80 in its right time and place. When you're wanting to photograph birds, you want the long zoom. When you're looking at capturing landscapes, you want something like the 18-45mm wide-angle. All in all... oh, yes, I'm happy. Tickled pink. Happy new camera!! And thank you, thank you, to my one and only!

Happy Valentine's to my one and only!

 

Happy Valentine's Day to my one and only ... Dave and I had a wonderful day to mark the occasion. Lunch at the Stump Hill Café, at the McLaren Vale Visitors' Centre, then coffee at Dawn Patrol, then photo ops at Victor Harbor and Petrel Cove, and a meander around Nangawooka, before heading home for dinner and a movie. This is our 26th Valentine's ... hard to believe, but there it is! 

The Year of the January Green

 

Something so extraordinary happened (I should think it's finishes now, with the onset of real summer heat) that it's worth stirring from my recent torpor and blogging about it...

This ... Never ... Happens. I'm not exaggerating. In fact, I've been ransacking my memory for any other year in which the South Australian landscape was green as County Cork in January, ten days after the summer solstice ... and I can't remember any other time. There was a year (1971 or 72, I can't quite recall) when it drizzled until shortly before Christmas, but by New Year the hills were baked brown and the catchments were half empty, as usual. This year? Well --

 

This never happens. Except, apparently, in an El Nino year with some weird dipole values and a heck of a lot of monsoonal activity in the north and east. Put it all together, and you get a cool, sometimes misty, and rather wet summer for us, which translates directly into ... green. And I have to say, I like it. A lot. The climate could settle into this pattern and stay right there, if it were up to me...

These images were all captured after New Year, and as far apart as Victor Harbor and the Flinders Ranges, by way of Clare Valley, the McLaren Vale region, Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, Nangawooka, and Brodie Road wetlands, which are in our own backyard. I'll say it again: Green!!!

Touching base before November expires

 

Once, I would have said, "So much to do, so little time!" Now I would have to say, "So much to do, so little energy!" There's never any shortage of work waiting for me, and plenty of time to do it in, but no energy do it with. The bottom line is that I haven't recovered from whatever the virus was back in September, much less from the covid in October. I'm thoroughly messed up this time, and I think ... I think, I think ... I have to start cutting myself some slack and awarding points for trying. 

One of the ways I can keep track of myself is to blog a little. (Oddly enough, this was the advice given to John Watson in the first episode of Sherlock. I never grasped the value of it, till now.) In fact, it's been so long since I updated this blog, I haven't written anything, not a word, about the camera dramas I've been through in this last year. Where did time go?!

Long story short ... the Panasonic Lumix FZ80 that was the mainstay of my bird and wildlife photography began to die at the end of 2022, and since February '23, it's been in its electronic death throes. It actually gave up the ghost juuuust about the time Dave and I went orchid hunting. One function after another went splattt, and eventually all the camera would do (when it chose to) was zoom and record an image. That was when it wasn't giving me a "zoom error" message, and telling me to "turn the camera off and then on again." During which time, your subject has flown. Literally.

Well, that put paid to my birding! You can't photograph birds without a long lens, and yet very often the lure of photographing birdies on a bright, sunny day, particularly if it isn't cold, was the only thing getting me out of the house. The problem was, when we had a look at the price of new cameras, the price tags were silly. Two thousand bucks, to catch up with yourself? Not going to happen this year, or next, or even the one after. (Sure, I have the cash; no, it's not for spending on hobbies ... not when you have to pay for teeth in Australia.) So it looked like I was just out of luck there, until...

...somehow, and I don't actually know how, Dave stumbled over an ad for an "open box" FZ80, from the same company where I got the original one. Not the $960 that had been quoted for the same camera, brand new, elsewhere ... $440, or similar, because it had been used as the shop's display model, sitting on the shelf for six months or whatever. Then checked over 100%, put back in a box and shipped out for less than half the price. Now, in lieu of the Canon EOS R50 plus lenses, which I cannot afford till about 2026, this was doable. And it would arrive in time for my birthday...

Suffice to say, the camera issue was solved with a new one. And although the FZ80 doesn't give me quite the quality of image I want, it gives me the 1200mm that makes it well worth getting out there and putting in the miles, keeping the old body going, because the lure of photographing birds is powerful. Especially birds I haven't photographed before. This post, for instance, I'm showing off the Great Crested Grebe, the Sharp Tailed Sandpiper, the Great Cormorant, all photographed for the firs5t time (by me) on the same day, down at Goolwa, on or near to the Barrages. And there's more. 

I'll keep up with this blog, for the same reason John Watson was advised to blog: it's therapeutic. Also, looking back on this as a journal helps to put dates to things that have begun to blur out with the passage of time. (This brain ain't getting any younger!)

Playing Catch-up With Myself: November ... Spring Comes in Late (thank you, La Nina)

Nothing in the world says "spring" like ducklings! It was so good to see squadrons of them at Belair, Byards, Brodie Road, Laratinga, Perry Bend -- everywhere, this year, whereas last year I don't think I spotted even one. This family, here had managed to raise ten, which is exceptionally good going in an environment where cats and foxes wreak havoc. They were right there on the bank as we finished out a walk at the Brodie Road wetlands. Nice!

By November I was feeling more like my old self. The only thing still lingering from the virus was fatigue, and when I saw Dr Tim for my annual bloodwork, I mentioned this ... he wasn't in the slightest surprised. Without going anywhere near "long covid," which is a very different animal indeed, the so-called "post covid syndrome" hits a lot of people and is a bear to get rid of. Fatigue, foggy thinking, shortage of breath, listlessness ... yep, this was me.

But by the time by birthday rolled around I was even boring myself! It was time to throw this thing off somehow, anyhow, and -- well, Dave knows me. I'm terminally stubborn. Just too stubborn to know when to quit or how to say no. I think I'll be dead for three days before to occurs to me to lie down.

November was pretty good, in fact. We walked a lot, and got up to Clare Valley and, I think Laratinga when the weather was good enough to permit. Got the chance to revisit Seven Hill, which has a timeless charm all its own, and the Gleeson Wetlands, which have become a favourite place of mine.

Late in the month, we went orchid hunting at Belair NP -- but that's another story, which I'll tell in the next post. From a purely personal perspective, it was great to be starting to feel like a normal person again after a few rough months. Do not let anyone tell you that Covid is just flu and you'll throw it off in a week ... not even vaguely true! But spring was bursting out everywhere by November -- it came in late and wet, but when it arrived ... well, I'll close this post out with those ducklings at Brodie road, which say it all. And in the next Catch-up post, we'll go orchid hunting!