cameras

Unsettled

~ beetleypete ~ 57 Comments

On the way back from Hoe Rough yesterday, I was crossing the field next to the Beetley Meadows playground when I encountered a small group of dog-walkers, people I know in passing.

Naturally, they were surprised to see me without Ollie, so I had to explain what had happened to him. This is no doubt going to happen frequently, especially once the weather improves and I stay out longer on my walks. I asked them to tell others in the local group, so that I could avoid having to go over the same thing every time.

As I was leaving, one man asked me how I was feeling. I replied, “Unsettled”.

Back in the house, I thought about my use of that word. I haven’t been sleeping well for over a week now. Waking frequently during the early hours, and getting up much earlier too. I have tried reading books on my Kindle, but lose concentration after ten pages or so. I sat down to watch a film one afternoon, and turned it off after fifteen minutes.

Trying to keep a familiar routine, it feels flat, and I lack enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for anything. I should be out walking later today, but it is raining quite hard, and looks miserable out. If I still had Ollie, I wouldn’t think twice. He had to go out. But I don’t have to walk around in the rain and mud getting soaked any longer, so I doubt I will do that today.

I started tidying up my office room the other day, as the desk drawers were so cluttered with cables, chargers, and other things, I could hardly open them. I gave up after clearing out two drawers, as I was distracted by finding a ‘lost’ battery charger for a camera I haven’t used for a few years now. I own six different relatively modern digital cameras, but have only been using one of them for over a year.

So I have charged up the batteries on three more of them, and when the weather improves I will go further afield to take photos, or revisit some places using a different style of camera.

Tomorrow it is March, my birthday month. I have always anticipated that time with glee, making plans to do things during the week of my birthday. This year, I can’t really be bothered, though Julie is taking me out for a meal on the day, the 16th.

Perhaps I need better weather to lighten my mood, I’m not sure.

Because I am unsettled.

More Camera Stuff

~ beetleypete ~ 45 Comments

This is about a camera, and technical photography stuff. If you have no interest in that, please skip the post with my blessing.

A few years ago, Panasonic released a new compact camera, the Lumix LX100.

I was immediately attracted to it, as it had a Leica zoom lens with a range of 24mm-75mm (equivalent), and impressively fast maximum apertures of f/1.7 to f/2.8. In a portable body that will fit in a coat pocket, this seemed to me to be a one-camera/one-lens option that had a great deal going for it.

There was also that rather ‘Retro’ look of it, something like an old rangefinder camera. Add to this the inclusion of a Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) sensor, which at 17mm X 13mm is almost twice the size of the 1-inch sensor in my Sony RX10, and my excitement was growing the more I read about it.

Unfortunately, quality comes at a price. And at the time of launch that price was £700. Too rich for my blood, and not something I could justify spending the money on, when I already had perfectly good digital cameras.

More recently, an upgraded model was released, the LX 100 Mark ll. That sent secondhand prices of the early model crashing, and I was able to buy a used one at a great price through Amazon Marketplace. It was delivered yesterday morning, and I charged it up immediately.

It was missing any user manual and the DVD software extras, but operation is simple enough for anyone used to using digital cameras. I still downloaded a (free) 90-page fully-comprehensive manual from the Panasonic website though.

If you read about my recent experiences with the Nikon Z5, you will know I am a fan of knobs, buttons, and dials, over the electronic menu systems becoming widely used in cameras like the Z5.

Just look at the top view of the LX100.

Exposure compensation dial. Aperture selection ring. Zoom ring. Focus selector on the side of the lens. Selector switch for 3:2, 4:3, 16:9, and 1:1 ratios. Shutter speed dial with an ‘A’ selector to use when shooting in Aperture Priority, and an additional zoom control lever on top around the shutter button if you don’t want to operate the zoom using the ring on the lens.

That’s my kind of camera!

Photos to follow soon.

Of Interest To Photographers

~ beetleypete ~ 31 Comments

My friend Antony sent me a link to a short (16 minute) film on You Tube.

Two photographers travel to London to experience the city when it is almost deserted during lockdown.

They video themselves, and explain the ideas and the process, also the camera settings and equipment used.

Some of the resulting stills are shown alongside the original video footage.

For me, it was fascinating to see this area of Central London almost empty of people. Soho, Seven Dials, and Covent Garden, places where I worked and walked every day for the last twelve years I spent in that city. Even if you have no interest in cameras or photography, you might enjoy seeing the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the capital city of England.

(There are some short advertisements dring the video, but they can be skipped.)

Testing…One…Two

~ beetleypete ~ 62 Comments

Long-term followers of my blog will know that I am part of the testing group for products supplied by Amazon UK. Members are known as ‘Vine Voices’, and are allowed to choose from a variety of free stuff which they get to keep, in exchange for a fair review.

Over the years, I have had my share of books and DVD films. Also electrical items like kettles, power tools, vacuum claners, lawn mowers, and various kitchen implements. Useful things like backpacks and holdalls, as well as numerous toys that have benefited my grandson when he visits. Ollie has received various different varieties of dog food, and some dog-related accessories too, like chew toys.

Some items are quite large and expensive, like a multi-function child car seat, and a modern buggy-style pram that converts into a carry-cot. Then there were hair driers and straighteners for Julie, and a plethora of make-up and cosmetic items. The only proviso is that you must review them within a certain time period, and that they cannot be sold or given away as gifts. After six months, they are mine to keep, and should they become faulty or defective this is dealt with by updating the review, as they are not eligible for return.

I have a profile as a member, and that includes a list of preferences. One item on my list is ‘photography’, but so far I had never been offered any photographic equipment.
Until recently.

I was delighted to see the new Sony ZV-1 appear on my offers, and requested it immediately. This small camera is dedicated to the ‘Vlogging’ market (video blogging) but also takes stills. I was even more pleased when it arrived complete with the expensive accessory handle/grip/tripod too.

Then imagine my delight when following my review of that camera, another was offered. A full-frame, mirrorless digital SLR, a new model launched by Nikon. The Z5 is an enthusiast’s camera offering a great deal of options in a small package. Mine came complete with the standard zoom lens, which is rather limited at 24-50 MM and only f/4.
But still, it was completely free!

I charged it up today, and ordered a memory card. Hopefully soon, I will be shooting full-frame 24 megapixel stills from a camera with a great pedigree. Sadly, if I put them on the blog, I will have to reduce them down in size to save space.

I get nothing from Amazon, Nikon, or Sony for mentioning this on a blog post, just so you know.

This will only be of interest to camera enthusiasts and photographers out there, I appreciate that.

Thinking Aloud On a Sunday

~ beetleypete ~ 47 Comments

The best camera ever?

(I woke up thinking about this today, but this post is only of interest to photographers and camera collectors)

In 1986, Canon brought out a new top of the range SLR manual focus film camera. It was designed in Germany, and really looked sleek and desirable.

I already owned three other Canon cameras at the time; the basic T50, the slightly better T70, and the older and heavier A1. So, I couldn’t justify the expense of buying this new professional model.

But I really wanted one.

Two years later, it had come down in price enough for me to rationalise getting one. I already had plenty of compatible lenses, so bought it ‘body-only’.

This was a film camera, not digital. It took four AA type batteries in the base, and all picture taking and composition had to be done through the optical viewfinder. There was automatic film advance and rewinding, so no film lever to spoil the look of it. Canon had added the luxury of multi-spot metering, and shadow and highlight control. There was also the ‘safety shift’ feature, which adjusted shutter speed or aperture to make sure you got the shot in awkward lighting conditions.

Despite being aimed at professionals and serious amateurs, it also retained the ‘Program’ option, for easy point-and-shoot photography. A window at the top supplied extensive information about settings, saving the need to look through the viewfinder to see them.

The back of the camera was an object lesson in simple design, with everything you needed, and no more.

It was very solidly built, and though weighty, never felt awkward or heavy in the hand. It could be bumped and dropped, and still work, making it a hit with some professionals.

Despite already owning some lenses and a flash that all worked on this new model, I bought a 24mm wide angle lens, and a 400mm telephoto prime too.

I have never enjoyed using a camera so much, before or since.

Many years later, in 2000, I felt that I now needed autofocus, as my eyesight was not what it was. I traded the camera in, with all the other bodies and lenses, and bought a new Minolta film SLR with one lens, a 24-105mm. As the man in the shop took away all my traded kit, I felt a real pang of regret watching it go.

This summer, I decided to buy one again. I got a decent used version on Ebay, and a compatible lens from the website of a camera shop.

I doubt I will ever use it. Film is a lot of hassle and expense these days, and my eyes are even worse.

But I just love to look at it.

Thinking Aloud On a Sunday

~ beetleypete ~ 83 Comments

Compulsive collecting.

I woke up thinking about films this morning. To be precise, films on DVD. This was because I spent some time on Saturday looking for a film, one I bought on DVD earlier this year. I know I bought it, as I can recall it being delivered. I also have the confirmation that it is on my list of items ordered from Amazon, and they emailed me to ask me to review it. But I couldn’t find it on the jumbled shelves in the tiny room grandly called, ‘my office’.

I also knew that I hadn’t watched it. It had gone onto one of the top shelves, the one reserved for new DVD purchases that I haven’t got around to viewing. They lie there in their plastic wrappers, waiting their turn to to be taken down and watched. But new ones arrive, placed in front or on top of them, and they manage to escape my viewing radar. Some of those film purchases date back to as long ago as 2012, but I continue to keep buying new ones, and stacking them with their unwatched companions.

I have ‘collected’ in fits and starts throughout my life. As a child, it was toy cars, and model soldiers. I never seemed to have enough of either, and used any pocket money of gift occasion to increase my hoard. In my late twenties, I had a phase of collecting part-work magazines, storing them in smart binders available from the publisher. When I finally gave them away in the 1990s, I was embarrassed to admit that at least half of them had never actually been read. And there were the books. Despite giving away hundreds of used paperbacks to charity shops, I still moved here with box after box of books, many of them never opened, let alone read. I am now reading less than two books a year, but still buying more. I bought one last week, and found that I had insufficient space to store it on the shelves. So it sits next to me on the desk, wondering if it will ever be read, I suspect.

Once I became interested in photography, in the mid-1980s, I started to buy lots of camera-related items. This reached a peak with the arrival of Ebay, and from 2004 until 2012, I bought up lots of old cameras, some ‘collectible’, many not. My intention was to show them off in some way, perhaps in a display case. But that never happened. What did happen was that I continued to buy more cameras, digital ones this time. The old ones, and my precious film cameras with them, had to be consigned to a box in the loft, where they still reside. To be honest, I would be pushed to find the actual box they are in, and have to confess that collecting them was ultimately pointless.

I have to put a stop to this compulsion, now that I am living on pensions, instead of a large salary. So I buy DVD films second hand, at a fraction of the cost. I buy used books for just 1p, plus postage. That makes it seem more responsible, but doesn’t solve the problem. I am overwhelmed by my collections, and I really do have to stop.

Soon.

Camera chat: Sensor size

~ beetleypete ~ 23 Comments

This post is only of interest to anyone who likes photography. Anyone else should perhaps delete it, and move on.

Sensor size. Is bigger better? I conclude that it is, in most cases. Ever since the advent of digital cameras, manufacturers have striven to offer larger and better sensors, culminating in the release of many ‘full frame’ sensors, replicating the size of film negatives, in the conventional 35 mm film cameras of old. The first digital camera I ever bought was a Fuji 610 compact, with a tiny sensor. To make some sense of this issue, here is a chart, illustrating the difference.

As you can see, my original camera’s sensor, at 1/3.2″ was tiny. Much later, I moved up to the Fuji S5 Pro. This camera boasted what is known as an APS-C ‘crop sensor’, many times larger than that original Fuji, with a whopping 24 X 16 mm on offer. As a camera with a full-frame sensor was beyond my finances (and still is) that was the best I was ever going to be able to afford. The results were eye-opening, with much more detail retained, and the ability to enlarge the photos to a decent size as a result.

But that camera used relatively expensive interchangeable lenses, so I had to be content with the 28-80 (equivalent) lens I could afford. Much later, I wanted a smaller camera, and one that offered a decent zoom range, with all the modern bells and whistles that had been in development since the S5 was launched. Electronic viewfinder, special features, and a few gimmicks that the SLR lacked. After much research, I settled on the Fuji X-30, with light weight, rangefinder retro-styling, and a useful 28-112 (equivalent) built in lens. I was very happy for a while. I had all the extra features, and the camera was very portable, and easy to carry at all times. But there was one issue that bothered me.

The X-30 has a rather ancient 1/2.3″ sensor. Despite the limitations, Fuji did wonders with the small chip, and it rendered amazingly good j-pegs. I clicked away ignoring this fact, but it never left my mind. Eventually, I decided that I had to try a camera with a larger sensor. All the reviews told me that the 1″ sensor of the Sony RX10 was more than capable of much better results. As you can tell from the chart, this sensor is much bigger that that of the X-30, and compared to the original Fuji 610, it is simply enormous. After using it for a while, I can see some difference. Colours are rendered more naturally, and detail is retained in many areas too. However, the difference is not enough, and this led me to look back at the photos from the S5 Pro.

They are undeniably better. Richer in appearance, with more latitude for error too. Despite producing the same pixel output as the tiny X-30, the photos from the S5 feel more like ‘real photos’, thanks to that much larger sensor. Before buying the Sony, I considered investing in a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera, used by many blogging photographers, and considered to be ‘more than enough’ by enthusiasts all over the world. I was put off by the high cost of detachable lenses, but as you can see from the chart, the MFT sensor is much larger than the 1″ on the Sony. Despite seeing some amazing results from respected photographers using this MFT sensor, I still feel that the APS-C crop sensor is the best option for enthusiasts who want to realise better detail, and produce larger images. Unless I come into money, and can buy a full-frame digital camera, I will be choosing one with an APS-C sensor in future.

So, if you own something like a Fuji XT-1, or XT-2, a Fuji X100T, Pentax KS-2, Nikon D 5500, or a Canon EOS 750D, well done. My next camera will be something along those lines, and I will just have to budget for the lenses.

Yet another camera

~ beetleypete ~ 27 Comments

This is a very niche post, only of interest to fellow photographers, or camera collectors. If you have no interest in anything camera related, please delete now.

Once again, I have bought yet another camera. This one.

I bought it second hand, and have yet to receive it, so will report on its use later. This has taken my camera collection to a figure best described as ‘too many’. As well as the Fuji X-30 that I use for most of the photos on this blog, I also have a Fuji S5 digital slr, with a short zoom lens, and flashgun. In the loft, I have a selection of Olympus ‘clamshell’ film cameras, together with my former pride and joy, the Minolta Dynax 7 film camera, with the amazing 24-105 lens. Somewhere, I also have a Praktica slr with a 50mm lens, and many ‘collectible’ cameras, dating back to the 1930s. They remain unused, but treasured still. Also tucked away, an early Fuji 610 digital compact, and an instant film camera, the Fuji Instax.

So, why the new one? When this Sony camera came out, it interested me a great deal. A Carl Zeiss lens, zooming from 24mm, to 200mm, and the maximum aperture available was a constant f2.8; amazing for a bridge camera, with a fixed lens. Add almost any modern camera function you can think of, from steady-shot, panorama, HDR, and video, through to every special feature imaginable, then this camera warranted serious consideration. But it was ludicrously expensive back then. The launch price was close to £1,300 and even when it was reduced to closer to £1,000, I was still nowhere near justified in spending that much.

I watched it for a few years, and waited for a good secondhand example to appear, at a price I could not only afford, but be happy to pay. This week, one turned up on the website of a respected Norfolk camera dealer, and I bought it online. Less than a third of the last retail price, so a potential bargain. I will let you know what I think when it is delivered, and hopefully bring you many examples of what it is capable of. The 1″ sensor is more than three times larger than that of my X-30, and every review I have read of this camera has been very positive. Once it stops raining, I hope to be able to get back into my photography in a big way, and post lots more photos. Watch this space!

Beetley nature with the old camera

~ beetleypete ~ 45 Comments

holly-berries

All photos can be enlarged by clicking them. They look better when enlarged.

It was finally bright enough this afternoon, so I took my recently exhumed old camera along on the walk with Ollie. Suitably seasonal berries, above.

They have recently been felling trees over on Hoe Rough. Apparently, they were in danger of falling over, after the roots had been eroded by flooding. They have just been left where they fell, and little clearance has been done. You can still see the blue ropes left behind by the workers.
fallen-trees

There isn’t a lot of colour about at this time of year, but these bramble leaves are clinging on to the last of their red.
leaves-and-thorns

In the darkest recesses of the woodland areas, I found these mushrooms trying to grow through the leaf litter.
fungi-and-leaves

As the sun started to set, the ground in front of this tree was draped in shadow.
tree-and-shadows

The bracken that covers much of Hoe Rough is dying fast. It produces some nice colours though.
dying-bracken

The second bend of the small River Whitewater was looking nice in the afternoon light.
river-bend

This was my first time using this SLR since I bought my new smaller camera. I was reminded just how heavy it is! The Optical viewfinder that I once considered to be so clear and useful now seems dark and muddy, compared to the Electronic version in the new camera. Focusing is slower too, and the ten-year old technology is showing its age. But it can still render very good natural colours, and the stabilised Nikon lens can easily be hand-held down to one quarter of a second. I needed to use the built-in flash for the mushroom shot, and the auto fill-in function seems to have achieved a pleasant balance. It was nice to use it again, but the huge weight is a definite consideration. Given that it produces the same pixel output as the newer camera, it is hard to justify carrying both, as the images are remarkably similar despite the huge difference in sensor size.
It does feel like a ‘real camera’ though!