Scattered Thoughts . . .

T here are certain brands that I refuse to buy, support, speak kindly of, or even use.  Sometimes, however, a reason related to practicality arises and I am stuck having to give in and purchase one of these brands simply because no other options exist.  As such, I'm stuck with three old Canon EF-mount lenses yet Canon is one of those brands you will not find me supporting in any way.  Don't get me wrong, they were great in the Canon AE-1 Programmable days but I'm not liking their options in the digital world.  Actually, I find their digital cameras very uncomfortable to use, even painful.  I also find their color rendering and tonal qualities to be quite bland but, admittedly, that is more of a personal preference. I had purchased these three lenses on the used market back when I first purchased my Sony cameras.  The Sony E-mount system was very young at the time so very few lenses were available in their new E-mount.  One of the great things about this Sony E-mount is that

Panasonic G3 camera, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens As I was writing my previous blog post this morning, I could hear all sorts of birds and squirrels outside  for the first time in quite a long time . It was as though they all moved into the area at the same moment! It has been unusually quiet here for months... no small wildlife at all... no birds, no squirrels... just an odd silence outdoors. All of a sudden, this morning, this all changed. I grabbed my newest camera purchase... my Panasonic G3 with my old Olympus 70-300mm lens mounted on it. This combo gives me a very long telephoto reach equivalent to a 600mm field of view on a full frame camera. This is a loonnnggg telephoto reach in a rather small package! When I stepped outdoors, I headed toward the deeper part of the backyard with old, tall trees where I figured most wildlife would be located. As I walked back that way, I listened to hear where the birds were located... "hmmm..." all the noise seemed to be c

Our moon captured using a Panasonic G3 camera with a Panasonic 45-200mm (90-400mm equivalent) G Vario lens. Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have a bit of an infatuation with the moon and an active interest in aerospace which involves continuous study and research. Consequently, I often will be pointing one of my cameras toward the moon on those seemingly rare clear nights with no clouds obscuring the sky.  Last night we had a sky with a light, wispy cloud cover but our moon was bright and beckoning through our living room window. Needless to say, I grabbed some of my camera gear and headed outside. As I've written in recent blog posts, I just picked up a used camera and lens in the tiny Micro Four Thirds format. I really haven't had much of an opportunity to test it out though for numerous reasons. This was one camera and lens combo that I knew I should test on the moon last night. Most of the night I had to struggle getting clear shots of the moon becaus

My new used Panasonic 45-200mm, f4-5.6 lens mounted on my new used Panasonic G3. Capturing crisp photos of wildlife requires considerable knowledge, skill and years of practice as well as the physical ability to effectively control the appropriate camera gear. Having the right photography gear for this task, or any particular task for that matter, helps considerably just like having the right tools for a carpentry job helps a carpenter get the job done effectively. Using a hammer and a screwdriver to drill a smooth hole just won't work!  Needless to say, I am always researching to learn the best tools for each task I hope to accomplish and for the knowledge to refine the skill needed for each task. As I've written in previous blog posts, I needed a long telephoto zoom kit that would be suitable for shooting photos of the wildlife here in our neck of the woods so I did a lot of research and searching online for available products and finally ordered a used Panasonic kit

I've been playing around with some of my photography gear over the past few days while I am trying to recover from a nasty cold in an attempt to find the physical limits of my gear. This will help in choosing the right camera for each task... sometimes I will need long reach... sometimes I will need to go wide in tight quarters... sometimes I'll need the smallest lightweight gear... sometimes I'll need low light capabilities. Each situation is different and each camera has certain strengths as well as weaknesses. The key is to know which camera is good for which situations. I now own some full-frame Sony gear which is just amazing in low light. Low light or not, this Sony camera has crystal clear resolution and is simply spectacular in all light but especially in low light situations. This gear continues to wow me everyday. I love using it for portraits... I love using it for landscapes. While I was testing a new micro four thirds Panasonic camera over the past few days

A Panasonic G3 in the micro four thirds format... As most of you know, one of my many hobbies is photography. As most of you probably do not know, there is no one camera that can do everything. Each camera has its strengths and each camera has its weaknesses. As a result, I have quite a little collection of gear, each piece sporting its own advantage. I have a very limited budget so I often pick up used gear at very tempting prices rather than buy new at unattainable prices.  A number of months ago I decided to drop my Olympus gear and upgrade significantly by getting some full-frame Sony gear.  "Full-frame" refers to the size of the sensor and this full-frame size is huge compared to most cameras. The sensor on this Sony camera is the same size as a single 35mm negative frame... hence the name "full-frame". By comparison, compact cameras have sensors the size of a pencil eraser... and higher quality cameras have sensors somewhere in between the two in