Sunday, October 23, 2011

I keep squeezing pics out of my damaged LX5

Had a great time mountain biking out at Bragg Creek today. Although I had planned to be out there a lot earlier and ride a lot longer but at least I got a ride in. At one point I had stopped to take a breather after climbing for about 15 minutes. The silence and only interrupted by my heavy breathing...and the growling of a cougar about 200M in bush.. Good thing my bike goes downhill so fast cuz that's where I headed. When I reached the car there were several other Mtb'ers that showed up and said that it ran right across the trail in front of them.  Sorta wished I could get picture of it but happy to be out of there with no drama. 


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A new candidate enters the Ring - Fuji X10

Okay so there is this new camera from Fuji, the X10. Looks like a great little camera from all the previews. Does everything I want and has a bigger sensor than the LX5 (2/3" vs 1.63). Now the thing is I have been bitten by the 4/3 bug and like and dislike the idea of changing lenses on my walk-around camera. I loved how the LX5 was a flip of the switch and away I could shoot. Now having said that I came to the realization that 90% of my shots were at the wide end of the lens. The X10 is 28-112 equiv but I feel that for most of the shots I would be just fine with a wide prime lens and the X10 zoom is manual and happens to contain the power switch. Not so good for one handed operation, soooo what do I do..
-Why can't the E-PM1 come with the 14mm
-Why can't the GF2 be as good as the GF1
-Why do all of the cameras have 95% of what I want but miss one thing on each.
I have a strong draw to the GF2 for some reason. It comes with the 14mm pancake lens and has the hot shoe. I think I'm on info overload. Most of the features on these cameras will never get used by me. I just want the best walk around for what I do.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

My LX5 eats it hard in NYC


Well I guess as far as street cameras go it's not if it's when the photo powers that be decide your little walk around buddy is time to be replaced.
As we walked merely down 34th in NYC clicking fun shots, my Panasonic LX5 went for a tumble out of my hand. Instead of just allowing it to fall and have the strap do its job, I tried to catch it shooting the strap off my wrist and careening toward the pavement. In an effort to save the little guy I stuck out my foot to cushion the fall. Fail. I ended up field-goal kicking it down the street. To my suprise it still worked and I shot several more days of photos...until I took the battery out which then allowed the body to distort and seize the shutter button and zoom. The video button still works so it is now "stunt-cam".
Now the question becomes.."E-PM1 or GF2 or G3" I had trouble with this when I bought the LX5 and had no regrets about that great little camera but now I feel the need to go to a bigger sensor. The 5DMK2 and 50D are too heavy for fun shooting but the compact's low light abilities were limited. I need a hotshoe, wide angle, and size with lens, small enough to keep in hand and stuff into a bike jersey pocket.  I don't really care for the Olympus lenses, but I like the in body stabilization. Love Panasonic lenses but not the lack of stabilization.
I am leaning toward the E-PM1 and then buy a wide angle Pana lens for it or maybe the 14-42 X lens when it drops.