bushboys world: LAST PHOTO, JANUARY 2020
I use three cameras. The Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS80 (my traveling camera), and my Olympus OMD E-M5 Mark I and Olympus OMD E-M5 Mark II. The I has a 25mm 1.8 lens on it (effectively 50mm) and the II has a Panasonic 100-300 on it which I use for shooting birds (it’s effectively 200-600). It’s a great lens, but slow.
As it happened, I used all three of them yesterday, January 31st. That’s rare. I usually shoot either inside or outside. As often as not, it’s either all birds or all the “indoor garden” or a trip to one of our many riverside parks.
On the OMD M5-II, this is a nuthatch with a black sunflower seed in his beak
I used to bring the Olympus with me when I was out, but I could never make up my mind what lenses to bring. I would sometimes just sit there with the bag open trying to figure out what I was likely to need. Would there be any birds? Would I need a wide-angle or long lens? Will there be people to portray?
On the Olympus OMD M5-I, this is a blooming Christmas Cactus
The confusion got so bad I gave up. Now. I take one camera, the Panasonic (unless we are going on vacation in which case I might take everything). The Panny has a good Leica telephoto lens which extends from 25mm to 750mm and of course, has a close up “macro” focus as well. It’s considerably smaller than the one I’d been carrying and will actually fit in my bag, but: (1) it’s a very big bag and (2) it may be a smaller camera, but I swear it’s heavier than its predecessors — all three of which I still have.
I’m sure I have even more cameras going back to my earliest Canons, but exactly where they are, I’m not sure.
The last shot of the dam before going home. Garry who had not brought HIS camera was moving me around telling me where to shoot and I finally said: “Next time bring your OWN camera!” Sheesh.
I think they are all working. I had an entire array of Olympus cameras, but I have distributed the ones I never used amongst family and close friends who were camera-challenged. The only camera I still really really want is the Olympus Pen F. I even have a friend who has an extra one to sell, but alas, I don’t have the money. I have to remind myself that I’m not suffering from a lack of cameras. But ah, the Pen-F is such a sweetheart of a camera.
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Categories: #Birds, #DamsAndWaterfalls, #Flowers, #Photography, Marilyn Armstrong
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Funny my last shot of the month was breakfast.
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I was out and about all day so I shot the usual things. Birds, flowers, and a dam 🙂
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As for Mr. Armstrong’s moving you around to desirable locations.., once a director, always a director
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I know, but he has his own equipment. Stop moving me around and BRING your camera 😀
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The zs80 is a great little camera for travelling, as you say. Easily fits into a coat pocket.
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It’s a big camera packed into a small body. Mostly, what I love is the lens. There’s nothing you can’t shoot with it — except for dark days. It isn’t fast. But in normal daylight, it’s just fine. And my shoulders thank me for NOT hauling everything with me.
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A great selection of last shots Marilyn 🙂 I have three cameras with me, if you include my phone camera. I off load my new old cameras but still have my first two that I bought from eons ago too,
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For a while, I really used them all, basically by putting a different lens on each one. No problem picking lenses — just bring all the cameras. But eventually, that began to be far more weight than I could manage … and along came the zs80!
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That’s why I like my Canon PowerShot. no lenses, great functions and easy to carry around and use
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I actually started out with the Canon Powershot. When they redesigned them, I didn’t like them nearly as much. I understand they have made them better again. Many of my best pictures were on the “A” series of Canon Powershot cameras.
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Yes they have. My first Canon was a TLB SLR
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Faced with similar concerns, I decided to move a couple steps backwards to an Olympus kit lens. I have rediscovered the 14 – 42mm f3.5 – 5.6. EZ It’s not the fastest, but not the slowest either, and contrary to the stigma against “kit Lenses”, it really IS quite good. To cover the need for longer lenses, I carry a 14 – 150mm, f4 – 5.6 zoom. Now I can overlap ranges if need be, and the “f” range is pretty close. Of course the longer lens can be left on the camera as well, leaving the kit lens as a more portable quick grab on my EM10 MkII. My bag is now pretty compact and I don’t feel at risk of missing too much.
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I didn’t like the 40-150. I had three of them — two from Olympus and another that I got from Panasonic which was easier to use, but it was never the lens I put on my camera. I like the other basic lens, but they are very much alike and both surprisingly good. I never liked the 40-150 and never bought the 14-150, probably because I used the Panasonic for long shots. My long lens really is almost entirely for shooting birds and squirrels and chipmunks. I want the Olympus 25mm 1.4 if I can get one for short money. But mostly, I want the Pen-F. I thought I was doing okay until the toilet in the main bathroom cracked and we had to replace the floor and the toilet. Would you believe there were NO joists under the toilets up here? Just a piece of plywood and a slab of linoleum. It’s a miracle no one crashed through into the basement.
That took care of any money still left in our so-called savings account. I was almost optimistic. And today, a trip to the vet with Gibbs and The Duke. Gibbs has something wrong with the lymph glands in his neck. It might be an infection, but it might be something else. Another couple of hundred and a scary feeling that it’s not over yet. I will never get ahead.
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Oh Marilyn I am so sorry to hear about Gibbs. Poor guy poor you guys.
Love the Nuthutch photo. The weir photograph is a lovely location and Garry direction well it works.
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Great photos what ever you are using….
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There are definite differences between the Panny and the Oly. The Panny is a great camera, but it shoots with a lot less color saturation than the Olympus. I can’t stand cameras that aren’t sharp. They don’t need to be perfect, but I like edges.
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