In a previous post about selling my Canon G10. Since then the Panasonic LX-5, Canon G12, Canon S95 and a few other cameras have been released (and since originally writing this the GF2). I looked at each one very carefully. All three cameras are very similar to their previous generations. The Canon's add 720p video. And it looks pretty darn good. But I still have the same issues as before:
- slow autofocus
- unusable past ISO 200
So in good light you get great photos but in mediocre to terrible light you get terrible photos. For the primary intended use of this camera, family photos, mediocre to terrible light is the norm. I was about to plunk down the cash and buy the Panasonic LX-5 and then I noticed the Panasonic GF1 has a serious price drop. Then it dropped again. So a couple weeks back I went for it and I couldn't be happier! I'll post some photos soon but the autofocus while not on par with an SLR it is really good. The image quality and low ISO while not on par with an SLR is really good too. The video is amazing. And the size of the unit while not a pants pocketable camera it can fit in a jacket or sweatshirt pocket without any problems. I've had small Elph cameras and I have never put them in my jeans pocket so I didn't consider the small size of the S95 much of a benefit. In fact, my large hands had a hard time using the S95 which is another reason I opted for the GF1.
I have a small lens case for an 85mm lens that it fits in quite comfortably. I used the same lens case for the G10. Both cameras are very similar in size except for the protruding lens. I opted for the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens. Someday I'll buy the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5. Probably when I do my next epic outdoor trip this Winder.
For family photos I've been carrying around the Canon 5D with the 50mm f/1.8 but the GF1 + 20mm is much much smaller. For long outdoor trips I have been using the Canon 5D with the 24-105. I think if I get the 14mm I'd be happy to carry the GF1 instead.
I do have a few complaints. The nob on the back is a little hard to rotate. The grip on it seems to be a little to rounded. And for some reason the autorotate of the images is tied to the lens and the 20mm lens doesn't have that feature.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
I Picked up a Panasonic GF1
Monday, June 14, 2010
Unicycling Photos
I had the fortunate chance to photograph some extreme unicycling recently. The photograph in this post is a composite of four photographs taken at high speed.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
February Photo of the Month
This photo is currently featured on the Nature Photographer Magazine website. It was taken in Yellowstone on a very beautiful morning with a very simple camera: an old digital 3 mega pixel Canon Elph.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
January Photo of the Month
This past weekend I took the family for extended weekend winter vacation in Tahoe. Spring skiing at its best. The photo above was taken at a time of day most photographers would put away their cameras; there are some great photo opportunities at noon.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Glacier National Park
Last summer Glacier Park Magazine editor Chris Peterson engaged in a project to photograph Montana's Glacier National Park over 100 consecutive days. He used a mix of film and digital cameras that would have been used over the course of the Park's 100 years.
Check out the blog here with a post from each day. The photos are awesome.
My personal favorite is Day 62 because I know exactly how Chris feels about that tree. I have many trees and rocks in various parks that I could spend hours at.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
September Photo of the Month
This is a photo of Cottonwood Lake in Inyo National Forest. This photo is a panorama stitched from 14 photos! And one of the most beautiful mornings I've ever had the pleasure to see.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
June Photo of the Month
This photo was taken at Año Nuevo State Reserver. Wikipedia also has a good bit of information on Año Nuevo. This is one of the most amazing parks to visit. These little pups just roll all over one another.
California with it's sizable budget problem is entertaining the possibility of closing over 80% of the parks, including Año Nuevo State Reserver and every beach and park in and around Santa Cruz. Most of the photos you see on my website are taken at these parks and every year I buy a State Parks pass to support the parks. Who knows what will actually happen. Only time will tell, but needless to say I really hope they find another solution since overall the closure will do more harm than good. You can read up on the potential closing here.
In other news, the National Parks will be free to visit three weekends this summer. Check out
Fee-Free Weekends In Your National Parks.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
May Photo of the Month
Swallowtail butterflies have always been one of my favorite butterflies. It's very difficult to get close to them. They always flutter away. This photo was taken with my newly purchased Canon G10. I happened to have it on my person when getting out of my car here in Scotts Valley and there it was sitting next to my house. The photo you see is pretty much right out of the camera. I only applied a little bit of sharpening and levels.
Little known fact: if you spend enough time with them you can become very allergic to them.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
April Photos of the Month
I've been really bad with posting photos of the month lately so I'm going to post two. These are from Nā Pali Coast State Park on the island of Kauaʻi near the wettest spot on earth, Mount Waialeale.
These were taken with a Canon G10.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
January Photo of the Month
The photo this month was taken when I was in Yellowstone February 2006. I got to snowmobile around the park for an entire week. This photo was published in the current winter issue of Nature Photographer magazine on page 3.
Friday, December 12, 2008
December Photo of the Month
Here's a photo from my backpacking trip last October in Sequoia National Park. This photo was taken just after a very large storm at twilight from Crabtree Meadows. Just to the left of that mountain in the center and barely visible is Mt. Whitney. Here's a topo map of the area from Google Maps. The storm came on suddenly and left a lot of people stranded on Whitney. The next morning we heard and saw a dozen or more helicopters rescuing hikers. Many of them were day hikers that weren't prepared.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Post Ship Bliss...
This means lots of meetings. All day in fact. Nearly all week. Here's a pretty picture I took on my backpacking trip last week:
Brief note about the camera equipment I took on my 10 day 70 mile backpacking trip. I lugged around a Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 F4 IS, remote switch, two batteries and two 8gb Extreme IV memory cards totaling nearly 4lbs. Ouch! Was it worth it? I think so.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September Photo of the Month
I just got back from a 10 day backpacking trip (my daughter calls it pack packing) only to discover that world financial markets had melted down. I went to Sequoia National Park and Inyo National Forest in and around the base of Mt Whitney. We went up through Cottonwood Lakes, over New Army Pass, down Rock Creek, up over Guyot Pass with the craziest little big trees I've ever seen, got stuck in a thunder storm with rain, no wait, hail, no wait, snow, and made it to Crabtree Meadow where you can see Mt Whitney. The next day we heard a dozen helicopters lift people off Mt Whitney because the storm came in unexpected. Then we went down to the Kern river where I got bit up by mosquitoes and almost a rattle snake. On the Kern we soaked in the most disgusting bathtub filled by a hot springs I've ever seen but felt like a million bucks and then hiked out. I started the trip out with a 55lb pack, but ended the trip with a 65lb pack even after eating all my food because we had such a hellacious hike that I took everyone's heavy stuff like water still averaging 2.5mph according to the GPS. Now I have to figure out how to type again.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
June Photo of the Month
This photograph of McWay Falls at Sunset is located on the scenic California Big Sur and can be found on page 5 of Nature Photographer summer edition. The photo looks great big! Big Sur is one of my favorite locations to visit.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Going Green
Green is all the rage lately, and I'm all in favor of it for many reasons. I figured a green post was worthy since Earth Day is coming up. Lately it's been hard to go a few days without hearing about someone's carbon footprint and at 6'5" I have a pretty large carbon footprint. Seriously, I eat a lot of food.
One of my favorite reasons to have an environment around is so everyone I know, including myself, can live. My second favorite reason is so I can take photos like the one at the top of this post. I figured a photo of Mono Lake would be fitting for an environmental post such as this. Also pretty. I just got done editing it from a trip my dad and I made to the Sierras in October of 2005.
One of the things that bothers me about all the green talk is people and companies can buy down their "carbon footprint" with energy credits. I hear that Al Gore does this. It seems pretty silly since circulating more money inherently means growing the economy which is causing the environmental problems in the first place. Anyway, I'm digressing and I'm sure many people will have a comment or two about that.
Some companies like Patagonia go to great lengths to determine their impact on the planet with their Footprint Chronicles. I also think every company should join 1% For the Planet. There's also Google's Solar Panel Project. And you've probably seen Blackle where it is claimed that if Google were to change the default background color from white to black they'd save people from using loads of energy.
I've reduced the number of computers I use at CodeGear from three to two and they are set to wake-on-LAN so I can remote desktop into them. Somehow it doesn't seem even close to any of the projects I listed above but every little bit counts. Of course I do other things like recycle, drive as little as I can, ride my bike when I can, turn off lights etc. I probably could save some of you energy by optimizing the amount of memory that Delphi uses or something. Delphi already has the Twilight color scheme so I can't improve that.
And if it weren't difficult enough some things that are supposedly good for the environement really aren't. Time magazine has an article about ethanol and how is disastrous for the environment. Who really knows, but I do know I was thinking similar things when bio diesel became all the rage.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html
Last week I dug a big hole for a tree in the front yard and I ran across a piece of styrofoam that was put into the ground over 10 years ago when the house was built. Needless to say it was a little dirty on the outside, but it was perfect on the inside. Nice! Good thing nearly everything comes packaged up in the stuff. I guess just buying less stuff will have an impact. But my government wants me to spend my tax credit. Hmmmm...
Of course one of the problems with computers and electronics is they are by their very nature tough on the environment. I've been trying to do business with environmentally friendly companies when possible. I try and look for companies that actually use less or have solar panels or just something that is actually energy efficient and not wasteful. Maybe they recycle for instance. A perfect example is aiso.net which is a web hosting company that I've been considering switching to. Has anyone had any experience with them? I'm looking for more companies that think like the ones I've listed here so I can do business with them.
What sorts of things have you or your company done to be more green?
Monday, February 4, 2008
February Photo of the Month
This photo was taken this winter in Tahoe during a break in the last big storm we had.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
January Photo of the Month
Things got a little busy last month and I forgot to post a December photo of the month. So I'm starting the new year off right with a photo I took at Wilder State Park in Santa Cruz. In the background you can see across the Monterey Bay. It was a very clear day. If you happen to read Nature Photographer Magazine you'll find this photo published in the 2008 Spring issue. No Photoshop here, that bee is real!
Friday, November 2, 2007
November Photo of the Month
In October the Monarch Butterflies start arriving in Santa Cruz at Natural Bridges State Park and feed upon the abundant Milkweed plants in the area. They don't start to cluster in the grove until later in the year at which point they will reproduce and die.
This photo was taken this year just when they arrived using a 500mm lens, a 1.4x extender and an extension tube (to make the lens a macro lens) on a full frame Canon 5D for an effective focal length of 700mm.
I've added a link on the side bar to all the photos of the month for your convenience.
Update: I accidentally deleted the photo over the weekend but it's back now.
