I broke a personal promise to myself about not purchasing any more camera equipment. I shouldn’t have bothered. I have purchased a new camera, which I will eventually get around to writing about. In the mean time I’m learning how to use it, especially one of its (to me at least) notable features, the ability to produce “Leica” style black-and-white photographs.
This camera is good enough that I’ve stopped creating both a raw and JPEG image. All of my images so far have been just JPEG, which means I’ve cut my image storage requirements by at least a half, if not more.
At least the new camera was deeply discounted, and I was able to trade in an older camera for $200 that I’d not used since before I retired. Once again, this new camera was one of those deep discounts that I can’t ignore. Once again I did quite well by trading on the trailing edge of camera technology, even though the features on this “trailing edge” make it more than competitive with cameras that are way more expensive.
Playing around with an older camera with a macro lens used wide open and as a short telephoto. Beauregard is part of the first pair of kittens I ever adopted (his brother is, of course, Luke). They were both twelve weeks before I could get them into the house. The year they were born (2015) I had to travel to Japan in December to support a military training exercise. After two-and-a-half weeks overseas I came back to celebrate Christmas. When the first of January finally arrived I picked up the little critters.
They came to be known as the Ginger Snaps, a nod to Scalzi’s two gray Mackerel tabbies he’d named the Scamperbeasts, a.k.a. Sugar and Spice. Luke and Beauregard were the first of the second generation of cats to come live in this house.
They are both the elder cats now, and both act interchangeably as the alpha male (Beauregard was born two hours after Luke in a litter of five). They like to eat, sleep, and get scritches on demand, though not necessarily in that order. They like to find places to park so that they can watch what Dad does around the house. The house is big enough (especially with the screen enclosed lanai) with plenty of cat furniture (trees, cloth tunnels, scratch pads and posts) to keep them happy and provide them with exercise. So far the only chonky cat is Luke, who is a good fourteen pounds trying his dead level best to add even more. It’s too bad his human dad and mom won’t let him.
Beauregard, on the other hand, is a svelte twelve pounds. They both eat the same food (a non-prescription low-ash urinary dry food). And they both get lots of attentions from their humans. You would think that both Gingersnaps would have a weight problem, but Luke is the only one so far.
Camera
I’ve been reading about using old cameras (old defined as at least ten years old). As it so happens I own a number of old digital cameras, one of which was used today. It’s the Panasonic GH4, released May 2014. A digital mirrorless camera over nine years old. I picked up my copy on very heavy discount from B&H Photo and Video out of New York back in 2017, the year the GH5 was released. Although I thought of using it for its video features, I’ve only used it as a stills camera, such as today.
The lens on the front is the Panasonic Lumix 30mm/2.8 macro lens, introduced in 2015. I purchased it because it has built-in lens stabilization, making it the perfect walk-around lens for the GH4, which does not have in-body image stabilization. I’ve used the 30mm across all my micro four thirds cameras, and it’s performance has always been top notch. I purchased it on heavy discount as well from the same company mentioned earlier.
I like the GH4 because of its all-magnesium heft and the quality of the images it still produces.
Radarwitch
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