the little kit takes shape

The miniscule Lumix 12-32mm retractable lens has arrived, so a team photo is in order.  That's an ordinary die for scale.. well maybe not.

The 45-175 and 12-32 square off here while the Bower 7.5 fisheye watches.  The new Tamrac Jazz 36 can handle all of this.  The shot was taken using the 14-42² that is most likely expendable with the 12-32 in town.

Other than the high level of noise reduction I'm seeing in shots like this, the G7 is doing quite well.  I really must get into the manual and see if that can be adjusted; smeary NR sucks.

In Pentax news, the K-50 and kit lenses just left - well it would have were the roads in fact passable.  An impressive windstorm hit the Longview-Portland corridor (further south too I'm sure) and getting around is pretty difficult right now.  It goes out tomorrow for sure!

yet another bag

I swear I have nearly a dozen camera bags. Some were claimed from my dad's supply, but many are my very own.  Like so many purchases we all make, each made sense at the time.  And now another is coming?

from huntsphotoandvideo.com

Any micro:43 kit is relatively tiny and does not need a 'normal' sized camera bag to rattle around in.  I saw a great little Tamrac Jazz 52 on sale and almost bought it - then noticed that $hipping charge was nearly as much as the bag itself!  Err no thanks.  I then sought it elsewhere on the web but found something even slightly smaller: a  brand-new new Jazz 36 bag was available (last one!) for a slightly lower purchase price + Free Shipping.  Much better, both for price and volume; I can just toss under the tree, let my lovely spouse know of it & then forget about it for a few weeks.  The way my memory misfires have increased, that part will be easy.

As illustrated, this bag barely holds a standard DSLR plus one lens and flash.  In other words it will be very nice fit for a G7 with two zooms plus + a 7.5mm prime* perhaps? The Jazz 36 will definitely serve the purpose that I have in mind - and like no current bag can manage.

As to the G7 itself: so far so good, but wow it's complex!  And with several function buttons and a dozen or two possible settings for each one, it could take a month or more before the camera is functionally set to use.  I hadn't really thought about that!  And I've just installed v2.0 firmware so it's even more complex - Panasonic added the focus-stack-to-video option where you can choose which frame ahs the point in focus that you wanted most & save that shot as an 8Mpx still.  And if you like several planes of focus for the image, go ahead and extract/save them too!  What a clever way to play with 4k video.

I've been testing its low-light abilities first, seeing how close to EV-4 it can focus, how iso 6400/12800 look and how OIS does at such stupid-low exposure levels.  No surprise that details are smudged at such high settings, but very good results in the worst of circumstances.  I'm more than satisfied with these, so I doubt that iso200 shots will be troublesome.  I will check on that too, someday soon. Now to find a website that determines EV levels for a given shutter/aperture/ISO combo!

* Done deal!  I offered below someone's auction price but did not hear back, then found another one ending soon for cheaper.

the Orphan with the red X

It came a day or two ahead of its body, and now it must wait.

The race was close though - one reached Portland, the other Troutdale. Another two hours and they could have traveled together!

So the silver G7 will spend the weekend in the Big City awaiting the Monday delivery cycle.  Ah well, that will be a fine commemoration: it will be mine the same day we sign papers on the refinance of our home.  A great date to celebrate!

And another day of waiting to see how the two silver items match up.

BlackFriday decisions

Looking at the first wave of pre-Christmas deals was enough to make the call between the G7 and LX100.

Sales on both cameras are in play - and the G7 is still almost $100 less.  Today's G7 Genuine Deal is an impressive one: $200 off + $100 store credit and bundle-now&save deals all at once!  So that's the current buying plan: silver G7 plus 14-42 II and maybe $50 more for the 25/1.7 'normal' lens bundle. The credit can go for a microphone ± spare battery or something else.   For a similar price one can have a "$250 value" stereo microphone in lieu of $100 gift card, which is also a great deal.
Sorry LX100 - the G7 price & features are too good to ignore.

Friday also featured a used-gear shop with lenses going for 30% off  and a Lumix 45-175 was available.  Two copies in fact, and thank goodness: I tried to buy the black one but no purchase button appeared, and when I returned to the lens page it was gone - apparently it sold 10 seconds before I could reach it!  So I selected the silver copy instead.  It won't quite match the G7 silver-grey shade, I suspect, but I'll survive.  A deal on the 7.5mm fisheye will expire Tuesday, so that will have to come later.

The G7 will go from 28-350mme stabilized in-lens, plus an adapter can let the Pentax lenses play on it out to 600mme with the Spiratone 300/5.6 and 800mm with the 400/6.3 Hanimar.  The original plan was to buy 14-42, 45-175, 300 Tokina and 7.5 fish-eye, plus maybe a prime in the 14-20mm range; so far so good with the first two plus a 300mm in Pentax mount.

Speaking of Pentax the DAL 50-200wr arrived today. The K·50 is now weather sealed from 27-300mme and sensor-stabilized.  This 50-200 seems sharper than previous copies and it's a nice tight fit; too bad it doesn't come in red!  The silver band and lack of focus distance scale mark it as DAL and not DA.

O what fun!