New camera - Swan Song for the Jetta - CycleBlaze

July 1, 2018

New camera

Those who followed us in Greece and Albania this spring might remember the camera failure we experienced, resulting in a significant number of spoiled images.  In addition to that first day when this happened, there were two or three other days like this, although fortunately far fewer photos were ruined by this strange symptom.  It was a bit unsettling though, and for the remainder of the tour I worried that the camera would fail completely.

Knowing that it was time for a new camera, I ordered one while we were in Greece and had it delivered to Elizabeth’s home so it would be here when we returned to Portland.  The camera I selected is the Panasonic LUMIX LX-10, the newest in the series of Panasonics I’ve been touring with for the last decade.  I’ve been very happy with the LX-7, but it’s no longer on the market so I’m forced to upgrade to the newest model.

The Panasonic LUMIX LX-10, with a Samsung S8 shown for scale. It’s a good size for bike touring, fitting comfortably into the pocket of my cycling jersey.
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Similar to the LX-7 I’ve been touring with for the last five years, but with enough differences that I’ll need to go back to the manual.
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When I first unpacked the LX-10 (on the left) it felt larger, but it actually isn’t. It’s a bit heavier though. Fitting - a dense camera for a dense photographer.
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I actually didn’t care so much for the new camera at first, I think just because it was so different.  It wasn’t as obvious how to take macro photos, for example, or to alter the aspect ratio.  I was thinking I’d just figure it out on the road in Canada, but Rachael charged me with studying the manual now and working through the learning curve.

I started by reading up on how macro photography works (it’s quite easy, just different), and then went out to walk around the neighborhood.  Sorry, no bikes or biking here; and no real theme either.  Just some pics.

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So that was yesterday.  Today, while Rachael biked out to Sauvie Island by herself, I headed down to the waterfront to experiment a bit more.  I wanted to see what kind of results I got with general subjects, but also I wanted to see how the camera handled difficult exposure conditions.  It has a new HDR (high dynamic range) function to manage these - it automatically takes three images with different exposure settings and then merges them to build the best composite.   I’m not sure, but it looks to me like this works quite well and is a definite advance.

Portland’s waterfront. I’ve come on a good day to test out the HDR function, with an interesting sky.
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Steve Miller/GrampiesAh yes, HDR. My little Nikon Coolpix S7000 uses this under the guise of backlight compensation. It does mostly work, though the Coolpix only takes two exposures. My main bugaboo has been what I would call flare, coming in from church windows. I have tended to blame uncoated, cheap lenses, but the HDR has made things tolerable.

Th Coolpix is about the biggest I think I would be comfortable with, since I ride with the camera in my safety vest shirt pocket and shoot a lot on the fly. It requires one handed operation of on/off and zoom. The LX-10 looks like it could do that too?

Clearly from your photo the LX-10 supports aperture priority. Can you manually focus too? Also it looks like the max aperture is 2 - not bad! What is the number of times of zoom?

By the way, Dodie often is not too impressed by my shots. Her mantra is "why can't you shoot like Scott Anderson?"
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6 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesI’m sure a more balanced person could shoot this thing one-handed, but unfortunately I’ve got a two-handed Bike Friday. I’m pretty sure that if I started taking shots while biking we’d be looking at a string of broken cameras and/or teeth.

3X zoom. If I need more than that (uncommon), I also usually carry a ZS50 superzoom. Yes, you can manually adjust focus, but I don’t. I’m strictly a PHD photographer, having learned from experience that the computer is much smarter than I am. Maybe when we quit spending so much time on the road I could take a class? Also though, using anything other than the automated settings would slow me/us down even more, and Rachael would flip out. She thinks I take way too much time already.
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6 years ago
The stages are going up for the annual Waterfront Blues Festival which starts in a few days.
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One of the giant counterweights of the Hawthorne Bridge, seen through a canopy for the blues festival.
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Westbound on Washington Street. Another HDR success - in the past I’d have had to choose between a washed out sky or an over dark street.
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The Telegram Building, built in 1922, was the home for The Evening Telegram, a local paper that ceased publication in 1939. Behind it is the somewhat newer ZGF Architects Building.
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On the Broadway Bridge. One more example of an improved result.
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On the Broadway Bridge
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Ron SuchanekWow these pictures pop
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6 years ago
On SE Salmon Street, near the river. This is an old industrial area, but is evolving rapidly into modern commercial and residential developments. Signs like this one are fast disappearing.
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On Salmon Street
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On Salmon Street
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Where are you going? What makes you laugh? I ponder the age-old questions as I bike back to the apartment.
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Finally, I took the camera down to the Shawn Colvin concert last night and tested out another new feature - an automated compensation to minimize the shake impact on handheld shots taken in low light conditions.  This looks to me like a better result than I’ve gotten in the past also - I took about a half dozen shots of Heather Maloney, and they were all about like the one below.  In the past I’ve been less successful with shots like this.

There are other new features I haven’t experimented with, but from results so far I’m quite happy with the LX-10 and anxious to test it out on the road.

Heather Mahoney, opening for Shawn Colvin at the Aladdin
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Janet BeatyLooks like the camera is a winner!!
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6 years ago
Suzanne GibsonNice work with the new camera! Looks like we can look forward to some more stunning scenes from your next ride.
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6 years ago