broke my little Nikon

Fell off a rock, on which i had unwisely chosen to step while making way for faster hikers. Rock rolled under my boot, camera arced dramatically. All she wrote.
It was my very best toy

Posted on April 4, 2018 02:00 AM by ellen5 ellen5

Comments

This is sad news. My condolences.

Posted by amzapp almost 6 years ago

:-(

Posted by nathantaylor almost 6 years ago

Yes, but now you have an opportunity: how to replace the Nikon. Do you go mirrorless, DSLR, or superzoom bridge camera? Do you buy new, used or refurbished? How much will you pay? And finally, what brand of camera will come closest to what you need your camera to do; Sony, Nikon, Panasonic, Canon? Myself, I have been thinking lately that it's really now all about the lens. Than means a zoom with filters like UV, Polarizing, what have you vs a lens that has no such capability. Also, the quickness of the lens is, to my mind, more important than other qualities because when shooting nature, nature interjects herself and as often as not, we're talking low light, rain, dark places and objects in the way. What to do, what to do...to be continued;-)

Posted by billarbon almost 6 years ago

Thanks for the coaching, Bill! I went through that very thought process 2 years ago when i bought the Nikon. It has been such a peach, i will likely get another one of the same, or very close to it. Definitely happy with the brand.
If i had a proper birding camera, i would definitely get better bird photos. But i don't like the birding crowd all that much, too competitive. I think i'll stay focused on the macro world, i am so much happier there.
My mom always accused me of living in my own little world. Surely she was right.
For the moment, i will mourn, and use my backup camera. I got a bunch of other bizness that needs taking care of first.

Posted by ellen5 almost 6 years ago

There is no proper birding camera, just birding nuts, as you imply;-) I have ditched my Nikon for my older Panasonic because I have more manual control of the camera. It also has a macro function and what I like about these cameras over my Nikon is the lens which is faster and thus able to get better pics under low light. I especially would recommend the DMC FZ 300 because it's 24X zoom keeps the 2.8 quickness of the lens through out its zoom range. That means better pictures in low light. I think the compression ration is also 300:1 which is like a Nikon. While the megapixels is only 12MP, that could be a little small if you intend to print. That's about the only downside I see and of course, Panasonic will fix that with another larger format version soon enough so as to keep us dependent on the latest technology and newest products. What a racket all these camera companies have - just not quite giving us every aspect in a product so we have to go back for the latest iteration. Grrrrrrr! Makes me mad. Keeps me mad.

Posted by billarbon almost 6 years ago

A superb camera might solve all these problems, but i'm certainly not going to pay that much!

Posted by ellen5 almost 6 years ago

How much is that much;-)?

Posted by billarbon almost 6 years ago

How do you like your COOLPIX L22 or is it just your backup camera? Close - ups look nice, I see, but I don't think it has much zoom, but then again 12MP is a pretty good sized image. But looks like you're cropping your image down. Is that right? One of the reasons I don't like to either crop my image or others to do so is that sometimes you need to see the largest possible image to see the detail you need (especially where there is no explanation for the circumstances for the observation and you need more context). I usually am disappointed when I can't blow up the image for my weak eyes:-) Fortunately, there are enough idiots like myself who post their images full sized.

I had a horrible experience at my local LCRA Pedernales River Nature Park yesterday. First I discovered they had mowed the brush and bushes absolutely to the water's edge on the lake which they keep manicured. This time they encroached to the shoreline and all the way into the one spot previously left natural. Cut clean to the soil almost. That's bad enough, but now the trees lining the lake have even more fishing lures and lines caught up in the branches from the few 'fishermen' that go there to fish. I have numerous photos of lures and hooks swinging in the branches now that I'll put on flickr soon. All of this was bad enough but then - because now you have to pay to go to this 'nature' park, there were few - very few - visitors. But all it took was one to do what I watched or almost witnessed. I barely missed the actual event, but as I was leaving on the paved 15 mile per hour road, I came upon a five or six foot Western Coachwhip that had just been run over and squashed. I stopped, yelled at the person driving away at the top of the hill (too far for me to be heard), cursed and took photos of the carnage (pun not intended). I am sick of the uncaring, indeed, hostility to wildlife and nature ever present in our society.

Bill

Posted by billarbon almost 6 years ago

The L22 is my backup. Was my niece's camera, but like most young people she prefers phone. So it passed to my ma, who gave it to me. Always good to have a spare camera! And this will continue to serve as my backup camera.
The L22 is oldish, but has the great Nikon optics. It has almost no zoom, but takes incredible macro. While it uses AA batts, i have rechargeables in there.
I don't hesitate to crop my photos, removing any portion of the image that doesn't contribute to identification. Cropping for ID is much more ruthless than cropping for aesthetics. And it does save on memory usage -- though i'm learning to let go of that. Save them for a month or two after uploading, and then i delete. Move on.

Posted by ellen5 almost 6 years ago

I have learned through trial and error that the only way to control Men On Lawnmowers is to throw a tree branch down. It looks unintentional, and they will never get their asses off the mower to move a branch. They go around it for the rest of eternity. Mission accomplished.
At least, that worked for me in Alabama.
The thing is, you have to let them think that it was their own idea to skip that spot. As they say, all disputes are about control.

Posted by ellen5 almost 6 years ago

Sadly, they use tractors impervious to logs - rocks even. Usually, you're right about branches. And disputes are always about control. I want control! And of course, Get Smart was all about Control.

Posted by billarbon almost 6 years ago

Experimenting with the new A900 today. There's a learning curve, so my photos may continue to suck for awhile

Posted by ellen5 almost 6 years ago

Can hardly wait to see your A900 pics. Plus it has good video capability, so you've got to try that. I just posted another video on flickr for my latest observation (last month) of an overwintering Sharp-shinned Hawk. Take a look here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/151313979@N08/41531147352/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11196373

Posted by billarbon almost 6 years ago

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