I bought another picture-taking device used by photographers. Camera. A camera. That's what we call them these days.
A few years ago when it became time to sort out my possessions and trim them back I had 13 cameras. I cut that to two, one "big" and one small. I've hardly used the big one in the five years since, but do use the small one all the time. It's the best single camera I've ever had, a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-Hx50V (pant, pant).
It has a long name and a long reach: "The smallest 30x optical zoom camera", Sony says breathlessly, and it is good, for a tiny camera with a tiny sensor, and I love it, and am moving up to a different camera.
This new one is a Panasonic "LUMIX 4K Digital Camera ZS100 with 20 Megapixel Sensor, 25-250mm F/2.8-5.9 LEICA DC Lens Zoom, WiFi and Electronic Viewfinder - Black". Also pant, pant. That's a lot to say.
The "old" sensor is small. The "new" sensor is also small, but much larger. It's a case of a 1/2.3" sensor versus a 1" sensor, which is four times larger. Larger is gooder. One hundred sixteen square millimeters as opposed to twenty-eight point five. Sounds appropriately impressive, right?
The new lens doesn't have as much reach, but with the larger sensor I can crop the image and get close to the same effect. In Barnack (35mm) units, it's a case of 720mm versus 250mm. Optional digital zooms on each camera amount to 1440mm and 500mm, respectively, and result in somewhat degraded images.
The small sensor is great on simple subjects with little detail, like the murals I've been photographing for the last five years, as at the top of this post, but gets confused when there is too much detail, as in an outdoor scene.
So who gives a fart? Nobody. I'm only trying to stay in practice with blogging. The next post might be interesting, but don't expect it to be because I'm not.
Full speed ahead then, gentlemen, and let's try not to fall off our horses with excitement.
More info.