Bowood 2015 #24 (Saturday 16th May 2015)

My particular reason for visiting Bowood this time was to test out a new camera. I am normally lugging two DSLR's and a bunch of accessories and felt the need for a lighter set-up involving only one camera for less important outings.

I'd also been impressed with the results obtained by friends with superzoom bridge cameras. I can get the equivalent of 630 mm with my DSLR's, but struggle due to weight with sharpness unless I add a tripod to the set-up, which I am loathe to do, and a longer lens would be very expensive, huge and even more heavy.

These superzooms are light and have very efficient image stabilisers built in, and although there is a compromise in image quality with the smaller sensor and the lens optics, it was clear that they could get results that I could not attempt with my current set-up.

My new Nikon Coolpix P900 arrived late on Friday 15th and I was keen to try it out, particularly to see how long a focal length I could effectively hand hold, as it has an equivalent range of 24 mm to 2000 mm.

The pictures in the album below were all taken on the P900 at a wide range of focal lengths, all hand held, including this blip of a hare, which to the naked eye just looked like a distant cow pat. The main problem was keeping the hare in the viewfinder as I tried to keep the camera steady, and I got many failures. I was amazed though that any were at all usable at that magnification. This was at 357 mm (2,000 mm equivalent).

The Extra shot of a swan on Bowood Lake could have been taken when I was by the lake, but was actually also taken at full zoom from the top of Lake Field, just before I saw the hare.

L.
25.5.2015 (1111hr)

Blip #1581 (#1831 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #002
Day #1879
LOTD #815 (#936 including archived blips)

A Visit To Bowood, 16 May 2015 (Flickr album)

Bowood 2015 series
Bowood series
Bowood 2013-2015 (Flickr collection)(Work in progress)
Extras series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Landshapes - Stay (2015)

One year ago:
Bowood 2014 #15