The Secret Garden

Those lovely people at Panasonic have been giving people a chance to try out their new Micro Four-Thirds camera the G2 at various popular attractions and this weekend were at Longleat in Wiltshire. I had arranged to visit yesterday afternoon and spent over two hours with it in Longleat's grounds and gardens. One wag called out to enquire whether I was Lord Bath's brother. I don't see the resemblance myself but I expect he recognized my innate air of nobility...
It was supplied to me with the 14-42mm zoom (equivalent to 28-84mm in 35mm money), which was ideal for Longleat except on a couple of occasions when I really needed a telephoto.
Ergonomically the G2 was a joy to handle and despite not having a manual the only facility I couldn't work out how to use was exposure compensation (explained to me afterwards). The lens was light and compact and the electronic viewfinder was busy constantly focusing for me even before I began to depress the shutter. Conditions were a bit bright for the swivelling LCD touchscreen but I can confirm that it worked well when I tested it. The camera was light but not as vastly smaller than a DSLR as I had expected, as this is surely their chief USP over the DSLR. The results from the Leica optics were very impressive, and I could quickly learn to love the G2 if I had one.
Of the 150 shots I took I wanted to blip one that was specific to Longleat, so have chosen the door to the Secret Garden, taken from the inside, which also fits in my Textures and Colours series. I have posted many others from the shoot on Flickr and an alternative shot is in Extras, along with the other side of the blipped door.

L.
26.7.2010

Longleat, 25 July 2010 (Flickr album of 79 images taken with Lumix G2)