What're you thinking right now??

[Bob Andersson]

Hi popo,

Keeping the Canon kit certainly offers extra choices with smart adapters now becoming available allowing the E-M1's embedded phase AF to drive AF on Canon glass, albeit without seeing the benefit that the smaller sensor brings to overall size and weight to m4/3rds native glass. Here's a non-train photo captured during the same holiday - Otter. The EXIF data is intact but I did digitally crop a fraction. Olympus rocks.

Bob.

[RexGig]

Excellent otter image!

[popo]

Installed PSE14. The interface is going to take some getting used to. Common to other software trends, there is a general dumbing down and everything is big without actually doing anything. Don't know if I can get it as sleek as the older versions but every time you hit a tool you get a huge toolbox jump in the bottom of the screen, most of which is empty space. Why can't it be a little floating box or to the side? Vertical space is what I'm short of, so let's waste as much of that as possible.

[MrCliff]

I love the idea of a photo of the day. I find it nearly impossible to do however. What is most atractive about it is that your snap is per-described for you. Not a landscape or still or other. Just of the day. I like it. Happy Trails

[RexGig]

I am, again, deep in thought, pondering whether to attend a meeting in December to arrange a retirement date in the first half of 2016. I can, actually, retire at any time, but every December and June can arrange a more-favorable "phase-down" option, to receive my unused leave by being paid bi-weekly for twenty hours per pay period, based upon my remaining hours of accrued leave.

Retirement would mean no more forensic/crime scene shooting, which causes mixed feelings. I still feel a desire to document a crime scene, and/or injuries, with images, but I must still perfrom the other tasks of police work, which are becoming more distasteful, and sometimes requiring a level of energy and athleticism I simply no longer have. Transferring to a desk job, with daytime hours, would mean a substantial cut in pay, which would affect my future monthly pension payment amount; it is better to be at a high pay rate near the end of one's career.

It is not that I am afraid of the adventurous parts; driving (reasonably) fast, with lights flashing, to a major crime-in-progress, is still a thrilling rush, even knowing I cannot run as fast, or jump as high or as far, anymore.

[RexGig]

I think it has become very quiet in these forums.

I photographed a suicide scene last night, using my 7D Mark II, 24-105L, and a 600EX-RT, and I was reminded how wonderful and accurate the colors and default sharpness can be. (My crime scene and forensic images must be uploaded as OOC JPEGs; no post-processing allowed.)

Yes, I can, indeed, photograph a bloody suicide scene, and mostly think of the colors and sharpness, while reviewing my images. This is neither good nor bad; it just is. I hope the way I have said this makes sense; I only slept three hours yesterday, and have yet to sleep today. Retirement, whether it happens in three months or three years, will be nice.

[Ivan Manko]

Shooting a manual rangefinder and, here in Spain, often wearing sunglasses ( ) made me think: wouldn’t it be cool to have a light meter somehow inside the glasses?
I guess we'll never know...

[MrCliff]

Looking at some facts on the 7D Mk II on dpreview. Clicked on their review link and the Camera Labs review was before me. Team work, consolidation, other?

[RexGig]

Well, I did not elect to choose a retirement phase-down option in December, for first the first half of 2016, so the next chance will be in June 2016, for the second half of 2016. This would mean making a very important life decision in the next four months. The difference, in this upcoming time period, is that a significant pay raise in April 2004, plus an upcoming difference in the way the pension were to be calculated in May 2004, prompted many of my colleagues to set, or re-set their entry into a Deferred Retirement Option Plan, a.k.a. D.R.O.P., in April 2004. This means a huge number of my colleagues will achieve a psychologically significant figure in their D.R.O.P. accounts in early 2017. In my case, I reached twenty years of service in late March 2004, so early April was my logical time to enroll in D.R.O.P., anyway.

Secondly, The NFL's Super Bowl will be held in this area in 2017, and many of my colleagues are postponing their retirements until after the Super Bowl. "American" NFL Football is akin to a national religion in the USA, and even though I am totally agnostic toward NFL, it affects us all, to a degree. Many of my colleagues have indicated that they wish to be a part of what they see as a significant historic event, as a finale to their careers. (A smaller, but significant number, wish to retire just before the Super Bowl, as many duty assignments will be for long hours of mind-numbing boredom.)

Combined, these two factors mean a significant exodus in early 2017. If I want to choose my preferred Phase-Down option, receiving my two-plus years' unused leave at half-pay, over four-plus years, I will probably have to beat the crowd, either by retiring in 2016, or waiting beyond 2017, as only a specified number of retirees are allowed to select this most-desired half-pay option, during each six-month cycle. Colleagues with more seniority than me, re-set their D.R.O.P. entry to April 2004, in significant numbers, so the likelihood my being able to choose half-pay Phase-Down is low to non-existent.

How is this related to photography? Well, I shoot crime scene images, being the "camera unit" on night shift, for a patrol division that serves a population of about 170K residents. Retirement means I will not only cease to be a police officer, but will cease photography for official purposes*. (I do not claim the title of "professional" photographer.) On the other hand, retirement means much more free time to travel, and photograph things that are difficult to schedule in advance, such as wildlife or the night sky in favorable weather.

Additionally, I am postponing some significant lens purchases until retirement. A nice bird/wildlife super-telephoto is almost a sure purchase, after a period of renting one or more to be sure I select the best for my needs. A really low-coma ultra-wide lens, for night skies, is also a consideration, if I find my current lenses sufficiently lacking. The increased free time, after retirement, should be a good time for my photography. It is not just the lenses, either, I will be more free to attend training, especially in post-processing, which is where I am at a low skill level. (My forensic/crime scene images must be OOC JPEGs.)

*Actually, an "honorably-retired" peace officer, especially one who continues to attend the mandated biannual training necessary to maintain one's peace officer license, could still act in an official capacity, if requested to do so, under some limited circumstances. (One is only a "peace officer," with the powers of that office, if actively employed by an accredited law enforcement entity; merely maintaining the peace officer license confers no official powers or responsibility.)

[MrCliff]

Gordon's "snap" from 4K video of a sea gull in flight is one of the most interesting bird shots I've ever seen. Photo detail is excellent and the moment in time produced a remarkable image. I'm thinking the purists won't call grabs from video photography. I is in my book. Sublime.

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panas ... rd_745.jpg

[Jiko]

I think it's a nice possibility now. 4K is offering a nice resolution!

I'm going to walk the way of St. James in two months. Not just walking but also documenting. I need to reduce the weight of my equipment but still I need high quality stuff as it's a part of my final exam in my university. I reduced my equipment to that: Canon EOS 5D Mark III without my battery grip + Canon EF 100mm 2.8 L Macro IS USM + EF 50mm 1.8 II + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + 4 batteries + charger. No tele lens, no general purpose lens. If I can get a GoPro for that time I'd even leave the Sigma at home. The next thought is to leave the 5D Mark III at home and take the 650D with me.
Why?
- It's lighter.
- It's smaller.
- It has the articulated screen.
- It's not so expensive if something happens to it. And as it's a more mainstream camera it's less likely to be stolen.
- I definitely need my 5D Mark III when I get into work next year and on the way I'm going to take quite a LOT of shots (shutter etc.) like stuff for time lapse videos.
But why not?
- I'm not sure if I'm going to be satisfied with the quality, especially in low light.
- The 650D is less robust and weather sealed so it's more likely to have problems in rain / in the desert parts of the way.
- I'm losing wider angles due to the crop factor.

Hard decision. I'll have to use the 650D for a while now and see if it's good enough.

(I'd love to have a 760D or even the 80D but I don't have the money for it )

[RexGig]

Have a good pilgrimage, Jiko!

I had thought I might do this pilgrimage, someday, after I retire and start visiting your side of "The Pond." It had not yet occurred to me which camera/lens might be best-suited.

Edited to fix a typographical error. The error resulted in an actual word, so spell-check was unable to catch it.

[Bob Andersson]

.
Wish I didn't already own the OM-D E-M1 Mark I so I could order the Mark II which looks spectaclier [sic].

[Jiko]

I just realized the last piece of equipment I bought was the Canon EOS 5D Mark III back in 2012. Since then my equipment just works fine.