New Camera

Most photos posted on this blog over the last four years, and virtually everything over the last two, have been courtesy of the Panasonic Lumix FZ45 14 megapixel bridge camera that I bought in August 2010. When I bought it, it was to replace the second-hand Canon EOS 350D I'd been using with a 90-300mm zoom lens, and also my old Nikon CoolPix 4500 that was about dead and only usable indoors for moth shots. The flexibility of the Lumix was soon put to good use, with 24x optical zoom, HD video and anything from macro to panoramic on consecutive shots. I was a little disappointed with the noisy sensor that meant that anything over ISO 200 was not great, and the in-built macro zoom was also a bit noisy. When I got hold of a Raynox DCR-250 macro conversion lens in May 2012, the quality of the macro shots improved dramatically and since then it's been a brilliant tool out in the field. It still works perfectly with no dead pixels, battery life is brilliant and I'm happy with the macro shots. But it's four years old and things move on.

I've been grappling with the idea of going back to a DSLR for a few months, with the main objectives being to get better image quality at higher ISO and to try and get a few more bird shots. Main reason I haven't gone for it was down the same old problem of needing various lenses to do everything I want to do whilst out in the field - and that means ridiculous cost. I very nearly went for it though, with a Canon EOS 70D the likely target. But I then started thinking about other stuff I'd like to try, like underwater photography/video. So I finally decided that rather than spending the best part of £800 on a DSLR and basic lens (for which I'd then have to spend another couple of grand on proper lenses) I would upgrade my bridge camera and also go for something completely different to play with (I'll come back to that).

So for the bridge. My first decision was that it woudn't be Panasonic. The Lumix is great, but I want a cleaner shot at higher ISO for birds. I considered the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS - it has a 50x optical zoom but is only 12.1 megapixels. Looking at a few other options, I decided to go for the Nikon CoolPix P600 - 16.1 megapixels, 60x optical zoom and given the long happy experience I had with the 4500 it felt right going for another Nikon. I bought it this week - £299.00 - significantly cheaper than a DSLR option and cheaper than the Lumix when it was new.

Been out today having a quick play with it. I've proven it with the Raynox DCR-250 both with and without flash, checked out the in-built macro and had a play about with various different settings. I've got a few shots of bits to post separately, but the main thing I managed to try out was getting a few bird shots. Helps when there is an obliging subject but first impressions are that I am going to get what I wanted from this camera.

This Grey Heron was knocking about along the dam at Swithland Reservoir. The lighting wasn't great but all of these shots were taken with the ISO set to auto 100 - 400, and all shots are either full width or height crops (resized for the blog).

The next three are all at the full 60x optical zoom (35mm camera equivalent is a 1440mm lens!).

Pretty pleased with these to say the least, far better than I've ever managed with the Lumix or any previous camera I've owned. I shot a few other birds as well .....

Mallard

Shoveler

Shoveler

Pied Wagtail

This last one is actually a quite heavy crop from a shot at 60x optical zoom.

I mentioned another camera which I am going to get. I'm going for one of the new GoPro Hero 4 cameras, just trying to decide whether to go for the silver version with built-in LCD or the black edition which will have much higher res video options. Main reason I want to get one of these is that they come with a waterproof housing and I can stick it in rivers and rockpools to try and get some nice video of stuff that is off-limits at the moment. Plus they are quite funky little cameras anyway. I'm away on holiday after next week so would be good to have it available for then. I'll have two excellent cameras for different things, at a total cost of less than the DSLR option which wouldn't do half as much.

Dip

On Friday night at the LROS meeting, John Hague asked me what my plans were for Sunday. 'Nothing much, why?' was my response, but it should have been 'A bit of gardening, sorting out a TV aerial and definitely not going on an out-of-county twitch'. And so it was that I counted myself in to a twitch to Spurn if the Isabelline Wheatear was still around on Saturday. I was not available on Saturday and neither was John - but the bird remained on view all day. So with positive news up until dusk, we left John's at 6am yesterday and arrived at Spurn after it was properly light and just in time to find out 'no sign so far this morning'. Arse, feck, bastard, bugger.

Back in the day when I used to twitch much more regularly than the current once a year or so, dipping was part and parcel of the 'game' although I was remarkably lucky and suffered very few momentous dips. Often I either came away happy, or was dipping with the whole twitching community (eg October 2000 Siberian Blue Robin at Minsmere). The only dip that really grated was driving up to Scotland overnight in June 1997 and spending c6 hours in the pissing rain looking at nothing, only to receive a pager message a few hours later on the way home that 'Roller still at Lochaber Loch'. The last bitter out-of-county dipping experience for me was back in October 2002 when I was already in the throws of giving up twitching. That was in bloody Yorks as well (White-throated Sparrow at Flamborough).

Anyway, back to Spurn. We duly ignored the negative info. and set about looking for the wheatear. In the process, we saw very little (lots of very distant waders, a few close in Knot, a Grey plover, some Redwings and a Wren .......). we certainly didn't see any rare exciting passerines. This was made all the more galling by the continued presence of another Izzy Whitearse in Wales. Bastard!

After walking and searching for a good while, we gave it up and headed off to grab a bite. With everything closed locally, we decided to head back the other side of Hull to eat and then go to Blacktoft Sands. At least we'd see something on the day out, and be within distance in the unlikely event that the Wheatear popped up again.

Click for big - typical view from a Blacktoft hide

Click for big - Shelduck Shoveler Island

I do like Blacktoft, and it provided some pleasing birding spectacles though nothing unexpected. 1000s of Golden Pover were constantly filling the skies, and we got superb views as a decent number of them fed in a field adjacent to the reserve along with masses of Lapwings . Sadly no sign of the recently present Common Crane though. We also had a few various-sized skeins of Pink-feet heading over in all directions (including some going back and forth for some reason), c200 being the biggest group.

Click for big - all those dots are Goldies and Lapwings

Click for big - aimlessly wandering Pink-feet

We stayed for the raptor roost, picking up anywhere between a conservative 10 and 13 Marsh Harriers including one or two superb full adult males. Also one, possibly two, ringtail Hen Harriers including a very close fly-by. But sadly no owls, no Merlin and no Bittern.

Click for big and spot the Marsh Harrier

Perhaps the least expected things we saw all day were a couple of Red Admirals and at least 6 Common Darters soaking up the late afternoon sun .....

Dipping was a pain, and Blacktoft was maybe not as great as it could have been, but the day out was still a whole lot better than gardening and sorting out a TV aerial!

Feeding Tree Sparrows

Feeding Shelduck

Incidentally, 'Isabelline' is a colour and though the etymology is inconclusive the theories about it's origin appear to relate to piss-stained underwear .......