This post starts with the confession that I have sold my lovely Panasonic LX3, written about in an earlier post. The LX3 is compact, has a decent sensor for a compact camera, slightly larger than average, and a sensible 10 megapixel file to achieve decent noise performance. Additionally the Leica badged lens, is well regarded and has a great focal range for quality in the very wide to slightly telephoto range. Why then did I sell the LX3? The answer is that I barely used it. As I write this, I am looking at one of my favourite landscapes, it is on my wall, and I love it. It was taken with the LX3 in my first month of using it. The trouble is that I have only learned now that it wasn’t the camera for me.

The problem may seem odd, but when I lived with it for a while I realised it was simply too big to carry around casually. The excellent lens doesn’t retract into the body, so you couldn’t slip it into a pocket. In effect for me it was a smaller lighter version of carrying my DSLR, and I thought I was buying it as compact. It had a nice compact leather case, and I occasionally slung that over my shoulder, but that wasn’t much more convenient for me than my DSLR with a single 17-85 lens in a basic bag, so I tended to carry a DSLR instead. Great as the LX3 is, it still has a small sensor, and so as a portrait photographer, it doesn’t give the magical Depth of Field control that my large sensor DSLR does, hence another reason why the reduction in size wasn’t enough to tempt me; if I was a landscape photographer then it would be more worthwhile. (The amazing landscape photographer, Charlie Waite sang it’s praises as a compact walkaround tool in a recent edition of Amateur Photographer.)

So the result of this thinking is that I have bought a new compact camera. The Canon S95 is genuinely compact, and even fits in a jeans pocket. It has a 28 to 105 (I think) equivalent lens, the same larger but still small sensor, RAW files like the LX3, the sensible 10 megapixel files and a bucketload of fun toys like HDR and arty filter programmes that I’ll probably never use. This is simply about first impressions, but they are very good. This camera travels with me; I’m not going to be too precious about protective cases. Fine for storage, or for putting in a bag, but if I’m out for a meal or a stroll around town, then this will slip in a pocket and be a useful tool. I’ll say more about it once I’ve had more time with it.

This is a casual snap outside Glasgow’s Central Station using streetlights only. (ISO1600 f2 1/10th sec)

I also have the Sony Nex 5, and I hope it will take a place in my collection of cameras, and I’ll say more about that shortly, but at least, I now think I could be happy with my S95 for casual carrying, and my DSLR for the most of my photography.

This was another part of the Loch Oich stretch:

Fairly soon Loch Oich passes and you can look back and enjoy a morning’s progress:

After Loch Oich you walk another stretch of the Caledonian Canal:

Which takes you to Fort Augustus and the amazing series of Locks there taking the canal down to the head of Loch Ness. These are really dramatic and feature water tumbling over them at all times; at night they light them nicely. This one was with my LX3 as we had a stroll in the evening to pig out as a reward for day 3. It is a bit grainy so black and white was necessary to help the grain to look OK:

Day 4 sees you climbing out of Fort Augustus and giving your first view of the loch.

After some forestry you arrive in Invermoriston where this bridge is really worth looking at. I’ve driven over it at least 20 times, but at 40mph you don’t see this stuff:

As you leave Invermoriston to climb again, you find this amazing sign outside a gift shop; they deserve to sell a thousand pairs. This is comic genius:

Half way up the climb I grabbed this picture of Catherine; I really like this one. I noticed Catherine was slightly backlit and so popped up the flash. I would love a full-frame 5D, but would I miss my pop up flash for walking:

End of day 4. One more post to come…..

Just a quick one from our walk up the hill behind Howwood on Thursday evening. The light was very low as the sun had gone down, but it did have a lovely quality about it. It seemed to make the grass unnaturally green. The LX3 was in my pocket and I tried a snap of Catherine against the fading sunset without any flash. The LX3 chose ISO 250 on auto-ISO and gave about 1/100th of a second on the maximun f2.7 aperture that I was able to select at that focal length. (The LX3 was zoomed almost right in – probably 55 mm equivalent). I like this portrait; it has just enough light, but nothing to spare.

And here’s a rather dramatic tree.

And here’s Catherine being more optimistic about the grey sky than I am!

The west flank of Kenmuir Hill towards Castle Semple Loch and Lochwinnoch. Sky burned-in as best as I could manage from the LX3 raw.

And finally the “Tigger” of crap-sky photography with her new EOS 1000D. (Headwear by “Buff”)

I know it’s a little pathetic, but I’m very fond of our little cat, Pepsi. Like all cats, she’s a little selfish and wicked, but she’s also very affectionate (when it suits her). The problem is twofold, she won’t look at a camera, no seriously she won’t, and she’s so black that you need just the right lighting. Black cats just reflect the light if it’s too bright like a flash, if the light is too low then the picture is just a black shape. Yesterday I noticed that the sunbeam she was standing in was giving the right amount of soft light, and my LX3 was at hand. I tricked her into looking at me, brought the Panny up close and luckily she looked at me just long enough for the autofocus to work. I then tried for a full 5 minutes to get her to look at me again but as soon as the camera pointed at her she would look at her paws or anywhere else. Any cat psychologists know why she does this? Do cats believe we’re stealing their souls?

Sorry I haven’t posted for a couple of days. Between being away for a conference and then rushing back to hang the portraits in “Offshore cafe’s” exhibition space there hasn’t been time. On Friday night Catherine and our dear friends Gerry and Elisabeth got stuck into the task and discovered the true scale of hanging100 12″ x 9″ images; 500 sticky pads needing cut, 100 name and description cards as well as wrestling with newly painted walls where the paint has set with a powdery finish. A big thanks to my helpers. I wen’t back yesterday and finished the job as we only managed 70 on Friday night.

Anyway, the exhibition is up, and I’m really pleased to see it coming together. If you’re near Glasgow then head to Offshore Cafe, Gibson Street in Glasgow’s west end.

This is the River Clyde from the water’s edge at Kirn by Dunoon. The landmass jutting in on the left is the Rosneath peninsula from Argyll between two naval bases. The land on the right is Greenock and Gourock in Inverclyde. I was amazed to see a downpour happening in Rosneath while Greenock was dry. These were amazing clouds. I snatched my LX3 from the car hopped down to the beach and grabbed a few handheld and wide at 24mm. Aperture closed down to f5.6 (small for the LX3 sensor) and ISO on 80. I was delighted to get 1/800th of a second as a result; yay, spring must be here.

For the pixel peepers, there is still some noise at ISO 80, not bad, but it’s there.

Often I drive past this wonderful view of the Clyde and Argyll with its rough landscape. This week I couldn’t resist stopping and taking this view with my ever present LX3. I braced it on a fencepost to steady it for this view. The foreground is a cemetery. the large crane marks the docks where the QE2 and other ocean liners berth, and the peninsula opposite is the Rosneath peninsula. I used to work in a school near this spot and my classroom looked out over this view; how lucky was I?

First the 40D pictures: (all 17-85 f4 IS)

And now 2 from the panny: (both full 24mm wide angle)

I hope to thaw out soon.

Just another two from the LX3 at our last Celtic Connections visit for 2009. It was in Glasgow’s City Halls and I’m afraid my seat allowed me to take a few low light snaps but not to centre up or get close. I’ve reall just posted them as another example of the LX3 working in low light invironments. These were at 1/6th and 1/10th of a second shutter speeds respectively with image stabilisation on by default.