Travel
by John
Hi bloggers!
Sorry about the intervals between posts lately. I have been busy with other stuff. Mainly to do with planning my trip to UK in May. But also doing jobs for SWMBO as she requires (part of the price for going on my own to UK).
Also, my CNC mill is not working. The Y axis suddenly stopped functioning. I pulled out the servo motor, a heavy, awkward job, and Stuart discovered a broken wire leading to the encoder. That was fixed. Reinstalled the servo and the mill seemed fine. Then the same fault recurred. So later today I will pull out the servo again, and take another look.
This post will be mainly about a new camera which I have bought, instigated by my forthcoming trip.
It is a Panasonic Lumix LX100M2. And although small, its capabilities are astounding (at least to me, who has not bought a camera for almost 10 years- except for the iphone camera, which is also astounding.)
And this the reason I bought it.
The Nikon D300 is still a great camera, and I have some excellent lenses and other gear for it, but it is just so big and heavy.
The Lumix does not quite fit into a pocket, but the cameras which are that bit smaller, have other limitations… like controls which are too close together for my older, fatter and clumsier fingers.
It is also a video camera, and Panasonic do excellent video cameras. One major minus is the absence of a microphone jack. The built in mike is ‘OK’.
I am still learning how to use this technological marvel. It has a few surprises. One was a feature which takes multiple photos of single object at different focus points. This allows picking the frame which has the best part in focus.
It has Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, but I have been unable to get them to connect with my iphone or computer, despite following the instructions. Need some help on that one.
I wont list all the features. Look it up if you are interested. Instead, I will show you some of the first shots which I have taken. These are all taken at 8 megapixels rather than the maximum 17-20, to reduce uploads and storage space.
This is a shot where I chose the focus point after shooting. I could also have amalgamated all of the shots so every point was in focus.
I am very pleased with the picture quality, but wish that it did not show the machining mistakes. Must get around to bogging and painting. It has a fixed zoom lens, 17-20 megapixel, mirrorless. This is 3:2 format. The previous picture was 1:1 format.
Bronze statue in Geelong’s Botanic Gardens. One of only a few of these of Queen Victoria in existence. The Lumix does not have a cropping facility (that I have found), so this was cropped after loading onto the computer. (21/4/19- found the cropping facility, and heaps of other options buried in menus. My admiration for this camera grows as I am becoming familiar with it.)
The video capability also seems very good, and you will see evidence of that as I post stuff on my trip.
johnsmachines 
Hi John,
I’ve been very busy around the homestead these past few months getting or house ready for market and packing up, discarding, giving away or selling things as I repair, replace and renovate. Hence I’ve been scarce.
Before I could even pull my burner thoughts together you posted a pic of the new burner with the unneeded secondary air ports closed with screws. The moment I saw it I knew you had the answer. I wasn’t at all surprised that you can’t fire it with coal at that scale.
I just got a new flameworking burner. Wish I could attach a pic; I’ll put one on Facebook or somewhere soon, it’s a beauty.
Although I have a digital Nikon (and a slew of analog Nikon, Leica, and Polaroid camera equipment) I’d give it all for a Lumix. I’ve had the pleasure of using a couple of different models belonging to a close friend of mine and am very impressed by their performance and ease of use. Best digital camera I’ve ever used. Compact, light, precise, great optics. It’s the Perfect camera for your trip.
Have you decided upon your itinerary yet?
Aloha,
Richard
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I hope you got my post of a few moments ago. I have no idea if it got sent or not…
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Didn’t come through Richard.
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It was rather long and I can’t quickly recreate it right now. I must sleep… This has happened a few times to me on WordPress.
I should just call you on the phone. It would be so much easier. I reviewed the Lumix, burners, and life. Damn.
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double damn.
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Richard, I found your post in my spam folder. I Unspammed it but it did not make it to the comments folder. I did get to read it though, and am very pleased that you endorsed the Lumix. As you can tell from the photos I posted, I think that the camera quality is great. I did not see the burner drawing. My email is jviggers@iinet.net.au if you get around to sending it again. John
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