Don't you love it when you rediscover something you really hadn't seen for some time? It's like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in ages. This happened to me when I went through my camera gear as my interest was re-vitalized again after a long break. I came across the Panasonic GX7 and realized it really feels good in my hand. Looking through the viewfinder (which isn't the best) and realized it tilts up ...

Background Information.
In 2016 the wife and myself, together with a few friends did a sailing trip around the Amalfi Coast in Italy. It was the first time for all of us to do this sort of thing except for one person who had done a similar trip in Greece a few years earlier. She argued that she really enjoyed it and we should do the same in Italy. We were actually looking for a ...

Lens 1. Panasonic 8-18 f2.8-4.0

Panasonic 8-18 f2.8-4.0
Weight: 315g
Size: 88mm x 73mm
Aperture: f2.8 - f22
MFD: 23cm
Filter: 67mm
Price: €1050

I decided to replace my Panasonic 7-14 f4 lens because of the problem I have of using it on my Olympus cameras. The purple blotch problem was just getting out of hand and I do tend to favour my Olympus cameras over the Panasonic. However, I think this lens ...

The day didn't look too promising and a lot of rain was forecast. We have been very lucky with the weather, not rained once really, only a few showers and we were able to go out each day. So out came my small camera bag holding the E-M5 II with the Panasonic 7-14 f4 mounted. I also threw in the Panasonic TZ101 because it takes up hardly any room. I had a feeling we were ...

Chateau Villandry is worth the visit for the gardens alone (as seen in the images below). Most of the Loire Valley chateaus are in quite good condition. Of course some restoration work has had to be done over time, but still, it's easy to see where original stone still exists today. The cost of keeping these buildings in tip-top condition costs a fortune, hence the high entry fee we all have to pay.

During a trip like this, where you've come to do a certain tour, you need a little break once in awhile. This is exactly what we did today and did something completely different. This is our last day in Blois before moving on.

From the map above you can see how large the zoo is.

Not too far away from Blois situated in the middle of nowhere is one ...

Today, for our first visit, we did a village north of the Loire River. All, or most, of the popular chateaus seem to be on the south side of the Loire. I wonder why? Anyway, the first village we visited was Talcy. Of course it also has a chateau. I think every little village in this part of France has a chateau. We didn't visit these villages for the sole purpose of their chateaus, we ...

To make up for the disappointment yesterday we headed for two different locations. My shutter therapy is falling short right now!

Our first stop was Cheverny. Built between 1620 and 1634. All the finishing on the towers weren't completed until 1648 however. It's the first chateau to be built as a chateau without any defensive or military purposes in mind. And what a beautiful building it is. I could see me living there too, ...

Today we took a break from looking at chateaus, even one chateau per day can be too much at times so we headed out for the town of Orleans. With some 120,000 inhabitants, it's one of the bigger towns in the region and offers some great sights to see. It was the capital of medieaval France until the mid-18th Century. During the French Revolution it bacame stauchly Republican. The cathedral dominates the town (Cathedrale-Ste-Croix) and ...

We headed south west in the direction of Chenonceaux which is the village that gives it’s name to Chateau Chenonceau. Aptly named as  the “Palace of Women” because over the ages only women have owned and lived in the chateau. Originally built in 1512 by Catherine Briconnet it was Diane de Poitiers who would build the bridge that spans the Cher river. Catherine de Medici then added the galleries over the bridge.

Chenonceau ...

The heat is oppressive today. We feel like taking a shower every 15 minutes. Despite this we battled our way to the largest chateau in France, Chambord.

As you can see from the map above, Chambord isn't far at all from Blois where we were staying for some 10 days. The map shows where a couple of hundred chateaus are situated in the Loire Valley. That's why we chose Blois as ...

An earlier post I did was about "Lens GAS" and all the excellent lenses I would dearly love to own but can't justify. Well, lets see what excellent lenses I do own and can highly recommend.

Since I own quite a few excellent lenses, I'll mention only those I think are outstanding and can recommend all photographers take a look at them (if you own that system of course). If you don't own the system, maybe ...

What better time to test a couple of new cameras than a family weekend in a new city. We do this once a year at around the end of May when everybody seems to have the time before summer starts. We select a different city every year and this year it was Wuerzburg. It’s situated in Bavaria, Germany and all of us can be there within a couple of hours by car.

I’ve already done the ...

Known in Germany as the TZ101 and as Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS100/TZ100 elsewhere (which I haven't a clue as to why) was purchased as my pocketable go anywhere daylight camera. The reason for the daylight is because of it's f5.9 aperture at the long end. As many of you know I like to shoot long and I wanted something small with a longish lens. It didn't have be fast at the long end, that would make ...

This is supposed to be the little brother of the GX8. I see the GX85 as the big brother of the GX7, a halfway house if you like. If you look at the images below, you can hardly tell the cameras apart, and I have to hold it and look at it to tell the difference. OK, my G85 is brown which makes it easier to tell which is which, but at the bricks and ...

Every manufacturer bring their cameras to market with a standard (normally sub-par) kit lens. Normally I discard these as “not-up-to-my-standard” and they end up in a corner somewhere. The only reason I get some of these lenses is when I can’t find a body only offer but sometimes these lenses surprise me with their image quality. Some of them are not to be discarded as I stated above, “sub-par”.

There are times a lens comes out ...

Having just tested the Olympus 14-42 f3.5-5.6 EZ I was expecting the same sort of performance from this lens. Lets just look at these two for a minute; both are 14-42mm, both are f3.5-5.6 and both have a power zoom (or electronic zoom). Lets see the specs for the lens:

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42 f3.5-5.6 PZ Power O.I.S.
Weight: 95g
Size: 27mm x 61mm
Aperture: f3.5 - f22
MFD: 20cm
Filter: 37mm
Price: €330

What a beautiful little lens. Comes with a hood and a rubber cap to cover the front element that doesn’t come off when you take it out of your bag. This lens just smells of Leica.

It’s got Leica in the name and although it’s not built by Leica the quality is visibly superior to your normal Panasonic built lenses. They are built to Leica specifications which was a real coup for Panasonic. Quality is much ...

I’ve always wanted to go down to Cornwall, but never quite managed it. Don’t ask me why I want to go there but I suppose it’s to do with it’s history and the rugged coastline I’ve been hearing a lot about. The small harbours nestling among the ragged cliffs. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Well, a few weeks ago I had a chance to do just that and my wife and myself stayed in Cornwall for a ...

I believe I've mentioned that the Panasonic GM5 really got my attention after I took it with me to the south of France last year (as an afterthought). The camera and the lenses made for it are so small and light you really don't realise that you're carrying them around with you.

I normally use the two lenses made for it; the 12-32 f3.5-5.6 OIS and the 35-100 f4.0-5.6 OIS. These two lenses were especially ...

My last post was regarding adapters for using Canon EF lenses on Sony E-mount and M43 systems. Having tested a few lenses I felt I could post again with some more information with a few images to show the results of using those lenses on the Sony E-mount.

Firstly, the Commlite adapter. I've only tested the Canon 40 f2.8 STM lens on a Sony E-mount camera as of this post so I'll probably test ...

                                   Zeiss T* 85 F4 Tessar ZM

Sometimes, just sometimes you purchase a new piece of equipment and you just fall in love with it. This is the experience I had after purchasing the Zeiss Tessar 85 f4 lens. It's just a wonderful piece of engineering. It's actually quite compact at 95mm with a diameter of 54mm but I class it as being quite hefty weighing in at 310g. As a matter of fact I wanted ...