Gillian's gift

[Paul]

After her mum passed away, Gillian received a little bit from her legacy (hence the camera body). But as we were shopping in the St Georges Centre last week, we walked by the camera shop and she noticed a £200 trade in offer against lenses, and decided there and then that I should swap my old 55-250 (that crappy lens you hardly use were her words) for a better one. I'll pay for it and you can have it as a late birthday/early Christmas present.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth as the saying goes... So after a few enquiries we went back that afternoon and I brokered what I think is a great deal !

They price matched Park cameras (save £40) and offered £84 against my old 2013 (original IS series) lens (so that is now £124 saved) plus got the £200 trade-in bonus on top of that - so Gill spent just £325 instead of £700 on the lens. Now that's a bargain. I'm not meant to have until Christmas, but it seemed daft, so I have opened the box (with her consent) and am playing with it now.

Could be fun, and something different from my usual macro.

(BTW, she bought herself and our Rachel some lovely Pandora bracelet type thingies....  )

Anyhow, here are the first 5 photo's edited from using it.

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Paul

[Ryewolf]

Great set Paul and the lens looks to an absolute bargin

[Clicker]

Well done to  the missus  for spotting the deal too...   Pics look really good , sharp and crisp  and it seems a light weight too ... Impressive  bargain ! Look forward to more  examples .... 

[Paul]

Thank you both. It makes me feel a bit special having this alongside Geoff's lens.

My dark days of photography are becoming distant memories from when I had relinquished all my gear.

It's good to have the mojo again.

Paul.

[CMunzel]

What a great story, Paul. What is your new lens exactly? 

[Paul]

2 minutes ago, CMunzel said:

What a great story, Paul. What is your new lens exactly? 

It's a budget lens from Canon. The RF 100-400.

Being budget it has some limitations i.e. the quality of optics is nothing like L series glass, and it's minimum aperture at 400mm is only F/8 so not much bokeh really unless the distance behind the subject is really a long way off and diffused in its own way. But having said that it seems to perform quite well.

Paul.

[Ryewolf]

Seems to be sharp from the images, I bought a secondhand  Canon EF 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 L IS USM for £1200, brand new it would have been well over the £3000 mark, it does have it's disadvantages with the sheer weight - when added with the camera is close to 6lbs - and the fact that it's a push/pull zoom which takes some time to get used to

[Paul]

Cripes Geoff, that's a juggernaut price and weight. Lugging that would be heavy on the shoulders after a couple of hours. But oh the image quality would be worth it...

Paul.

[Ryewolf]

1 hour ago, Paul said:

Lugging that would be heavy on the shoulders after a couple of hours.

It is, it really needs to be used on a tripod rather than hand held, it does have a great advantage with the range of focal length. I know you went for the Canon R10 because of it's small size/weight

[Paul]

As the early evening drew in, the buzzards made one last circuit around the nature reserve... It was getting rather dull by now and these had to be worked in LR & PS to get the detail.

 

Paul.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Paul

[Paul]

Just processed some more from that first day out: the cormorants were a very long way off - I was surprised I got any detail at all. The robin stood out quite well from the background with some nice blur despite the limiting f/8 aperture - afforded by the trees beyond being a long way from both me and the bird. Finally there was a bank vole - but the problem was a long 400mm zoom in very dark woodland conditions and the shutter speed was an awful 1/25sec meaning the slight movement of the bank vole was noticeable. That said, I was pleasantly surprised that I got these results to be honest...

 

[VWGolf]

Great bargain and lovely pictures

 

[Paul]

9 hours ago, VWGolf said:

Great bargain and lovely pictures

 

 

Thank you Stella 

Paul.

[Clicker]

Thanks for adding more images to this post Paul ... The buzzards are  super  with lovely sharp isolation... gorgeous Robin  and bank vole...... and   ... are those cormorants on an inflatable ????

[Paul]

Cormorants seem like they are made of sterner stuff than most of our feathered friends!

Paul.