Lumix TZ7 - First Impressions

There are many times when walking Bobby that I want a camera with me but a hefty DSLR and zoom lens are not the easiest of things to control. Many years ago I bought a Pentax Optio, sturdily built, small enough to go in a shirt pocket, 3X zoom lens, 3.2 M pixels and video facility (very poor). At the time it seemed great but technology has moved on since then and the quality doesn't come up to my expectations any more.

A few days ago I was looking through some blogs and saw a video taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 and was very impressed. A quick search for its specifications showed it has a 12X zoom (the equivalent of 25mm to 300mm on a 35mm camera), 10.1 M pixels  and the ability to take HD video. That did it, along with good independent reviews, I had to have one. Looked on the Argos site - out of stock in every store within 30 mile radius. Looked on the Amazon site - a bit cheaper than Argos and in stock. Opted for overnight delivery and it arrived Friday morning.

It's a bit larger than the Pentax but still pocketable, sturdily built and easy to hold with the main controls within easy reach. As is usual these days there are endless menus which take some getting used to but easy to read on a large clear LCD screen. No viewfinder which is a pity as even a modern bright LCD screen is hard to see in bright sunlight.

First trials were around the garden. With the lens set to wide angle and using the macro facilities it is possible to get as close as 3cm to a subject so I tried it out on various plants. The auto focus and image stabiliser worked well. All of the photos have been cropped to some extent, some more than others.







Next thing was to take it out and about. A couple of riders were coming down the street so out with the camera, fire it up, point and press.



To get a photo of this horse in the paddock I had to poke the camera through a gap in the hedge.



Back at home a ladybird co-operated even with the lens about 3 cm from its body.



And this unknown bug was so determind to have its portrait taken it landed on my hand.



Of course a photo session would not be complete without a shot of my ever lively Bobby.



 Finally after a couple of visits to the churchyard I managed to capture some video of the Black East India Ducks. The video has been processed to reduce the file size.. The original is 848 x 480 pixels HD. Filmed hand held.



All in all I have been very impressed with the performance of the Lumix TZ7 and its Leica lens. Battery life is a lot shorter than  the Canon DSLR - up to 300 stills or 90 minutes of video are stated in the handbook. The camera has approximately 40 MB of internal memory which can be used for photos or low quality video otherwise you need to buy a SDHC memory card to take full advantage of all its facilities. Photos are stored in jpeg format and videos in AVCHD lite for HD or QuickTime motion jpeg for other video sizes. Software is supplied for handling the HD video format though I found that my copy of Daniusoft Video Converter will convert any of the camera files to WMV or MPG (or many other formats).

Those Black Ducks

Whenever we have walked past the house with a large natural pond there have always been a group of what appeared to be black ducks. Occasionally there have been little glimpses of green and blue but until yesterday the Sun has been facing me making it hard to see much more than a silhouette. Yesterday on our way back from a wander down one of the lanes I decided to nip through the churchyard and there they were, basking in the warmth of the sun. This time the Sun was behind me and their true colours were showing:



We had disturbed their afternoon snooze in the peace and quite of the churchyard and they were slowly making their way back to a hole in the fence.



What beautiful colours. Not at all the dowdy looking black I had seen on previous sightings.



Apart from the duck with so much brown all the others were virtually black with fluorescent green and blue. After much searching on the net I am pretty sure these are Black East Indian Ducks, the oldest breed of Bantam Ducks, not from the East Indies but from the U.S.A.. Another identification problem solved at last.

Mixed Bag and a Puzzle

Just had to take this rather uninspiring photo of the Sun first thing this morning as it was the first I had seen of it for over two days.



Once the Sun had burned off the low cloud which had blocked it out since Wednesday then things began to look a lot brighter like the patterns on the head of this Great Pond Snail.



Even last years left over seed heads on the Buddleia made an interesting composition.


The Magnolia bud I had photographed a few days ago is now fully open.



On our afternoon perambulations I spotted a Crow flying around with what looked like a beak full of sheeps wool. Finally it settled near another Crow. I assume this was intended as nesting material but there was no sign of a nest anywhere nearby and eventually they took off and disappeared into the distance.



For a while now I have been trying to get a half decent photo of these ducks. Haven't the foggiest what breed they are. They are bred locally and live on a large pond on the edge of the property. Their dark colouring has been difficult to capture. At first I thought they were all black but sunlight shows subtle blue and purple with some dark green on the side of the head.



In another part of the village is this magnificent 'tree house'. Well not really a tree house but it would make a lovely hide to spot the birds visiting the field which backs right up to it.



On a limb of one of the Ash Trees we pass I saw what to the naked eye looks just like a black lump stuck on the side of the branch. I couldn't see any detail until I tweaked the photo a bit. I assume it is a fungus of some sort but have no knowledge in that direction at all.



Now the puzzle:
As usual Squirrel Nutkins was grabbing as much as s/he could from the peanut feeder. When it spotted me it leapt on the fence top and started to race down the garden as usual. This time it stopped half way, came back, went down on the ground and then in a flower container. There it picked up one of the pebbles and made off with it. Now why would it take a pebble?
a) to smash open acorns
b) to sharpen its teeth
c) to throw at Bobby when he gets too close
:>)
or some other sensible reason?

I tried Google and Yahoo searches and the only mention I could find of Squirrels taking pebbles was on SQUIRRELWEB.



New one for me: 6.30 pm and on the lawn was a male Yellowhammer - such brilliant colours. Never seen one in the flesh before but it was unmistakable. As usual the camera had been put away and the bird didn't stay for long. Here's hoping it will visit again.