Choosing one's compromises

 I have a great lens set now, offering the best lenses tuned to the 4:3 sensor. Most people rave about the Olympus 12-40:2.8, 12-45:4 and both 40-150mm f:2.8 and f:4 lenses. Actually, their cheapest 40-150 has a rabid following, too! ;)

Speaking for myself, I prefer lighter lenses over brighter ones, so the 40-150:4 is my ideal choice for telephoto. 

On the other hand..

For me the current wide-normal zoom choice is the 12-60, f/2.8-4, 4thirds lens. That comes up at ~685 grams (including the 43-μ adapter), which is contrary to my weight preference! Does that make sense?

Let's find out!

The 12-60swm is nearly as well regarded as the two m.Zuiko options above, and its 2.8-4 aperture splits the difference between them. It's a high grade lens from the brief Olympus dSLR era, with weather seals and sturdy construction.

More importantly to me though, it's from the days before μ43 - and its inclusion of in-camera compensation for lens distortions. Since these happen before the image is displayed, it is a non-factor to many imagers. These people would probably perform these same tweaks in their computer once they are home .

I seldom do such things. I prefer lenses that are built to perform well without need of stretching the original to fix distortion, or selective brightening to fix corner shading. It's the easy way out, as software is far cheaper than designing great optics that work to the very corners.

Clearly I'm a hypocrite, since the 40-150:4 does this very thing!! However.. the issues are most common at wide focal lengths, and 12mm in a 4x or 5x zoom is where optics struggle the most (especially wide open).

The ZD 12-60mm swm is a premium optic from the old school, despite being introduced inthe 21st century. It received high marks for its handling of distortion, color fringing and vignette. This has value to me, and so, for now at least, the extra 300g is worth carrying. That's 200g more than the 40-150mm! Since it's a 12-60mm it isn't a long lens, so unlike something like the Oly/OM 40-150/2.8 it isn't as front-heavy. 

So I can manage it.. at least for now. At some point I may switch to the 12-45, but not immediately. I own a 14-42ez and also 10+17+30mm primes, so in many cases the 12-60 will stay at home.

By the way: it helped that my copy of the Oly 12-60 swm was less expensive than used Lumix G 12-60 copies, and I already owned a spare 43-μ adapter!

What did we do?!?

 So the kit changed in big ways in the last two months.

 Specifically what gear came and went?

• S5 and Gx7: gone
• L-mount lenses: gone
• E-M1² : in (again)
• Swm 12-60 + OM 40-150 f/4 Pro: in
• Pentax kit: restored*

In functional terms? 

I upgraded the μ43 sensor, removed the AA filter and restored 4k video specs. I regained weather seals (with eM1² and 40-150), and USB in-camera charging. I lost my tilt screen :√( but added autofocus limiter and live time + composite. I picked up a superior telephoto lens for light gathering, build quality and compactness. I also gained light in the wide end with the zd swm 12-60 f/2.8-4 but added bulk to the system (heavier, and uses an adapter). 

I retained the zd 70-300 (and its adapter!), Laowa 10/2, Olympus 30/3.5 macro and Yongnuo 17/1.7 for more compact and/or lower-light wide options.

I also gained back some money to pay bills, and prioritized more useful features above sensor size. Yes, that was hard - but I'm nearly over it already!

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A Small Update

The GX7 and 14-42 have departed, in exchange for cash and an Olympus 14-42ez. That allows for a flexible 'small kit' (even smaller when used with the gf9!!) - so now all my zooms rotate in the same direction, which minimizes headaches. I owned it before and felt bad about letting it go - so let's try again!

* The Pentax Restoration is likely quite temporary, as the eM1² matches or beats the k-S1 in nearly every way. It was a stop-gap plan and the gap is filled now.

 

winter?

 

We are at 50% of normal already for February. 

We're in a dry spell for now, but change is coming. 

Sorta looks like winter - at last!

This is the forecast for next week at the valley floor. Whether we will be warmer or cooler, or if snow will drop to 800 feet, only time will tell at this point. 

January '26 = dry

We got off to a wet start, but since the 12th we've had just 0.02" - and that had to be fog condensation as we had no storms. We did finally reach freezing though! December's low was 31.1° which barely qualifies as freezing, but 27.6 this month is decently chilly.

We're at 2/3 of average precipitation for the month, and that's about where we shall end; the storm for this weekend has fizzled out and we might see another after the 28th. That breaks the string of above average months at three, but those three are the wet ones so we're in decent shape. As to snowpack, it's pretty  bad - the volcanoes are purely white, but roads through the mountains are frosty not snow-packed.

Update! The last storm of the month brought January to ~80 percent of normal. Better than expected, but it was another warm storm that did nothing good to snowpack.

We'll see what February will bring!

Solar smash relents

 

The timing this week's solar storm was good and bad. Skies were clear, but conditions were slick and frosty for our sloped viewing area. Worse was the time zone: europe and the eastern us hit peak time for two nights, but the west us was declining both nights. One could stay up and be rewarded, but the cold was most unappealing.

This 4-second shot at iso2000 is far fainter than last year's events. The timing was vital; clearly many folks got very bright flareups but the chill did not bring me patience!

Happy New Gear: 2026 edition

The Lumix-S era is over. For now.

As I noted before, if S didn't work out I would just revert to the µ43 kit and enhance it.  Well, as is often the case, I was half right. 

I gave it my best shot, but it couldn't be comfortably managed on my tiny budget. I'm getting back several hundred dollars, nearly all my S investment. And in exchange I spent $220 on a new body.

Oops: it's a Pentax!
It simply isn't possible to deal for a choice µ43 body ($600+) without spending the same amount of cash that the S gear provides. And in effect my PK lens set is fully fleshed out - but it lacked a body. My K-01 shutter may repair itself (as many people report after it sits a while) but I won't bet on it. 

I found a low-shot black K-s1 body, with its nice 20Mpx sensor and odd but very small body. I've owned it before and lamented its limitations, but for the time and price it will serve.  

(I immediately spent $40 more on a spare solenoid. And yes, it's needed.) 

It has 'better' pixels (more, and larger) for duplicating my piles of slides and negatives compared to the GX7. Somewhere around here I'm sure I have seen a spare Li190 battery too.

HD only for video - but it's Pentax so the video-greedy won't bother. In other ways it will do quite nicely. 

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The second bit.

An Oly eM1² will arrive soon, and the gx7 will depart. After a few days of site-searching I found an acceptable price for a copy. This will be the weather resistant and usb-c charge body, and the 4k video option. Almost everything, actually.

I shall pick up a wx resistant zoom in the near future.. oh!

Update: it will be a 12-60mm f/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital SWM. It will zoom the same direction as the 70-300, which will be nice. It will be bulky but that's also a match. It was the same price as 'that' 12-60 but gains me pretty much a stop of extra light. I should use a wx sealed adapter though, at some point..

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Update II: it will also be a 40-150mm f/4 - much to my surprise! I found a really nice deal on a used copy. Not many of these show up used, so the owner must have stepped up to f/2.8 or a longer telephoto. 

This gives me a sealed option for long shots, and also provides great overlap with both 12-60 and 70-300 lenses. And if I decide to switch to a 12-45/4 or 12-40/2.8 at some point, I'm in a good spot. Hopefully the 12-60 will prove worthy though! 

The new era begins next week.

Is the Pentax kit now superfluous? Hmm.

ending '25 with a splash

We set a new personal best for rainfall.. or perhaps the worst?

 This month has edged out October 2017 as our wettest month here on the hill-top. Since Octobers are drier than Decembers around here, that month still wins on percent of normal, so it keeps its trophy for that record! 

We still have over a week to go, but that %-normal record looks safe. The forecast for now through New Years Day looks relatively dry. The previous two Decembers came in around 10 inches, just above average.

For 2025 minus a week, we are nine inches above the annual average. That's a comfortable number, about 20" above our driest year and 18" short of the calendar-year wettest. 

  Year-end update: 67.99"