coming /going

In my quest to reduce gear and acquire cash, I've reversed the process yet again.
I hate that!

The K-5 body has been good as sold more than once now. All buyers have sought just the body - no pretty matching silver lenses or 18-50 weather-sealed kit zoom mark IV. With that in mind the bargain offer of a silver K200d caught my eye, and I picked it up. (I nearly bought one of these before, but the silver K-5 caught my attention at the time.)

I've owned a K200d before; it's a classic CCD camera with 10 Mpixels, four AA batteries, no video mode, and many useful features at once - including weather seals. That's always a comfort in this climate! And this new/old WR kit cost me under $85, plus a bit for shipping; that's a tough bargain to beat in any format. It also does not compete against the m43 gear I own for video, low-light focus or other bonus features, so each has a specific place in my kit.

Ironically, the 18-50 lens focuses silently but the K200d shutter was developed long before the semi-silent era of dSLR shutters began. If I need silent mode it will have to be done with the GX7!

A K200d Greatest Hit - Mukilteo Light from the ferry to Whidbey Island

And yes, one more item. 
My wife really liked the idea of Live Time/Composite modes for some images (as do I) but the budget made this unlikely. I browsed off and on for a few months in search of an [e-PLx where x>6] body and found nothing amazing. I then relented and went back in time, to the one EM body that I liked - an EM10 mark one "Classic". Sure enough an ex body was available for under $150. "coming soon" :[eek!]:

My OM∙D EMx experience began with the 10 Classic, and should have ended there. But oh no, I must have weather seals - ergo EM5 Classic - which for reasons unclear did not fit me well. So maybe the 10 Mark II was .. nope, sorry.

It should be interesting to see how I feel about it this time.

dry times

A 15-day dry spell in autumn is not a promising start to the wet season. We squeaked by at average in October but this month is around 10% of normal. November is the wettest month here statistically, so it's expected to be stormy - but we're clearly well behind. Expected runoff for next year in the Columbia Basin has dropped a lot, since our few storms have not been cold enough to add snowpack (our 'water in the bank' for spring/summer stream flows). That's not my job, of course.. but still tough to watch.


The dry times did allow for some yard-work and debris burns, but of course now a damp drizzle has made the leaves heavier to rake. I'm perhaps 1/3 done with the main yard, but that's about half of what's needed - and taking down some blackberry vines is also on the list of things for me to do ASAP.

Today has been non-stop drizzle and is now over ¼ inch total; that's our second wettest day this month, and not a single true rain-drop all day!



Despite the minimal sunshine our climbing rose decided to push out a few last blooms. One is visible at the bottom of the previous image, but here's the cheerful and fragrant double bloom from a few days earlier. Nice!

Sorry though - scratch & sniff is not enabled on your browser.

fall-ing fast

A cool dry spell has hit in the past week, and decently blustery winds have stripped many trees of their color. The last to go are the vine maples, whose secluded location keeps many breezes from reaching them.

Freezing temperatures have hit the low valleys, but we barely dropped below 32° on the hill-top. When the snow level drops to 500' or so, payback will happen!

No real changes to the camera kit in either direction. I did buy a nice paracord wrist strap for the GX7, so the GX1 can keep the more ordinary black strap. In theory the new paracord can glow in the dark - curious, we'll see what I think of that when it arrives..