stormy start for 2020?

I was going to post an early wrap of a rather dry December - but it appears the 31st could change that. We're about 1.4" short here, so Tuesday needs to be messy - and it just might happen.

Yes, more talk of an atmospheric river has begun, and New Year's Eve could be quite damp .. and a second tropical tap could arrive a couple of days after that. WxU shows 4+ inches through 1/7, and the NWS is showing at least 3" on this 7-day map ending 1/5.

These storms are nice for our local water supply and for keeping things green. They do little for snowpack though, as tropical freezing levels do little good around here. Snow on the summit of the volcanic peaks is pretty but that's a very small area compared to the amount of terrain we have at 4000 feet ±. We'll see what develops, as usual.

And maybe by the 10th 5th* or so

 we can get some NW flow 

off the ocean to bring snow 

to places it's supposed to go?

12/31 total: 2.21". And December ends at 108% of average, by an abnormal method!

* 1/4/20 p.p.s. - forecast at Government Camp ~3750'. 

Site is about 20-25% of normal right now, so 5' more would be very good news!

2020 gear

So we're done with another year, which strongly suggests I'm done buying things.
(No winning bids in hand right now, in other words.)

So what's on the shelf / in the bag going into 2020?

A bit of Pentax remains as the good light, bad weather option -

• K200d body, silver (CCD, wx-sealed midrange from ~12 years ago)
• DA∙L 18-50mm RE (sealed, silent focus, retracts to look like a thick prime)
• several primes from the past: 50/1.7, 100/2.8, 200/4 (+ a broken 24/2.8)
• Rikenon 70-150mm (MF) and 28-80mm Sigma (AF) zooms.

On the more active μ43 side - bodies first:

• Lumix GX7, silver (last of the pre-4k bodies, excellent fit for me)
• Oly EM∙10, silver (original em10, first body with live bulb/composite features)
• Lumix GX1, black (barely worth selling, plus even better fit for me!)
• Lumix GF2, pink (my wife's little favorite, with the 12-32mm on it)

And lenses - hmm let's make this a table since options are pretty thick in this bunch!

• Zooms - AF is covered with 12-40, 45-150 and adapted 70-300mm zooms.
• Primes - the wide end is covered with reasonably fast 7.5/15/20/30mm AF primes. Pentax primes take over at 50mm and beyond - plenty good enough with stabilized bodies (K200, GX7, EM10) and focus peaking on the μ43 bodies. 
• Macro can be handled with the slow-focusing AF Zuiko 35mm macro at 1:1 or via a 10mm extension tube on other primes, or at 1:2 max with the beastly 70-300 Zuiko.

The lenses near the bottom get very little use. That's OK for now. I also have T-PK adapters so the latter two can be used on the K200d as well.


p.s. It's always something. I forgot both the Lumix 14-42ii and Olympus 14-42 IIR in my list. Either could take over for the 12-40 and do an equivalent job, except for the wide end. The 14-42ii has image stabilization that's presumably better than the GX7 and not quite as good as the EM10; one could test these to death without proving that, I'm thinking!

I've also read a bit more about μ43 'standards' regarding in-cam jpeg (and raw) lens corrections. Point one is that YI claims their cameras do that too. Point two is that since TruePic VII (EM1.1, EM10) Lumix lenses are also corrected on Oly bodies. Point 3 is that every time I read about this the waters turn muddy in a real hurry, with every owner certain of what's true and every camera maker a bit less.. precise in their declarations. So definitely use salt to taste on this matter.

Bingo. Twice!

I've been putting low-ball bids on a 30mm macro from Lumix or Olympus. Not surprisingly I've lost.

I've been looking at this as the final prime lenses, and one that frees up two others (a nice 30mm/2.8 Sigma and a Zuiko 35/3.5 4Thirds macro). Swapping a native macro for both the 30 and 35mm could get me a lens that can work wonders at a distance and copy slides too.

Then today I tried out the 20mm Lumix with my 10mm extension tube.

This is a perfect slide-filling setup in 3:2 mode. No doubt it's not edge-to-edge perfect like a true macro, but hey how good are the 1970s-90s images that I am copying anyway? Was the film perfectly flat, did my lenses work to perfection?* And how many will sit large on my wall some day?

So my need for a true macro lens is reduced. The 35mm Zuiko was not a large investment, so it can be the shelf backup while the Sigma takes the more active role. Hm, I need to check that one with the 10mm x-tube as well, I suppose! [adjourns for 5 minutes]

Not bad considering that I am hand-holding camera and slide for an uneven focal plane, and pointing out the window for a very uneven light source. The slide's frame is barely visible along the edges, though some distortion is visible due to that. So three options are available, given a tripod and a good source of backlighting!


*Well, the smc-M40 pancake probably did, and the M24-50 was along much of the time.. so many fine shots are available to copy. 

the fire-hose awakens

An atmospheric river will bring some impressively wet conditions to the west coast..
Somewhere.

Today's forecast for Thu PM - Sat PM is shown here. Oregon and our corner of Wash. are definitely in the model's sights as of now! Being of tropical origins it doesn't bode too well for snowpack improvement.. but for rainfall deficits it is quite the change.

No doubt models will do some more fine-tuning in the coming days; we'll be here when reality arrives.

Update: stronger now!

Final score: 4.91 inches in five days, with 2.12" on the 20th. Another great forecast for a large storm almost a week in advance; maps were putting us very near the 5-inch line on the map.

another plan 'B'

First off: the K-5 has finally sold, and the silver lenses will accompany it. I shall miss it, but its overlaps with the μ43 gear were considerable and left it with less to do. The K200d and unsold 18-50re shown here cost ~$90 total and are explicitly the foul-weather CCD kit. No video and no images above iso1600 assure its niche status; it neither breaks my small budget nor threatens to take over the gear shelf.

My Plan B¹ was to find a nicely priced 25mm Lumix lens and let the 30mm Sigma depart. Two months later nobody requested the Sigma and no real deals (holiday or otherwise) showed on the 25. For less than its going price though, a used silver 20/1.7 appeared. Acquiring that would keep the 30 in play and make the adapted 35/3.5 macro less appealing as a carry-often option. I never owned a silver 20mm, which apparently is a v.2 copy instead of  the two-tone v.1 that I've owned in the past; it's not a big deal which version as only cosmetics really changed, but on a silver body the silver sounds nice And makes it clearly not the 14/2.5 when I find a tiny lens in the bag. So now on to plan B² - the 20mm is coming, and the 30/2.8 is back off the market and into the rotation.

Interesting how one rates the versatility of zooms vs. features of primes. A 14-30mm zoom doesn't exist at the speeds I will now carry*, but the 12-35mm f/2.8 costs and weighs more than my tiny trio. The GX7 allows panoramic shots to make the 14/2.5 useful for wider images, both cameras stabilize all three primes, and when lens one is attached the other two are much smaller in the bag.

* Yes the 12-32 Lumix covers that range well in a tiny body, but at much slower speeds (f/3.5-5.6 vs 2.5/1.7/2.8). I have the Yi 12-40 when convenience wins; it cost little after the M1 body sold, it's better corrected optically than nearly all major-brand μ43 zooms and it's 100g less than the three primes.

weak

Not a typical November in the PacNW, precip-wise:

Spokane	30% precipitation
Portland	28%
Seattle	25%
Coal Creek	25%

December started with a weak Bang - a whole 0.18 inch. Today it's sunny and dry, more of that tomorrow. Maybe a whole inch for the week after that.. maybe not.

At least a bit of snow fell on the mountains; gear up!

p.s. we did get a trace of snow overnight to begin December, break out the saucers!! :^p

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..

say something - anything!

Not much has changed recently, which is generally a good thing. Sales have been ..weak though, nibbles on the Pentax gear but no deals yet. The GX7 and occasionally GX1 have had a few nice workouts on the autumnal views of gold leaves and fungi, though no big-time destination shooting other than stops at Lake Sacagawea in town, shown below. I have some raw images to toy with on several shots ..some day.

The only dream of lenses right now is a non-existant μ43 17-70mm zoom of reasonable speed. Kirk T. mentioned that a similar focal-length range would do for 90% of his work; as a "walkaround lens" I seldom use ultrawide <14mm) so starting around 35mme would be right for me. Not many forum folk have taken up my crusade. I can grab an old 18-50 Sigma in 4Thirds mount (some day) and see how it goes - but a native lens would be much smaller. Ah well.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And now: weather news!
After a week with about 4½ inches of rain, we will end October on a dry stretch. We did reach average for October with about 0.02" to spare, so every Sep and Oct that we've lived here has been above average. 'Twas close - but still counts! Novembers have ranged from 65-120% of average so the signal gets weak after this.

'Snu?

Hardware update: I swapped my 12-60mm Lumix for a GX7 body plus $20. This one has about 50k fewer clicks than the recently-returned one, cost $30 less and works just fine. Current use is with 12-40 xiaoYi zoom* since the gx7 stabilizes it and it's 2mm wider (it loses 2mm at the long end). That's a fair trade compared to the 12-32mm's narrower range.

The k-5 and lenses are up for sale & a bit of interest has appeared.
No action just ..interest.

Here's an image for today of a twisted contrail. It was transferred from GX7 to phone and tweaked for contrast. Hope everyone was wearing their seat belts on that flight!


* Soon after posting this, the Yi body sold. Just the body, which is fine by me as I get to use the 12-40mm a bit longer. Yay!

weekly gear post

As part of the Mold|Breaker new leaf programming, gear talk will be limited to once per week. Maybe even biweekly? This isn't the best day for it, as things are moving out or pending - but that's the plan and I expect to stick to it! *

In the meantime I'm also working to continue an image or more per post. Here's one from the K-5 with the camera's infrared-filter simulation, which always makes cirrus clouds (cumulus too!) more dramatic. So much to like about Pentax gear.. but for a while I fear it must go back to the wish list. I have a pending sale on this great camera, someone else will be very pleased and I will return to living vicariously with Pentax and holding steady with μ43 cameras. Not an awful thing, just a pinch less satisfying in some circumstances. I'll do just fine.

More on the transition in a week..

* Note that nothing prevents me from appending fresh data to a 'weekly' post. 
Is that cheating? Perhaps. Only I can judge that, and I will allow occasional post-scripts. I plan to make it the rare exception however. 
Voilá: baby cut in half, everyone's a winner..

two inches incoming?

I cleaned out the gutters today to prepare: our forecast shows over two inches coming this week! 

A good week to have a WR system..

addendum:
9/14 through 17 = 2.01 inches. Good forecast!

choose just one

More medical bills, and why do I act like it's a surprise? Every time my gear collection expands it means that medical bills are pending - my failure to learn this has been a big problem. And the solution is as it has been every time: reduce.

Team One is the Pentax - weather protected, excellent APSc sensor and focal length range of 27-450mme. The K-5 is dated but about as excellent as the dSLR form can achieve for my use. Newer models have AF capability as low as EV-3 and video that does not overpower the memory card, both nice features; I'm subtracting not adding right now so newer models are not relevant.

Team Two is Lumix with more versatility, FL range of 24-600mme including adapted 4Thirds glass, a very good 4:3 sensor and several features on the GX7 that Team One cannot match. The 24-120mme zoom is weather sealed but not the camera; newer bodies are sealed, but again we are looking at current kits not potential. My GX1 is also useful, not as fully featured but a bit smaller.

Each can easily meet my current needs, so it's only the regret that I am dealing with - well, that and best resale value. Neither kit has much, or I would not own them at all given our current budget & bills. The choice isn't pleasant, but it must be done.

In any case the YI M1 is going out for a pittance if it must. Among other drawbacks it seems unable to drive the 4Thirds lenses, considering them MF only. I've tried more than once and that's what I get, so for my uses it limits the kit more than I like.

- - - - - - - - - - -

addendum -

As happens so often, my selloff will be a hybrid retrenching. The GX7 is a free and easy return so it's being packed, and the 12-60 and 30mm lenses will probably sell quickly enough. That leaves 4:3 system of 14/35m/14-42/45-150/70-300 for the GX1. The Pentax system will probably be trimmed a bit as well or at least offered up, and if it sells for an amazingly good price we'll see if a 25mm 4:3 prime is accessible.

warm August days

We finally outdid our warmest August day, with 86°. It has been a mellow and mild August until now, and after a two-day heat wave we may see showers tomorrow.

It cannot come soon enough for this overheated furry resident!

current conditions

- hazy, limited visibility.
So much for the weather report?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The EM1 v1 has arrived. Within three days of ordering it, so did two $480 medical bills.

So much for keeping the camera.
It works fine but definitely 'needs work' as shutter button, front control dial and eyepiece cup are all absent. No point in reading the E-M1 manual really, so I will let the buyer know ASAP that it's coming back. Focus with the ZD35 macro lens is definitely faster with PDAF!

Timing is nearly everything with gear deals, and it's too bad -
but I've had plenty of practice at this.

So what's here that isn't an E-M1?

• YI M1 with 12-40 kit lens
• GX1 with 12-60, 14-42ii, 45-150, 14/30 primes and 4Thirds 35 macro and 70-300
• K-5 silver special with 18-50re, 50-200wr, silver Sigmas 28-80 1:2 and 100-300 +Pentax primes  (50, 100, 200)

 Some of the above will be departing soon as I don't need three cameras. Bummer that the M1 has zero resale value; it should be what I keep ..but I doubt it. On the other hand - what's keeping me in the micro4:3 system? Is it because my wife owns a GF2? A lot could leave and I'd be 'stuck' with a raw and video performer in the M1. We'll see..

I've learned recently that the Vivitar 24 isn't focusing well at all. Not sure when that happened as its problems are easy to see - yet I've owned it for a year. Curious.

MoldBreaker: a fresh start

Welcome to granitix2, where I break from my past confessional of camera-gear addictions and its rare nuggets of wisdom. It had its moments but they are now in my past.

So I now plan to speak of photography with less gear emphasis, living in the moment with decent gear on a tight budget, and hopefully more uplifting topics.

And more pictures - but of life and light, not gear!

damp Gerbera on our deck

Thanks for listening-

We now return to our new program!