Finding S users..

It's amazing how gear choices affect one's online presence. As a Pentax user I had a few very friendly groups where I could contribute chat or just blurt things out. 

When I branched out to μ43 I found more people, and learned more about diversity. Lumix/Oly, stills/video, feature sets and more - each sliced the topics in different ways! In some I had things to say, in many others not much.

Moving into Sony brought me into contact with really tech-minded folks, most of  whom clearly had larger disposable incomes than I could imagine. I could still give and take information,, but many times the easy answer (upgrade!) was nothing I could manage. 

When I shoveled nearly all my gear into one pile and shipped them away, I joined the Lumix-S crowd. Since it's a subset of the L crowd, it's been .. well, familiar and strange, both at once. 

• One L-mount site I visit is mostly Leica users; if any group can make my income look worse than Sony users it's Leicaphiles. Therefore I'm pretty quiet there.
• Another puts Panasonic mirrorless users together, so S users and G users are intermixed. I think I'm reading about a surprising S9 feature them realize it's a G9 being discussed. Oops.

So no group of S-centric users really exists. It would not be a large group: compared to other "full frame" marketers Lumix is probably a pinch above Pentax with its K-1 bodies keeping the spirit of DSLR alive. SoNiCan has its masses; Lumix-S does not.

This is not a bad thing, and does not correlate to the S5 capability and impressive feature set. It's just different, and not a surprise. If I found no one to speak with online, my photos would speak for me! : √)

kit

Looking ahead, not back

mid-Dec 2024

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The Lumix S5 + 20-60mm + 70-300 is here! Farewell to Sony and Pentax* systems. 

OK I am looking back, a little: a silver E-M1 has once again taken over as custodian of the μ43 kit, with the 14-140mm, ZD70-300mm and native (10-50mm) primes. I tried hard to love the G100 and its fine 20Mpx sensor, but it just won't do; so much for one App to Rule Them All.. and live in-body charging with µ43.

*Pentax is still represented by its 28+40+50+70+??+135mm primes, plus PK-mount zooms from Rikenon (70-150/4) and Focal (80-200/3.5). These can be used straight up on either system - or with a 0.71x speed-booster on μ43 bodies! That means the Focal mutates into a 55-140mm f/2.5 (112-285mm/eq) - wow! Bulky though.

And I'm Still looking for my smc-m 85/2 - that darn lens is too small!!

a wee new thing

 Several months ago I learned of the microcomputer form factor. I was at the doctor's office and noticed the monitor cable led to a box little larger than a dollar bill. What?!? Yep, just the processor, memory, a small hard drive (likely SSD =solid state drive) Ethernet and a few USB ports. Really amazing.

Well now I have one.

The mini i5 box that I've been using is pleasantly small and can take a few cards when it's important (i.e. video) - but its size was not the problem. The i5 box just wouldn't stay wi-fi connected. I even direct-wired it to the network box, and added an antenna.. but still it was not reliable. Worse yet, its delays spilled over to the mouse, which meant I couldn't accomplish offline stuff as long as the connection was being rude. Not Good.

I decided to check the micro form to see what was available. If you already have USB items to do some of the work, it's a really cheap way to go. I picked up an old Dell with Win10 on a 500G SSD, an i7 processor and little else - for about $160. The power supply is an external brick, and it has six USB3 ports, a DP monitor and HDMI outputs, and audio in/out. Done.

The i7 chips beats an i5 in general, even more so when it's two generations newer. The SSD means no platter to spin: it's like a memory card for your camera but with massively more space. Windows loads in a hurry and every process is faster than I've experienced elsewhere. I plugged in a USB wi-fi thingy and found some issues on the 5G wi-fi, but since I connected to the slower broadcast all has worked really well. 

Now to clean up the i5 and set it free..

keeping up with the times

We bought/leased a Niro EV about four years ago. It's doing fine and serving us well, and we just put on new tires for another 40k+ miles of quiet motion. 

Right after we picked it up I bought a 220v adapter for our garage. The price was good for its time, and charging overnight is a great feature and a stupid good price compared to other fuel types. However..

We got home yesterday with 23 miles left in the tank - about 9%. I plugged it in and it's plugging along, filling at 3.7kW - taking about 18½ hours to do so.

I decided to check on my fuse boxes to determine if it was doing as quickly as it could. Nowadays these cars can charge 60% or more in an hour, but that's at AC+DC charging stations ($25 bucks to go 250 miles, instead of under $10 at home). A difference in speed and expense is reasonable - but that much of a speed difference? Hmm..

Garage #1 has two 220v plugs available, and they are fused for 50A current. Wow - but the former owner did work on old cars for a living/hobby, so he needed serious juice! Garage #2 has just 30A on the 220v for the welder. I then found the obvious choke point: my 4-yr-old EV charger draws just 16A from its 50A plug.

Looking at online options I found one that can be set from 8-32A for charging. At 1/3 or less of what I paid for the new tech four years ago. Wow!

So I'll be swapping out my old receptacle again and adding an app to my phone, and local charge times will be cut by a factor of two. Yippee!!

Lumix dream team - for now

 

Lumix S5, Lumix-S 20-60mm, Σ 70-300 Apo in SA mount with sa21 adapter

At the moment, nothing fills the xx-200mm space in the L-mount system except the 28-200 and the fast and bulky 70-200s (f/2.8 and f/4). I have hopes/expectations for a reasonably compact lens to complement the 20-60 some day soon - and the new 18-40mm and the small S9 body makes such a lens even more likely! Other than that missing 'dream' lens and perhaps a few small primes, I have no incentive to fill in the kit. 

I like shooting birds and distant things at times, and the 70-300 will serve acceptably despite its lack of AF-c due to the MC-21 adapter's limitations. I had hoped a Sigma lens in its native mount plus a Sigma adapter to its new native L mount would serve my needs.. alas, no.

My Pentax lenses will also fill in until more L-mount options reach the market. I have several small primes from 28 to 135mm plus a nice Rikenon XR 70-150/4 that can do nice work. I also kept a Minolta 100-200/4.5 from my Sony time, lighter than the Rikenon but also nice to use.

 

Damp season

The storms came in hard and fast in late Oct, pushing us from 41% to 95% of normal in the last week. We're taking a break for a few days, but the days soon after will compensate! Our 7-day total looks to be about four inches. 

Wow. 

S5: reload

My first s⁵ body was acting curiously so I sent it back, along with the 20-60mm that came with no hood. 

I have other versions of each on the way; we'll see if it makes a difference in my black-frame experience, or if it's a firmware thing.

I found two additional items that were persuasive: 

• a Sigma SA-mount USB dock and 
• a 100-400 dg dn in native L mount. 

The dock might awaken the AF on the 28-300, and the 70-300 Apo might also benefit!

The 100-400 is more of a beast than I prefer, but reviews are more consistently positive than the (few) other long options available at the moment. I suppose an L mount dock would now prove useful too.. we will get one at some point! It shares the 67mm filter size of the 20-60, which saves a whole 10 grams or so in the overall kit..🥳

I'm still hopeful that a ~50-200mm zoom designed for the s⁹ will be offered soon, but if not one of the SA options will serve as a shorter telephoto.