New camera

Aveiro, Portugal

This year I went a little wild with travel plans—after two years of sitting on our hands. Portugal and France in March–April; the Galápagos in June; Ontario in August. And now, in a few days, we're off on the biggest adventure of the year, or perhaps of our lifetimes—if you don't count Antarctica, which I do. But you can have more than one trip of a lifetime, can't you? Anyway: in a few days, we're off to Madagascar. The name all by itself makes me tingle.

Parque Nacional Galápagos

In honor of the occasion, I bought a new camera. To replace the camera I bought only a few years ago, which I fully expected would be my last camera purchase ever, an Olympus 3/4 mirrorless number. But it, I'm sorry to say, did not live up to expectations. It was flimsy: bits of it fell off. One lens never worked at all, even after an expensive repair. Another lens would sometimes autofocus, sometimes not. I eventually made peace with that last lens, and got some decent shots in the Galápagos, but there was no way I was going to take it to Madagascar.

Meaford, Ontario

My choices were these: use my iPhone only (i.e., step back from "serious" photography); pack the heavy old Canon; or... buy a camera that I've seen more and more glowing reports of. I seriously debated, but eventually, the new camera won. A mirrorless Sony aR7iii.

Today I started studying the users guide. Oy! I will probably keep it mostly on auto/P, but it's good to know about some of the available adjustments: ISO, bracketing, spot metering. I will continue to study the users guide. I may even take it along—it can be my if-we-have-any-spare-time reading material. (Who needs a plot?)

The camera came with a middle-quality kit lens, which I will make do with; I also got a macro lens and a 100–400mm zoom, and a 1.4x teleconverter. I can already picture the little lemur faces peering at me out of the trees as I adjust the focus.

Which—adjusting the focus, manually—is one of the things I grew especially fond of on that lousy Olympus camera. I hope there's a similar feature on this new camera. 

I do love photography: it's my way of seeing. But it's also a sort of tunnel vision, and I have to be careful about getting sucked into the through-the-viewfinder perspective on things. A number of years ago, traveling in France, I made a deal with myself: photograph in the morning, and leave the camera behind in the afternoon. That allowed for close focus part of the time, and a more expansive enjoyment for the rest. It made for a nice balance.

So I am going to Madagascar with a new camera, at least two lenses (we'll see how the luggage packs), and an open heart, mind, and vision. I want to be blown away! Maybe I'll just look, and forget to try to record. That would be just fine. Especially considering how lousy I am at curating and publishing my final shots. I still have, let me see... Israel, Italy, Vietnam, yes Portugal and France, and the Galápagos to process and publish. Well, after this trip, I don't anticipate any more travel for a while. Perhaps I'll turn my attention to photography.