Storms Number Two & Three... Feb. 10, 2010

<- Click here

The storm's halfway through it's number two following the big one last weekend. This picture was taken at 1:30 pm about fifteen minutes after I shoveled that pathway. The blizzard's kicked in full power and will end around 7pm this evening. I'm upstairs now in front of the fireplace, listening to some Hayden with a hot drink as the wind roars out there. Interesting winter in Lancaster. Good to sit here in a home built in the mid 19th century that's worked its way through a bunch of weather. The snow flakes are tiny outside the window, like salt being shaken... no tossed by the handful around the windows. Time for another drink.....

And later...

<- Click here

Actually this was two storms which came down the chute one after another. The first started last night, and the second around ten this morning. The second was the kicker. WHOOF! It's over now. Blizzard thing. Piles of snow and blasts of wind. Here's me. Rita sort of went into hibernation last weekend when the first storm exploded. I handed her the new 7D and she poked her head out of our nest long enough to snap me moving our little piece of this white from the back yard (Rocco needs his space) and then from empty N. Lime St. During rush hour - we took these two at around 5. Not a vehicle in sight.

Cool!

She didn't see her shadow. Hmmmm.... wonder what that means about the weather forecast?

TAH-DAH! – The Canon 7D

It snowed in Lancaster this weekend. 24"! So I walked my new Canon 7Doutside as it was tailing off and peered South along North Lime Street. That's my home there to the left. And here's the original.. first picture I took with the new camera. It's about 11am on Saturday morning.



And it shows that I made a mistake! For my purposes, the camera does NOTHING that my 40D could not do. There was absolutely NO reason for me to have shelled out hundreds of bucks more for this machine. More pixels? Well, yeah, but lots of new noise as well. Bigger blow up or more cropping options? Okay, but the 40D allowed me all that I wanted. The 7D images are hair less contrast (flatter) than the 40D - and simply don't pop as dramatically without a lot of post processing work. The camera will do, but I can't recommend it. Instead... buy a used 40D, or consider the Canon 50D.

Now... what about the sort of images that I finally enjoy producing? Okay... look at this...



As you can see, the 7D image allows me a bunch of information so that postprocessing techniques bite well. Frankly, I'm disappointed. I'd hoped for more vibrance and a greater tonal range and can't find them in the new images. Oh, it does allow video. And yeah, that's one of the reasons I wanted the thing for our Peruvian trip. But now that the trip's been postponed until at least next OCTOBER.... well I've got an option that I probably won't play with until this summer. By then who knows, perhaps there will be some super sales on the 7D and I would have saved some money... or maybe by then my lust for the new machine would have gone flaccid?

Oh well... I own it and it's no worse than the 40D. It wasn't a step backward... But forward? Nah....