The PowerShot G9 is quite an old camera nowadays (Canon are currently producing the G15), but solidly built and still very capable. Despite being a Nikon SLR user I have been fancying a G9 for a while and a late bid on ebay secured me one for a very good price. You have all the manual exposure control of an SLR in a small package plus you can also shoot RAW files. The macro capability is really useful, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm! The focus does hunt quite a lot and you can focus sort of manually but it takes an age to do it so you are best wait for the autofocus to get there in the end. I shot at 80 iso today, mainly in RAW. Jpeg is usually fine but you end up having to twiddle with the exposure compensation or adjust your manual exposure for very light subjects so RAW makes life easier. Once you get up to 400 iso the images do get quite noisy and I'm not sure the image stabilization is doing much. However, the camera is quirky and you can work it hard making it do what you want it to do in the end. You miss shots you would have caught with an SLR, but it is after all a compact. I skipped between manual and aperture priority, usually with the camera dialled down to its minimum f8. At the wide end you also have a maximum f2.8, which is nice!
I paid a visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's splendid Wharram Quarry reserve today. I usually visit in May to see the Dingy Skippers but I have never seen it looking as glorious as it did today. Completely carpeted with wild flowers and orchids, as soon as you walk through the gate butterflies are flying everywhere: Marbled White, Small Heath, Common Blue, Small and Large Skipper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet. Jam-packed full of butterflies everywhere you looked and all very active in the heat too. Just like Brockadale, this place really lifts the spirits.
Bee orchid from RAW file nowt wrong with that
Bee Orchid
Taken as a jpeg, highlights washed out in background, could have rescued if a RAW file
also a jpeg, but it has done a better job here
Small Heath from a RAW file
Female Common Blue from RAW file
Not quite had time to lock focus with this mating pair. Camera would have got there in the end but they didn't stick around!
Pyramidal Orchid from RAW file
Common spotted orchid from jpeg
After you have seen this, overmown verges by the side of the road are even more depressing
Robin's pincushion from RAW
A wonderful collection. I am guessing the quarry reserve is near the Wharram Percy deserted village?
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed. You can park in the car park for the deserted village, walk down the slope and turn right through the gate along the old railway track. This will bring you to the quarry after a reasonable walk. Alternatively, in car carry on up towards Wharram Percy village if coming from Wetwang. Take the first left at the crossroads in Wharram Percy and follow winding road half mile round to the quarry. Not much parking right outside quarry if more than a couple of cars. Good time to visit in this fine weather!
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