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| Red-tailed Hawk in Light Rain, Great Highway |
I only stopped briefly to photograph the red-tail in the rain. I didn't want it to have to fly away just to escape my gaze, as often happens with these hawks. I might be cold and wet for a few hours at most, and then I go home and make lunch, take a hot shower, and change into dry clothes. I have so much respect for all the wild creatures that have to deal with whatever weather comes, all day, every day.
Yesterday I finally got around to trying out a feature on the FZ80D that I figured was too good to be true -- the burst mode. I assumed burst mode would reduce the file sizes, or automatically limit them to JPEGs, but it did neither. The burst-mode shots were full-sized RAW files, and the viewfinder blackout after firing a burst wasn't appreciably longer than for single shots.
What I also just noticed after getting home today were a couple of different ISO modes, an Auto-ISO and an iISO -- the second of which might be just what I've been looking for. I don't know how I've missed it all this time, but I look forward to trying it out.
By the way, National Geographic rates the FZ80D as the "best point-and-shoot digital camera for beginners," but I would call it a very good nature/wildlife camera for anyone wants to travel light and is shooting only for the web. If I want to make a great 24x36 print, I'll stick with my D800E. But for posting to the internet, the FZ80D is brilliant.
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| Burst, First Frame |
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Burst, Second Frame
(Both 1/1300th sec. @ ISO 3200) |
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| ISO 3200 RAW File, Processed Normally |
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| Same frame, processed through Lightroom's AI Denoise feature. |
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| Even with "burst mode" on, the black phoebe was gone by the second shot. Guess I was framing too tightly. |
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| I was surprised to see this Say's phoebe in my own neighborhood this morning. |
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| Waterfall at Strawberry Hill, Blue Heron Lake |
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