buying for the sake of it

[Tysonator]

I have had the opposite during lockdown as I have sold a lots of items on FleeBay.

 

[mikew]

Just a new hair trimmer, wife bought a few computer games and we bought some PPE, apart from that its been the bank balance growing over the last 3 months.

 

[tijuana taxi]

I came home and fed the dog?

haha... if you mean the birds.. not entirely sure, the dots in the distance disappeared behind trees. Until I took the shot, I had no idea that the Martin was there!

interesting that it was a Red Kite, they're still very rare over here (Suffolk/Norfolk border, about as East as you can get without getting wet feet)...

Still, for me it's an eye opener. I've walked miles over days with big expensive primes, and come back with nothing more than "dots on a blue background" shots. This cheapo bridge may yet become my most used camera.

Where my daughter lives in NW Cambridgeshire there are lots of Red Kites, swooping around all day.
Some come down very low, so commonplace residents take them for granted, but I find them fascinating
Tried to photograph them, but absolutely hopeless at it, just finding them through the viewfinder defeats me

 

[Bobsyeruncle]

Tried to photograph them, but absolutely hopeless at it, just finding them through the viewfinder defeats me

I gave up on bif for the same reason.
They say if you zoom out keeping both eyes open it helps, then zoom in once you've got it in the viewfinder.
I still gave up....

 

[danbroad]

The Panny AF isn't half bad, DFD is not as quick as PDAF we're used to on SLRs, but in a compact like this it seems that the greater DOF comes to its assistance. I've had more joy in simpler, slower BIF with the FZ82 than I expected. It's light, and quite decent when viewed on phones - and these days, I get most pleasure out of sharing on phone screens [work, home, the family WhatsApp etc..].

Rambling thoughts.... It ain't ever printing A3, but at times I've wondered why I bother with fast wildlife primes when my main output these days is 'good enough' on a phone or iPad screen, and why I chase fast wide primes when my iPhone has a very decent computational portrait mode... what is our desired end result? Is it framed and purchased, or more likely a nodding approval from a jpeg on a small screen? If I'm honest, is it the process of taking photographs I enjoy more than the outright quality of the picture I get?
... if I were Nikon/Panny etc I'd be chasing the niches and working on computational algorithms to take away some of the phone business. I'd like to see AI augment an extra stop of bokeh out of lenses, I'd like to see a twist-zoom 300-3000mm 1/23rd sensor wildlife cam in a scope-type body, etc etc. Heresy alert: More than chasing the quality, makers need to also chase the usage. Samsung/Huawei/Apple are doing so well in photography because they focus on what the user wants more than what the kit can do - we want low light nightscapes, environmental portraits of the kids, ridiculous wildlife reach, and if it looks 'good enough' for 99% then 99% are buying the phone not the camera, and that's why camera businesses are hitting the obituaries. History is littered with good stuff from dead companies - Contax, Kodak, maybe Olympus [and I hope not], and no matter how well they are remembered, they risk becoming just that - memories.

 

[Cobra]

Where my daughter lives in NW Cambridgeshire there are lots of Red Kites .... Tried to photograph them, but absolutely hopeless at it,

I get a few here too, ( half a dozen or so) gliding over the roof tops, I'm happy to feed them but the ungrateful bastids still won't pose for me, either