Visit to Death Valley and Mojave Desert

[Boatman]

I extended a business trip to Las Vegas two days so that I could spend some time in the desert. Of course, there is never enough time and in reality I wound up with one afternoon and one morning. Just the same, I think I got some keepers. These were shot with a Panasonic G1, not my Minolta A2. Comments welcomed.

14-45mm


45-200mm


14-45mm


14-45mm with polarizer

[rob marshall]

Homer

I see you have joined the elite club - with the G1. Congrats! I love mine.

I prefer #1 and #2. #1 might be better with the horizon line on the third line. #2 has a good sense of the grandeur of the place. Actually #3 is a nice composition too. How do you find the 45-200 lens? I don't have that one. Is it sharp?

[Boatman]

Rob: This is a long story, so I'll give you the short version. I bought the G1 then sent it back. Not because I didn't like it, I loved it, but I found the two lenses were really a hassle in the field. I'm going to hold out for the GH2 with the 14-140 lens. I don't know how long I'm going to have to wait. I may be able to make you a good deal on a battery and a filter adapter though. I purchased an extra battery that won't work in the GH2 and a 52-62mm filter adapter for my 62mm polarizing lens, which I won't need with the 14-140. Let me know if you are interested. The Panasonic is a nice upgrade to the A2 and in a lot of ways is a similar camera.

[rob marshall]

Rob: This is a long story, so I'll give you the short version. I bought the G1 then sent it back. Not because I didn't like it, I loved it, but I found the two lenses were really a hassle in the field. I'm going to hold out for the GH2 with the 14-140 lens. I don't know how long I'm going to have to wait. I may be able to make you a good deal on a battery and a filter adapter though. I purchased an extra battery that won't work in the GH2 and a 52-62mm filter adapter for my 62mm polarizing lens, which I won't need with the 14-140. Let me know if you are interested. The Panasonic is a nice upgrade to the A2 and in a lot of ways is a similar camera.

I must admit that I never change my 14-45mm lens. I'm always wary as the sensor is directly exposed. In fact, I think I have never removed it. I do a lot of hiking so I use my G1 as a light-weight walk-about camera. I tried carrying my Canon 5D yesterday on a 10 mile walk, and I soon noticed the difference. Thanks for the offer, but I already have a filter kit system for the G1.

[Boatman]

Rob:

Sorry, I missed part of your response. I agree about the edit for #1, but I like the effeect of pulling the viewer's eye to the near rocks. Croping to move the horizon line to 1/3 diminishes this effect. Anyway, you can crop these a bunch of ways.

On the 45-200, I know it only gets so-so reviews. I think it is penty sharp enough but it is really too long. You can't shoot at =400mm without a tripod. I shot #2 sitting down and bracing the lens on my knee and that shot is only at =280mm. I've got another long shot with that lens that I can send you the RW2 of. There are some cars parked far enough away that you can't see them with the naked eye. You can see them clearly when you go to 100% view. In post processing these images I found that the G1 takes very different sharpening than the A2. The A2 nearly always needs 125-1-0 sharpening. With the G1 this really screws up the image. But it does like contrast sharpening, about 20-50-0. I also like the view finder. I've had DSLR users complain about the A2 - too fuzzy and gainy - but I think the G1 viewfinder is superior to any DSLR I've looked through. It's bright and sharp. At night I think it's better than any optical viewfinder.

[Sahil]

Wow! I am in love with the place... The seclusion of this place is awesome!

[Boatman]

Your comments about changing the lens comfirm my thinking. It's bad enough doing it out in the desert, but on a boat the chances for salt air to get in the camera are even worse. God for forbid I should drop it overboard! Tis a sweet camera though.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

I extended a business trip to Las Vegas two days so that I could spend some time in the desert. Of course, there is never enough time and in reality I wound up with one afternoon and one morning. Just the same, I think I got some keepers. These were shot with a Panasonic G1, not my Minolta A2. Comments welcomed.

14-45mm


45-200mm


14-45mm


14-45mm with polarizer

Hi,
The first has two pictures in one shot and that isn't too well.
The second asks a little pp as You see below.

The third and fourth has the colours inside but You must discover

[Boatman]

Radu: Your changes are a little over the top for my tastes, but I looked at your gallery and I can see that you prefer, and do a nice job, with very saturated and rich images. I reworked #1 a bit, adding a gradiant map to the foreground and changing the moutains slightly. I don' think this breaks up into two pictures.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Radu: Your changes are a little over the top for my tastes, but I looked at your gallery and I can see that you prefer, and do a nice job, with very saturated and rich images. I reworked #1 a bit, adding a gradiant map to the foreground and changing the moutains slightly. I don' think this breaks up into two pictures.

Of course You have right