Samsung WB850F camera

I got my Samsung WB850F camera back from repair (its third repair) and as the 12 month warranty is almost up I thought that I had better take it out on a trial run. These are the photos I took. I have included one that is slightly out of focus. It has text mentioning the photo in question. In fact I took three photos at the same time, all using the 'SMART' setting on the dial, and they were all out of focus. It was bright, sunny conditions so I have decided to use my new Lumix TZ10 in future and keep the WB850F as a spare. Maybe I will go out one day soon with both cameras and take comparison shots.

The aircraft below was flying around Sydney Harbour and it is a Locheed Super Constellation with tail number VH-EAG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo below is the one with blurry focus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So it is a shame that my Samsung has been such a pain and so unreliable. Let's see how I get on with the Panasonic Lumix TZ30. As well as photos, I want to take some HD video in possibly unstable conditions, such as on a train journey. It will be interesting for me to see how it performs.

Peewit

New camera

I got fed up with my Samsung WB850F camera being so unreliable, so as it is back for repair again, I decided to buy another compact camera. I got a Panasonic Lumix TZ30. It does not have the wifi features or an OLED screen but seems much better in many other respects. I gave up trying to use the wifi on the Samsung as it was just hard work. The surprisingly bad thing about the Samsung camera was that, as a travel zoom, at the end of a day out, there were a lot of dud photos where it had not focused properly or was too slow to catch a momentary event. A day of blue sky's looked likely so I decided to try out my new camera. I took the ferry to Circular Quay, and then another ferry to Watsons Bay. Here I had some 'fish and chips' that was probably 'shark and chips' before walking from The Gap to Bondi Beach. I took the following photos along the way. From Bondi I caught a bus back to the city and then a ferry home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was pleased with the photos that I got, so the first impression of the new camera is that it will be a great point and shoot travel zoom. That combined with GPS tagging is all I need.

Over the weekend I watched on tv the build up and the race for the Australian F1 Grand Prix.
The tv ads were a bit annoying but I was able to skip over them by using a recorded version slightly behind real time. I watched the race live on tv but muted out the adverts and during them I listened to the Radio5live broadcast. The quali was severely disrupted by rainstorms in Melbourne, but the race went unusually smoothly with no safety cars or weather delays. Kimi Raikkonen won the race for Lotus, and Lewis Hamilton did very well to bring his Mercedes home in 5th place for his first outing with his new team. It was odd to see Sutil getting unjustifyingly blue flagged several times during the race, and why is that Massa can often be leading Alonso in the other Ferrari until the pit stops, after which the order is reversed ?

Peewit

My darn Samsung camera back in for repair

Yep, my Samsung WB850F compact camera is back in for repair. This is the third time within the 12 months warranty. This time instead of just freezing when you switch the camera on, it refuses to focus with any kind of zoom setting. In fact as you press the shutter, an image on the screen goes out of focus and then it takes the photo. Handy eh!

So when a beautiful sunny morning appeared, I decided to take a trip to the Blue Mountains for the day. I went by ferry, and then train.
Before I left home there were these two aircraft buzzing around the harbour. I used my rather chunky DSLR camera to take the picture. I would be lugging this camera around with me on my trip to Katoomba and having fitted my 8mm lens there would be a lot of very wide angle photos apart from the odd one or two that I took with my phone. The wide angle lens allows me to take panoramic photos such as this one.

 

The lookout at Echo Point

 

Another lookout this time I was the only person on it. The cliff-top track was rather muddy as a result of recent heavy rain.

 

Some of the effects of heavy rainfall.

 

Looking through the gum trees.

 

Katoomba Falls

 

I do not fancy taking this trip as I am scared of heights.

 

Taken with my phone.

 

The cable car at Scenic World. I had to do a bit of road walking to get here as they were doing some construction work involving a helicopter and had closed the cliff-track.

 

Rather than walk along the road and then the flooded track to get back, I took the local bus to town. I recall having a great meal many years ago at this Art Deco restaurant in Katoomba.

 

The train ride back to Sydney was made more entertaining as I was chatting to a Buddhist monk and hearing about some of the interesting things that he had done.

At Circular Quay, the Queen Mary 2 is moored up at the OPT.

 

I just took a walk into Mosman and happened to choose a time around 3pm to do it. I was amazed by the literally hundreds of huge and expensive 4x4's out on the school run. I saw some awful driving and parking. I felt scared even on the pavement. Crossing the road involved waiting for a car to let me across (there were no gaps in the traffic) and then hope that I did not get run over. I made it home safe but am double checking my hospital insurance cover. You even have to pay for an ambulance to scoop you off the road here.

Peewit