The above is a picture of ducklings wading in Plum Creek.  I used my Panasonic G3 with the 100 – 300 mm lens.  This picture was taken at the 300 mm focal length (which on the G3 equates to an effective 600 mm) while hand holding it.  I’m showing this as an example of one end of my photography … wildlife pictures taken with a long focal length lens.

At the other extreme, I often take pictures with my 14 mm lens, which is the widest lens that I have.  Since some of you have been interested in the status of our porch construction, I’m using pictures of the porch to illustrate that extreme of my photography.

These pictures are a few days old.  They have since seeded and spread straw over the bare area.  We are now waiting for the final power washing, a bit of painting, and installation of the ceiling light.

I used my Olympus E-P3 with the Panasonic 14 mm lens for the porch pictures.  That combination is my favorite walk-about photography set-up since it is my smallest, discreet combination.  It is a very good camera/lens combo for landscape and street scenes with good lighting … and I even sometimes use it when shooting inside in not so well-lit rooms; but I often switch to my 20 mm lens since it is faster and handles low light settings better.

As I have stated in earlier posts, I have had problems with accidentally punching buttons and changing my settings on the G3; but, after researching alternatives, I have decided to continue using my G3 with my long lenses.  When I use the longer lenses I tend to carry & hold the camera by the lens with my left hand and don’t end up changing settings as frequently as I do with shorter lenses.  That leaves me with the decision as to what works best for me when using shorter focal length lenses.

I have decided that I would rather look for a better walk-about camera/lens combo that can also handle low light situations better than the E-P3.  I would also prefer having an integral view finder rather than having to rely upon using the LCD to compose pictures, especially in bright sun light.  I have thus reduced the alternatives down to a few cameras with APS size sensors (for better low light, high ISO shots) which have built-in view finders, and which are discreet in size but easy to hold and handle with dials for changing settings.  Oh, I forgot to add, and that are cheaper than a Leica M9!