What do you do when you run out of things to buy for your camera? Simples, you buy a new camera!
I had been toying with the idea of a compact camera for a while. I had spent ages reading all the reviews on Canon’s G11 and I very nearly splashed out on one. Then I started reading the reviews for the Panasonic GF1 and I was smitten. A quick play in the Panasonic shop and I knew this was the one for me.
I had convinced myself that it would be an ideal camera for hillwalking. For me, any weight saved from my rucksack when walking is a bonus, plus I decided that being able to take 720p High Definition video would be a good thing to have. The other main thing that made my mind up was my upcoming holiday in Florida and not really wanting to take my dslr this time.
Well the camera arrived, and it’s so small in comparison to my D300.
Once I managed to find a small Lowepro bag which wasn’t much bigger than the camera itself, I was good to go. This would be ideal for walking about on holiday with the camera barely noticeable in it’s case slung over my shoulder.
For hillwalks and landscapes I wanted to go one better though. Landscape photography really needs some sort of ND grad filter to help balance the exposure of the land and sky. I purchased a 46-52mm step-up ring from Ebay, and was able to use a 52mm Lee adaptor ring that I happened to have in my cupboard. Once I had these I could put the Lee holder on the camera and use the full range of Lee filters on it.
As you can see the filter holder is longer than the camera! Even more so once you add an ND grad filter to it.
For hillwalking this would be the kit I would take. For my upcoming Florida holiday, I would also take a small travel tripod (which you can just see the ball head for in the picture) and also Ebay came up trumps again with a cable release.