New Camera… now I just need a fox

Precious few fox sightings these past few days. They seem to be coming very late at night, (fleeting sightings also in the mornings). At this time of year they are preparing earths for the winter and generally keeping a low profile. Which all means I haven't been able to test out my new camera the way I'd like. It was my Christmas present to self. I eventually opted for the Canon S2 SI, for a combination of reasons but mainly because of the 12x optical zoom (with 4x digital zoom this gives 48x), plus it has a really good video recording facility which I plan to use. I picked up a high speed 1GB card to go with it. It has 5 million megapixels.

Did I say 5 million pixels?. I reckon it's actually 4,999,999. The first one I brought home had a stuck pixel (I think that's the term), but effectively it was a small area of white spotting. I'm now on my second one and the effect is visible on this as well (grrr), but mainly on long exposures and there is a certain amount I can do to reduce that. What you see is a tiny (and I mean tiny) white dot on the image. I'm going to play heavily with it over the holiday and see how it goes. Everything I post up here (and on my site) goes through an editor first (PhotoImpact) and clearing off the speck is (to be honest) a breeze (especially as I know where it is). That, and the fact that it disappears almost entirely when I take the pictures down to 800×600 for posting means the problem is more irritating than anything else. And there are no guarantees that another camera won't have the same sort of problem. Hmmm… it is annoying though, and these cameras are not exactly cheap. Checking various forums suggests that it's a not uncommon problem and there are various bits of software which can automate the cleanup process. So in the long run I can live with it. But what I really want to do is photograph the foxes!

In the absence of the foxes I've turned my hand to photographing the various birds that frequent the garden. We get large flocks of starlings visiting this time of year. And there are wood pigeons nesting in the trees at the end of the garden. Plus the ubiquitous seagulls. The shots in the New Camera Games album are all taken on high zoom (12x) and have been somewhat processed. They are very far from perfect… I should at least get the tripod out… but on my little Olympus it was all but impossible to get any usable shots at all. Oh yes, the camera has an excellent anti-shake mechanism on it as well. It won't cope with major wobbling, but certainly means that long lens and low light shots are a lot easier.

This is the flock of starlings. I've treated it to a watercolour/paint filter to it, plus one or two other things.