Well I finally gave in and bought a new camera today. An Olympus C-370 zoom, digi job. 3x optical zoom (which is what I was after), and 4x digital zoom. The digital zoom works pretty well actually. 3.2 megapixels, so still on the light end of the scale, but at under £100 I can't really argue. That frog in the picture is on full zoom (12x in total), and pretty secure in the middle of the pond.
It needs to be (pretty secure, that is). Last night we watched two of the cubs out 'hunting'. They'd found a frog in the longer grass and were taking first steps in the foxes guide to country cooking. Amazing to watch, if a clear reminder that nature is pretty ruthless.
Tried out the new camera this evening. Lots of false starts. Getting used to a new piece of kit always takes a while. Apart from finding out that it eats batteries even faster than my old camera, I also discovered that the night time mode really needs a tripod to avoid extreme camera movement. I'm also having to get used to aiming via the screen. So some good opportunities went begging.
But it has great flash! The picture here of our fox friend was taken at 9.48pm, when it was pretty dark (cloudy night as well, so not much moon). He's just heading for a gap in the fence to go and cache some food. Great to see him in full movement.
gdare
4 Jun 2013Was that Olympus your first camera? Man, that fox shot was not that bad at all :yes: