Girl Gone Wild

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 88, low 67)

 

We finally got some much needed rain.   In fact, we were getting a pretty strong storm with hail, about the same time the killer tornado was striking Oklahoma. 

Now now that I have constant access to weather radar from my Weather Bug phone app, it allows me to worry even more.   As soon as I saw the big massive area of red on the radar, I started getting nervous.  It actually looked worse on the radar than the tornado area in Oklahoma the day before, but we didn’t have any tornado watches or warnings, thank goodness.  I have sure become a weather wimp since we live in a metal box.  :)

For the most part, we didn’t get too strong of winds, but apparently right behind us there was a microburst or something because there were two trees split.

This was a pretty large tree.  I hope there were no bird or squirrel nests in the tree.

It appears that we are in the afternoon rain pattern that is common in Florida during the summer months.  I’ll have to get used to it again, I guess.

 

Now, for the title to this post.

The Girl Gone Wild is because I’ve been on a camera upgrade mode this past week or so.

I already told you that we got a Canon Rebel T3i.  It’s DSLR, so it has interchangeable lenses and you can spend a LOT of money adding lenses and accessories.

 

In fact, I was online today looking for a telephoto lens and I stumbled across a lens that cost $25,999!   I don’t think I’ll be purchasing that one anytime soon!

The Rebel  came with two lenses, but they aren’t nearly strong enough for good wildlife photography. I haven’t really enjoyed the camera because every time I try to take a wildlife shot, I find I can’t zoom close enough.

It does take great kitty pictures though!

 

Al wants me to get a big telephoto lens, but the price is holding me back.  They aren’t cheap, and they aren’t light in weight either.   I’m still thinking about it, but right now we’re considering a Sigma 150-500  mm lens with a 2x tele-converter, which will give me a zoom of 1000 mm. 

 

My other camera is a small Canon digital camera (the SX30 IS), with 35X optical zoom and the digital telephoto lens.  I get an 840 mm equivalent zoom.

Of course, there is a loss of image quality in the digital zoom,  but for me, I would rather have any picture, than no picture.  I see a lot of wildlife that’s so far away and without the digital zoom, I would not get the shot.  With the digital zoom, I at least get a fairly decent picture.

This is an example of a photo taken with full digital zoom with my old camera.  It’s not perfectly sharp and crisp, but for me, it’s good enough and without the digital zoom, I wouldn’t have gotten the shot at all.

The new Canon Rebel DSLR with the telephoto lens, will be able to get a little closer and hopefully the photo will be sharper.  Of course the photographer needs a lot of practice.

The two main reason’s I have held off on buying a DSLR camera before now, was because of the fact that you have to constantly change lenses, and the weight of the camera.

So now have a better quality camera that weighs a ton and a lesser quality camera that is portable and lightweight.  The best of both worlds, I guess.

Did I need both cameras?  Probably not, but I wanted them and I’ve been a very good girl lately.

(and Al got a boat).

 

Of course……..I might already upgrades  my little Canon SX30.

Erin had mentioned in a recent blog post about how much she loved her little Canon SX 50 HS camera.  She also has a DSLR camera, but like me, she feels she needs both.  :)

Anyway, her camera is the newer and better big sister to my SX30.  It has a stronger optical zoom lens (which is all she uses) and a stronger digital lens (which will be mainly what I will be using).

I knew my camera had been upgraded and had a stronger zoom but I was happy with my camera and figured I didn’t really need a stronger zoom. 

As it turns out, not only is there a stronger  zoom, but they have made some other improvements on image stabilization.  I did some online research and looked at a few You Tube videos showing what you could do with the newer camera and I was sold.

It’s like with anything else in electronics.  They put a product out and then immediately work to make it better so you want to upgrade.

So…..guess what else I bought?  Yep, the Canon SX 50 HS.

 

 

I tested it out a little and the new image stabilization technology is really a big improvement. 

The pictures seem a little crisper and brighter to me as well.

Here are a few shots I took around the park.

This was the equivalent of a 285 mm zoom.

I apologize if these pictures take too long to load.  I may need to adjust the image size for the blog.

A bird nest at Catherine and JoBeth’s site. 

 

Sweet little Miss Grace.

 

If anybody is looking for a small, light weight digital camera, this is a great one.  You can check online for You Tube videos showing the amazing zoom lens and wonderful picture quality.  Just Google “ Canon SX 50 You Tube.”

 

I think I’m going to like the new camera.  Al will inherit the old one.  :)

 

in the process of working this blog post, I went ahead and ordered a new lens for the DSLR.  I got the 150-500 mm lens and the 2X teleconverter, which will double my zoom.

I should have it in a about a week.