50,000 photographs taken with the Panasonic LX5

Street

Boat

Bus

Sunset

Lamp

Fence

Today I crossed the 50,000 photographs milestone with the Panasonic LX5. I have had it for six months now, and it has worked well all this time, even in winter weather.

One of the good points about the LX5 is the battery endurance, as I'm getting over 1000 photographs with one charge. The average may be about 1200, but I haven't really kept count. Now that it is winter the battery may have less juice, but I haven't noticed any drastic problems.

Today the temperature rose to about -6 °C in Helsinki, but now we are at -15 °C, and it is getting colder. Real winter weather. And there is frost in addition to snow, which changes the landscape a bit.

The Secret of Tremanskärr - yet another SoFoBoMo 2011 photo book

Drosera

Andromeda polifolia

Spider

Trientalis europaea

Yesterday I complained about lack of motivation; today I made a photo book, from start to finish, in less than 12 hours.

The Tremanskärr nature reserve in Espoo is a great place to visit, offering a lot of swamp types, forests, and a lake. I took 1042 photographs there today, and out of these I made a 64-page photo book titled The Secret of Tremanskärr. It is available in PDF (11 MB file) at the SoFoBoMo site.

By the way, I'm starting to wonder about how well the Panasonic LX5 batteries perform. I'm now at the fifth charge of the batteries, at over 6000 photographs taken. Today the first battery run out after 11 photographs, and with the second one - a Panasonic original, I don't dare to buy copies - I took 1000+ photographs. And there is still plenty of juice left (full three bars).

I think the battery is rated at 400 photographs, and I'm getting more than three times that amount. There are several reasons, such my shooting habits. Typically I keep the camera on just a few seconds, taking only a few photographs in quick succession. Another reason may be that I'm shooting 1:1 format, which has less pixels to push. Also, it may be that using aperture priority with most of "intelligent automatics" turned off may conserve energy.

Anyway, I'm much pleased with the batteries. With the LX3 I typically got up to 800 photographs; with the LX5 I'm getting 50% more with one charge.

Aspect ratios and battery endurance on the LX3

Pheasant

Bench

Trees

Lamp

Underpass

Andreas Manessinger asked an interesting question, regarding the RAW format on the LX5: does the RAW file obey the aspect ratio setting? If you would need to crop againg in the RAW converter this would severely limit the appeal of the LX5.

As I don't have the LX5, only the LX3, the following may not apply, but I think it does as the changes are not that big.

I made a small experiment - I shot the same scene first using jpeg in 1:1 and 4:3 aspect ratios, then using raw in 1:1 and 4:3, with the same (ISO etc.) settings. The file sizes were:

• jpeg: 3.7 and 4.9 MB
  
• raw: 9.8 and 12.4 MB
  

So I think you can deduct that on the LX3 the RAW is cropped in the file. This also means that you can't recover information, e.g. go from 1:1 -> 4:3 afterwards.

This I think also provides some clue why I have found the endurance of the new batter on my LX3 to much exceed my initial experiences when I first started using the LX3. Since then, the endurance of the original two batteries has decrease to half of original (or even less in below freezing temperatures).

But with the new battery I bought the charge lasts up to 800 photographs - well above the 600 photographs which I had earlier. And the only change is that I'm nowadays using the 1:1 aspect ratio. So, the camera needs to do less work (pixel pushing), and thus the battery lasts much longer.

And having a battery that lasts for 800 photographs is quite nice indeed.

Goes on and on and on...

Lights, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Playground, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Snow, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

School, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Road, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

The new battery I bought for the LX3 seems to go on and on and on. I have charged it so far three times, and it always manages to surprise. At first I though the new one equals two of the old ones, but I think it is more like three. I guess the stamina of the old ones has gone down quite a lot because of 200 or so recharge cycles. Also, part of the surprise may be that when the camera was new, I was shooting mostly using 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratios. Now that I'm using 1:1, there is less pixels to push. Or maybe the new firmware is just more efficient than the first versions. In any case, having several batteries isn't so important any more, as long as I have new one recently charged.

Here are some photographs taken yesterday. Quite snowy as you can see.

Not buying a camera in 2010

View, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Window, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Orivesi, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Orivesi, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Fireworks, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Winter, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I managed to resist buying a new camera in 2010, but I'm not at all sure about 2011. Today I ordered a new battery (non-brand) for the LX3, as one of the two has started to deteriorate rapidly, only good for 50-100 photographs in cold weather. I have been doing "the warm the battery up inside a glove" trick too often, and got tired of it. I didn't buy a Panasonic-branded battery, so this was a minimal investment, 10 euros including postage.

Here are six photographs from yesterday and today. We were visiting Orivesi for a day or so, and you can see a bit different landscape in the two photographs from there. There was frost on the trees, making them look quite different from the trees here in Vantaa.

How durable are NiMH battery chargers?

Glove, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Autumn, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

LOST, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

First, here are some photographs from today, although it almost happened that I didn't venture outside after a hectic day at work. But wife got me motivated.

Off-topic to photography - or perhaps not, as I imagine photographers use NiMH batteries a lot for various purposes - anyway, what happened that two NiMH chargers broke within one week from each other. The other (Vanson) was only two years old, the other (Energizer) a bit longer in use.

Was this just a coincidence or might perhaps a faulty battery cause such a thing? Both chargers have seen a lot of use, as flashlights, bicycle lights, childrens' toys etc. seem to eat batteries daily.

I bought a cheap GP charger with four 2700 MiHN batteries as a replacement - but should I charge the other batteries (Vanson, Energizer) with it? I'm hesitant to experiment further...

I could write much longer on the durability of electronics, but I cut my finger with a new knife when preparing food, so using the keyboard is difficult. Have to be careful with sharp instruments...