It’s all a matter of perspective.
Unlike my pal Mitch Waxman of the Newtown Pentacle, I’m not a professional photographer, and don’t use a high-end camera with plenty of settings; and I do not carry a tripod—if the camera shakes, it shakes. Even so, I have taken thousands of photos over the past 25 years or so, when I first began doing it in earnest and for every photo you see in Forgotten New York, there are two or three I don’t use either because they’re poor photos or they don’t fit my narrative. Perhaps I should take online photography courses! Even before the Great Infection, I haven’t really been permitted into the United States economy because I am a copy editor/copywriter/proofreader over the age of fifty. Way over, in fact, by now.
Here’s a photo of Coney Island Avenue looking north from the Belt Parkway, snapped during an April 2014 visit. The Manhattan skyline has undoubtedly changed — a lot — since then but the Chrysler Building can be clearly seen, and if you glance to the left, the Empire State, King of All Buildings, lords it over all.
Since I used an 18x zoom setting, as far as my Panasonic Lumix would go — the road looks impossibly clogged with traffic, swamped, it seems. Yet, it was only a moderately busy traffic day. It’s easy to fool people into believing things are jam packed with a zoom lens. Remember that the next time somebody on the internet wants to scare you with people not “social distancing.” Chances are, they are.
I’m in the market, perhaps, for a new camera. My old Panasonic Lumix crapped out and my repair shop of choice, Photo Tech at West 36th and 8th Avenue, won’t touch it. I bought a used one, but I can’t get it to focus on zoom. The booklet doesn’t say what to do in that case, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know in Comments.
Otherwise, I might have to cough up a couple hundred for a new make, maybe one manufactured this decade.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
6/3/20
8 comments
I’ve converted to Sony and the RX100VII is pricey but small and take great pix.
yeah, i actually recently picked up a sony rx100ii for about $200 in ok condition on ebay. very impressive little camera. see my comment below.
Thanks for all the articles you do!
What’s your budget like? You can give a site like dpreview a perusal. They are sponsored by Amazon, but they have a lot of reviews on gear.
I’ve had good luck with lower end sony cameras. you get a great lens for the money and the menus make sense to me. sometimes, i’m not happy with the auto-focus (in low light especially). i find canon’s ez style menus confusing but i must say they do deliver on picture quality and the auto-focus is quicker and more accurate than the sony. i was stunned by the detail when i bought my daughter a canon PowerShot A3500 IS a few years ago and she shot this with it: https://flic.kr/p/uEpRgR
I’d also vote for the Sony RX100 series. If you want a bigger zoom range, go for the Sony RX10. If you want small and pocketable, go for the Sony RX100. That being said, they are expensive cameras.
Love the Orion VII NG on the B68!
Have you Googled the issue? There seems to be a lot of info on the problem.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS906US906&sxsrf=ALeKk00HBp4V3uwEJSs2K_N_QXSnzTpE_Q:1592444713201&q=panasonic+lumix+focus+problem&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4qdHrnorqAhVyQt8KHbl0A2gQ1QIoAHoECAsQAQ&biw=1280&bih=616
Actually the zoom worked on its own again after several weeks not using the camera, but I bookmarked this page and will refer to it if the problem crops up once more.