Lone Windsurfer at Brogborough

The wind was just below gale force in gusts, which I was certain would attract windsurfers to gravitate towards Brogborough Lake to take advantage of the dry conditions; the missing factors were sunshine and warmth! I gathered the serious kit as well as the mirrorless LUMIX, and as I approached the entrance I wondered whether the gate was open, and it was, which is always a good sign.

I pulled into the spot I generally used; and looking around, found I was only the third car into the car park. As yet, it looked as if only one person was considering taking to the lake — Geoff, and he seemed to be in no particular hurry to be putting on his wet suit.

The wind was brisk, and I soon realised that I was not as well-prepared as I had assumed. I had presumed that a coat was in the boot should I need extra protection, but when I opened it, I was soon disabused of that! So, my time was going to be spent exactly as I was dressed presently, as it was far too much trouble to go back for extra clothing.

For the first time for quite some time, I lost several images, and I think it was due to my using the same memory card in two different cameras. From now on having formatted a card for my Canon camera, I will avoid using it in a different manufacturer’s unless not only it is re-formatted, but specifically it was reformatted in the specific manufacturer’s camera. There were several shots of Geoff that I took on a card that had the remnants of a previous visit to Brogborough taken on my Canon EOS R, that became unreachable later when, I came to download them.

I will now designate specific cards to my Canon gear, and try to remember to Always reformat a card in camera after download has been completed, rather than just Occasionally. Also designate a Single, Specific card for the LUMIX. I was aware that many users format every time, but having never before faced this issue, possibly because all my gear was Canon till now, this situation had never occurred. So, my apologies to Geoff for so few shots.

Brogborough Test of Lumix FZ1000 MkII

The weather brightened for a while, and enticed me to consider taking just the Lumix FZ 1000 MkII, the mirrorless body with a fixed zoom equal to 25-400mm, out to the lake at Brogborough. Since there was a reasonable wind blowing I anticipated there would be windsurfers out on the water to take advantage.

  By the time I was ready to leave, much of the promise of sunshine was rapidly dwindling, but the chance to find out how this camera might perform was too great a draw, and my only slight disappointment was just how few sailors had decided to grab the opportunity. Certainly, compared to setting up my Sigma 60-600mm on the heavy Benbo tripod, to ready this camera, was a mere matter of removing the soft cover and switching the power on – a breeze!

  It was not long before I had taken a few shots of the meagre number of windsurfers who were out on the lake, and I broke off to chat to some of those on the lakeside, before seeing just how effective this new ‘toy’ was able to perform; certainly compared to the Sigma, this was way short in terms of the size of image I was accustomed to expect at the long lens end, so I needed to position myself as close to the shore as possible, even at the long end of the range, since the sailors were at a reasonable distance from me. At first this seemed a bit of a disappointment, but once I had ‘chipped and zoomed in on the shots I had managed, I was fairly happy with the results. The cloud cover had increased from the start, but after I had taken some two hundred images, of which I would only use a mere forty-five, I felt I had enough material to look through and assess this camera’s potential for use here in the future. My conclusion after creating the gallery, was that if time was short and this camera were at hand, it would definitely be usable, but it certainly was never going to provide the same coverage I can get with my Sigma Sports lens, more especially as that is absolutely excellent when I also can attach the 2x Converter!

  I now knew if this camera was with me, and there was activity on the lake, I did have an excellent backstop to capture some action. As a technical reference, these were all taken at ISO 2000, so the quality achievable is more than adequate. I now know there is still more potential here once I really understand how to get the best out of it.