Photography, birds in flight part 2. Change of camera Lumix FZ82 => Sony RX10 IV

Updated 20220828

The Lumix FZ82 has many good features but also severe limitations. Like any camera :)
Among the good things are 1200mm optical zoom, 4k, low weight. Among the bad things a totally worthless viewfinder. It's almost useless.

Since it's a "superzoom" it has a 1/2.3 sensor chip. The main consequence is that you have to shoot only in sunlight if the object is moving fast. Birds in flight normally do just that.

If the light is weak your images will be grainy.

I thought I'd try with a 1" chip camera so I bought a Lumix FZ1000 with 400mm optical zoom, thinking the increase in quality could balance out the longer zoom of the Lumix FZ82. I was prepared to be somewhat disappointed but "somewhat" was too much. The higher quality of about everything else wasn't enough.

For a long time I'd been interested in the Sony RX10 but the price was ~6 times higher compared to any camera I've owned up to that point. It was much money down the drain if it didn't worked out. I was *really* undecided for a long, long time but in the end I just ordered it and logged out. A big step for me! Phew!

It arrived and the feeling of quality in every detail was staggering! Smooth and heavy. In fact staggeringly heavy. I mount a red dot sight on my cameras for bird photography and the FZ82 weighs about 775g and the Sony 1318g [1lb, 11oz and 2lb, 14oz respectively] with these attached..

After using the lighter camera for years, the greater weight is still bothering me. Every time I take it up I think "Whew! Heavy!"

So far so good. In the autumn 2021 I went to a place where migratory birds pass every year. This was the ultimate test for the camera. The light was not good, cloudy and some rain. My old camera was *not* going to create great results with these preconditions, I knew that for sure.

After a couple of days I started to feel comfortable with the Sony, results were OK. Since it caught more light due to better lens and bigger chip, some margin for cropping emerged. What was disconcerting was the bokeh. Since the light was weak, the camera chose big apertures (I normally prefer short exposure times to get sharp birds :)  and the bokeh was extreme compared the the FZ82. 

To make a long story short: Yes, it worked, changing camera from Lumix FZ82 to Sony RX10 IV. The final proof is, I haven't used the Lumix since the Sony arrived. I'd say the "big step" was worth the money!
There are irritating things in this camera and there are equally irritating things in the Lumix, one just has to accommodate these by working around them or get used to them. I think that goes for any camera independent of prize.

Below images in cloudy conditions. White Wagtail (Motacilla alba), two images. Rather muscular guy! They are crops of about 25% of the original image.

White-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) 
one image, taken when my gut feeling was "this is too far out" but it turned out to be an acceptable picture in my book. It's not a crop, this is as it came out of the camera in spite of the low light (very cloudy). NOTE: You have to look at in in full size on a computer, looking at it on your mobile is no use.

And lastly, the camera with the red dot sight. I have no problem mounting it, takes about 30 min. I never use the flash, I use my mobile for the very few times I need it. So, I glue with Bondic. There will forever be a mark but no functions of the camera are damaged. Other people may want to invest more but the problem is, fastening the sight in just the flash shoe is not enough. I *must* be fixated to the camera so it does not lose it's settings every time you transport it or use it. Horrible, I know :o)). New camera and all. But, a tool is a tool and it must do it's job.

I bought a strip of aluminium from Bauhaus, bent it, used a metal saw and a fine file to make it fit in the flashlight mount. Then I glued it to the lid of the flash. 

The last step is to adjust the red dot sight to hit the middle of the image in the view finder. When these two correspond exactly, you are done!

Using it, you look through the red dot sight ( NOTE: it MUST have green light as an option!! ) and as soon as you have the object in sight, you press the trigger button. That's all. There are caveats but you'll find them out yourself.

The sight cost about $30 from Alibaba.

A tip: I set my camera to 1/1000s or faster, always. That's the "S" setting that makes the camera always use this high speed setting.