Flops' Friday mini blog

looks like the back of my PC ... seriously in need of some cable management :lol:


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The last British Summertime sunset over SE London, 28th October

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Saw Peter Perrett at the Electric Ballroom Camden this evening. Here's a coupla crappy phone pix, I didn't take my camera, wasn't sure whether they'd let me take it in but I waltzed into the venue without any checks. Which, considering Manchester, makes me a little worried.

Good gig, I saw him play this venue 37 years ago as founder/songwriter/rhythm guitarist/singer with The Only Ones. Sometimes I feel so very very old.... ;)

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Here's a song from the same tour a coupla nights ago, won't be to everybodys taste :D


and another one some may be familiar with:

 
Woke up today, peered outside and noticed the skies were clear and the sun was shining. After performing ablutions and taking in sustenance set off solo to Blackheath on a 386 to an annual Christmas Fayre in the concert halls there.

Paused in the charity shop and browsed the books, fillums and vinyl records and noted that 2nd hand goods cost twice as much in a Blackheath charity shop as they do in, say, a Deptford charity shop. Nothing there caught my fancy, not really into Max Bygraves or Bucks Fizz.

Queued up to get into the festive shindig, it was quite jam packed. A surly security person – I assumed he was security cos he had a walkie talkie hanging off his belt and was only wearing a shirt on top in this weather so must be well tough – was giving me the eyeball. Glowering at me. I thought ‘Why? I don’t look like a threat do I?’

So I gave him a look back that I hoped said ‘Back off or I’ll knock your teeth down your throat’ but which this young oik probably interpreted as ‘Please leave me be for I am old and frail’. As I queued nearer to the entrance I peered inside and noted that nearly all the stalls I could see were selling Christmas goods, puddings, cards, little donkeys and the baby jesus, that sort of thing.

I thought to myself what the hell am I doing here, I don’t even celebrate Christmas and that, coupled with the spotty security fella’s glaring at me, caused me to turn around and exit before I’d coughed up the two quid to get in. C’est La Vie.

On the journey home I missed the 386 so decided to walk home. I set off towards the heath noting that Falconwood Estates was still there, an estate agents office who rent properties. I rented 2 properties from them, at Westcombe Park Road ‘76 - ‘79 and Canadian Avenue ‘82 - ‘85. Approached the old church on the heath and recalled that when I used to come to the nearby pond to catch sticklebacks as a kid I said to myself ‘I’ll get married in that church one day’ cos I liked the look of it. It was, and still is, stately imo.

However, by the time I’d reached the age where I would consider marriage I had long decided that churches were not the places I wished to frequent.

Walking across the heath I cast a long shadow and saw people from all walks of life out and about strolling and enjoying a dry English day. A feelgood factor, I suppose.

Through Greenwich Park where always a million memories come flooding back from 1963 to last week and down the hill to the gate where a busker was singing a pretty good version of Wagon Wheel, as written by Bobby Dylon and sung by the Old Crow Medicine Show.

Stopped off at the clocktower market and picked up an original vinyl copy of The Best Of The Marvelettes on the Tamla Motown label for a tenner though it’s more doowop than Tamla. Doodalac, doodalac. And that was my day so far. Exciting life isn’t it?
 
Here's a picture of me having my first ever alcoholic drink, it was a bottle of Pils lager or similar as I recall. I was 13 and on a school journey to Ostende in Belgium. We also visited Middleburgh (Holland), Dunkirk and Bruges. Bruges was impressive and Dunkirk was cold, sandy and windswept. We wandered into that bar mid evening and the fella in the picture kneeling, on hearing we were English, insisted on buying us all a drink to thank our country for helping them out in WW2. We were a little overwhelmed by this but took him up on his offer. I notice I'm wearing an anorak while my school chums favour suits, shirts and ties. I never did favour formal dress.

I wonder how many people actually have a picture of their first alcoholic sup?

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I finally have the camera I've wanted for the last 18 months or so, a Sony RX100 Mk 3. Yesterday I travelled to the London Camera Exchange in The Strand with my Canon G16 and Panasonic Lumix FZ28 with a view to part exchange them against the Sony.

But on inspection the shop fella said the G16 lens was scratched and the FZ28 was too old for them to take in. They offered me £60 for the G16 which still sells for more than £200 on Ebay. So I declined their offer. On returning home I looked at the front of the G16 lens with a magnifying glass and I couldn't see a scratch but I am not a young man anymore so that probably didn't mean a lot.

The shop did have a used Sony RX100 Mk3 for £350 and as they still sell for around £525 at most places I bought it.

I took the Canon G16 to a CEX shop and they gave me £162 for it so I figure I've gained the Sony for £188 and I still have the Panasonic Lumix FZ28 which is actually a good camera and it has 18 x zoom. But it is a bit on the large side.

I haven't used the Sony yet but I'm impressed with what I've learned about it so far. Soon I'll go walkabout and snap away and see how it performs. I've ordered a couple of after-market batteries and charging tray for the Sony, only £11 on Amazon with lots of good reviews.

So I guess that's my Christmas stocking taken care of ;)

(It's quite ok to mention Christmas now, it's December 6th :D )
 
Great purchase Flops, I've had an RX100 MIII since about June last year - love it, I paid ~£380 for it off of eBay from a really nice old chap who had upgraded to something better. (a DSLR of some description IIRC) So you got a decent deal in my book :)

It does take some fantastic shots, I love the depth of field you can get with it, the m3 is the way to go imo as the newer ones are too much £££ and the 3 has the viewfinder, better image processor etc, and my other half is rather fond of the 180 degree flipping screen, for all those selfies. :lol:

Might I suggest you get one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KOUIBRU/ - It makes gripping the camera a lot easier. That said I still use the wrist strap, just inc case. ;)
 
Excellent choice of camera flops keep the penny just for its zoom, they come in very handy sometimes especially at airshows and such when you can't get close ups of planes in flight
 
V_R: I've ordered the grip and a leather case from Amazon as the old case I had for the Canon G16 was too big for the Sony. I was aware you owned the same camera and some of the comments you made about it were influential when I was making up my mind which was the next camera I wanted to own.

I do actually remember a lot of what people say here ;)

Talking of which: Crazylegs: I was between cameras and I'd just sold my Fuji X1-Pro (which I didn't get along with at all) and was trying to make my mind up which camera to replace it with. So in between I thought I'd get something reasonably priced and bought the Panasonic Lumix FZ28 for £92 from a CEX shop. Am really quite impressed with picture quality but I may as well own an SLR if I'm going to carry around a camera that size.

Still, as you say, the zoom function is handy to have so I shall keep it for now.

My choice of the Lumix. incidentally, was made after I saw some pictures you posted of (I think) some old cars and I asked you which camera you'd used as I was quite impressed. You told me it was an old Panasonic model similar to the FZ28 I ended up buying.

Today it rained most of the day, the sun shone briefly about 15:00 and then it became grey, overcast and dull so I didn't get a chance to rattle off many snaps today.

As a footnote I owned the Canon G16 for more than 2 years and am of the opinion it's a great little camera, I'd have no hesitation in recommending one as an excellent compact camera.
 
Yes Flopp's I remember it was my Goodwood festival of speed thread, (heavy with pics) unfortunately photo*ucket decided to out my account a few months ago and all those pics are gone now as I closed the account shortly after they started playing silly buggers with it..

Yes mine's the Panny FZ-18 and I still have it, as like you said image quality for a bridge camera at that price is hard to beat, its probably worth about £30 quid now, but when you see the images it still produces even at full zoom its ridiculous still, so certainly worth more than the £30 notes I would now get for it if I sold it on ebay or whatever, its still mint aswell, I don't use it often but when attending airshows i get better pics than my mate that takes his DSLR and a mountain of lenses. :lol: I wouldn't part with it now..;)

Current camera is a Canon EOS M turns out unbelievable images, I only own a kit lens and a prime 50mm for it though so no good for distant objects at airshows :nod:

Looking forward to those pics Flopp's :D
 
I've decided to start a different thread about this camera as it's taking me a while to get to know it and I've encountered file formats I've never seen before which won't open in forums or social media. Nor Adobe software Photshop CS5 and Lightroom 5.

Quite confusing but I'm aware of the old adage 'RTFM' :D Or in this case read some online guides as the manual with the Sony RX100M3 is decidedly short, all it does is outline all the functions available and what each part on the outside of the camera does.

I'm liking this camera but I think it's going to take me a while to understand.
 
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