Okay, we're done with the mini-beasts for now. I really couldn't spin that series out any longer, so I guess that its done until next year sometime.
So, apropos of nothing - which sums up my approach to this blog - this is an image of a mushroom which I found growing in our lawn a couple of months ago. My guilt about picking it is assuaged by the fact that I was just about to mow in any case.
The weathered wood background is actually my father's work bench, which is sitting outside our back door as we have nowhere else for it, which is something else that I feel guilty about.
In the past I've been deliberately obtuse about the reasons why Sony have had to develop a new lens mount for their mirror-less cameras – but I do understand, really. It’s because the flange distance on the a-mount lenses is prohibitively large and would have driven up the size of the camera bodies, thus negating one of the main benefits of a mirror-less design.
[Canikon have this problem as well, which is why their mirror-less offerings eschew their long established standard lens mounts.]
The A7s are currently the world’s smallest full frame cameras, smaller even than the Olympus OM-D, as Sony are keen to point out. However, the current drive for smaller and lighter bodies can only take them and their competitors so far – what then?
I guess that I'm looking to Sony to start innovating in terms of form factor. Despite all the advances of the past few years, cameras are still basically a box with a lens on the front, a screen on the back and some buttons on the top; surely, with the mirror and the OVF gone, we can do something different?
This image comes from a return visit that we made to the National Botanic Garden of Wales in September to see the IGPOTY exhibition that was running at the time. I found this mushroom on one of the nature walks. Without my tripod or remote release, I had to put the camera on the ground and use the self timer to make the image. I should also say that I was using my Tamron super-zoom as my macro lens was being repaired. Despite all these factors, I think that the resulting image is passable.
