Another awesome visit to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National WIldlife Reserve to test my newest acquisition, the Lumix DMC ZS50 camera with 24-720mm Leica glass! (I also took along my new Pentax IQ Zoom 105 WR film camera, but I haven’t had those negatives processed yet, so that’s a story for another time.
And here it is, a little 12mp point and shoot with full manual control,, Leica glass, a nifty intelligent control ring that adjusts various settings based on your shooting mode. For example, if you are in Aperture Priority, it adjusts the aperture, Shutter Priority adjusts the shutter speed, Manual mode adjusts the shutter speed if you turn left, Aperture if you turn right. I have to say, I had a blast with this little gem!
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see as much wildlife as we wanted to, but when this beast of a bison walked practically right up to Kevin’s car, the 24mm Leica glass over my Canon 400mm lens was a no brainer. I pulled out the Lumix and zoomed in to about 35mm and started shooting! I wasn’t sure how the old 12mp CMOS sensor woudl do, but I have to say I’m quite impressed! And I was also impressed with the batter life on the little camera as well. After messing with settings and shooting all day, the small rechargeable batter was still reading full.
Lighting was a bit muted from a light cloud cover, but Longs Peak and Mount Blue Sky were magnificent in the distance. I really like this shot of a lone bison with Longs Peak in the back to the right. This image was captured with my Canon R7 and 100-400mm L series lens.
Oh, and my little dog Pudge says hi! He was the subject for testing the little flash on the Lumix. You can really see the quality provided by the Leica glass in the amazing detail of his fur. The color and contrast are perfect right out of the camera, which is surprising on ten year old technology. Virtually no post processing was required on this image. This is the jpg, loaded directly from the camera, with watermark provided in Photoshop.
Here are a few more captures from the day, with all the red-tail hawk images shot with the Canon R7, my main bird and wildlife rig.
If you would like to learn more about wildlife in the Rocky Mountain West, please consider a purchase of my book, Wildlife Photography in the Colorado Rockies. This book is filled with dozens of full color images along with all the camera details I used to shoot the images. Learn locations and seasons for the best captures, along with tons of tips and tricks for capturing the most dramatic images possible.
I’m also pleased to announce that I’m getting very close to publishing my newest wildlife novel, “The War On Wildlife“
If you have been following the book on Substack, now might be a good time to put in your order for the prequels, Spirit of the Wolf and Thundering Hooves!
Steven W. Krull is a renowned photographer and author who has been photographing and writing of the beauty and wildlife of the Colorado Rocky Mountains for over two decades. Please visit his website at S.W. Krull Imaging to view his work, including thousands of prints for sale, stock images for commercial use, and his library of published books.
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Colorado Nature Photographer / Author | Steven W. Krull 