Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took the plunge and got a new Panasonic DMC FZ7 12X zoom with stabilization. I've spent about a week reading the operators manual and familiarizing myself with it and here are some of my first pics with it. Let me know what you all think.

The first three pics are a 2006 male. The second group of three are another 2006 male

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Vichris

Vichris Variables

Nice pictures! And the snakes are petty too.
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OOPS!!! It was supposed to say "pretty", not "petty". Sorry!!
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Aubrey. Your snake pics below are very "petty" too. LOL
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Vichris

Vichris Variables

Awesome pics and snakes. Good job with the photos
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

I have alot more to learn about this camera. It will be a labor of love though. I'm really impressed with it so far. I need to buy more memory for my puter now. With all these recent pics it already slowing things down.

Thanks for the kind words on the snake too. Both of those males are Shartooths handy work.
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Vichris

Vichris Variables

Nice pics Chris. I have an older Panasonic camera and have been thinking about upgrading to the model you have. I'm starting to look forward to warmer weather, so I can get some shots with natural light.

Greg

Your "In the field" pics with the LC-5 are what got me started looking at the Panasonic line of cameras. Those field pics are just awesome. Jonel and his pics finished me off.

I'm having a blast with the FZ7 and I'm just getting started. I can't wait until it warms up and I can get out in the field.
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Vichris

Vichris Variables

Very nice pictures Chris, so i was looking at the MSP i got from you the other night very closely, and now that she is getting bigger i can see that she has red eye brows/eyeliner. its pretty cool, ont hat back head to have two little red lines ovr her eyes, once i get my new camera i will try and capture it for you

Adam

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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

I remember the red over her eyes. My other camera and most other camera have a hard time capturing that red buried in the black. The red will become much more obvious as the babies grow up. The black tends to fade a bit too.

Here's a good example of that. These are pic's of "Butterscotch" as a baby and grown up. You can see how that black on her head really faded and the reddish hues stand out

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Vichris

Vichris Variables

yeah, anyway she is doing awesome, slamming three pinks a week, i just had a litter of pinkies that i am going to size up just for her, just to give her soemthing alittle bigger, she has one of the best feeding responses in the collection

have a good one
Adam
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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

Those are outstanding photo's. I need to sit down and read my directions....lol...
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Michelle

Outstanding photos Chris. Pretty soon I want to invest in a really good digital camera myself. Yours takes awesome photos. Great job.
Ken

Hi Chris

Glad I was able to help and thanks for the friendly phone call. Pretty nifty gadget for the price isn't it. Even if you decide that you would want to go to DSLR I think it's a solid back up camera. Now, keep on shooting and sharing some pics. Try the ones with natural light as the camera really takes impressive pics. Talk to you later. Take care.

BTW, email me for a link on some nice add-ons(better lens hood & converter lenses) for this camera.

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Jonel M. Lopez

www.spsnakes.com

Are you you using Adobe Photoshop? If so which version?

Thanks for the critique. I'm curious. How do you know I wasn't using natural light?? I'm not saying I was or wasn't but I'm just curious how you came to that conclusion. There is something obvious in one pic that probably gives it away.

BTW I lived in AZ for 7 years. The first rattlesnake I encountered in AZ was an AZ black. That is one heck of a nice looking AZ black. I don't think I remember seeing one with quite the contrast that one exhibits. Nice pic too.
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Vichris

Vichris Variables

Hi Chris

I'm using photoshop 7.0 but you could use the older versions or the CS just fine for some post editing.

Well from what I could see you used the flash on atleast 2. One could tell by just looking for some hard shadows and some reflection on the eyes and scales. You can probobly eliminate the hard shadows by making a DIY diffuser from some opaque or white plastic to bounce off the light. I use a 16 oz white deli cup and an empty alcohol bottle by cutting a hole large enough to insert the pop-up flash inside. The others look like you just used the ambient light available.

I also noticed that some part of the pics looks pixelated. Is this because of cropping? BTW, what ISO are you using? One of the cons of this camera is that they can sometimes be noisy if you're using the higher ISO. I don't even bother going higher than 200 on my pics.

Well, this blacktail was the first one we saw when my friend and I went to AZ this summer. We have been there for two days and as you can see in the pic there hasn't been any monsoon rains yet and was bone dry. I was lucky enough to come across this beauty while walking on a dry stream bed. I haven't seen a lof of these guys but from what I've seen and what you and other people have said that it's a pretty one at that. I saw a huge male, and couple of females, and a yealing but they didn't compare to this one. It was pretty mellow to and could be tailed easily. After this find it rained the next morning. I guess its somewhat of a lucky charm.

Talk to you later man.
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Jonel M. Lopez

www.spsnakes.com