August 2020 – frans goes blog

I wanted to revisit my old gear tonight, so I dug up my trusty EOS 550D, coupled with the BG-E8 battery grip and the classic, Canon 70-200mm f4L USM lens. The Friendly Cat provided again the modelling services.

I was immediately reminded by the obvious strengths of this older, bigger camera body: the ergonomics are just so much better when you can really hold the camera comfortably and steadily in your hand, and have large, mechanical control knobs that you can quickly and effortlessly experiment with.

On the other hand, the limitations were again also immediately obvious; in particular, the mirrorless digital camera (EOS M50) that I am mostly using these days allows one seamlessly move from using the viewfinder to the live view in the rear display, while making the composition. 550D also has rear display live view, but you need to specifically switch it on, and it is slow and imprecise, and the autofocus in particular is just terrible when shooting with it.

The optical viewfinder, on the other hand, is excellent, and the very limited nine (9) AF points do their job just well enough for this kind of slow “portrait” work. The low maximum ISO of 6400 also does not matter when taking pictures under the bright evening sun, and sharpness of that old Canon L lens fits nicely the 18-megapixel image sensor’s resolution capabilities.

Thus, if I would think about a “perfect camera” for my use, I would be happy with current M50 image sensor resolution (24,1 megapixels), but I would be really happy for a bit more capable autofocus system, and for more low-light performance in particular. The single most beneficial upgrade could however be a body with larger physical dimensions, with better/larger mechanical controls for selecting the program mode, aperture, and making the other key adjustments.

While the new EOS R series Canon cameras provide exactly that, the issue for me is that those are full frame cameras; and I am very happy in taking my photos with APS-C (the “crop sensor”). Full frame lenses, and new Canon RF lenses in particular, tend to be both large and expensive to a degree that does not make much sense for my kind of “Sunday photographer”.

There are alternatives like Fujifilm, with their excellent APS-C camera bodies (X-T30, X-T4, for example), and their sharp and relatively compact and affordable lenses. But I am deeply invested in the Canon ecosystem – it would be so much easier if Canon would come up with a well-designed camera like Canon 7D Mark II, but updated and upgraded into current, mirrorless sensors’ and image processors’ capabilities. One can always make wishes? Happy weekend, everyone!

There were originally 12 chili saplings that I decided to cultivate further this season, summer 2020. There was only one fatality: a freak summer storm suddenly completely broke and killed my single Pimenta da Neyde (C. chinense), This was a sad loss, it would have been interesting chili to grow. But it is now August, and I have still 11 chilies growing: in the greenhouse 7: 2 x Lemon Drop + 2 x Hainan Yellow Lantern (these are in the hydroponic system, still looking forward to the main crop), plus one Bolivian Rainbow, one Purple Bhut Jolokia and one Chinese 5 Color (these three grow in fertilised soil cultivation). Outdoors there are 4 chilies: the ornamental chili peppers Buena Mulata, Filius Blue, Numex Twilight and the very pretty “Kanon Pepper F2” (C. annuum) cultivar. I have yet to start seriously testing the tastes of this season, but e.g. in Lemon Drops there certainly is the lovely, very fruity and aromatic (medium-hot) taste I like so much; in the two Hainan Yellow pods that I have tested so far there were great differences (both were quite aromatic, but were tasting very different, and the other was very hot, the other very mild – I need to study this crop more, later). I have not tasted many of the ornamental chilies yet, but e.g. Buena Mulata (C. annuum) was hot indeed.