Out with the Old?

There are times when I get very frustrated with my camera, particularly when the auto-focus throws a wobbly and refuses to work, and I keep thinking I really ought to get rid of it and buy something more up-to-date, but then I look at some of the pictures which, despite its limitations, the camera manages to produce, and I think I'd be an idiot to try something new, untested, the mechanics of which might well defeat me.

The camera is very good at taking pictures quickly, often when there are only only a few precious moments before the subject moves out of range. It isn't just that the camera turns on and then focuses quickly, it's also that, like some Wild West gunslinger, I've become good at drawing it from its case, pointing it, and pulling the trigger.

It's also very versatile. Its macro setting allows me to take some very good close-ups while the zoom feature, which gives me a 25x optical magnification, enables some very adequate distant shots - as, the other day, when we were watching the osprey on its nest in Balblair Wood.

There's also a matter of principle. The camera may be old, there may be more recent, fancier models, but that's not a good reason for consigning it to the bin - or, more likely, the bottom drawer of my desk where it can fade into obscurity along with other older models like my iPhone 4. Like me, with a bit of luck, it still has some mileage in it.

From top: meadow lark, oystercatcher with young, two-banded longhorn beetle,

and male large red damselfly.