When Sylvia told me that she would be taking her camera to Florida, I felt the time had come to look into a DSLR.  We’ve been very happy with her Lumix point-and-shoot model, so I looked there first.  When I had narrowed my search, the DMC-FZ70 rose to the top of the list.

I compared and read reviews.  It took time, but it was worth the investment.  I placed my order and then waited.

One of the first things that I did with camera in hand was to check out the 60 to 1 zoom range.  Can you believe 20mm to 1200mm in a single lens?  I had to see for myself.

I’m over 2000 feet from this hunting blind.

A hunting blind made a good target.  They said you couldn’t hand hold a shot that was fully zoomed.  Perhaps not free hand, but I used a window sill and frame to provide two points of stability.  The lens resting lightly against the window glass provided a third.  The image stability algorithm is awesome!

Next, I zoomed out a bit to capture the surrounding scene.

Even here you can see a great zoom range.

Finally, I zoomed to a full-wide shot.  Can you see the hunting blind?

I can’t see it either, but I know it’s there center frame

When folk sing the praises of Spring, it is not this part of the season that they celebrate.  I call it astronomical spring.  The real thing, at least around here, begins sometime next month.