Geoffrey 0 -- Ants 1

Aargh -- beaten by the ants again. When I went out this morning, I noticed a bronze looking band across the green grass. Then I detected signs of movement. The ants were on the march between the tree and the flower garden.

Tried a couple of shots with the GX7 and 12-30 to get the line effect. Useless. It was in shade and even on Vivid setting, there simply was not enough contrast. So, some close-ups.

Tried the 100-300 @ 300. Focus at minimum distance was a maximum problem. But even with that resolved using manual foxuas, this lens did not do the job -- not close enough.

Went to the recognized c/u lens, the Panny 45-150 with the Raynox 150 on the front. At 57mm I got a decent crowd scene; at 150 I was getting decent c/us of individuals.

Well, not really. I was having to shoot at ISO 800 to get any sort of shutter speed because the ants were in shade. The ants were constantly in speedy motion and I was none too steady myself -- the tripod at the heights I was working was out of the question. Apart from being a tottery old bloke, there was the problem with the ants themselves. They were busy along their pathway, perhaps 10-15cm wide, but that wasn't stopping them from maintaining patrols in the surrounding grass.

And when they bite, these ants can STING!!!

So I couldn't just set myself up nice and solidly adjacent to the pathway. I was balancing on my heels.

Anyway, the ants beat me. Key pix just not sharp enough, really -- they look OK @ 50% but start to fall apart @ 100%.

Crowd scene -- not too bad.

Aargh, he had of the rearing ant is not quite at best sharpness. His leg on the other ant is pretty good, though! LOL.

I would have sworn blind that this one was sharp -- I was he wings of the dead insect glisten in the LCD. I must have rocked back just a trifle as I shot.

Close, but no banana really.

I am intrigued by the results I get at higher ISOs. I see some very good results on this forum but my 800 and 1600 shots can't match them. Someone mentioned a little while ago that digital sensors work best in the cold and deteriorate from optimum the hotter they get. I am in hot! And heaven only knows what the internal temperature of the camera is when I have been shooting continuously for a little while.

I try to stick to ISO 200 or at most 400 (will I launch into an ode to Tri-X t this point? No, better not! heaven knows, I shot a lot of the stuff though).

So -- ants are up 1-0 in this round. But I'll be back!!!