Oktoberfest Cameras!

What do you do at Oktoberfest when “The Chicken” is right there posing for you in front of the stage and all you have at hand is the camera in your cell phone? You use what you have that’s what you do. Thankfully, that is not really too much of a sacrifice since cell phones these days tend to have pretty decent cameras. This photo was taken using my Samsung Galaxy III S.

The rest of these photos were taken with my Nikon P-300. This little gem has become my go to camera for “Street Photography” and generally anything else that happens when I am not actually planning a “photo shoot” or where I just happen to see something begging to be immortalized in my photo archives. This is generally just because it is so small and compact that it’s easy to carry around.

This shot was taken at f3.3, 1/1250 and ISO 160, selected automatically by the camera. The beauty of this little camera is that is takes really great photos with little or no help from me but it has full manual controls if I need or want to “take the wheel.”  One of the features I like best is that in “P” or Program mode there is a little “thumb wheel” conveniently located just behind the shutter button that when turned holds the selected EV but allows you to quickly & easily choose different combinations of aperture & shutter speed with the same EV – literally allowing you to “take the wheel!”  

Here’s another taken at about the same settings except that f4 was chosen for the aperture. This of course, is all in keeping with my latest conviction to spend more time actually taking pictures and less time worrying about what equipment I use to do it. As I have said before, most cameras these days (yes, even the one in your cell phone) actually do a pretty good job taking pictures.

And yet here’s another, this one taken at f5, 1/800, and ISO 160. Now this doesn’t mean I have totally given up my quest for the perfect camera. Although I have to admit the Nikon P-300 is pretty close to perfect. 

Finally, with the sun almost completely gone and the lights starting to take over where the sun left off I took this shot at f2.8, 1/30. and ISO 200. There is just enough blur in the foreground to let you know that the children were dancing while the musicians and stage are sharp and clear. Frankly, had I set everything manually I don’t think I could have done any better than what this camera did on Auto. How can it get any better than to have a camera that reads your mind and takes the picture you wanted to take for you?

If only I could find such a camera with a full size sensor? Even one with an APS-C sensor would be truly amazing. Stay tuned. The technology is already there. I think there may be one in the not too distant future.