My only plan today was to check out the Shim’s Ride crit race happening about 5km from home, but I left the house almost five hours before the races I wanted to see without much of a plan. I did have my new camera with me, a Panasonic Lumix ZS300, which replaced the ZS99 I owned for 13 days but decided the image quality was just too poor. The 300 has only half the zoom, but a much larger sensor. It also cost about 60% more, so I hope I get my money’s worth out of it.
Having this camera with me, I figured Iona would be a good destination; it’s about 28km each way, and is a local hotspot for birds as I’ve covered before. I decided to ride out to the far end of the northern spit, which is mostly hardpack but does get sandy in spots:
The tide was really low, and the sandy beach extended as far as I could see – and was firm enough I was able to ride around on it for a while! Pretty fun but also pretty tiring – and pretty hard on my drivetrain, I imagine.
As for the photos I got with the new camera, the birdwatching wasn’t too exciting but here are some images off the camera. I’m pretty happy with them considering it’s a 15x zoom point-and-shoot.
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