Hi everyone,

Firstly let me start by saying that I’m a firm believer in using lens hoods, something that I’ve been doing for many many years and all my lenses have hoods. Panasonic, unlike most of their other lenses, doesn’t supply a hood with the lens as they don’t reckon that it needs one. My instinct was to fit one of my metal screw in after market hoods which has been fine. I was keen to test the lens without a hood, it’s not easily knocked as it’s a pancake design and, equally importantly, it is not prone to flare even in strong light.

This got me thinking about adding a 46-62mm step up ring to the lens which in turn has one on my 62mm (magnetic) XUME lens adapters attached. This still gives a little shading and protection to the front lens element and still makes the lens considerably shorter and thus takes up less room fitted to the camera when in my small camera bag. A nice side effect of this is that my silicone lens cap now fits right down flush to the camera body and completely encases the lens mount. I’m not claiming that this water proofs the lens in transit but it doesn’t do any harm. An unexpected benefit to doing things this way is that my somewhat voluminous but effective rain cover, which has an elasticated front end stays on much better and can’t easily slip off the front of the lens as the step up ring arrangement prevents this unlike having the smooth metallic lens hood fitted.

Now onto my filters, my preferred (slim) CPL filter has a 58mm thread so I first fitted one of my 62mm XUME filter adapters and then a 62-58mm step down ring and then the filter. Because the step down ring makes the filter somewhat recessed and fiddly to adjust I then fitted a 58-62mm step up ring which makes the filter easy to adjust and also provides a little shading to the filter. I’ve tested and with this arrangement fitted it doesn’t cause any vignetting as it’s still considerably shorter than using the hood. I’m also packing a 62mm clear filter and XUME filter adapter to quickly snap on the lens to protect the front element should I need it in harsh environments, rain, snow (with my rain cover fitted), dust etc.. Easier, quicker and safer to clean the filter than the front lens element when required.

Kind regards,

Leigh

Hi,

Just taken delivery and quickly tested my new 2-port USB camera battery charger. I like that it has both micro USB and USB-C connections and isn’t appreciably larger than my single port ones that I’ve used for some years, a tad larger but still as light as air.. It looks like it’ll do the job nicely. I’ll probably travel with one of my single port chargers in my hand luggage as well at least for a while as a backup. Shown here charging one of my Olympus BLN-1 batteries, haven’t had need to try it with two yet and shown side by side with one of my single port ones for comparison. I expect that they probably make them for other battery types. I have now finally achieved 100% USB-C charging Nirvana! 🙂

All the best,

Leigh

Hi everyone,

I’m pleased to say that my new USB battery chargers for my camera batteries and 18650 batteries performed very well during my recent trip having tested them out first before leaving home. Having USB charging for one’s devices and a good multi-port charging hub area a real boon. The hotel room, unlike some that I’ve stayed in, had two mains sockets, luxury!! 🙂 so there was still one free whilst charging my various batteries and devices. Being able to charge five USB devices simultaneously is such a great time saving feature.

It can be a really annoying waste of time plugging in and out multiple mains-powered battery chargers and sitting around waiting for batteries to charge, apart from their increased bulk and weight, I never leave any rechargeable batteries or devices with a built in rechargeable battery unattended whilst charging, especially Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer (mobile phone) type batteries, also never attempt to charge a damaged battery, inspect your batteries for any signs of damage and, if found, dispose of safely.

Investing in good quality batteries and USB chargers for one’s batteries is a sound investment as is choosing a charger/s which will charge in the shortest but still safest time, cooking batteries is never a good idea for the batteries and one’s personal safety, if anything gets uncomfortably hot and/or you notice any other signs of malfunction, switch it off and unplug it straight away!. It might sound tempting to leave the batteries charging overnight or whilst going out for a meal etc. but, if anything goes wrong, I want to be there, wide awake.

When I’m at home, when in use, my USB battery charger/s or rechargeable devices with a built in battery sit inside a spacious, well ventilated, open top biscuit tin whilst charging. The metal acts as a heat sync (not that that’s a big factor) and, if anything should go wrong I’d rather the charger/device/battery was resting inside something metal than standing on a combustible surface. Treat your batteries and battery charging with respect, as the old saying goes “better safe than sorry”.

Kind regards

Leigh

Hi everyone,

As I mentioned in my post yesterday I have paired-down and rationalised my travel kit. As I’ve recently done the same with my camera gear it would seem to make sense to do it with the other gear that I like to travel with. Gone are my USB power bank, USB torch and USB hard disk drive, in comes my new Nitecore air blower with its built in torch, same capacity USB pen drive and I’m going to use the power bank facility in my Ravpower travel router/SD Card backup device. In effect this means that when traveling with a small suitcase, I no longer loose such a significant percentage of its capacity and equally relevant weight allowance storing this gear in transit. As I think that most of you know I’m a big fan of USB charging including my camera batteries so my Anker 5-port USB charging hub is essential and will always be included. This solid little bit of kit has travelled with me absolutely everywhere since I got it in 2016 and is indispensable, it also fits nice and safely in one of my small watertight padded ABS plastic hard cases.

About 80% of my gear now has a USB-C type charging connection rather than the older Micro USB style. So as not to have to pack both types of cable I’ve cut down by having a few Micro USB female to USB type C male adapters and eventually I’ll have standardised on just the USB Type A to USB Type C style cables. The only thing that I want to do now is replace my USB camera battery charger of which I have two with a dual charger with type C connection and thus free up a USB port on my USB charging hub and more conveniently charge two batteries simultaneously when required with fewer cables and clutter.

Kind regards

Leigh