The last few weeks have been quite interesting. After a visit to the Twin Cities to see family, stock up on Jones Soda and watch some hockey, I came down with a stomach virus and felt the sickest I ever had in my life. Before the virus struck in full force, I had made up my mind to go in on an R6 and to build a whole new kit around it. Unfortunately, my order was delivered when I was at the height of my sickness, and it would take a few days before I even dared to open the boxes and start setting up the camera.
Not only will this be my first time shooting mirrorless, it's also my first time using proper zoom and prime lenses. While the P900 and P1000 had great zoom capability, the lack of sharpness and, most importantly, the inability of those cameras to take halfway decent pictures at even 400+ ISO was getting too frustrating. Sure, they could snap a sharp photo, but it was really challenging if conditions weren't ideal. Considering I prefer to stalk and shoot, I wasn't getting as many good pictures as I wanted. Now, I'm a birder before a photographer. I definitely enjoy taking and looking at pictures, but I've mostly been using cameras as tools to see birds, record observations and assist with identification. How much that will change now that I've invested into some higher quality gear, I'm not sure.
Thus far, I've taken the R6 no further than my backyard and have taken just a few dozen pictures, the goal being building muscle memory so I can more quickly and accurately hit the dials and buttons I need and seeing how I like the camera settings I've gone with. I didn't realize until putting the files on my PC that I had been shooting in JPG unintentionally. Glad I'm getting these kinks out before spring migration.
The question remains: will spring really come? I've experienced colder and snowier winters, but the potentially record-breaking consistency of the 2022-23 winter has felt a bit much, and with another snowstorm looming in next week's forecast, most people around here are just sick of winter. I'm certainly growing excited to get out in some nicer weather and really try the R6 and to start seeing migrating sparrows, waterfowl and warblers. Hopefully we can ease into a smooth melt and avoid the flooding.
