Not unlike a surgical procedure and definitely not for the faint hearted… but my wide angle lens is actually working again after a very delicate operation! Ah… but it was touch and go at times during the ‘changing of the diaphragm unit’ procedure where I assisted (brief moments thankfully) resident technical surgeon, OH. I’ll do a follow-up post on our fix for ‘error 99’ shortly.
For regular garden blog visitors, let’s take a brief stroll around a very wet Edinburgh Botanics yesterday with a few lens recovery shots …
.jpg)
.jpg)
Close-up test: Magnolia blooms with raindrops – an excellent first lens test 🙂
.jpg)
Beside the Magnolia, a very bold Robin was happy to take part in lens testing.
.jpg)
At foot level: pretty, purple primula blooms, the rain was getting heavy now!
.jpg)
Longer test: Too wet for ducks in the main pond, look who was spotted though!
.jpg)
Crop test: Heron slowly moving though reeds in the heavy rain looking for food.
Not that I ever doubted OH would take a good shot at replacing the diaphragm unit in my lens but, as with any serious surgical procedure, we knew the risks were high and my lens may never work again.
Why didn’t I put my lens in to a shop for repair? Well, we expected it would be quite costly. Although disappointed, I had just accepted I had lost the use of this lens especially when I read in forums this was a known fault and repairs weren’t always successful. We had nothing to lose really.
I am thrilled to be using this lens in my camera again, thanks to my brave OH! My next test subject for my camera lens will be around my own new wildlife pond. Plants are finally going in and this is becoming a much more fun and rewarding project than I ever expected it to be – and I’ve no wildlife living there yet!
This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in April 2014.
It appears that your camera is fixed. Yipeee… That little Robin is all puffed up in the rain. What is the plant with the yellow blooms that the heron is moving into? They look like Calla Lilies. Do these grow in the wild where you live? It is too cold here.
Your lens is certainly working well and you would never know that it is raining!
My Lysichiton aren't flowering yet, are you warmer than Devon?!
Beautiful pictures, your lens is working really very well. Lovely the raindrops on the Magnolia flowers.
Beautiful photos Shirl. That cheery robin looks bone dry. I'm getting to grips with my first DSLR – just taking the lens cap off to take a photo is challenging my old grey matter never mind surgery! Look forward to seeing photos of your new pond.
OH has done a great job – operating on a diaphragm sound serious. Result great images.
Hello everyone, thanks for all your comments. I have just finished a blog showing images of my camera in bits – it was a scary sight 🙂
Lisa, I am delighted. The yellow blooms are from a plant commonly known as skunk cabbage here in the UK. It thrives along the damp edge of water – a quite striking plant in mass plantings. I have mostly seen this plant visiting large gardens. I’m not sure that I’ve seen it in the wild but maybe it does find its way there 🙂
Pauline, thank-you, I doubt we are warmer than you but we have had a much warmer winter than usual so maybe that’s why Edinburgh has been ahead of Devon with the skunk cabbage – what a weird common name it has hasn’t it 🙂
Janneke, thank-you, I love raindrops on flowers but there is something a bit special on leaves don’t you think 🙂
Anna, thank-you, yes bouncing through the branches of shrubs and trees the robin did seem to be keeping dry. Good luck with getting to grips with your DSLR – I really should learn more about the settings on mine. However, when I start to experiment it can have varied results (despite trying to keep a note of what I’ve done). I have often returned my settings back to the default ones and started again 🙂
Sue, thanks, it was a scary operation that’s for sure 😉