Rotating a Collar

One of the things the better point-and-shoot cameras do is to build in features into their cameras that average people might want to use.  Features that are simply more difficult to implement even in more complex cameras.  The results aren’t always as good as when you use the much-more-expensive gear designed for just that purpose, but at least it allows you to make an image you might want to make.  Take for example close up photographs of flowers.  It’s not too much of a stretch to think that someone (read: tourist) who is toting around a point-and-shoot camera for the day might want to take pictures of the flowers in front garden of that chateau they’re visiting.  Generally, the thinking is to make the camera as diverse as possible so people will want to carry it around with them and actually use it instead of their phone.  That’s even the case with our higher-end LUMIX point-and-shoot cameras - there is a switch on the side of the lens that lets it focus much closer than it normally can.

Interestingly, that same concept has been carried over into the higher quality fixed-lens cameras like Fujifilm’s x100 series of cameras and, you guessed it, the Q2MR.  With the x100 (and it’s larger APSC sensor), there’s a button on the back that opens up a menu window where you can tell it to go into close-focus mode.   When that is set, you can focus from infinity to very, very close.  You tend not to want to leave that setting on all the time because the camera will sometimes (read: almost always) go back and forth from infinity to close-focus in trying to actually focus the lens on mid-range to distant subjects, which takes an annoyingly long time.  But if you want a close-up shot, you have it, and if everything in the frame is fairly close to you, it focuses quickly.

The Q2MR (and its larger full-frame sensor) operates somewhat differently, and as been the case with so much with this camera, the feel of implementing the transition into the close-focusing mode brings joy to an old photographer who cut his teeth with manual only lenses.  With the Q2MR, there is a collar on the lens next to the camera body that you rotate from the normal dot (.) to MACRO, as you can see below (taken with the LUMIX in its close-focus mode).

Rotating that collar changes the distance scale (where the 0.25  0.3 numbers are above) from the normal focusing range of infinity to 0.3 meters, to 0.17 to 0.3 meters, in a buttery smooth action.  My suspicion is that the collar action is also moving an internal lens that allows it to focus within that macro range.  It’s obviously a traditional mechanical helicoid system, so just like manually focusing the lens, it’s a pleasure to operate.  Note however, that shifting into macro mode no longer allows one to focus beyond 0.3 meters (about 11 inches).  But that’s alright because I’m either photographing within a normal range, or I’m focusing very close up.  We’ll see if I ever run into a problem with a subject that is right at that 0.3 m distance (though I suspect there is a bit of focusing overlap in the two modes).

During Soleis and Korenza’s visit I had an opportunity to test this feature of the Q2MR and I must admit that it is a very convenient feature to have.  On one of our days we took a drive to and through parts of the Peneda-Gerês National Park to show them the Portugal countryside.  We decided to make a stop at Soajo to see the elevated stone grain storage buildings. At one point Korenza found a cactus and noted that it was blooming.  What better way to try out how well my new camera can focus up-close?

It took me a bit to find a composition that I thought was pleasing, and then to wait around for a bee to fly away (why it didn’t want to land in the flower itself is beyond me).  Well, instead of flying away the bee landed on one of the cactus branches and as it walked into focus range I decided to press the shutter.

I know I’ll never be a macro photographer, but the quality of the lens and the sensor won’t let me down whenever I want to make an image like this one.

A couple of days later, as the puzzle masters were working on their second puzzle of the visit, I noticed a huge bug on the wall of our balcony.  I quickly grabbed the Q2MR and stepped outside.  Approaching it I realized it was a dragonfly.  I put the lens into the macro mode and approached it, stopping well away from it not to scare it off.

I probably could have gotten closer to it, but I decided I’d rely on the massive number of megapixels available with the Q2MR and cropped in a bit.  It’s kind of shocking to think that the image above was taken with a wide-angle lens.

The dragonfly is definitely eerie looking!

So there you have it.  Another experiment with the Q2MR to explore its capabilities.  At least I know I’ll have no concern about rotating that macro collar.  Of course, that means no concerns about the technical capability of the camera, I can’t really say that about the resulting images.  That’s all down to me.