The sakura (cherry blossoms) turned up out of nowhere this year: although they haven't peaked yet, it basically feels like they were not there one day and very much there the next. Of the two days when they've really been worth shooting, one was yesterday (where the weather was conducive) and today (where it wasn't).

I tried something which I've experimented with before: putting an ND-8 (around 3 stop) filter on the Merrill and shooting at 2.8. The days are bright enough so that I can still get a fast enough shutter speed (anything up to 1/250 in really bright conditions: without the filter, there would be no way to shoot wide open without blowing the shot entirely).

I finally came to the realization that I needed something for lower light when there's nowhere to stabilise the Merrill and/or I don't have several seconds to get the shot. Enter a used and discounted Sony RX100, bought after quite a bit of consideration. The main pluses were said to be IQ, portability and all manner of clever tricks should they be needed; the minuses were in-camera charging and bad RAW software...not that I'm a stranger to that, with Sigma's PhotoPro. To get around it, I've been shooting the RX100 in JPEG and - when I shoot it RAW - converting it to a DNG with Adobe's free software to do just that.

Overall impressions of the RX100 are good. As long as I don't zoom in and compare it to the Sigma, the results are pleasing and the low light performance is good too. 

Anyway. Here is a mix of shots from the past week or so, using both cameras.

First with the cherry blossoms:

Interestingly, sakura shots taken with the Merrill even look pretty interesting after a monochrome conversion:

Courtesy of the RX100:

Elsewhere..Nakamura Park, a park in the area of Nagoya where I used to live...

From other areas:

The RX100 also does in-camera HDR, meaning that you don't need too much post processing assuming you get it right in the camera. Couple of shots from that to finish this entry.

Thanks for looking! Should be more sakura shots in the next post along with whatever else I chance upon...