The Busman's Holiday

I am typing this blog from a room in the Grand Prince Hotel, New Takanawa. Which seems to be located in Tokyo. I am not on the run from the law - the kind people in the Panasonic company ran a sales contest for the Panasonic Lumix GX 7 camera and have brought 40 Australian camera salespersons on a trip round Japan for a week.

I cannot give a real opinion about Tokyo because we arrived at sunset and the trip from the airport to the restaurant and hotel was made in the dark on a crowded road. I must say, for an airport freeway, it ran remarkably smoothly. There is a trip to Fujiyama tomorrow on a bus so I'll be able to comment more on what I see? Suffice it to say you won't get around with a Tom Tom and a UBD here - the streets are well, made but totally confusing. there are plenty of English signs to help and the people are friendly, but do not lose the tour guide.

As part of this trip, I was presented with a new Panasonic GX 7 camera and a 20mm lens -and a memory card which I will fill up pronto. I sneaked a charge of electricity from and obliging power socket at Sydney airport in the passenger lounge and was able to get a few pictures straight away. The Panasonic is impressive in the iA mode with an ISO limiter put on it - I was able to point and shoot jpegs that look as good as anything I do when deliberately working. I'm bringing them up on an iPad to see what they look like big, but keeping the card filled to download at home. I'm only away for a week so I can just fill cards.

The choice of the 20mm was deliberate. The camera is a good ergonomic package as is but the short lens mount makes it just that more convenient for travel. Okay, I can't get close ups teleshots of Fujiyama but there are likely to be some good wide views out near the place.

And one final cheer of support for the designers of the charger power supplies- the things run on 110 - 240 volts these days and as long as you have a travel adapter to physically get into the socket here or in Europe, you can get power. The dear old dead days of Western Australia power that ran 210 to 270 volts whenever it decided to take a holiday...meant that when we brought things in from the US or Japan there was always a chance that we could have an electrical explosion when we in cautiously plugged them in. I saw items purchased in Aden that the seller assured the migrant were perfectly adapted to Australian current. Yeah, right...as long as the Australian current was 12v DC...Kerboom.