Pillars and Trunks

For some reason I've been favouring the Panasonic LX3 almost exclusively in recent weeks. I'm hoping to receive a Clearviewer soon, and will report on its usefulness as an aid to composition and also perhaps, hopefully, steadying the camera. I still feel slightly foolish holding a camera out in front of me, and always worry about camera shake. It will be good to be able to bring the camera up to my eye, and I'm curious whether the Clearviewer will be robust enough to let me brace it against my face.

Actually, the combination of the inbuilt anti-shake mechanism and the very high shutter speeds these cameras select in "Program" mode (I don't think I've ever chosen to shoot at a speed over 1/125th second in manual mode!) means that softness due to shake is actually quite rare. I generally like a deep focus in my pictures, so have usually preferred smaller apertures, but an advantage of these small sensor cameras is that quite large apertures still give good depth of focus. According to the EXIF data, the white pillar below was shot at 1/800 at f/4.5, but both the face of the pillar and the wall a few feet behind it are acceptably focussed. Of course, if you're a fan of blurry bokeh, this must be quite frustrating.

Lichened Trunk and Blue Netting

Lichened Pillar & Repaired Stonework

Plain White Pillar

Junction Box

OK, that last one is trunk-ing but...