Too much local trail running and bashing over familiar hills so far this year for the near-endgame Munro/Top/Deletion quest to bear, but (in)sanity’s now restored with yesterday’s trip to collect the three tops of Beinn Fhada (Attow) and ‘singleton’ A’ Ghlas-bheinn with precious little else left within a couple of hours’ drive. And I had a lovely wee camera to test too, having just got the Panasonic GM1 after considering just the new 12–32mm (24–64mm equivalent) lens for my GF2 (hitherto my ‘climbing/running’ camera with the 14mm prime) before deciding to go the whole hog for the new tiny body as well…
Now, Beinn Fhada (the Long Mountain) didn’t get its name for nothing, but most of that length passes quickly enough on a broad and runnable ridge once you’re past the awkward and equally well-named Sgurr a’ Choire Ghairbh (Peak of the Rough Corrie), with the first mile or so of not-at-all-runnable ridge taking a similar length of time to the three or more that followed. And you’ll see I continued down to Loch a’ Bhealaich rather than backtrack for the (horrible) direct descent from Meall a’ Bhealaich to the Bealach an Sgairne, but might well have found easier going yet down my planned ridge from point 825 (blue dashes) than ‘short cut’ down Coire an t-Siosalaich. But it’s a pleasant run either way past the loch, with only modest re-ascent to the dramatic Bealach an Sgairne, after which A’ Ghlas-bheinn seems to go on a bit for such a comparatively wee hill, subsequently luring me into an uncompromisingly direct (= steep!) descent WSW when either the ‘Irvine Butterfield’ route north (approx. blue dashes) or ‘SMC Munros’ alternative WNW (blue dots) would surely have been nicer as well as probably both quicker.
So what of the new camera? Having checked just about every English-speaking review and video on the web, bought it and now taken it out on the hill for the day, I’ve no regrets whatsoever about going for body as well as lens. It’s seriously tiny for such a large-sensor camera and handles pretty well for something that size, with the few recurring gripes in otherwise generally rave reviews being pretty well non-issues for me. So many folk seem to have struggled with the control dial, but most of those who’re not just incredibly heavy-handed simply appear to be making incorrect assumptions about its operation. Likewise the much-criticised flash sync speed apparently necessitated by the hybrid mechanical/electronic shutter just isn’t an issue for me and my use. So, sure, I’d have liked a viewfinder as well as the screen, but you can’t have everything in such a tiny package (got one on the G2 I rarely take on the hill, but can’t even imagine lumbering this wee thing with the external EVF you might have been able to fit to the hot shoe it doesn’t have either) and the GM1/12–32mm combo’s just so well suited to outdoor, available-light photography on the move! :-)
