The Death of 650D

The Canon 650D has been my main macro camera of over 3 years, but it met its match and eventual end last weekend.   What happened was while on the ground taking some wood ant images, I got sand on my finger – that then on pressing the button for back auto focus got in there and resulted in the button sticking.

I call this Ant shot therefore – Camera killing Ant!

The reason I was taking the ant, as well the fact that I find them interesting and a bit of a challenge to take when getting down low amongst them and trying to avoid getting stung, and them in shot, was to try out a new front mounting camera diffuser that I had bought at the EOS Camera Magazine Fun Day recently.

Also taken with this and the Canon 270ex mounted directly on the hotshoe of the camera was this spider in a web.  Looks a good 100mm and flash light carry around setup that I will hopefully get to try more this year.

As it happened the ant was not the final shot I took on the 650D, as I managed to extract the stuck button with a pin.  And the day after this Dunyeats Heath visit, I went up to Blashford Lakes, where I found a nicely patient and posing robber fly.  This is a 2 image stack (processed in Helicon Focus) taken with the MPE-65m and 270ex forward fitted setup, with the vellum diffuser replaced with packaging foam version.

The final subject that I took with the Canon 650D was this 5 image stack of a catterpillar and its waste product.  After this the button stuck in again – with the additional effect this froze up the rest of the camera circuitary – so I could not access the menu, shoot images etc.  Time for a new camera!

Map of Locations

Blashford

Ellingham Drove, Ellingham, Ringwood, Hampshire BH24 3, UK

Dunyeats Heath

Dunyeats Heath Nature Reserve.