Sunday, January 17, 2010
More postal bitching
Maybe two weeks ago I got notice from the PO about an item which could not be delivered because it was "too large for my mailbox". So I asked them (through several channels, one the more uncertain than the next) to redeliver. It was Sunday (I guess they're working overtime), so I was not quick to answer the doorbell, so he... put it in my mailbox...
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Shooting in continuous mode
I make a note with this, since I have not heard of this before, and it may be relevant to more cameras than just the Pentax K-x.
It is very fast, almost five frames per second. The pro Canon 5D does not even have that.
But there was an oddity, it stopped after just three frames in Continuous Shooting mode! That's less handy.
So I googled for a Pentax K-x forum, and the closest thing seemed to the DPreview Pentax page, so I asked there. (It's a good place to get help for any brand.) And I got advised to turn of the Image Correction features, which correct distortion and/or color fringing in-camera.
And that did it, now the camera just rippppps away. Cool, in such a small camera. (Not that I often use continuous mode, but it's handy when shooting action.)
By the way, does anybody know how I can order one of those really colorful copies? (Also featured on tOP.) (Style simulator page.) (The page is slow to load, and has continual music, something I think should never have been allowed on the WWW, but fortunately you can turn it off on the right.)
Update: thanks to Mike Johnston and Dirk for pointing me here.
It is very fast, almost five frames per second. The pro Canon 5D does not even have that.
But there was an oddity, it stopped after just three frames in Continuous Shooting mode! That's less handy.
So I googled for a Pentax K-x forum, and the closest thing seemed to the DPreview Pentax page, so I asked there. (It's a good place to get help for any brand.) And I got advised to turn of the Image Correction features, which correct distortion and/or color fringing in-camera.
And that did it, now the camera just rippppps away. Cool, in such a small camera. (Not that I often use continuous mode, but it's handy when shooting action.)
By the way, does anybody know how I can order one of those really colorful copies? (Also featured on tOP.) (Style simulator page.) (The page is slow to load, and has continual music, something I think should never have been allowed on the WWW, but fortunately you can turn it off on the right.)
Update: thanks to Mike Johnston and Dirk for pointing me here.
Reality Scanner
[Thanks to 1001noisycamera]
Reality Scanner photos.
(The German title says, I think, "What's there to laugh about?")Spiritually I much prefer the serene Buddhas to the laughing ones, but this one is damn funny.
Pentax shake-reduction
It turns out that Pentax's "shake reduction"*, built into the body (so every lens benefits) is more useful than I thought at first. Only one has to know to pause for half a second after focusing, until the SR symbol lights up in the finder, indicating it has "caught its legs".
These were taken, single exposure, with the 70mm lens, a 105mm-equivalent short-tele lens.
Conventional wisdom, pre-stablization-technology, gives a rule of thumb that the inverse of the focal length is about the minimum for hand-holding a sharp picture, so in this case about 1/100 second.
They are shown at about 100% (small part of the image).
Half a second, no shake-reduction:
Half a second, with shake-reduction:
A quarter second, no SR:
A quarter second, with SR:
One-eight second, no SR:
One-eight second, with SR:
A fifteenth-second, no SR:
A fifteenth-second, with SR:
One-thirtieth second, no SR:
One-thirtieth second, with SR:
* Every maker calls it their own thing, Nikon calls it Vibration Reduction, Canon calls it Image Stabilization, etc.
These were taken, single exposure, with the 70mm lens, a 105mm-equivalent short-tele lens.
Conventional wisdom, pre-stablization-technology, gives a rule of thumb that the inverse of the focal length is about the minimum for hand-holding a sharp picture, so in this case about 1/100 second.
They are shown at about 100% (small part of the image).
Half a second, no shake-reduction:
Half a second, with shake-reduction:
A quarter second, no SR:
A quarter second, with SR:
One-eight second, no SR:
One-eight second, with SR:
A fifteenth-second, no SR:
A fifteenth-second, with SR:
One-thirtieth second, no SR:
One-thirtieth second, with SR:
* Every maker calls it their own thing, Nikon calls it Vibration Reduction, Canon calls it Image Stabilization, etc.
It's shameful that Nikon/Canon have not yet put this in bodies (only in some lenses), when it can be put in the cheapest/smallest bodies by their competitors! What a waste to use $1500 on a low-light F:1.4 lens by Canon and then not have stabilisation as well!
Friday, January 15, 2010
"Life" documentary
(Talk about too-generic titles... it's the bane of search engines.)
"Life", BBC documentary:
I just got it today on blu-ray, and there's no debating it, it is just stunningly filmed. I'd love to know more about those cameras which can film such super-slow-motion, and film close-ups of the heads of insects, live!
"Life", BBC documentary:
I just got it today on blu-ray, and there's no debating it, it is just stunningly filmed. I'd love to know more about those cameras which can film such super-slow-motion, and film close-ups of the heads of insects, live!
Web shopping addiction
So, this is what it looks like when a web shopping addiction combines with long postal delays due to first xmas and then extreme weather. All this came at once today:
I laughed loudly when the postman brought in this big stack.
I have only vague ideas what's in them all. Though I know some of must have been on the way for three-four weeks.
Feels like xmas of my childhood to open them all. :-)
And I'm not even the worst, I know about a girl living close, who gets two or three books and such in the mail every day!
I laughed loudly when the postman brought in this big stack.
I have only vague ideas what's in them all. Though I know some of must have been on the way for three-four weeks.
Feels like xmas of my childhood to open them all. :-)
And I'm not even the worst, I know about a girl living close, who gets two or three books and such in the mail every day!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Lenses
Talking about compact lenses, DPreview has an article about the need for better M4/3 lenses.
I agree. The M4/3 system really needs, for example, a lovely, compact portrait lens like my Pentax 70mm.
I agree. The M4/3 system really needs, for example, a lovely, compact portrait lens like my Pentax 70mm.
Hello Kitty Darth
Flying in the USA
"Flying in the USA"
or:
"Back in the USSR"
M. Reichman tells about flying now.
But, then when we got to the gate area we encountered a new and separate security area. Here each passenger received a complete body pat down, and we were also ask extensive questions, such as when had we bought our tickets, from whom, had we made any changes to our travel plans, etc. [...] My camera bag had every camera body and lens removed and closely examined.
I have a few friends in the US I'm wanting to visite, and I've been waiting patiently since you-know-when for the security hysteria of the USA to calm down, but it seems it may not do so in our lifetimes. I'm not going, in that atmosphere.
(Mike's article also has tips for packing for flights, for photographers.)
or:
"Back in the USSR"
M. Reichman tells about flying now.
But, then when we got to the gate area we encountered a new and separate security area. Here each passenger received a complete body pat down, and we were also ask extensive questions, such as when had we bought our tickets, from whom, had we made any changes to our travel plans, etc. [...] My camera bag had every camera body and lens removed and closely examined.
I have a few friends in the US I'm wanting to visite, and I've been waiting patiently since you-know-when for the security hysteria of the USA to calm down, but it seems it may not do so in our lifetimes. I'm not going, in that atmosphere.
(Mike's article also has tips for packing for flights, for photographers.)
Mist and me
------------
I'm finding more and more that I enjoy just playing with photography, rather than always be dead-serious about it. It's just dang fun.
DPreview and the filth
The famous DPreview site tells about their run-ins with the valiant UK police (lovingly called "the filth" by your gentle cockneys), motto: "we will not rest until we have harassed every single amateur and professional photographer in the country in the name of national security".
This is the form we were given after being stopped while taking some sample images of City Hall on the More London estate. [...]
The pointlessness of the exercise becomes obvious when you type ‘City Hall’ and ‘London’ into the web’s favourite search engine. The image search yields 1,330,000 results, most of them showing the building’s exterior and interior, from all conceivable angles, in all sizes and resolutions.
Interesting development:
... the Section 44 stop-and-search powers have been ruled illegal by the European court of Human Rights.
-
This is the form we were given after being stopped while taking some sample images of City Hall on the More London estate. [...]
The pointlessness of the exercise becomes obvious when you type ‘City Hall’ and ‘London’ into the web’s favourite search engine. The image search yields 1,330,000 results, most of them showing the building’s exterior and interior, from all conceivable angles, in all sizes and resolutions.
Interesting development:
... the Section 44 stop-and-search powers have been ruled illegal by the European court of Human Rights.
-
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