Commercialism (updated)

Update:
John K pointed to this commercial. I think an example of how wrong things can go on this slope.    :-)  I just know I'll have nightmares about the line "Camera ciao, picture wow!"...


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Recently, and I don't know if this happens in the US too, I see several big movie stars in commercials. People like Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Bacon, Bruce Willis, and Natalie Portman. People I find it hard to believe are hard up for money.

It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, what do you think? Seems to me that through their creative work, they have earned a sizeable amount of respect and affection amongst the public, and now they are selling out of this affection for money to help some company sell more of a product they probably don't care about. And if they care, I don't think they would do it without the money.

It seems a bit like prostitution. Taking money for showing affection which is not there.
Does Natalie really think one perfume is significantly better or more important than another?

Or does Kevin think EE (4G phone provider) is way above the rest? He doesn't even live in this country, UK, so I doubt he's a customer of theirs.

Pressing metal (updated)

Bert send me this cool animated GIF of a machine making chains. Lovely, simple, very effective.

I am always amazed at how they can just press metal into shape. Apple today showed a video of the making of the upcoming new Mac Pro. If you like technology, the keynote presentation is worth it just for that. It starts with a big circular chunk of aluminium being put into a shaped hole. Then a shaped thing comes from above, and in a second simply presses the chunk into the cylinder it needs to be. Holy moly, what force!
It's a short video, starting at about 37 minutes into the keynote.

Update: 
... And that's just the relatively soft aluminium, they can also do it with steel:



The force applied is 800 tons, about two fully loaded jumbo jets!

Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2013

The best of the best. Don't try this at home.

Apple Keynote

Here's my post with thoughts about today's Apple Keynote. (New iPads and various other stuff.)

Community La Biblioteca Spanish Rap

This is from the end of the second episode of Community (good stuff).  I just knew somebody would have put it on Ytube, it's so funny and brilliant.
It was barred from embedding, so go here.
(Any body knows what "buei! buei! at the end means?)

Get an impression of the size of the GM1

Finally after five years, they pushed the techonology to be able to do this.
There was also talk about in the beginning that people didn't want the cameras too small. I don't know who those people were. Grandfathers and hulky professional press photographers?
Actually one press photographer got famous by shooting with very compact cameras, and this was years ago, before they got good. He had to carry a couple because they are not so durable in war zones, but he found he could get a lot closer to people and be more inconspicuous with the small cameras.
Of with this color, it won't be very inconspicuous. But it won't be taken seriously, which can be good, you're not seen as a threat.

Logo magic

One of the funniest and most striking logos I've seen.

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #396

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #396

It appears as if roughly half the people in this country think that they're in mortal danger from their own government. That's a lot of people sensing a lot of malice and threat. I worry that I don't see it. Sure, I see inefficiency and incompetence, but I've always seen that - regardless of which party's in office. And frankly, I've always welcomed it. I don't like my big bureaucracies to be cold, calculating, profit-making enterprises driven by a steely, clear-headed singular vision. A cursory glance through history would indicate that well-organized governments tend to enjoy well-organized parades, followed by well-organized ethnic cleansing. Which is why I celebrate the magnificent, muddle-headed ineptitude of our democracy. As far as I'm concerned, a little confusion and waste may keep the trains from running on time, but it also keeps people like me from getting a one-way ticket in a cattle car. Are our tax dollars being misspent on poorly run social programs? You bet! Do we get more buck for our bang at the local Post Office, Amtrak station, nuclear submarine or methadone clinic? Of course we do! But keep in mind that bureaucrats who can't find their ass with a flashlight and a hand mirror are not likely to find you either. To paraphrase Bobby McGee: "Freedom's just another word for who the hell's in charge here?!"

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This one appeared in the Big Bang Episode where Bernadette is a smurf. Avatar, schmavatar, this is the sexiest blue dame ever. 

"Emerging canine artist"

[Thanks to Bert]

A fresh new vision appears from a new, non-human artist.
Introducing Half-Chewed Cole Haan Wingtip by the emerging canine artist, Jack. This unique presentation of a meticulously destroyed dress shoe is the first of its kind by Jack. The piece features absent toe and vamp portions of the shoe, removed through a secret chewing process, known only by the artist, with razor-like precision but requiring brute strength. 

It is uplifting to see that the recognition of the creativity of our fellow species is coming on. Aesthetics has no limits.

If a dog can make money on the Internet, maybe there's hope for you too.

But then there's the question: Do you have the teeth and jaw muscles it takes to chew straight through shoe leather?!

World's smallest M4/3 camera

Update: interestingly, according to a survey on a big M4/3 fan site, this is the most-wanted M4/3 camera ever! I guess we are many who believed it and got excited when Olympus originally shouted out (first about 4/3, later about Micro 4/3) "Coooompact quality! Compact, compact, compact!!" (OK, not in quite those words, but it was still a big selling point, and never really came through, especially before they removed the mirrors and put in the "Micro".)

Panasonic GM1 has arrived.
This is the kind of compactness I dreamed about when Micro Four Thirds was announced five years ago. The body is only the size of a high-end pocket camera! (like Sony RX100.) Funny enough it's also priced like the RX100, around $700, which I think reasonable considering the fully professional image quality. Steve Huff wrote about how he saw prints from the latest M4/3 cameras, and thought they were from full-frame cameras!

One could, and many do, question the value of such tininess in an exchangable-lens camera, because after all, you can't shoot without a lens, and the moment you put a lens on (even the very small foldable new kit lens), it's no longer pocket sized! Whereas the RX100 is, even with the nice built-in zoom lens.

But heck, it's fun. And with the kit short-zoom (24-64mm 3.5-5.6) or another of the pancake lenses it does fit in a large pocket, like in a jacket or combat trousers. And it's a great way for M4/3 shooters to carry an extra body without feeling it, and mark you that's a body without compromise in picture quality, it has the same sensor as the new flagship of Panasonic's, the GX7!

I find it interesting that they have apparently even gone to the length of reducing the outter-edge diameter of the lens mount a little bit. The kit lens has a smaller diameter than normal M4/3 lenses, so it fits perfectly, but normal lenses will stick out a little bit, with the result that the camera's bottom won't sit flat on a table! (I'm not sure about this, since from the pictures, the outter and inner edge (the latter must be fixed size of course) have the same relationship (0.73) as it has on my m4/3 cameras, which should mean it is the same size. But the reviewer had held it, and said this.)
This is another reason for the nice, but pricy (maybe $99) aluminium hand-grip, which adds a few milimeters to the bottom as well as improving the grip a lot.

Update: the reviewer confirms to me that the mount is indeed the usual M4/3 mount. It's just some large lenses may overhang, but that has always been an issue with cameras where the bottom is close to the mount. I even have an old Nikon F with a big zoom mounted, and the F's bottom is not sitting on the table.
So: no worries about compatibility.

On the left, the GM1 with the kit zoom folded in, on the right, the RX100 with the built-in zoom, also folded in.
The GM1 has a sensor which is quite bigger than the RX100's, but then the latter does really well with the one is has, and if it wasn't a bit smaller, it could not have such a nice, fast zoom lens (28-100mm, 1.8-4.9), and pack it all inside the body for travel.
Then of course the GM1 accepts all kinds of exciting and extreme lenses. Sigh, life is not easy.     :-)

As the loyal reader will no doubt have picked up (!), I am a fan of compact cameras. It's more of an addiction, actually. I wish I knew why. Of course part of it is the take-everywhere aspect. Another is ease of use and transport. But a third one is some association I have between compactness and efficiency. Deep in my heart it says that if one tool does the job as well as another tool, but is half the size, then it is twice as good!

Of course, this can be tripped up by the "as good" part. A bigger camera may not be brought on trips as often, but when you do use it, it fits in your hands better probably, and due to more and better spaced buttons it will probably be faster and more certain to handle too. That's why you don't see professionals use pocket cameras on the job. (Another reason is that most customers have size firmly equalled with quality in their minds, so they think that the photographer is taking the piss if he is using a camera he can easily lift with one hand.)

The classic beauty of the OM-2

Much as I like the look of the recent OM-D E-M5, I still think the classic OM-2 (or OM-1) from the seventies beats it, with its classic, simple, gracious beauty. The slim body, the lowered, pointed mirror house...
(And for some reason, for me, it has to be silver. I'm not sure why.)

Below, the modern OM-D, obviously meant to invoke the feel of their classic successes. Worked on me.

Ming Thein

I forget to visit Ming Thein's blog. Perhaps I get overwhelmed. He writes a LOT. And photographs a lot. And is good at both. I don't know how he does it, doesn't he have a job to do also?
He even has an article on the issue which tOP and myself touched on recently: The Simple Camera.