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Happy Birthday, Photoshop 2010-02-21 09:22PM
About twenty years ago, Adobe introduced Photoshop. I've been using it for most of that time.
Samsung unveils TL500/EX1 with fast f/1.8 lens (via) 2010-02-20 04:44PM
One of the optical constants that people sometimes forget is that small image circles (like the grain-of-salt sized 1/1.7" sensors) make fast lenses easy to make. Samsung is releasing a point and shoot compact camera with an f/1.8 zoom lens, which is pretty close to impossible in big-sensor land but will, assuming they design it right, work quite well for a compact camera.
Still haven't replaced my monitor. 2010-02-12 11:36AM
I thought I was done writing about the troubles of buying a really good LCD display, hopefully before my CRT finally dies. Which, I might add, it stopped doing some of the antics that were causing me to think that failure was impending. But, no...
A few things that have been working lately while photographing models 2010-02-08 11:22AM
A few tings that have been working lately...
Beyond hyperfocal distance: Getting the right parts of the scene in focus 2010-02-01 10:42AM
Depth of field brackets on cameras are quite handy to start a discussion about picking the right aperture to get a desired depth of field and suggest the concept of the hyperfocal distance. I wish more lenses had them. I've got an old Vivitar Series One lens that has a quite pleasant set of depth of field brackets that work at any zoom length. Modern zoom lenses don't even try to get this right.
Some recent shooting 2010-02-01 12:35AM
Loosing your inspiration is a form of impotence. The more you obsess over it being gone, the harder it is to get back. And I recognize this, so I just didn't bother scheduling much in terms of shooting and didn't worry about it...
A few more words on buying a monitor 2010-01-12 01:06AM
The major thoughts I got from the lazyweb was that I really wanted a display with an IPS panel type. And preferebly the LED backlight. Of which, there's exactly one example of, the Apple LED Cinema Display.
A bottled water plant in the middle of the desert 2009-12-03 12:12AM
While researching destinations for my recent trip to the middle of California, I came upon an interesting factoid. There is a bottled water plant in the middle of the desert, right next to the dry lake bed that it is helping keep dry.
The Worst Cameras of 2009 (via) 2009-11-26 10:23AM
It's so refreshing to see a site that will tell you what really sucks, instead of what's just above average.
Recent thoughts on the minimum amount of gear 2009-11-24 11:26AM
It's better to not cart every last piece of gear you own around. I'm fairly bad about dragging most of my gear with me if I'm driving somewhere, but if you aren't careful, this can really get into your way. Like my friend who was complaining that he dragged a bunch of camera gear around but didn't take a single shot.
Kodak thinks that just because your camera has a beach mode, that doesn't mean you should take it to the beach (via) 2009-11-21 03:49PM
This is inexcusable as far as camera design goes.

There's a world of difference between a weather-sealed professional camera or a waterproof camera and a normal camera, but any reasonable camera should be able to be taken to the beach for a few hours without breaking.
Rolleis to Roll Again? (via) 2009-11-14 11:24AM
So it looks like somebody picked up some of the rights to Rollei cameras, which means that some of the hardware could return.

Cynically, I understand that if you can make the Rollei TLR and continue to sell it, people will buy them and put them on a shelf somewhere. Just like Leicas.
I think I might need a new monitor sometime soon 2009-11-12 01:04PM
The last monitor I actually purchased was a 15" Sony CRT sometime in the late nineties. Since then, I've obtained progressively larger CRT displays, culminating with a 21" Sony Trinitron, for free. But now my most recent CRT is starting to act up...
Kodak resizes and discontinues some chemicals 2009-11-11 11:50AM
I got word that Kodak is discontinuing some sizes of chemicals and even discontinuing selling some of them...
Ricoh GXR system (via) 2009-11-10 02:06AM
I've been out and about, which is why I didn't post about this earlier. Ricoh is offering a new system that allows the user to swap out a lens-sensor unit.

I'm not sure what to think of the Ricoh GXR. Clearly there's an advantage here. With a big-sensor prime lens and a small-sensor zoom lens, you don't have anything big and bulky... But the engineer in me figured we've got a few cranks of Moore's Observation (you know, the one that says that CPUs get twice as fast every 24 months?) such that the usefulness of the GXR as a long term system purchase isn't likely to be great. But, on the gripping hand, I should also note that my PC still has serial ports, even though it can go many times faster via USB, so maybe it's less of an issue than I think.

I am, however, very much impressed by how quirky Ricoh is allowing themselves to be. In a world of look-alike digital SLRs, it's nice to see some variety.
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