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.
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...
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.
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...
