Sigma SD 14

There are so many great looking digital SLR cameras hitting the shelves at the moment that if I were to actually be in the market for one (I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not, but I reaallly want one), I would have a hard time choosing. A couple of months ago I would have said that for sure, the new Canon 30D was the one for me, a little pricey but a sure winner, with fantastic features and Canon's record of superb workmanship, not to mention the great lens range available, which is of course of extremely high importance. However, in the last month or so we have witnessed the release of the new Nikon D80 and now Canon's 400D (Digital Rebel XTi). Both cameras feature in the slightly lower price bracket but do not scrimp on features or apparently ability, according to the review on the extremely comprehensive digital camera review site "dpreview". Both cameras are quite a step up from their predecessors in the same price bracket. They have ample megapixelage (10) -only differing in their use of sensors CCD (Nikon) and CMOS (Canon)-, large 2&1/2inch LCD screens for quality checking compositions, and they both take great quality shots. The Nikon looks to have a couple of extra features compared with the Canon, like in camera touch ups, but I would be unlikely to use this, since there have been a number of times that I have been surprised when a photo has come up on the computer well, that I had been sure was a doozy. The Nikon also carries a slightly higher price too.
So there I was wondering in which direction to go and then this week I read on gizmodo about a new camera coming very soon by Sigma of all companies that promises to do amazing new things with a revolutionary step forward in sensor technology. The best thing you can do is watch the video on their promotional website. Basically they've got this new sensor called the Foveon X3 direct image sensor, which is touted to be able to get 3 colours out of every pixel instead of the regular one per pixel of the other sensors out there. A pretty sweet innovation from a company I always thought of as the company that supplied cheaper lenses to people who couldn't afford the best, but still wanted to give photography a good go.
They all look so good and tempting with all those buttons, screens, lenses and potential, so good that in fact that I think I'll just have to do what I usually do in this case... buy nothing. ho hum.

This is for my sister

She'll know what it means. tee hee hee

I wonder if I could get this to work with my digital camera

Solar Style is selling a small range of portable solar chargers that promise to charge up a large number of your small electronic appliances while out of reach of civilisation, or just for those days sitting out in a park or at the beach when you stay too long for the length of your batteries full charge (for those conscientious pre-chargers out there). Another bonus of these chargers is that they come loaded with an on board battery which can be charged up by AC adapter or car charger before heading out, to cover those moments when the sun disappears behind a thunderous and unforgiving storm cloud or two or three. A guy wrote a report on treehugger saying that he had picked one up on ebay and was finding that it was working really well at keeping all his shit fired up. He also believed that a couple of the $50 models together would be enough to charge up your garden variety laptop, which would really be something for all those sun loving civilisation 3 players thesis writers out there. I think that I'll be adding a couple of these to my wish list anyway, if only to keep the innovation in this area growing.

If there's one thing for certain

The world will end one day. It's sad but it's true, and a bunch of guys from California calling themselves "albino black sheep" have put together a short flash animation video that shows us some of the many ways in which this could happen. This video is seriously funny, and so fast paced that you will probably have to watch it again to catch everything. Not a hardship, I assure you.

Check it out here

New Style

After about ten years of longish to long hair it was time for a change. Feels pretty damn good too, so I might be cruisin around like this for a little while now. Dunno about 10 years though...

Is Ethanol the new Petroleum

This is a well put together and pretty thorough presentation on the benefits of switching over to ethanol. I was very surprised by the fact that it only costs car manufacturers an extra US$30 to make a car dual fuel capable. Much cheaper than the extra production cost (about $3000) involved in the manufacture of hybrid engines, which while better than nothing as far as reducing fuel use is concerned, have not yet proven to be drastically more economical. A warning for those with small download limits, it's just over an hour long, so be warned. Well worth it though.

imovie's pretty fun

Just a quick note to mention that the new imovie HD is really quite a fun and easy to use program. I decided to fire it up last night and I uploaded a small number of my 10-50 sec clips from my digital camera (not a handy cam so low picture quality). Was only mucking around in the program for about an hour or so, and I found it to be straight forward even for an editing beginner. After said hour, I had linked together 5 clips on the timeline, extracted the audio so that I could keep only the sound in each track that I wanted, and I also chopped an audio file up after bringing it over from itunes so that my video could have a sound track. I haven't yet gotten onto the transition of the clips, so that they blend semi-professionally but I thought that for about an hours work, that wasn't too bad, with taking into account first learning some new terminology and what all the commands do (not that hard, cos they've really kept things simple). As soon as I've polished it up a bit more I'll see if I can hook it up for you to have a look and a laugh at. It's all fun though isn't it?