Trip – Senti-trip

Or so it was called, since it was supposed to be the last trip that s7 ppl’d be going for….

As far as I was concerned, the start was boring. I have not been blessed with an ability to dance, and in light of that knowledge, I find it extremely embarassing when situations arise where one is expected to participate. Thankfully, no one bothered me much and I was able to while away the time in music land… while all around me, the world went mad with guys and girls jumping around to the beat as best they could.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

I woke up while we were still on the way up to Wayanad. Some of the sights were truly breathtaking – light filtering through the clouds, expansive vista-s… sights, the sort of which you only see in Discovery Channel or the National Geographic.

After refreshments, we headed straight to Edakkal caves, which turned out to be an unexpectedly strenuous trek / climb / clamber / death-defying-feat-of-utter-stupidity. I backed out at about the middle of the climb right when the rains started. Visit Krish’s picasaweb album for views from the top and a bunch of photos of the people who actually did it.

Those who survived (not everyone did. Nimmi busted her head. ) headed on to Ooty. I spent four hours listening to music, sitting at the front of the bus, at the end of which an exasperated Rakhi waved me over to sit with her wondering (correctly) why I’d bother with the awful front seat when I could sit comfily next to her.  We reached Ooty late at night with the effects of the trek plainly visible, and after a spot of partying, everyone was dead asleep.

The morning was beautiful, to say the least – just the right temperature and the light was brilliant. I took a whole bunch of photos that I’m quite proud of!

We then headed to Lake Ooty, where, with the little time we had, we went boating! I’ve been to Ooty two or three times, and have been to this same place every time, but for whatever reason, I’d never gone out onto the lake. It was fun! I’d also gotten myself a cowboy hat - something I’ve always wanted to buy, and the inevitable photo session ensued.

After a quick stop-over at a tea factory, which I skipped because it was raining, we were on our way back to Trivandrum.

All things considered… an average trip… nothing particularly exciting or memorable, and nothing to complain about…

How forgettable is that.

All the pics can be found over at my picasaweb album. Clicky!

Music-on-the-move

I don’t think I’ve blogged about this amazing little gadget ‘ere. Bro bought one for me one my birthday (thank you!) and it’s bloody brilliant (the way Ron Weasley says it in the movie)!

I’m sorry about the obvious noise reduction artifacts in the first image. Couldn’t help it. ^_^ The second one was more interesting. See how it seems to levitate (I hope) above the macbook (yeah, that’s what it is). That’s cuz it’s sitting on top of a matchbox.

Phones will perhaps, one day, take over every function, but for the moment, things looks bright for the world of pmp-s and digital cameras. Cuz’ they’re bloody brilliant, that’s what!

Confectionaries

I got to play with my camera after a long while! I sat down with it, and the tripod, and the plate of yummies that mum’d just brought, and took a lot of photos. It’s always been my moto to click as many photos as possible. Hopefully, some of them will turn out to be good. This is the best I got out of playing some half an hour: Shot at 66mm (35mm), 4 sec, f / 9 at ISO 200. I did some photoshopping to remove the inevitable hot pixels.

There, I think that looks decent! It was quite yummy, by the way! I gotta play with the camera more! I feel rusty!

Oh yes, Sabir bought a new bike! Another Uni! This’ll be fun… ^_^

Letter to the Editor

Hello,

I recently purchased the October 2006 issue of “Better Photography”, and it being my first experience with your magazine, I thought I’d point out some things that were somewhat (and more) ‘off’, in my opinion. First of all it has to do with your editorial in which you say that “6MP is now passe”, and that “what was seen as a more than decent sensor is now relegated to the humdrum”. I’m not an expert, but from what I’ve gathered from months of digging around online forums after a bout (continuing) of photography craze, something that I’m quite sure of is that mega pixels are close to the least important parameters to look at when purchasing a camera these days. Let’s consider the Nikon D50 which, with it’s 6MP sensor will, under most circumstances (right lens, right light, right person etc etc) will provide a much ‘better’ photo than, say, a 10MP Sony Cybershot DSC-N2. Okay, I’m comparing wildly across class here, but the point is that the main use of mega pixels is to allow an increase in print size, and perhaps for more comfortable cropping. From what I’ve read innumerable times in various forums, even a 4MP camera is more than enough for ‘photo-quality’ A4 size prints, so more mega pixels just for it’s own sake, is of no purpose.

You also say: “I am not referring to the sensor size at all, but just the mega pixels it can hold.” Why aren’t you?! It’s well known (another something I’ve picked up from those forums ) that cramming more mega pixels onto an already small sensor has NEVER helped matters as far as ISO-induced noise is concerned. I could once again use the example of the Nikon D50 and the N2 in this case. The D50, with it’s APS-C sized sensor will quite simply wipe the floor with the N2 (with it’s diminutive sensor) when comparing photos at anything higher than 200 ISO. While it is true that noise issues are becoming less of a problem with newer generations of fixed-lens (particularly Fuji’s) cameras, it’s still nowhere near as good as a D-SLR’s performance.

I also saw this bias towards mega pixels in your ‘BP Digital Camera Directory’, where camera’s are actually categorized according to the amount of mega pixels that they have. It’s lead to some truly absurd combinations like the ‘< 6MP’ D-SLR category where the Professional Nikon D2H is seen camping with Entry-level Nikon D50 and the Pentax *ist DL, and in the ‘> 6MP’ category with the Olympus E-500 (which I’m a proud owner of) grouped with the likes of the 1D Mark II and the D2X. Categorizing D-SLRs by MP count?!? That’s nothing short of utter Idiocy!

There’s also the issue of the rating system in the Product list. From what I can see, more than half the cameras you’ve reviewed are in the 76% – 82% range. 76% also happens to be the lowest rating given to a camera. What’s the deal here? I really think a grade system along the line of A+, A, B+ etc. would make more sense here, since the worth of a camera lies mostly in individual user experience.

On page 50, you’ve answered a Mr. Sudhir Sahu’s question about the MP800, telling him that it can neither print from 35mm film, nor not print without a PC. Good god!! Where did you get that information from?! And how could you even suggest it?? The MP800 is the flagship (or pretty close to it) model in Canon’s multifunctional printer lineup, and given the fact that even mid-range MFD-s can perform those operations, it makes no sense to me that you’d even think of it. When you even went to the length of getting a good picture of the printer, you really could have considered reading SOMETHING about it before rendering ‘advice’ about it. The curious coincidence that I own an MP800 (and having printed from a 35mm film without a PC, though not at passport size) myself might explain the sudden jolt of indignation I felt when I read your reply. I’ve pasted a link to Canon India’s ’short’ list of features of the MP800.

http://site-in.canon-asia.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=allinone&prod_type=mp800

As you’ll see if you click the link, it’s pretty short.

I’m really sorry, but I’ve one more complaint to add. In your review of the Sony Alpha 100 which, though comprehensive in most aspects, says absolutely nothing about ‘ISO – Noise’ performance of the camera and since ISO performance is one of the most important parameters to consider, especially when buying into a D-SLR system, the lack of such is quite saddening.

Ok, I’m done bashing. The magazine IS really good. I love most of the content, and I find the contests pretty interesting. The article ‘All about Colour’ was also pretty neat. It’s just that these few things really annoyed me, and I hope I haven’t hurt anyone’s feelings by pointing them out. Now that I’ve written such a lot, I really hope that it gets read by someone. I don’t even want to think of the situation where it’ll get forgotten in digital oblivion.

Keep up the good work.

Hari Gopal.

Wannabe Photographer

Been a while, hasn’t it? Well, I’ve been busy… with my new camera. Since the day before day before yesterday, I’ve been the proud owner of an Olumpus EVOLT E-500 D-SLR camera.

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1192

It’s an entry-level D-SLR, meaning, it’s the physically smaller and feature-wise stripped version of the big chunks of metal you see professionals carrying around. As far as mua, the amateur, is concerned, this thingy is pretty feature packed. As you can divine from my previous posts, I wasn’t even considering this camera as an option since other ‘better’ brands took precedence… at first anyway. Then I saw THIS thing at Carrefour and it was priced the same as the Nikon D50 and the Canon EOS-350D (both one lens kit) which this came with a two lens kit plus a free 1gig xD (yuk, actually I got a 512×2 since they didn’t have 1gig xD in stock, double yuk) card.

Moral of the story: If anyone wants a (or two) 512MB xD picture card, call me.

Not really, but do so anyway. I’ve been clicking away with the camera for the past few days and it’s just faaaaabulous. Ergonomics is spot-on, shot to shot speeds are excellent and I can shoot as fast as I can get the focus confirmation which, in good light, takes next to no time. Since the camera doesn’t have a dedicated AF-assist lamp (boo!), it can use the flash strobe to capture focus, which, while it works well, is very distracting for the subject (assuming the subject is living). On the second day with the camera, I got myself a 1Gig Sandisk Extreme III Compactflash card which is tons faster than the xD. Burst shooting has improved one heck of a lot and RAW shooting is much more comfortable. I haven’t yet tried the Olympus Master software that comes with the camera, but I expect it’s good from the reviews I’ve read of it.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/olympus/e500-review/

Hmm… enough camera talk, even I’m getting tired of it. Actually there’s a bit more about electronics. Yesterday evening, me, mum and dad went out to Lulu again. At the electronics branch, we bought the Nokia 6630 (for Sreekanth) and the Nikon Coolpix P2 (for Sreekanth’s Uncle. It’s a wifi enabled camera). The Nikon is actually pretty fast on the operations front. It’s defenitely the fastest point and shoot I’ve seen. But then I haven’t really seen (worked with) any of the newer p&s, except perhaps my bro’s cam, which was more of a lifestyle product anyway. The Nokia 6630 is… well… somethin’ like my bro’s 6681. The shape is a bit different, and it feels pretty much the same. The interface is almost a ditto, and it’s about as sluggish. Xyris (Sreekanth) raves about it though, so I’m guessing it’s pretty good. It’s got a 1.3MP camera which shoots photos which look (again) the same as my bro’s 6681. I haven’t seen em’ full res, so I can’t be sure.

Time in the evening is being spent either walking around malls, supermarkets, bazaars and the like, mostly buying the small stuff that mum likes fussing over. She should read this. We’ll be back from Dubai the day after tomorrow, so I guess I’ll write more then. Ta ta.

Happy Onam!

Happy Onam everyone!

Soooo… let’s get down to it… yesterday, that is. A whole bunch of very nice (:D) things happened yesterday. Read day b4 yesterday’s account of the beginning two-thirds of the day to get a sense to the mundane. The evening however was much more interesting. All of us went to the Al Ain Center yesterday, and it’s one of those malls where there’s an electronic gadget everywhere you look. Oooooh, I was in gadget heaven! We’d taken the system that I’d brought from home and we had it assembled there, after buying a new case and a new Seagate 160gig HDD for it.

That’s the system I’m currently working on by the way, no thanks to the idiots who assembled it. The dolts there don’t seem to know why dual channel memory is call DUAL channel! They stuck the memory modules in all the wrong slots and I spent an hour today morning wondering why the damned monitor was stuck in standby mode with the computer seemingly working fine (this motherboard doesn’t have those handy four status led-s). Anyway I finally figured it out and as you can see, is working quite nicely.

Anyway, back to what happened at Al Ain Center. I actually got myself a new computer! Wheee! Or should I say, PARTS of a new computer. I still lack the DDR2 memory for the Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86Ghz) and the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3. The video card is at home, a 7900GT and the final combination should be quite potent. <insert evil laughter here> All that without the massive overclocking that I have planned for this system. Retail E6300s have been taken to a MASSIVE 3.62 Ghz on stock cooling with only increase in voltages. When you consider the fact that the X6800 is clocked at 2.93Ghz and goes up to only 3.2 with the best cooling available, the E6300 makes a frickin LOT of sense. It’s a 100% overclock (almost), for heaven’s sake! If you’re planning to buy a core 2 duo system right now, the Gigabyte’s GA-965P-DS3 seems to be the ’sensible’ option. For those who have deeper pockets and plan to do more extreme overclocking, the DQ6 from the same company or the Asus P5B Deluxe would perhaps suffice.

Enough of computers. I also got to actually FEEL the Nikon D50 and the Fuji S9000. The S9000 was a bit of a dissapoinment. The plasticky body is a total turn-off when compared to the heftier (and sturdier) Nikon D50. We ARE comparing a fixed lens to a D-SLR, so it is a bit unfair, but then the S9000 is the TOP-end fixed lens fuji offers while the nikon d50 is the CHEAPEST D-SLR that nikon offers. The Nikon is priced around Dhs 3000 (<38k Rs) while the S9000 is priced around Dhs 2300 (Rs 29k approx). [The following is an update] I also saw the Rebel XT, but I’m not really considering it, since its plastic body and the tiny hand-grips don’t look the least bit attractive to me. After all that browsing around and shopping, we carried the whole load of stuff (dad’s computer) back home, had dinner and went straight to sleep. We had quite a run yesterday, in short. Catcha guys later.

Second Take

Woke up at 7 yesterday. Odd. That doesn’t happen too often. Maybe it’s because of the time difference, who knows. The morning was a recap of all the ‘other’ mornings I’ve had in Dubai. Sloooow, to begin with. I ate nuked Strawberry Pie with Strawberry juice (non-nuked, since I like my milk cold) and I think I read Mr. M.P. Nair’s copy of ‘A Brief History of Time’ for a while. It got boring though, and I might have slept through a few paragraphs. A bit after lunch, Dad got back from work. Then HE had lunch and we all went to sleep. We’re encountering a lot of ’sleep’ here, aren’t we? Well, fret not, ‘cuz there’s even more to come.

At about 6, I woke up, dressed, and went out with everyone to thing abso-big mall called Hyper-Panda. The streets of Dubai are absolutely CLOGGED with traffic at this time of the day, and the drive, which usually takes less than ten minutes took about half an hour. It’s not all that bad though, considering the fact that the taxi I was travelling in was a Mercedes and it’s PRETTY roomy in the back-seat.

Hyper-Panda has got to be the most EMPTY ‘giant’ mall I’ve ever seen. It seems the tourists-watever of Dubai have yet to discover this place, as at many times, me, mum and dad seemed to be the only human entities in sight. The place was a frickin grave-yard… full of nice desirable junk, that is. Oh yeah, I saw a lot of goodies, especially at ‘Plugins’. Plugins is this really big electronic chain store that’s all over Dubai, and it seems Hyper-Panda isn’t without one either. I got to see real-life versions of the Nikon D50, the Canon EOS350D Rebel XT, the FujiFilm S9000, and the Panasonic FZ30 there. All of ‘em looked smaller than I’d imagined. They were pretty frickin costly though. The Nikon and the EOS350 were priced at AED 3000 (Rs 38k or $820 approx) and the other two fixed lenses weren’t much better. Dad’s actually interested in the DSLR, thankfully, so much the better for me. Yipee! I think I might actually get one in me hands either today or tomorrow. The D50 looked mighty tasty!

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d50-review/

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/digital_rebel_xt-review/

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz30-review/

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/fuji/finepix_s9000-review/

I’ve also got to decide which mobo I’m gonna get for my new compy. That calls for more research. Went out with mum today morning to a local supermarket called ‘Day to Day’, to buy odds-and-ends sorta stuff. It’s 11:20 AM now and I’ve got stuff to do (read) before today evening. So catcha guys l8r. ta ta.