Hardware issues

It’s been quiet around here the last weeks, as regular visitors may have noticed. This is partly due to the fact that I am mostly busy with work and family, and rarely take the time to actively work in this site. I also started to post links to interesting news and articles to my facebook page almost exclusively, except for those which I find very important.

The other reason for the more recent silence is that my trusted Dell Latitude E5400 laptop, which I have been using both for work and private for the past two years, has suffered a failure of harddisk and battery almost simultaneously. I was lucky that I was able to salvage almost all of my important data before the disk broke down entirely.

2009 Dell Latitude E5400 | My trusty companion for two years.

Continue reading Hardware issues

January 31st, 2012, 11:59 am | | Tech-Talk | 5 comments |

TOP discuss the “Most Desirable Cameras on the Planet”

The Online Photographer has a new column which discusses the “Most Desirable Cameras on the Planet”. Counting down from 11 to 1, Mike Johnston presents and discusses eleven cameras that he deems desirable for different reasons.

Part 1 (the 11th-most desirable camera on the planate) was on the new PhaseOne IQ180 80-megapixel medium format digital back, whose image quality apparently challenges high-resolution scans of 8×10″ large format film.

Part 2, published yesterday, discusses the Nikon D3x, Nikon’s top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art, ultimate professional high-end full-frame “Hunka hunka burnin’ hunk” (TOP) DSLR.

If you’d like to read some moth-watering articles full of gearheadedness, make sure not to miss out this series.

September 28th, 2011, 11:33 am | | Essays, Reviews, Tech-Talk | Leave a comment |

What I hope for the NEX-7 to be.

I just joined the TalkNEX forum, a new forum dedicated to discussing the Sony NEX line of mirrorless cameras. My first post in that forum is about my hopes for the NEX-7, coming from the Leica M8, and some thoughts on rangefinder, analog and digital photography, and why I think that Leica failed at bringing the rangefinder idea into the digital age.

You can find it here: http://www.talknex.com/f12/m8-user-high-hopes-nex-7-a-263/

September 2nd, 2011, 1:01 pm | , | Tech-Talk | Leave a comment |

Now hear who’s crying again.

I just stumbled upon an article on 1001noisycameras, linking to high-ISO comparison by Focus Numérique, comparing the output of the new Sigma SD1 to that of the Nikon D7000. Of course, the Sigma SD1 looses big time in this pixel-peeping contest, and the editors and commentators on 1001nc go on to bash Sigma and rave about Nikon. Phrases such as “being horribly out of touch with the realities of the market” are uttered.

Now, I wonder who it is that’s “being horribly out of touch with the realities of the market” here. Sigma, or the people that compare a $6k, 15 megapixel Foveon sensored high-end specialty camera to a $1k prosumer model?

The reality of the market is that

  1. the Sigma SD1 and Nikon D7000 are aimed at two completely different groups of customers,
  2. the sensor technologies used in each camera are entirely different from each other and
  3. the noise reduction algorithms in the Sigma SD1 are thus far less destructive than those applied in the Nikon D7000, as the former is aimed at photographers looking for actual image quality, while the latter is aimed at “photographers” who believe image quality has to do with noise patterns.

One can argue whether the admittedly rather high price tag of the Sigma SD1 is “being horribly out of touch with the realities of the market”. Yes, I believe that’s actually up to debate, but I also believe Sigma are having their reasons for pricing the SD1 the way they did (development costs being one point). But the truth, uncomfortable as it may be for the noise kids out there, is that the SD1 delivers outstanding image quality if pixel-level sharpness and accurate colour reproduction is what you’re looking for. In that sense, the SD1 is indeed competing more with the medium format market than with the APS-C prosumer market.

Last but not least, here are a couple of links where you can learn a bit about the Sigma SD1 and the technology behind its Foveon sensor. This is some actual information, and not pixel-peepers’ pseudo-knowledge.

http://photorumors.com/2011/05/22/guest-post-detailed-analysis-of-the-sigma-sd1s-foveon-x3-technology/

http://www.x3magazine.com/2011/06/17/this-is-not-a-review-of-the-sigma-sd1/

http://www.rytterfalk.com/category/camera/sd1-camera/

August 31st, 2011, 11:14 am | | Tech-Talk | 2 comments |

I must be a miracle worker of some sort. UPDATE: Or not.

A few weeks ago, I realised that my Yashica Electro 35 GT’s meter wasn’t giving me any readings anymore. The battery chek light was working, but the meter wasn’t and the shutter operated at its 1/500 sec default speed. So I put it aside, planning to take a look at the electronics once I’d have the spare time to do so.

In the meantime, I was gathering information about possible repairs or replacements, and it was clear that I would have to spend at least 100 € to get a camera that is working and will continue working for some time.

This morning, I had a little time, so I decided to try and take the camera apart. I was hoping that maybe I could find a loose cable somewhere, and I wanted to clean the viewfinder and have a look at the light seals. The latter are gone, which is why I sometimes get traces of light leaks in my images. So I’m going to ask my local camera repair man if he can take a look at that.

Getting to the viewfinder involved disassembling the rewind crank, the ISO dial and the advance lever, which I was able to do using a small screwdriver and pliers. I also took off the baseplate to see if maybe something in or around the battery compartment was loose. But all cables looked ok, and all contacts seemed to be tight. Apart from a little dust and dirt, all seemed ok at first glance.

So, after cleaning the viewfinder I put everything together again and decided to also insert the battery, for no particular reason. As before, the battery check light lit up upon pressing the button. But to my amazement, when I pressed the shutter button, the overexposure warning lamp lit up! How could that be? I stopped the lens down to f/16, and the underexposure warning lamp also lit up. I fired a few shots at different apertures pointing the camera to differently lit parts of our living room, and indeed the shutter times changed according to how much light there was. Miraculously, after taking it apart, my camera was working again!

I’m curious how long it’s going to last, and if it can be repaired again by just taking the camera apart … :-)

UPDATE: It seems the miracle powers wore off pretty quickly. Yesterday, halfway through a roll of film, upon pressing the shutter button I heard a long squealing noise of rising frequency. After that, I couldn’t advance the film nor focus the lens. Something must’ve fused inside. I guess it’s now officially dead …

August 14th, 2011, 3:02 pm | | Tech-Talk | 2 comments |
 
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