Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

I had not realized that Canon does their own spec publishing. Good discussions. I know know what Sagittal and Meridional lines are the difference between contrast and resolution. But the quick summary is that: Canon publishes lense specifications and MTF for its lenses on its website It measures both the lense at the center and…

OK, I admit it, on Windows I used the complicated but powerful Sony Vegas Pro, but on the Mac, I’ve been living with iMovie for years because it was pretty easy to use and quick to get nice looking output. But now with these fancy cameras (and greater awareness on my part…eg reading too much…

I have an old  Canon camcorder (a *massive* 40GB hard disk, well it was in 2006!) that produces MTS files at 720×480 or 640×480 and it turns out iMovie processes these correctly. Shooting video settings. On my 5D2, I put in a special cinestyle designed just for video. Rungunshoot.com and Bruno have similar suggestions. Here’s…

I have an old  Canon camcorder (a *massive* 40GB hard disk, well it was in 2006!) that produces MTS files at 720×480 or 640×480 and it turns out iMovie processes these correctly. However, the new RX100 produces these same strange files. Here are the oddities: When you connect you RX100 to a Mac, it does…

I’ve always thought that IMAX was better in the non 3d world and normally go there then cinerama but with IMAX 3d in regular theaters I’m wondering. Here is what folks say about a 3D comparison. Basically in commercials 3d it sort of depends. Some of the IMAX are absolutely huge like the pacific science…

Spent the afternoon listening to Asian YouTube artists. Wow I’m impressed. Jwcfree for acoustic guitar Musicneversleeps aka Jason Chen Lilcdawg Kina grannis. Sharon Kwan Claracmusic David choi It’s like Xmas in YouTube land. No auto tune. Real production values. Love it!

We have nearly all these game consoles (xBox, PS3, Wii) and for some reason, I have to say, these new announcements (xBox One, PS4, Wii U) just don’t sound all that interesting. I had not realized it has been *seven years* since the release of the xBox. As Calvin said, when you have a late…

Well time to lust for bikes too…here is a list from Bicycling.com: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL4 Red. Won last year. $8K, 12.6 lb if you can believe it! But let’s face it the real lust starts with the $12K (?!!) Tarm SL4 Di2 which has Shimano’s electronic shifting components. You can also get this as…

Wow, this is the first full frame camera that can produce raw footage. Something the Canon folks are trying to keep to their $30K high end cameras (you could really dislike Canon for crippling its mirrorless EOS-M and locking out video output with their prosumer cameras in favor of their C line). But their lenses…

I’m one of those outliers who use DxO instead of Adobe Lightroom and one of the reasons has been the way they automatically correct lens imperfections because they test each camera body and each lense. For instance, they say they correct vignetting because they know at every aperture and speed what is the darkness at…

This would be a big move on Sony’s part, wish that their lenses were better (thanks to Scott for explaining that lenses are as important as bodies!) Mirrorless Rumors Matrix agent’s would say…It was inevitable MR-Anderson! Panasonic and Samsung dropped the DSLR world, Olympus will do it soon. So, what is Sony going to do?…

A great analysis by Roger over at Lensrental.com trying to decide what dSLR to buy. Inreresting thing was to compare Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III at 24-70. The new Canon 24-70 II is amazingly sharp and of course the Nikon D800 is 36 megapixel vs Canon at 22, so would seem to be…

We just upgraded our aging late  2008 MacBooks with SSDs ($120) and did an Apple refurbish ($300). I know this seems like a crazy amount of money to spend when you can buy a new Macbook Air for $1K, but somehow it feels good to keep things going (reduce, reuse, recycle). Even the really slow…

Well like the Ricoh GR, this is a APS-C sensor with a fixed F/2.8 lense. DXOMark just tested it and found that it produced a 13P-Mpix which is pretty amazingly good for a 16M APS-C sensor. It is fixed focus, so really a carry around for someone who wants a wide angle fixed focus. If…

Well don’t u know it sometimes the tech support folks are right. This morning we lost Internet access from Comcast and this reboot procedure actually worked unplug the modem and remove the battery wait a minute and plug it in if this doesn’t work remove the cable and u should see just two lights turn…

While there are many review sites for photography on the web, a few have the detailed technical specifications that a true wonk wants (Needs?!). Here’s a good list from lensrental.com and if you are a true geek if you know the sharpness of a lense you can correct for this in digital post producting. So…

Well there has been so much discussion about resolution and sharpness, I’m so confused, so finally spent a little time with Imatest trying to figure out what a Modulation Transfer Function actually is. Also Scott mentioned that in addition to mingthein, checking out the lensrental.com blog is important as they Imatest every lense they bring…

I have the Sony RX100 on order, but a rumor is that Canon will introduce an APS-C sized sensor version in the same form factor. Wow now that is pretty cool. It will might have competion from Fuji as well with a low-end X-mount camera. Wow what a time to be looking at these things!…

Well time to set new goals (and of course) buy new hardware. The bike world has been moving fast since I last looked at it two years (?!!) ago. Here are some highlights and things to really want. Shimano Dura-ace Di2 9070. A long name for the update to the Shimano shifting group. It is…

It’s sad, but at least Drobo is clear about what products are ending life, the Drobo’s we bought four years ago and they are coming to end of life with the newest Drobo Dashboard no longer supporting them.

Well, Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) seems to run much better on a Macbook 5,1 (late 2008) and MacBook Pro 5,1 but it still has issues in that grub doesn’t properly dual boot although the base install instructions work fine if you are completely replacing your Mac OS (but they don’t say that in their main…

Well the iPhone is actually a pretty decent camera, but it is hard to hold and hard to see. Folks have been working on this though, so here are some things to buy: Camera+ is a totally cheap ($3) iPhone app that gives you more control. You can even see your iso and shutter speed…

Well, Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) seems to run much better on a Macbook 5,1 (late 2008) and MacBook Pro 6,2 but it still has issues in that grub doesn’t properly dual boot. After two boots, the ReFIT I had on my MacBook Pro seems to work properly, but ReFind doesn’t at all on the MacBook.…

OK, I have the IZon and it was a bear to install, now I have three cameras to try to get running. Let’s see how it goes. They vary in cost from $130 to $600: Foscam IP Camera (Foscam FI9212W) This is a 720p webcam delivering H.264 images over an IP network that is either…

Well, although this camera is a year old, it doesn’t seem like there is an update soon, so it is pretty good to buy. So on to accessories: Sony DSC RX-100. It list for $600 and that is pretty much the cost. The best deal I’ve found from a legitimate reseller is to use your…

How can you run out of space with 16TB worth of DroboPro space. Well apparently it isn’t so hard with all the home movies and photos I’ve been taking. I have an old DroboPro with a mix of 3TB and 2TB drives and it is 98% full! I’ve tried taking a few things off, but…

Spent an hour trying to get our Amazon Affiliate link back up for marketingplaybook.com. Just realized that it is because I have Adblock running so it appears in the source of the page, but not on the browser. I have to disable ghostery, noscript and adblock to see my own ads 🙂

Ming Thein really has a good analysis of what is available. Ideally, you want to buy one lense when you are 21 and then pass it on to your grand kids. Lenses are one place where you can really do that. His post on dSLR lenses is right on (IMHO) where he basically says validates…

Had an hour and a half to think about this stuck at the border. First is ur going up to Canada via peach arch stay left. There r more lanes open on that side. When u come back the wait times are very optimistic. The sign says 40 minutes but we’ve been waiting an hour…