Apples

Apples

by Garik

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12,373 reputation
1139
bio website j.mp/NZPHOTOS
location Auckland, New Zealand
age
visits member for 1 year, 9 months
seen 2 hours ago
stats profile views 321

Electronic designer. Professional Engineer. Oldish aka "reasonably experienced" :-). Contact - apptechnz gmail com <- you know the drill.

Special interest in technological solutions for developing country applications. Extensive in-China experience in product development & manufacturing in China. Jack of all trades, Master of Electrical engineering. (aka ME (elec)) Interested in all aspects of modern technology. Professional qualifications in electrical engineering but practically proficient or conversant in many peripheral areas. Recent extensive experience in solar powered LED lighting development and manufacturing in China for markets worldwide.

"Servant of the Most High God" / committed Christian. Happy to work enthusiastically and interact amicably with people of all nationalities and creeds.

Married with 2 adult children.

Obsessional photographer.


May
10
comment How do I achieve fireworks pictures such as the hirobamboo method?
Impossible is such a strong word :-) Given the less than 100% quality expectation and external optical element waved properly before the lens may achieve what is needed. Possibly (ack!) a "magnifying glass" or optical equivalent providing an infinity focus in a plane in front of the camera. Focus on that and then move the external glass. And yes, you are correct - now it is not a fixed lens camera :-).
May
8
comment Have cropped digital sensors reached their peak design limits?
@johnCavan - more fps? - Get a Sony A77 :-). Some other factors maybe not as good as alternatives.
May
8
answered Have cropped digital sensors reached their peak design limits?
May
7
comment Why are CF cards so much more expensive than SD cards?
Breakage: I find that micro SD to SD adapters break far too easily. On full size SD card leading corner can break. Will not insert without repair. Write protect sliders can vanish - must replace to write. // CF - never a problem mechanically.
May
7
comment Why are CF cards so much more expensive than SD cards?
re bandwidth - I just bought an SD card with claimed "Up to 95 MB/s" performance. (Sandisk Extreme Pro 8 GB). Actual transfer rate unknown. It cost 50% more than their 30 MB/s (claimed) card and was bought to assist in troubleshooting specific camera problems. FWIW - even if the camera could write that fast it would not keep up with my A77 max rate of 12 x say 12 MB Ultrafine JPG frames/second. | Tries it: Wow! 14 frames, 182 MB in just over one second. Buffer cleared in 4 manually counted seconds for about 45 MB/s. Some more formal tests are in order ! :-).
May
7
comment Is there a reason for raw over jpeg if you have your lighting figured out?
... :-) - IF all this proves not just to be a good dream I'll be using NEF only in future and getting a useful gain in memory card capacity compared to NEF + Fine. // Above I said "appear to be absolutely identical". I copied in a JPEG fine ex camera and a NEF-> JPG100 of the same image and ran a flicker comparison of whole image and then 1/4 image at 1:1 pixel resolution. Nary a flicker or change of tone that I could see as images swap to & fro. Looking good. More anon no doubt :-).
May
7
comment Is there a reason for raw over jpeg if you have your lighting figured out?
... starting point from a recent event - indoors, artificial light, camera set to RAW + JPG Fine. The RAW and JPG files are stored in independent locations. The NEF-> JPG 100 is slightly smaller than the camera fine JPG = JPG 98, subsampling off. AND why am I saying all this? Because the conversion took almost exactly 1 second per image on a 3.2 GHz Pentium D dual processor , XP PRO SP3, 2 GB RAM (!), USB2 external hard drive for file write and read. / SO it seems (so far) that I can get JPG fine files from NEF-RAW at one second per photo, and have the NEF available if needed.
May
7
comment Is there a reason for raw over jpeg if you have your lighting figured out?
Stan - I knew that Irfanview had RAW conversion capability but I only looked at it a few days ago. It offers very few knobs to twiddle but, at first glance, using D700 NEF files it produces JPGS (quality = 100 ) which appear to be absolutely identical to the D700's fineest JPG setting. Also, whereas IV used to show thumbnails when viewing RAW files it now shows full res (12 Mp) images. I suspect that (1) they use their own converter to produce the screen view and that (2) They use the supplied camera parameters for fine setting. / I converted 100 NEF files chosen in sequence from a random ...
May
7
comment Is there any downside to using a knock-off lens hood?
@mattdm - My response may have been unclear :-). Filter thread screw on hoods add something in front of the filter thread they are screwing into. If there is a filter already in place and if the lens is designed to JUST not vignette with 1 filter in place, then adding a 2nd, or a hood that screws in, pushes you over the limit. But most such hoods are not thought through and add vignetting depth more than a basic filter would. The N salepeople I met who offered me a screw on hood when I was trying to buy a replacement for a lost Sony SAL18-250 hood all were unconcerned about vignetting issues.
May
6
comment Why aren't DSLR silent shooting modes enabled by default?
@StanRogers - Interesting how people's desires, tolerance, demands, satisfaction levels and criteria are so varied. Nothing new in that, of course. The rich tapestry of human life etc :-). I'm not "satisfied" with the EVF - BUT I'm more satisfied with what it plus pellicle mirror etc allows me to do with a camera than does an OVF. Someone here recently was utterly rejecting a camera (D700?) solely because it did not have 100% view in OVF. I can live with that with ease on a D700 given what it overall can do. Worst aspect (for me) of the EVF is it's abominable performance in very low light.
May
6
comment Best camera backpack with these criteria?
" ... before dark, it's raining, etc" -> BUT you have a D3S! (Even a D700 doesn't mind dark and rain!) :-)
May
6
revised Best camera backpack with these criteria?
Minor typo & spelling. "round the next", ballance.
May
6
comment Best camera backpack with these criteria?
Excessively sized belt bag visible here. You should be able to work out which one is me :-).
May
6
comment Best camera backpack with these criteria?
... the above combination may have you end up somewhat 2 ring circusish if care is not taken. Front waist bag is large enough that I can with effort slide in a largish APSC camera and medium lens (Tamron 18-250) or even a FF D700 + Tamron 28-300 en extremis. A look in a mirror when loaded can be useful to see how "normal" you look. I don't do "normal" as well as many do :-).
May
6
comment Best camera backpack with these criteria?
Related: I've found that in "run all day" situations with a camera that I may develop neck pain and a headache by day's end - not always but often enough to be annoying. Where not needed absolutely instantly rotating the camera around my body 90 degrees so it hans at my side rather than in front of me the camera soit pulls against the side of my neck rather than the back makes it much less likely that a sore neck will develop. When mobile I also use a back pack - but not a camera specific one. PLUS :-) - I use a front mounted "bum bag" with lens/battery/flash/memory cards whatever ...
May
6
comment Why aren't DSLR silent shooting modes enabled by default?
@StanRogers Blacked out? - buy an SLT ... :-). Try it. You'll like it. My D700 is marvellous - noise performance vastly better than A77 SLT. But my A77 is vastly better at "making pictures that I want to make". Combination of EVF, fixed mirror, articulated screen and ...? In body antishake helps too - the world's only AF mirror lens with antishake/VR whatever :-). 12 frames per second is also sometimes useful. Not often, but ... .
May
6
comment What makes sound in a DSLR camera?
@EsaPaulasto - Using electronic front curtain shutter with the SLTs about halves the residual shutter noise. I just tried getting rid of stop down noise (preview, manual, both, other) with an A77 but it does not seem to want to play. Shooting wide open should fix that :-).
May
4
comment Do developed negatives lose quality over time?
Lifetime CAN be excellent. Non definitive datapoint: I just had a quick glance at a handful of colour slides all about 35 years old. One had a distinctive magenta tint which was probably not original but the rest appeared colour true. Storage has been dark and dryish. Photographic processes are chemical ones. Lifetimes depend greatly on the care which was taken in stopping the "developing" reaction. I have one set of colour prints which aged very badly while all others from 30+ years have been good. Very old films have problems with the "carrier" material - not so far evident with my material.
May
2
comment What is the device made from lots of cameras shown in this picture?
Could be used to create walk-around shots of a static location. Blurs the stills-video line. If used for that it is DEFINITELY not video and has the characteristics of a large stills database. Would also create useful 3D images of a rotated ed in space (up to a limit" object.
Apr
30
comment How can I capture vivid color and detail in relatively dark, indoor cafe?
If you want "streaking light effect" of very differential lighting of areas you can try long exposures (possibly with an ND filter) and "washing" of selected areas with a floodlight.