2008 Rochester International Air Show (photo gallery) July 30, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Photography , 3 comments
The weather was generally pretty crummy with hazy skies making for a pretty dull background, some of the shots still came out looking pretty good.
Unfortunately, after reviewing the shots from the air show on Sunday and the gas engine festival on Saturday I have discovered that the shutter in my 1D Mark II is fritzing out when firing at shutter speeds around 1/1600 of a second and faster. I got a narrow light streak in some shots at one edge of the frame. Apparently this is a somewhat well known behavior of some MK IIs and rumor has it Canon sometimes replaces them for free, especially if the number of actuations is low like on mine. We’ll see though, otherwise I’m looking at a supposedly $300(ish) repair bill.
Check out more pics after the jump. (more…)
Pioneer gas engine festival July 29, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Photography , add a commentOn Saturday, July 26th I went to the Pioneer gas engine festival in Marion, NY with family and friends. It was a very different festival from anything I had been before, but the tractor pulls were interesting to watch for a bit and the people were pretty interesting. I also got pretty sunburned while I was there!
I haven’t got much else to say about this one, so check out the gallery below:
Has Canon taken a hint? July 23, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a commentBeing unnecessarily tightlipped on the 5D’s replacement may be a nuisance, but I was genuinely concerned about the pricing for the Rebel XS and XSi.
Given the current exchange rate and the state of the economy I wasn’t sure how much that could be blamed on screwing up the pricing on the XSi (rather high) and the XS (too high and close to the XSi). It seems however that Canon has been reducing the price of the XSi in some locations although not necessarily in the US yet. Hopefully they’ve heard the response or noticed their mistake.
Presumably the XS will drop in price as well. I’m still doubting it will reach the entry-level price range I was hoping it would fit in to originally ($550-600 in kit form) but any reduction helps.
Leicasonic unleashes new high end P&S with… wait, no bump in resolution!? July 21, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , 2 commentsIn what may be a good sign of things to come, Panasonic has decided to not continue the megapixel race with the LX3. The LX3 in fact not only keeps the LX2’s resolution, but carries it onward to a redesigned and ever so slightly larger sensor.
Upgrade complete July 18, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Blog Admin , add a commentThe upgrade to Wordpress 2.6 was uneventful as usual. Yay!
Walking downtown July 16, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Color Vision, Photography , add a commentYesterday Joe and I decided to wander downtown Rochester some. Our starting point was the soon to be demolished Midtown Plaza. This fabulously retro and dilapidated place was the first downtown mall in the country, and we both felt we had to take a visit there to see what it was all about. I have to admit while it was interesting to see, for the most part the overall space did nothing for me, photographically speaking. I focused on some details though and got a few shots. On top of that, getting the right color balance for that lighting was really tricky. Since I can’t tell when it looks right I just took a stab at trying to get a white balance reading off something hopefully neutral and lit by the right color of light.
After that we left, were blinded by the sunlight and headed a bit north, past the Liberty pole and to this empty shell of a church. All that is left standing of this church is the steeple and the side walls, which are all stone. Interesting, but I couldn’t really get anything out of it that interested me.
Finally we wandered back south to the abandoned Manhattan Square Park and eventually reached the Strong Museum where the big colorful walls are.
You can see the rest of that expedition in the gallery below. I will be going through more of the photos tonight and may pick a few more to put up, which will probably go in a new post.
I think I said something about this before July 7, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors, Rants & Raves , add a commentOh… wait, yes I did: add more pixels please
Please just stop! I appreciate the effort put in to these cameras like including GPS location tagging but 13.5 megapixels in a 1/1.7 inch sensor? Unless this camera is carrying a new sensor exhibiting some breakthroughs in sensor design, it’s going to be pretty much terrible at anything above base ISO.
Fortunately Nikon saw fit to offer ISOs up to 6400! That obviously improves things.
My fingers are crossed that this is fake.
Highland Park, June 30 July 4, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : Photography , add a commentI have been wanting to check out this park between here and downtown Rochester. It’s one of those parks everyone in Rochester knows about and goes to, but there are some parts I’ve never actually explored before. In particular I was curious about the Vietnam Veterans memorial.
After leaving campus a little early I drove down there with camera in tow and planned to check it out and see what was worth seeing. It’s pretty obvious from a couple of the pictures that I got rained on a bit while I was there, and the lighting was very flat due to the cloudy/overcast skies. I think it’s a place worth returning to, especially the Vietnam memorial because I think with some nice midafternoon harsh sunlight it would allow for some interesting play with shadows. I’m sure I’ll put a little more effort in and retake one or two shots I took while I was there this time, but at least I know what’s there now!
And the winner is…. July 1, 2008
Posted by tcbp in : News & Rumors , add a commentus!
