A New Camera.

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. I realize that I can only do so many things before something has to give, and unfortunately the Blog was dropped to the 'way-back burner'. I have been keeping people posted on my website about my camera, but I haven't said anything about it here. A while ago I got the wild hair to buy a Nikon P6000 after pouring through several PDFS of the owners manual for each camera I had my eye on. Forget all the reviews, all the specs you can find on websites about each camera you're looking at, the guy behind the counter doesn't know what he's talking about, he's just trying to sell you a camera. Look at the Owners Manuals! You'll thank me later. My big thing about this camera is that it worked well with the equipment I already had.

I have a PClix that only works with Nikon IR sensors, at least as far as I know. The PClix, which I have covered before is an intervalometer that allows me to take photos at set intervals. Well, the P6000 has an IR sensor that would allow me to use the PClix with it. The camera was more compact and had fewer moving parts to worry about than my aging Nikon D50. So I bought it at $360.

Man it was a thing of beauty, expensive, but cheaper than getting a D200, which was the other option. This camera had metal frame and shot great timelapse footage, barring a few issues that I'll label camera quirks. The P6000 also shoots video, has its own timelapse feature (the PClix allows many more options) and shoots Raw and Jpeg.

The problem is, two and a half to three months later, it fell 6 feet to it's demise.

I was setting up to do a timelapse of my fiance and I working a puzzle together. My method was to attach the camera to tripod, the tripod to the wall. I did so with a screw-in hook that I tethered with a piece of string wrapped around the hook and the leg of the tripod several times. That method worked well with my much heavier Nikon D50 before. The issue was that the lens on the Nikon D50 was slowly jarring itself into nothing but a blur with each photo it took.



So once I had set up my p6000 to do a new shoot, I had to step away for a moment to do a couple things elsewhere in the house and when I went back to the room, there my camera lay, a circle where the lens had hit embedded in the wood floor, the lens, completely jammed up, and me. Angry as hell me. I blamed it all on myself. I thought the string had slipped loose, since I didn't tie it in a knot for security's sake and it killed me. I'm hard on myself. It's my way to self improve, although probably not the most healthy way. After several days and a bricked camera later, I investigated further. I found out that the hook actually pulled from the wall. It wasn't my fault after all! I felt somewhat better.

So here's what the old camera looks like now:



I spent $8 on a .pdf download of a p6000 repair manual, so that's why it's splayed out in this box. I still have the intention of fixing it, if I can be allowed to order the lens assembly from Nikon at $80, but I managed to win a bid on a used one on ebay for a $200. I could hardly pass it up. The photo was taken with the new p6000.

The Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card.

Before I get to the nitty gritty, I have to brag about how cheap my eye-fi card was. I went to Circuit City on Valentine's Day '09 and they were all but wiped out. The store was so empty that a stranger came up to me and just gave me a gift card because she couldn't find anything for herself. I was kind enough to accept her offer and so I was +$24. The Eye-fi card was discounted 50% bringing it down to $50. So I ended up with an Eye-fi card at the cost of about $28 after tax!

Setup of the Eye-Fi is fairly simple. Upon inserting the card into the USB port using the adapter that comes with the package the card is automatically recognized and the installation process is completed quickly since the install files come preloaded on the card. Since Eye-fi is a wireless SD card, when I first saw that they included an adapter I thought it somewhat contradictory. Although funny at first, for the card to properly connect to wireless, one has to use the adapter to set it up first, so it's not really that strange. The user must have the card, a camera (which powers the card), and a wi-fi router in order for the card to work properly.



Once installed, my first impression of the Eye-Fi was one of restriction. The card works through an internet application called the Eye-Fi Manager which proves to be a sort of middleman. The reasons this is implemented are to promote the Hotspot Access Service (H.A.S.) at $15 a year, which allows the user access to more than 10,000 hotspots in the U.S., to allow the user to automatically upload photos to the a wide selection of photo-hosting sites and to keep things more secure.



The problem with uploading directly to photo-hosting sites is that not every photo I take is a masterpiece. It also eats away at a weekly limit quickly on Flickr. It is still an interesting feature that would be really nice with a subscription to the H.A.S. if you're on vacation and a lot of your friends and family want to see how the vacation is going with little lag time before the photos are posted.



The biggest reason I wanted this card is for time lapse photography. I want to transfer files directly to a laptop that's in range while shooting in remote locations. Since the card requires access to the internet in order for it to work, that feature isn't an immediately obvious option.

I have found a couple work-arounds to this major flaw of the card. Photojojo tells about how it could be possible to upload wirelessly to a laptop by connecting a wifi router to the laptop, whether there is internet or not. The other method as detailed by Dave Hansen would be to host a stand-alone server of which seems to prove difficult to do. I have yet to test either method but I think the latter would tailor to my needs. I will post an update when I test out these different methods.

Taking steps backwards.

The decision made by some Internet Service Providers to try the usage based billing system seems like a huge step backwards to me. Why not upgrade the connection speeds instead? I know it is possible to have a much higher speed but for some reason most people are being throttled. This is a blatant refusal to move forward in technology in my view.

technology porn

More on this video below.

absolutmachines

bea.st

Cyberpunk:

Christopher Conte

Timelapse:

youtube.com/milapse

I want to do this kind of stuff but I'm no MIT graduate. I am dabbling in timelapse photography however so be looking for some of that.

Man Power.

I've been thinking about how ridiculous our pursuit of improving our lives is and in doing so we have simply thought up ways to both consume more energy than ever before and have also really just made our lives more complex. Think about this, we now have electric can openers, electric pencil sharpeners, and electric tooth brushes. All these thing can be done with our hands just as easily and I'm sure there are many other examples.

In addition to objects such as these consuming more energy than necessary, portable communications devices are also making it more and more difficult to turn off and get away from the job. People are actually dying from being overworked now too. Kiroshi is what they call it in Japan. So does technology and electronics really improve the quality of life?

Can anyone think of more examples of electronics that really don't improve our lives any?

Exoskeletal Battle System.

I've always wondered when this would come into practical existence. I want one!

Wishlist.

Well, it's that time of year again, capitalism at its finest. I figured I'd post what I have my eye on.

I'm to the point to where what I want isn't what people would be willing to get me because of how expensive it is. There's a lot of games and game peripherals, an xbox 360, a nice printer, a wacom tablet, and well, the list could continue but for the sake of brevity I'll have to say that this combo is close to the top of my list:

Insignia mp3 Player

Insignia Bluetooth Headphones

If I had to choose between the two I'd have to pick the headphones. I just got the same mp3 player a few months back and it has been a great addition, but it doesn't have bluetooth and the cord is always getting caught and often rips the headphones off my head or out of the jack. If the headphones don't have a dongle to connect to my current mp3 player then there'd be no reason to have the headphones either.

But anyway, ante up! What's the main thing on your list this year?