Hotshots - We Were "Bagets" A Long Time Ago
. . .more than a movie to me - it is about who we were a long time ago.
. . .more than a movie to me - it is about who we were a long time ago.
I was about to go home and for the day and have just stepped out of my site office when I saw this scene at the gate. A small flock of wild pigeons visited out construction site. While one of the construction workers gave them some rice, I took a few pictures of them. It may mean nothing to most but this did made me smile. Cheers, alexdpx
Detail crops at 100% resolution
Detail crops at 100% resolution.
Detail crops at 100% resolution.
Detail crops at 100% resolution.
The results are very close with the S30 showing better ability to resolve teeny tiny details in the pictures shown. I also prefer the more vibrant colors and more contrasty pictures from the S30. However, the K800i performed better under bright sunlight. It metered the lighting condition more accurately. The S30's are a little bit overexposed as shown in Sets 1 and 2. Cheers,
alexdpx
This article also appears in www.litratista.org
My barely 2 weeks old Sony Ericsson K800i Cyber-shot cameraphone. It belongs to the new breed of cameraphones sporting 3 Megapixels of resolution. Small, compact, pocket-sized and can do a thousand other things a digicam cannot. Representing the cameraphones.
And now, since I have both of them available, comparing them should not come as a surprise. Most people would compare them, although maybe few will bother to write about it and share it with everyone. Well, I did, basically to answer two questions that has been lingering in my mind:
Testing Methods and Procedures
I think you'll find the results interesting. I will have them featured side by side in my next post. Until then.
Cheers,
alexdpx
I've been told a few times by friends, "You should publish a photobook." Yeah, right. Like that's cheap. Also, I don't think anybody would be interested to buy them so it's just gonna be an expensive worthless exercise. But I do wonder how my photos would look like printed on premium publication type paper as in magazines and books. QOOP has an affordable solution. It provides printing services to flickr users (and other photosharing websites as well) in various formats. Posters, minibook, photobook, calendar, branding merchandise (t-shirts, caps) or just simply professional quality prints. Well, here's my chance so I ordered for a photobook on-line. The Process is step-by-step easy and offers a few options. Of course you need a flickr account (free account will do) and authorize access for them to organize your photobook.
Here are the order details: Perfect Bound Book (2-sided) = US$ 12.99 (QR 47.41/PHP 663.79) Minimum 20 Pages US$ 0.40 (QR 1.46 / PHP 20.44) each additional page. Total no. of pages = 50 Cost = US$ 24.99 (QR 91.21 / PHP 1,276.99) Shipping (USPS Int'l 1st Class Mail) = US$ 10.71 (QR 39.09 / PHP 547.28) Total Cost = US$ 35.70 (QR 130.30 / PHP 1,824.27) Order Date: 30 June 2006 Shipping Date: 5 July 2006 Delivery Date: 23 July 2006 (23 days from order date, 18 days from shipment date) I'm happy with the quality of prints. Brilliant! They matched perfectly with the colors as I see them on my computer monitor. I ordered for a 6-photos per page layout to keep the number of pages to an even 50. There is also a 20-photos per page layout but my photos would be really small. That would also mean too few pages which I think defeats the purpose of printing a book. I would have preferred a 4 or 2-photos per page layout but that would mean more pages and more cost to pay. It is expensive. However, seeing my photos in a book (although it's a personal book) feels very rewarding. Will I order again? Oh yes - next year for my 2nd year with flickr. If I do decide to publish a book for distribution, this is definitely not the service I would go to. I'll have to look elsewhere.
One skewer grilles chicken meat while the other on the left grilles beef.
Note: I think it's worth noting that all photos featured here wer taken using a Sony Ericsson K800i Cyber-shot camera phone.
My wife and I were driving by the municipality of Rayyan, west of Doha, when we passed by this camel ranch. I have seen some camels before because of the nature of my job where I spend a lot of time on the road. However, this was a first for my wife. We stopped the car somewhere near the fence and walked towards the camels on foot. We did not enter the paddocks, of course. Just by the fence. My previous encounter with camels was not very pleasant because they stink. The smell is like urine. These camels don't smell.
The camera has Macro mode and is capable of focusing from a distance of about 50mm (not an accurate measurement). The K800i handled the details quite well.
The camera has a "Document" scene mode in addition to the usual portrait, landscape, night scene, etc. Like the mode name implies, it's for photographing letters and other printed documents. I chose to test it with this drawing that has some really fine lines. The result looks easily readable to me.
It's got a 16x digital zoom (no optical zoom) and it's quite different from what I expected. The digital zoom that I know simply crops the picture resulting in smaller pictures. This one does the same but afterwards, the picture is interpolated and is enlarged back to 3.2 Megapixel size again. Of course the image quality degrades as a result.
The dreaded shutter lag spoiled what could have been a beautiful candid shot. This colleague of mine has got a beautiful smile and her eyes were wide open when I pressed the button. It is perhaps worth mentioning that the K800i has what Sony calls a BestPic mode and this is perhaps the mode you should be using when doing shots like this. In BestPic mode, the camera takes 9 successive shots in a burst within one second and then it prompts you to select the best image of your choice. Afterwards, the rest are discarded.
The images are not as silky smooth as I expected them to be. I don't know, maybe I'm just used to the high quality of images I get out of my EOS camera. The results look to me like its processor uses some kind of an in-camera noise reduction software.
A couple of items I wish this cameraphone has - at least a 3x optical zoom and a Carl Zeiss lens. Those features will make this camera phone even more of a killer. Too much to ask you say? I don't think so because Nokia's soon to be released N93 has them.
Generally, I still think that this is a very good gadget for what it is. It's more than adequate for my site inspection and documentation purposes and will be quite handy for party snaps. I have absolutely no doubt that it will produce some good quality 4 x 6 prints. However, I still don't think that this camera phone is qualified enough to take over the job of a dedicated compact digicam. I still would not entrust important events and "Kodak moments" with this camera phone.
“Give me the luxuries of life and I will gladly do without the necessities.”
Looks nice from the back as it does from the front.
My wife and I are both working professionals. Although we work for the same company, our workplace are miles apart. Hers is in the main Doha office while mine is in different job sites. I used to work in the main office as well so having just one car adequate for us. When I moved to site work, it has become more complicated but we can still manage. Now the entire main office is moving to another place which is much farther from our flat - and from my job sites for that matter. Sending her there in the morning then rushing to site and then picking her up in the afternoon is just not going to work. I'd be late all the time and I'll be very tired by the time I arrive at work.
A week ago, I was doing a routine site inspection at my current project assignment - Doha International Airport Departure Hall Expansion - when my celfone rang that musical ringtone. It was my boss - I wondered for a moment what could he possibly want from me this time. He asked me if I was busy and when could I drop by his office. He said he wanted me to take pictures of some of the company's construction sites. So I told him I was busy at the moment but would be able to see him after lunch time. I suspected that he wanted something special out of the pictures. Each construction project normally keeps weekly progress records including progress photographs. He could just simply ask for a copy of those from the respective project managers. But anyway, it was an opportunity for me to do something I love to do so I did not complained.
Hey, I'm back! 'Just finished my assignment during the past week. Man, it was awesome - photoshoot to the max! I've been assigned to photograph 15 of our construction sites for our company's publications and marketing materials. But initially, they will be used for a presentation to the board of directors to our corporate HQ in Sydney, Australia. So how have you been? 'Will start blogging again very soon.
My office has just given me an assignment with a very tight schedule. Because of this, I'd probably have my hands off the internet for about a week. Please continue to visit my blog and feel free to read the other articles you haven't read yet c",) I would very much appreciate if you could leave a comment or two. See you all after a week!
Mine is the Voltes V toy. I've been fascinated with Voltes V during the height of it's popularity in the late 70's when I was still a little boy in elementary school. I remember vividly my Friday afternoon's in the Philippines at 5:00 p.m. watching the cartoon series on GMA 7. I also remember having notebooks, school bag, pencil box, stickers, posters, coloring books, t-shirts, and a vinyl record of the theme song. But the one thing I've always wanted very badly but never ever had was the die-cast metal Voltes V toy made exclusively in Japan (not sure who's the manufacturer). At the price of PHP 1,000.00 (US$ 19.23 / QR 71.43) back then, it was simply a luxury my parents could not afford. I tried to understand; I never made a vow to buy one for myself someday but I watched with great envy as my more affluent classmates brought their toys in school and played with them during break time. There was nothing I can do but accept it as one of those things you just can't have. As I grew up, I learned to forget about it. Reaching adolescense, the fascination with girls helped a lot to forget about my childhood heartbreak.
25 years later, I have achieved a considerable level of success with my career and I believe that I can now afford to buy a Voltes V toy. When the cartoon series regained some popularity in the early years of this century, it was good timing that I happened to be on vacation in the Philippines as well. I searched from toy shop to toy shop but none existed. All they have are those locally made plastic copycats that do not transform. (At one time I did found a used one being auctioned at ebay but I didn't considered it because the bids are getting too high and I'm just not willing to pay that much for an old toy with a few missing accessories.) It was okay. I did not expect to find one anyway. At least I was able to buy a VCD copy of the entire series - all 40 episodes.
A Polaroid shot of Marco with his new toy.
Marco playing with his new toy - a gift from her loving wife, Gracinha.
And then I saw these picture in Atari, Gracinha & Marco's flickr photostream. They are a Filipino family based in Tokyo, Japan and I have come to know them only thru this photosharing site. It turned out that this same toy was also one of Marco's childhood fascination. Anyway, the feeling I had upon seeing these pictures can be likened to finding an old flame and knowing that she's available and I'm available - my heart just started beating faster at the thought of the possibilities.
Bandai Soul of Chogokin GX-31 Voltes V DX - The Voltes V toy that fascinates me to this day.
Knowing that the Voltes V toy exists and available in the market (in Japan) reawakened my childhood desires - and effectively, my Peter Pan Syndrome. Now I get sleepless nights contemplating. I mean, just look at it - this is the child in me that refuses to grow up.
It is still a very expensive action figure. As I was informed by the lovely family from Japan, it costs around Y 14,000 (US$ 140 / QR 511 / PHP 7,154). Only today, I found one at the website of greattoys and they're selling it for PHP 8,500. That's both good news and bad news to me. 25 years sure is a long time and the toy's price is now 8 times more expensive than it used to be. Should I buy one? On the other hand, this is now within my reach. All it takes now is just a few clicks of the mouse and keyboard and I've got me one.
It's expensive, it's not practical but . . . ahhh . . . what's a big-little boy to do? ( -- acting like a teenager trying to figure out how to ask a girl to go out with me on a date -- )
- I watched with great envy as my more affluent classmates brought their toys in school -