I am seeing rumours about how Leica will develop their next sensor in house. Reports also mention that the current sensor is ‘just’ a Sony sensor.
Leica M10
Those who follow Leica will understand that they have been working closely and have been developing in conjunction with a number of Germain Universities sensor technology for a while now. Sony the sensor company have a number of base designs that you can order from them and put your own tech into; and they will also fabricate custom designs of your own. The sensor manufacture division of Sony is very different to the division that makes and runs Sony cameras which they bought from Minolta, they are a customer of the sensor division just like anyone else. Buying a Sony camera with a Sony sensor will not be the same sensor tech as other camera manufactures. For the high end cameras its often a unique sensor being made just for that company.
Nikon announced the new Nikon 24-105mm f/4 to f/7.1 non S lens.
This is a nice budget kit lens and a reasonable travel lens for people who like to travel light.
This shot of Kimberly was taken with a 105 prime at f/8 so a beginner could make good use of this lens within the 50 – 105mm range and shoot in the studio at f/8 or f/11.
The weight is good and its about half the weight of the 24-120mm f/4 S and much cheaper.
The chat on the internet is as you would expect very negative towards this lens. It’s cheap, small and light, something has to give and it’s that variable aperture. An f/7.1 at 105 is pretty slow, but in the studio no issues, and with modern high ISO performance not too much to worry about. Yes the 24-70mm f/4 S is better and so is the 24-120mm f/4 S; but they’re not coming in at anything like this price. unless you consider secondhand. If you can afford the S lens then get them, if not start with this or pick up some nice second hand primes. Choice is good, don’t criticise a lens just because its not for you.
I would never buy this but if it came in a kit with a Nikon Z5II as a starter system and I was getting into the photography this is a great option for newbies.
I am seeing more and more people on line talking about getting rid of a certain music streaming service.
Vinyl is also making a comeback as well as CD’s. There was a recent report about Vinyl now being the number one seller of physical media in the UK. If you go by price that is correct but not numbers, CD’s can be anywhere from £5 to £25, but vinyl tends to start at £20 now. Many are buying to collect and not play.
Many people are getting back into more focused listening. Sitting down, and actually choosing to listen to an album. While I have all my CD’s ripped to my Roon server, I’ll often sit back at night, pop a CD into the draw and just listen to a whole album.
I also see DAP’s (Digital Music Players) even making a come back. If I do not want to be disturbed I’ll pull out my old hard disk based iPod classic and listen to an Album. Cutting myself off from my phone and notifications is a blessing sometimes.
I cannot see physical media beating streaming, and having streaming available for finding new music and seeing if I like it is the best thing about it.
One thing I would like to see is people making a choice about what streaming service they use. Some do pay more to the artists and if you like a song then buy it.
My office music system as you can see from the old picture above is basic, a MacPro running Roon endpoint software, connected via USB to a Schiit Preamp with a USB DAC built into it. Then out to a pair of active RuakAudio desktop speakers.
I have been looking at large sensor compacts for many years.
Ricoh and Leica were the first with cropped 1.5 sensors, and then Sony released the RX1 with a stunning fixed sensor 35mm lens and an optional EVF. Leica followed with the Q range.
Sony are now back in the game with an updated RX, and Ricoh and Fuji with there cropped sensor compacts are proving popular.
It seems photographers love large sensor compacts.
I host my email service and web hosting in the EU. The last version of Windows I used at home was Windows 2000, as I switched to Linux and Fedora v1 when it was released in 2003.
This blog your reading was running on mysql 5.x, I had tried a few quick updates to the latest version but was encountering errors. So after work today, I set to have another go.
I created a new database and left it a while to settle; last time I think I had rushed it before things were ready.
I then downloaded my latest sql backup and uploaded to the new database. Again left things to settle and then updated my WordPress config file. WordPress connected asked me to update and here we are up to date.
Apart from giving large time gaps between the key steps, everything I did was the same as last time, but this time it seems to have worked.
Using a none windows OS, using other hosting methods other then just putting everything on Facebook, gives you freedom but also can generate issues. Still its worth it.
Its seems since COVID the last few years have been a bit of a blur with family commitments, Ill health, hospital visits.
I have managed recently to go on two wildlife shoots and have also gotten to the studio to photograph new models several times over this year.
Photography wise things are improving.
Fitness I need to do something. Just before COVID I was thinking of starting swimming again so might look into that.
Music, well, I have a new Roon server and recently updated my streamer and amp over the last few years. Next on the list is a new rack and to start looking at a new record deck and speakers.
One thing I have not been doing this last year is playing music. One of the reasons is the end room we use as our music room / library has become a dump it room. We have been decorating one of the guest bedrooms and we ripped out all the built in wardrobes. All this stuff that was in there and the bedroom contents prevented me from getting to the piano. I have a banjo in the office which I have also not touched and for that I have no excuse.
So I have given myself the task of playing for five minutes a day for six days a week for the whole of January. Lets see if we can get back into this which I do love.
Last journalling. I have a cupboard of journals but I stopped a few years ago for no real reason and I miss it, so will start up writing once a week.
Like many people today, I find streaming highly convenient. The issue is you never own the media, the artist does not get paid as much, and if you, like us, live in a rural area with internet outages and powercuts, having the media locally is of benefit.
For music, I use Roon, but today I am going to talk about video. I have a lifetime license for Plex, and have a small Plex server, connected to my UPS.
The question a lot of people as is how to get your DVD film from a physical format to a file that you can use on your TV/Computer/Tablet or Phone.
One of the more common pieces of software people use is Handbrake, this is available for most operating systems.
Now Handbrake can not read all DVD’s for it to be able to read the majority DVD’s you need to install libdvdcss. For windows is usually a simple dll you download. For older Mac’s you can download the installer. For more modern Macs its a little more difficult and much easier if you install a package manager.
Most people use Brew. I suggest you go to there web page and read up. Basically you open up terminal and follow these instructions.
Most people with electric cars rave about them, those who do not, worry about range and battery issues. As with many things the truth is somewhere between.
If I needed a car for work, and drove long distances then whether it worked for me would depend on things like do I need to tow; am I heading north to south or south to north as most the main roads going up and down the country are well served with fast chargers.
If you are travelling around Yorkshire and many other rural counties, or some east to west routes, the charging opportunities are few and far between. Yes there are chargers but there in ones and twos, not large charging hubs. If you need to rely on getting a quick charge they could be in use or one could be faulty.
If you’re on holiday then there is no pressure. For our recently holiday the destination had little charging but the holiday cottage did advertise a charger, but would it work.
So the plan was to stop half way, get a lunch break and walk for Ted the Greyhound and during that time get a charge, so we picked a suitable stop that had eight chargers, so the odds of getting a charge was high. We would charge to a relatively high level to ensure we would arrive at are destination with 40% giving us options to get to a charger if the cottage charger did not work. There was places to walk Ted and the manager of the local Costa’s let us all in to grab something to eat and for the humans to have a comfort break as well.
The trip there starting from a 100% charge was easy, we had alternatives on route but just carried on; this particular hub was never showing more then 50% capacity so odds were good.
When we arrived two other cars were charging so plenty of room, we plugged in and started to charge; then we got Ted out of the car and took him for a brief walk to stretch his legs and have a comfort break.
Then we all went into the Costa’s after I made a quick enquiry if we could bring Ted in, which was met with an affirmative. Coffee and sandwiches were ordered and eaten, a quick trip to the toilet facilities and then a walk back to the car, by which time we had way more then enough for the trip ahead.
While in the coffee shop I had tracked the number of free stalls at the charging station, and our rate of charge. It had not taken long to get to our target charge and if the chargers had been busy I would have gone and unplugged and moved the car to the coffee shop parking to free up the space, but the eight bays never had more then five occupants.
The key for road tripping by an EV, is pick large charging hubs so your not waiting, have alternatives planned and always plan on doing something else while the car is charging so its not actually the charging your waiting for. We would have needed to stop, walk Ted and get something to eat ourselves anyway, so a perfect time to charge the car.
The charging network does need to be bigger, but with more cars coming with over two hundred miles of range, some of the higher end ones now at four hundred, charging times coming down to 16 minutes, we will get to the point that charging is easier and far more convenient then standing at a cold petrol pump waiting five minutes for the car to fill.
