August 2006 Archives (12 posts)
Canon Digital Rebel XTi
Last week, Canon announced the Digital Rebel XTi (400D) and the specs of this new camera are very impressive. I bought a Digital Rebel XT (350D) last year and I love it but this new offering from Canon has me depressed.
The Rebel XT is an entry level digital SLR camera. I was thinking of upgrading to a low-end professional camera — Canon EOS 30D. I’m depressed because Canon’s update to the Digital Rebel makes it better than the 30D in many ways.
Consider these new specs:
- 10.1 MP resolution (up from 8 MP in the Rebel XT and 30D)
- 2.5: rear LCD (up from 1.8“)
- 9 point autofocus (same used in the 30D)
- new vibrating sensor to reduce dust on the sensor
- improved user interface
Why would anyone bother purchasing an EOS 30D at this point? It will be at least another year before Canon updates the 30D to something worth looking at.
What I would really like to get is a Canon EOS 5D with a full-frame sensor — perfect for landscape photography. Unfortunately I don’t have an extra $3,799.00 to spend on a hobby that makes a little bit of money.
Posted in Photography at 11:31 AM | Comments (7)
Web Guitar Wizard Revealed at Last
Earlier in the year, somebody posted a video to YouTube called guitar. It’s an incredible cover of Pachelbel’s Canon by an unknown guitarist. The New York Times tracked down the guy in the video and did a story on him called Web Guitar Wizard Revealed at Last.
Posted in Music at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Digital Photography Workflow
The August issue of Photography Monthly magazine has a great article on digital photography workflow. It assumes you’re using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and The Bridge to manage/edit your photos (which I do).
I’m finding that if I shoot photos for an hour, I can end up spending 8 hours or more of:
- backing up the RAW camera files
- adding keywords and meta data to make it easier to find the images later
- post processing images in Photoshop (levels, curves, sharpening)
- uploading images to my photoblog
- uploading images to my Flickr account
- preparing images for print at Pikto
- backing up the final image files
If you’re unfamiliar with Adobe’s Bridge software then visit The Radiant Vista. They have an excellent video tutorial called A Photoshop Reference: Adobe Bridge.
I’ve looked briefly at Apple’s Aperture and iPhoto, Adobe’s Lightroom, iView MediaPro and Extensis Portfolio 8 to manage my photos. Adobe’s Bridge software comes with Photoshop CS2 and does everything I need it too so I’m going to stick with that for now.
Posted in Photography at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
Can I see some ID
Clean-shaven and wearing a baseball cap, I walked into The Beer Store on the weekend and asked for a 6-pack of Bass Pale Ale. The guy behind the counter hesitated, then asked me to produce some identification.
A smile came across my face as I handed this guy my driver’s licence. 38 years old and I’m still getting carded for beer. Awesome!
Posted in Personal at 4:14 PM | Comments (2)
Man Killed in Wood Chipper
A lot of people might see this headline and remember a particular scene from the movie Fargo. Unfortunately Man Killed in Wood Chipper is a real story on an NBC affiliate’s website.
Does anyone find it odd, or maybe a little morbid that TODAY’S TMJ4 would put a WATCH VIDEO button below a headline that reads, Man Killed in Wood Chipper? Brutal.
Posted in News at 3:02 PM | Comments (2)
GFS Marketplace 400
On the weekend I was down in Brooklin, Michigan for another Nascar race. This was probably the best race I’ve seen to date ending with Jeff Gordon chasing Matt Kenseth to the finish line.
The race had plenty of passing, the requisite number of crashes, F-15 fly overs, some of the funniest looking fans in the world and great weather.
T-bone steaks and baked beans finished off the day as we waited for 100,000 fans to leave Michigan International Speedway. Good times. I’ll post some photos soon.
Posted in Travel at 8:50 AM | Comments (9)
Hey, Mel Gibson, HOW’S REHAB?
On Tuesday night, Denis Leary joined the guys in the broadcast booth for part of the Boston Red Sox game. When Leary found out that first baseman Kevin Youkilis was Jewish he went on a Mel Gibson tirade.
While Leary was slamming Gibson, Kevin Youkilis made two great plays and Leary went nuts! Funny stuff.
View it all here.
Posted in Humour at 10:27 AM | Comments (2)
Steven Soderbergh Interview and Film
The August issue of The Believer has an interview with one of my favourite filmmakers — Steven Soderbergh.
Wholphin, a DVD magazine of unseen films, has a new short film by Steven Soderbergh titled Building No. 7. There is also an excerpt of Errol Morris’ The Movie Movie (new project?).
Posted in Movies at 11:18 PM | Comments (2)
JCB and Renaissance
I just saw the music video for the song ‘JCB’ by Nizlopi. It came out last year and is brilliant because it features the animation work of Monkeehub (Laith Bahrani). His doodle style animation reminded me of Daniel’s Doodles.
While I’m on the topic of animation, check out the HD trailer for Renaissance. It’s similar to Sin City in terms of animation and style and it features the voices of Daniel Craig, Ian Holm and Jonathan Pryce.
Variety describes the film as “A sort of ‘The Third Man’ for the 21st century” which is all I need to know to go and see it. It will be in theatres in September.
Posted in Motion Graphics and Movies at 3:29 PM | Comments (0)
It’s been a brutal week
A week ago, Satchmo (our family dog), began acting strangely. Overnight he became paralyzed in the rear portion of his body. It was a long weekend, the veterinary office was closed, so I tried to diagnose his problem with Google. Everything I read said he needed surgery within the first 12 hours of paralysis. Yikes!
Sunday night. Midnight. I found an emergency clinic downtown (Toronto) that would take him. They recommended surgery immediately. Satchmo has a degenerative bone disease where the discs in his back can calcify and harden. When this happens they can push up into the spinal cord and can cause paralysis and pain.
An appointment was made and by 2 AM I was driving Satchmo to Guelph — Small Animal Clinic at the University of Guelph (the best in Ontario and the costliest). The clinic scheduled him for surgery at 8 AM and gave him a 90% chance of walking again. I arrived home at 5 AM and waited for the post-op phone call.
The call came a few hours later with some bad news. There were two discs that were pushing on his spinal column. One of them had torn through the outer wall of the spinal cord causing paralysis and reducing his chance of recovery. The surgeon gave him a 25% chance of walking again.
At this point my wife and I were faced with euthanizing our pet that was only three years old. If he couldn’t walk, run, control his bladder, well, it was looking pretty grim. To make things worse, we couldn’t get a hold of the surgeon to find out if there was any hope.
We were ready to make an appointment to visit him the next day and have him put down. Then we received a phone call from the surgeon that changed everything. He said that Satchmo was making an incredible recovery. A neurologist looked at him and was confident that he would walk again.
Satchmo is now at home and gaining strength in his legs. For now we have to empty his bladder a few times a day until he regains feeling and control of his bodily functions (groan). He’s also able to stand and bear his weight on his back legs. We’re seeing a lot of improvement and things are looking a little rosier.
I can’t believe how stressed out I’ve been over this whole ordeal. It takes a lot to rattle me and this was like getting hit by an NFL linebacker without warning. I haven’t been able to sleep, eat, or get very much work done. It’s been a brutal week.
Posted in Personal at 10:38 AM | Comments (5)
Mel-O-Drama
Only Jon Stewart can make CNN and ABC News look like a bunch of idiots when it comes to reporting the Mel Gibson ‘DUI incident’. Have a look. Click on the video below.
This type of reporting confirms why I stopped watching television news, years ago.
Posted in News at 12:15 PM | Comments (1)
Back
After knocking my son’s front teeth out with a kayak, cooling off in Lake Huron, and visiting friends, I’m back to the relentless barrage of email and voice mail. Here’s a couple of links/stories that caught my attention this morning:
OK Go — Here It Goes Again
OK Go has a new video for “Here It Goes Again” that takes place entirely on treadmills. Watch it now.
Top Gear
Not that I have time to watch TV right now but BBC TWO has decided to put the latest season of Top Gear on its website. The quality of the video isn’t as good as the Torrent files that are out there but it’s nice to see a broadcaster making a popular show available to a global audience.
Air Jordan
A video montage of the top 10 dunks by Michael Jordan. Awesome.
First Blu-ray drive for Mac unveiled
Logitech is making a Blu-ray drive for Macintosh. Price? Only $1,100.
What a waste of time. Who in their right mind would spend a penny on a Blu-ray drive or an HD DVD drive when they haven’t settled on an HD format?
Eruption
Amazing satellite photo of a volcano erupting.
Posted in Personal and Web at 2:09 PM | Comments (3)
