Archive for August, 2007

Panoramic photos that will naturally attract pathological train lovers.

• Photo 1
• Photo 2
• Photo 3

By Branislav Kropilak.

This time, we are nearing the full confirmation that the Canon EOS 40D will be present in the photo stores on September 2nd. Some US Internet users tried to collect direct data and learned that the camera is expected in stock at Best Buy (pre-orders would be accepted from some brick-and-mortar stores) at this date and with a $1599 price sticker (seeing the buzz around it while there is still no official announcement and no camera has been seen out of very closed circles, I have to understand the position of Canon willing to take advantage of the public rush and keeping relatively high prices compared to the $1500 normally requested for a Canon 30D).

Meanwhile some Canon web sites (including China) started experimenting with the removal of the 30D from very visible lists (for example, removal of the 30D from a graphical list of products). All is well in accordance with the preparation of an imminent launch for the EOS 30D.

The AF (auto-focus) system of the 40D would come from the Canon 1D Mk III but in a slightly simplified version. Since we already knew that it would only have 9 AF zones (instead of 19 crosses). “1D Mk III-lite” merely seems to mean that they will use a common algorithm and a simplified AF-sensor set. Hard to say if this will have a performance as impressive as the 1D Mk III.

Nobody is expecting weather-sealing anymore (the 40D will have about the same build as a 30D) and everybody seems to be convinced that the sensor will be a 10MP CMOS sensor with a crop factor of 1,6 (but I keep wondering whether they would bring an even more attractive 12MP in a market already full of 10MP sensors) along with 14-bit Digic-III for the best possible RAW image quality. The ISO-sensitivity should be a major pro of this camera with ISO 100-3200 + 6400h (image quality would be significantly improved from the 30D, leading to one of the best images of the market). All this is protected by active dust cleaning of the sensor (but we are still hoping that they did not copy the relatively poor 400D and went for the excellent DC technology of the 1D Mk III).

The Canon EOS 40D would be able to go as fast as 6,5 frames/second to beat the direct competition of the Nikon D200 (let’s wait for the Nikon D300) with a big buffer (60 JPEG images, 12-15 RAW images). But this enormous speed could be limited by the user from the menus (normal photographers would certainly be in a hot spot trying to avoid double photos with this feather-light-trigger machine; So, Canon decided to offer a confortable saddle to the cow boy who would be afraid to ride bareback this hot-blooded stallion).

If you add the superb 3″ LCD screen, you get a magnificent photo machine that should excite most expert amateur photographers, even more if she has a set of good Canon lenses already available.

A few images collected all around the place to celebrate this nice form.

by davesag	by gadl	by Martin Sweeney	by whatdavesees
by gardawind	by s e u s s	by Pascal	by blue fam
by optik	by roddh	by NeverB4Breakfast	by purefinder
by tom Q	by 0olong	by [ Petri ]	by fdecomite

Collected on YotoPhoto, Flicker and FlickrCash.

Even if you don’t go the the extremes of CPU overclocking, you may sometimes wonder whether your CPU is too hot or not. For example, my own Athlon XP 2600+ currently displays 62°C. Is it too much?

Chris Hare comes to our help with his table of CPU characteristics. You will find there (among other things), the official max temperature of your CPU. Don’t even try to reach that temperature: It is merely the hottest point before failure (AMD and Intel will not warrant anything past this) and you should have a cooling fan or system good enough to maintain the CPU far from this, but it is an important data.

Acronis True Image is one of the best disk utilities of the market: Like Norton Ghost it allows to make a full-image copy of one hard disk drive and to restore it later in one pass. Unfortunately, up to now, it was a little expensive at $49.95.

did you know that a lot of us can have it for free? And legally, too? You just have to be the happy owner of a Seagate (I have several of them) or Maxtor disk drive. Seagate’s Disc Wizard and Maxtor’s Max Blast actually contain a very extensive OEM version of the original software from Acronis. Why not use it?

• Seagate downloads
• Maxtor downloads

Source: The Inquirer.

You really want to have a personalized Google and to have a gaga one? Go to google.com, then in the address bar copy the following text:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);


Press the Enter key. Enjoy!

If you never entered a electronics plant, seeing how one of the biggest PC motherboard manufacturer builds them may be interesting.

A graphic designer, a web site designer often need to find a reliable source for graphic data and more specifically for graphic textures.

Here comes an excellent small web site: In-Texture.com bring a very rich collection of graphic (and photographic) textures that are available for free. And a few very nice samples!

National Geographic’s environment photos & wallpapers.

It’s a bane for photographers: There is always a little detail in the picture that we would like to remove. If it is an ugly little spot your best graphics suite will do. If it is something much more annoying (a fence, people, etc.), it may be a near to impossible task.

Now, if you are willing to reproduce the exploit of some geniuses of graphics editing but do not have the talent, you may use a tool for Windows: PhotoWipe. You only have to brush over the parts you want to remove and the software program will remove it automagically.

You cannot expect it to work on all subjects, but removing a wire, a fence or over complex patterns in front of a relatively predictable plain subject is feasible. The utility will compute the most probable background from surrounding hints. It does not always work, but it’s worht trying to salvage a picture.

BibliOdyssey, as usual, presents one more impressive antique book: Ten albums of Japanese flora containing more than 700 images from the Museum at the University of Tokyo: honzo database (English home page).

You may remember it! I listed some games as the big FPS (First Person Shooter) games expected for 2007. I had named Project Offset with a perceptible hesitation since there was very little information available.

Now, the images are here.

It should be tested for real, but it seems really attractive. I won’t regret listing it.

Using C4 explosives can have adverse effects on your health or on the health of others. This is correctly demonstrated by the following video from GameTrailers (keep the sound level down).

Also in high definition.

Jesuits belong to a catholic church order that can be rightfully praised for its passion for spreading the word of God to all ends of the world and for science in general (and some less brilliant moments, I have to admit). Today, we learn from Antonio Spadaro in La Civilta Cattolica a Jesuit Rome-based journal, that Second Life, the simulation-based Internet game and environment , is not only a place where “the erotic dimension is very present” but “it needs to be understood… the best way to understand it is to enter it” and this must be read as a invitation to explore the possibilities of modern mission.

In a sense, it made me think about The sparrow, the excellent SciFi book of Mary Doria Russell, which is setting her story around a Jesuit sent to mission to a distant planet and into the core of human soul.

Source: Reuters.

Olympus has now two excellent products in its 4/3 family of digital single lens reflex (D-SLR) cameras: Evolt E-410 and Evolt E-510. Let’s list some of the most prominent tests/reviews published recently on the web.

• E-410:
  • The Imaging Resource
  • Photography blog
  • Think Camera
  • DPReview
• E-510:
  • The Imaging Resource
  • Photography blog
  • Wrotniak.net
  • MegaPixel.net

Posts about EOS 40D: EOS 40D initial scoop All of them

According to Fred Miranda’s forums, there should be a major electronics company ready to include the Canon EOS 40D into its catalog from September 2nd. Things are getting more and more precise. They should be accelerating now…

Sony wanted to react to the (too?) many comments following their (simplistic) presentation of the new products of the SLR market (including objectives) at the recent PMA. For this they decided to include the photo issue in the Sony Electronics Products blog in order to better sequence the information that will be needed at the time of starting the new Alpha 200 in the middle of the other expected announcements by Canon and Nikon.

It is becoming more and more critical to lure the public into company information to avoid the impact of rumours and grey-market information. We’ll see if Sony learns to handle this kind of communication.