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Archive for January, 2008


Tatoos or not tatoos

(Sunday, January 27th, 2008)

Is this really a tatoo? It uses no ink, it uses no needles, it is not permanent, but you cannot wash it.

It’s a sun tan drawn using a special shirt to make a nice pattern.

Sun tatoo

Windows XP nagging reboot message

(Saturday, January 26th, 2008)

Windows XP (probably more after upgrade to WinXP SP2) has an unnerving habit of nagging you when it wants to reboot. Not only does it tell you that it wants/needs to reboot your computer, but it will keep opening nagging error message boxes to ask if you want to reboot.

My solution is simple: Do not answer to the question (keep the error message open), but move the small message box completely to the right side of your desktop. You’ll still have the side a small box appearing on the desktop, but it will be easy to forget about.

Red-breasted blackbird, female

(Friday, January 25th, 2008)

Red-breasted blackbird, female
Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it

Red-breasted blackbird (Sturnella militaris, Sturnelle militaire). Brazil, 2007.

New year, new style

(Friday, January 25th, 2008)

As you can see, I enter the new year with a small variation of the style design of Roumazeilles.net.

Out are the light reflections on the front of a primary lens (I’m sure that you did recognize this in the circular figure that was ilustrating the top left of this site before, didn’t you?) Here comes a subject I met in Pantanal, Brazil in 2007.

Much less easy to observe, I updated all pages of the site to improve significantly the loading speed in cases where the connexion speed will be very low.

Ring faucet

(Friday, January 25th, 2008)

Robinet 3 Robinet 2

A design of Lim Sun Liang that was worth a Red Dot Design Award 2006 for its innovative concept in which water flows magically from a ring cut inside the heart of the faucet.

As far as I know, you cannot buy this kind of faucet.

Robinet 1

Greyish Saltator

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

Greyish Saltator
Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it

Greyish Saltator (Saltator coerulescens, Saltator gris). Brazil, 2007.

No 5D replacement

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

Since we did not see any announcement in today’s press conference from Canon, I suspect that we will have to wait a little more to see a replacement for the Canon EOS 5D.

Samsung GX-20

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

After the announcement of the Pentax K20D, Samsung imemdiately rushed its own version under the name of Samsung GX-20. There is no surprise here since the contracts/agreements between Pentax and Samsung allow them to share the 14.6MP CMOS sensor developped by Samsung and to produce cameras that are essentially identical: same electronic hardware, slightly different body, distinct JPEG algorithms, menus adapted to each brand.

Samsung GX-20

Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi, let’s start!

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

Finally, the announcement that we were expecting from Canon for today (in preparation of next week’s PMA) is about a low-cost consumer D-SLR camera: Canon EOS 450D.

Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi)The most significant features are:

  • 12.2 MP CMOS sensor
  • Improved 9-zone AF system
  • Continuous shooting at 3.5fps for up to 53 JPEG (6 RAW)
  • Spot metering
  • 14 bit A/D image processing
  • Highlight Tone Priority (feature borrowed from EOS 40D)
  • Auto Lighting Optimiser (improves the shadows in the image)
  • 3.0″ LCD monitor
  • Live view mode, suported by contrast-detect AF
  • Larger viewfinder
  • Redesigned menus (including My Menu as seen in EOS 40D)
  • New, larger, higher capacity battery
  • SD/SDHC Flash cards
  • New battery grip (BG-E5)

If you add the price to these features ($799 for the body only, or $899 for a kit with the 18-55mm stabilised zoom lens) , you get a camera that should be aptly located on the market. Not a revolution, not an Earth-shake, but a solid contender to give pleasure to many amateur photographers adept of the association of ease of use and performance, without the hassle of the complexity of an EOS 40D and its price.

Sources:

Plenty of news at Pentax D-SLR

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

Pentax K20DFirst, here comes the Pentax K20D at the high end of the market:

Then comes the Pentax K200D, for a less expensive price point:

Simultaneously, they also announce a batch of high-end lenses to add to the already interesting line of Pentax lenses for their photo reflex cameras.

Brit women prefer Internet to sex

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

I always thought that our neighbours of the United Kingdom could be stranger than most aliens (not people from other countries, but beings from outer space, mind you). Now, according to the Sun, Brit women find more relaxing to go surfing the web (18%) than having sex (7%).

You’re free to find the reasons why.

Pentax K20D with 14.6MP sensor

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

The new Samsung 14.6 mega-pixel sensor will be found in the new Pentax K20D. Probably a pretty good camera to be seen at the next PMA.

Source: DPR.

Sony Alpha 300/900 in PMA next week?

(Thursday, January 24th, 2008)

PhotographyBlog is wondering whether Sony’s promise to add some more new product in PMA next week will bring us a new D-SLR (either the entry-level Alpha 300 or the flasgship high-end Alpha 900).

We’ll see.

Pintos, by Bev Doolittle

(Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008)

Pintos, by Bev Doolittle

Pinto horses, five of them, in “Pintos”, one of many optical illusion-based paintings from Bev Doolittle.

Orange-backed Troupial

(Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008)

Orange-backed Troupial
Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it

My photo is just Ok, but it’s not as nice as the one from Rémy Robin, hereafter, which I thank for allowing me to present it here:

Orange-backed Troupial
Copyright Rémy Robin – All rights reserved
Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it

Orange-backed Troupial (Icterus croconotus, Troupiale orange). Brazil, 2007.

Sony Alpha 300

(Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008)

Just found on the net, a group of photos of what could be the next D-SLR from Sony: the Sony Alpha 300.

Sony Alpha 300

Sony Alpha 300 - LCD display

Sony Alpha 300 - back
Update: this last image is of the Sony Alpha 200 and
absolutely NOT of a possible Sony Alpha 300 (in the previous photos).

I will try to find more about this.

Source: EK-gadgets.

Palm goes Vista

(Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008)

Actually, Palm users were waiting for the release of a Vista-compatible version of the Palm desktop software (companion to the Palm PDA). Here it comes now under the cute name of version 6.2.

Palm Desktop software v6.2

Download from Palm web site.


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