Can you guess what this is a scan of?
Archive for September 2006
Picture of the Week for 9.24.2006
Just a wee bit late this week. Fall has begun. Colors are starting to change at Jay Cooke.
Nifty New Camera. (Can’t afford it.)
This thing is basically a field portable scanning camera.
Scanning backs basically mount a regular scanner to the back of a camera. They just scan the scene. Much like a regular paper scanner they take a while to scan. So if you’re trying to take a photo of a landscape you’d best have little to no wind. Otherwise you get weird artifacts as the scan takes several seconds. (Used to take a lot longer.) Of course if you were using f64 on an 8×10 view camera you’d probably have a minute long exposure so people are used to dealing with such things.
This camera can scan the image in 1/2 a second. Motion can still be a problem at 1/2 a second but it is much easier to deal with.
The main advantages of scanning backs are pure resolution and color depth. Most digital cameras only sample one color per pixel. The camera guesses what the other colors were based on the nearby pixels. Sometimes it guesses wrong. A scanning back records all three colors at once. No guessing. Better resolution.
Speaking of resolution did I mention that this is a 160 megapixel camera. It outputs images 7,500×21,250. By comparison my 8 megapixel Canon EOS 20D’s images are 2,345×3,519.
Anywho, at $30k or so I don’t think I’ll be buying one. But someday…
New Printer
Well, my new printer is in town. What are the odds that FedEx will actually deliver it tomorrow rather than holding it an extra day to make me pay for using the free shipping?
Big cow
Shot through a car window.
Gotta get me one of these
Gentlemen! Behold the Bugatti Veyron!
- Engine 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W
- Power 1001bhp @ 6000rpm
- Torque 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm
- Acceleration 0-62mph: 2.5sec
- Top speed 253mph
From the Times Online …
Occasionally, if I accelerated hard in a tight corner, it behaved strangely as the four-wheel-drive system decided which axle would be best equipped to deal with the wave of power. I won’t say it’s a nasty feel or dangerous. Just weird, in the same way that the duck-billed platypus is weird.
You learn to raise an eyebrow at what’s only a foible, and then, as the road straightens out, steady yourself for Prince Albert’s boiler to gird its loins and play havoc with the space-time continuum. No, really, you come round a bend, see what appears to be miles and miles of dead straight road, bury your foot in the carpet and with a big asthmatic wheeze, bang, you’re instantly at the next bend, with your eyebrow raised again.
From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. Because you simply wouldn’t believe me. I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs.
Picture of the Week for 9.10.2006
I like the colors. Not so fond of the composition. Also, looks fuzzy here and oversharpened in the gallery. Sometimes you can’t win.
Click the photo to go to the gallery.
Framing suggestion
Measure twice. My first print from my new printer (if it ever arrives) will be for a 10 1/2 x 14 matt opening.
The New York Times Store
Saw a link to this over at The Online Photographer.
You can buy prints of New York Times photographs from their store. Some of them (those listed as Quick Ship) are reasonably priced.
This photo of Taft isn’t listed as a Quick Ship and is pretty expensive. I find all photos of Taft to be entertaining. I don’t know why. I wonder how many Secret Service dudes it took to get him up on that horse.