"What" Made Me Who I Am? Part 2

This morning, I was watching some Youtube videos by a guy who collects a lot of things that I enjoy, such as console radios/tvs, computers and other electronic gear. It started me thinking quite a bit on why I like what I do. Of course, there is natural inclination. I like things that do something. I like intricate mechanisms. I like well-fitted enclosures that protect, hide and enhance. All these things, I feel like I was born with a natural propensity toward. However, you can't leave out environment. I'm the son of an engineer with an engineer brother, so all my life, I've been surrounded, or more accurately immersed in technology. You can pretty much say that it started with this..... a Telefunken Sonata stereo console "system". Within this cabinet was a receiver, turntable, and 2 oval speakers. I can remember sitting in front of it in our living room (both in Hong Kong and later in Texas), listening to my Dad's records. It was a seminal moment in my life, when Dad allowed me to put on records and start it under his watchful eye. It's still in our house today! Although the receiver has long-since died from lack of replacement tubes, we have the cabinet in my son's room holding up his LCD TV/Monitor that his old video game consoles are hooked up to. It had been stored in the garage for a number of years, but I recently refinished it and brought it inside. It gave me a sense of continuity and warmth, just to still have it almost 50 years down the road.

Some of you will recognize the Voigtlander Bessamatic Deluxe, that was another "Dad-instrument". I believe that I not only learned the love of photography on this camera, but also the love of fine instruments. This thing was absolutely 100% mechanical, built in the post-war West Germany that was renowned for such things (as was the Telefunken). This camera was built in the last years of the here-to-fore dominant German camera industry right around the time that it was surpassed by the rising tide of Japanese electronic and manufacturing prowess. The things that I take away from this camera is the feel of fine mechanical construction that's indescribable, and oddly; that distinctly smell of German leather from the case!

Then came this...... "Are you kidding me?", you say? It was the first half of the 70's and American console TVs still dominated that landscape. I clearly remember my dad taking me to a store (which no longer exist) on Ave Q in Lubbock, Texas that sold (as was common in those days) appliances as well as televisions. This was not only to be our TV for the next 20-or-so years, but my Christmas present that year as well. A big (25") Zenith (it was either Zenith or RCA then) console TV in those days was a "capitol" purchase. This was the set I remember sitting in my parent's home for virtually the entirety of my teenage years onwards. It was what I religiously watch the daily reruns of the original Star Trek episodes as well as Batman with Adam West. For a few years during my Junior High years, shows like Emergency, and Happy Days. And yes, for a time, it did indeed serve as the stand for their new TV!

And then came the "teen" years. If you were a teen in the U.S. of the 70's, there was one important thing.... and that was "cool", as in being cool, and having cool stuff. Like the kids running around wearing their giant headphones now, it was cool to have component stereo equipment. Most of you remember the ads in just about every magazine..... of the obviously cool guy with the "hot" girl (or at least that's what we say now), in the cool apartment with the cool stereo equipment in the background!?! The more components, the better, the more knobs and switches, the better, and by the later part of the decade; if it was BLACK, even better! I bought a used receiver from my brother's friend Richard. It was a fairly high-end piece by Kenwood that was branded Realistic (Radio Shack). It looked somewhat like the one above, but bigger, with more...you guessed it.... knobs and switches, plus an unusual feature of that time..... a remote control. 

And if you wanted to separate yourself from the crowd, you had multiple components variously stacked all over your built-in bookcase. For me, this ranged from a Dual 1215 (actually my dads), a Advent Cassette deck (that originally belonged to my sister), and a 8-Track deck (that belonged to my other sister before they moved away). I was one of the few people who I knew who could record on 8-track, which most car of the day, came factory equipped.

All this played through a pair of KLH, 2-way "bookshelf" speakers. For Abernathy, Texas in the late 70's, this equipment separate me from the pack, and was one of the few "cool" things in my life. Most people still had the old consoles in their living room that had the stereo, record player AND TV all in one big cabinet!

A few years down the road, this came into my life. A TI 99/4A of the early 80's. I was back home at the time, having done a "reboot" on my academic pursuits by going back to get a teaching certification. My brother was working at Texas Intruments as a design engineer and thus had access to all things TI. This ranged from weird LCD watches to TI's foray into home computing. I played games on it, and even learned a little bit of programming in Basic before it went into to my friend's Mom a few years later. 

But it was actually about 10 years later when I bought an IBM ThinkPad 701c that I really fell in love with computers. Now, many years later, it's considered a work of art and resides in museums. For me though, it was the computer that changed how saw and dealt with an entire category of devices. This became the first digital device that pretty much went with me everywhere. Due to it's amazing folding keyboard (hence the "Butterfly" name), it's compact dimensions allowed it to easily travel. From the arrival of this machine till today's X301, there's been very few periods in my life where I didn't have an "Ultra-portable" in my possession. 

No, I wasn't just born a full-blown Propellerhead. From those days of sitting with my dad listening to music on the Telefunken or out shooting photographs on the Voigtlander, till now, these are the products that have shaped me. If I wasn't married with kids, I could completely see myself being just like the guy who made those videos.... maybe with the exception of collecting vacuum cleaners!

Propellerhead Gear: ThinkPad X301 "The Ultimate Road Warrior"

Now that I've finished the Compact DSLR System series, I thought I'd start another. Something that fits with my resolutions for this year. In short: I'm going to "Love What I Have"! My plan to to complete, optimize, and finish off. With the exception, of the already started rebuild of my desktop workstation; I plan on changing very little. Each month, I'm going to examine at least one of my core devices or systems. 

So, today, I'm going to start with my main "mobile system"; the ThinkPad X301. I just love this machine. There's virtually nothing, I'd change about it. For me, the size is perfect. I really like the resolution of 1440 x 900 in the widescreen 13" format. Yes, it does cause me to scroll more when reading, but I find that I regularly set two windows side by side while working. And when I'm traveling or simply catching up with a missed TV show at home, I really like the 16:9 ratio as well. Sure, I'd have loved for it to be a better panel, even an IPS maybe, but I find the X301's to be somewhat better than the original in the X300. Enough so that I can live with it. What else do I love about it? It's thin AND light. At the time of it's introduction, the X300 was one of the thinnest in the world, yet still was able to have an optical drive! In typical ThinkPad fashion, the keyboard is fantastic (and always key), comes equipped with the TrackPoint pointing stick. 

Also, I love that I'm done with it as well! The RAM is maxed out at the chipset's 8Gb limit, and although drive could be larger, I've decided this last upgrade to the 160Gb, Intel 320 is the end of the line. For what this machine does for me, the Samsung 128Gb was actually fine size-wise, but when I found the Intel, new for $50 on the local Craigs List, it was a no-brainer. What that upgrade gives me isn't so much the 32Gb of extra space, but that this drive has TRIM, which should keep it running well for the duration of it's time with me. Furthermore, the bump in capacity combined with the installation of Google Drive actually leaves me with 105Gb of free space from the formatted size of 149Gb. Nice!!!

If I do need more storage when out and about, I have this. This, is the Iomega SSD Flash external drive. When introduced in 2010, in capacities of 64Gb, 128Gb, and 256Gb, they were $229, $399, and $749 respectively! YOW!!! Last year (I can say that now), I found an eBay seller out of China (where else?), selling the case for about $14. Actually, it was the whole thing, down to the retail box with instructions..... except w/o the SSD inside. So, in went the original 64Gb, 1.8" Samsung drive, and whatta-ya-know..... my very own high speed external drive! Iomega claimed that these things are 10 times faster than a regular mechanical drive through USB 2.0 and even twice as fast as USB 3.0. 

What's this? It's my "rig" of course, or at least when it wants to travel in style, that is! It's a perfect fit and match inside this 3" Zero Halliburton computer attache in gunmetal grey. That's only if it needs to go out for formal occasions. Mostly, it travels in a plain black backpack that doesn't look like it carries anything more important than a few books and papers. The attache was an indulgence at about $65 off of eBay because I always wanted one. The backpack was basically free. I found some ThinkPad backpacks from an outfit in PA that I buy off-lease laptops from and was able to get one for about $20. When it showed up, I found that one of the accessory attachment loops was torn. So I contacted them to see if they had another to swap out. They didn't have an identical one, but sent me a similar one and told me just to keep the first bag...... so free..... with a torn loop that has since been cut off. 

There are a couple of other traveling companions for it of course. Both the ThinkPad mouse, and the Nokia BH-503 connect through Bluetooth, so that's convenient. They are also small and light.

These day though, all this nice "road-warrior" gear stays put up the office closet mostly. This being my typical position of use, but it's ready to go.... if and when it needs to!


 

Blessings, Curses, and Resolutions: 2014

I'm blessed and I know it. There aren't very many guys (or gals) out there that have as many "toys" as I have. With my main hobbies of computing, photography and audio/video, I have pretty much everything that I need, and most things that I want. Sure, I don't shoot pictures with a Leica, don't have a 100" projection screen with a bunch of high-end components running the sound, but I'm good with what I do have. And of course, I'm fairly overrun with computing equipment. All this puts me in this current situation of having everything, but with nothing working at an optimal state.

I'm sure most of you have probably come to the conclusion that I'm about to make a resolution. Actually, it's more like resolution(s), or a resolution in multiple parts. So here's what I need to deal with: I have to run counter to my nature. By that, I mean that I have to suppress that very thing that I'm really good at.... planning and finding bargains to fit those plans. Plus, I'm kind of an "idea man", I'm just not the best in execution. Actually, that's not completely true. I tend to do very well, when I've fired up and motivated by some specific goal, and I'll work incessantly at it till I get it done. I'm just not much of a grinder, or somebody who will plug away at something over a long time. I tend to lose interest and move on to something else if I don't get something finished, or if I'm interrupted. So it's my intention to take my rather long list of semi-finished projects and "git-er done"! What are they?

In my mind, my little home server looks like this! Ever since I loaded "Vail", the Windows Home Server 2011 update to the original WHS, I've never fully gotten it configured correctly. 

Part of the problem is that one of the two SSDs that I picked up for the Highpoint RocketCache drive controller failed, so I need to resolve that one of two ways. I need to either get another 32Gb SSD giving me the fully allotted 64Gb of cache that this controller can use, or I need to just get a 64Gb drive and use just one. I believe their specs show that running two is faster, but it's probably not enough to make much of a difference. It'll probably end up coming down to whichever I find a better deal on, or whatever I can "trickle down" from an upgrade somewhere else. As crazy as this sounds, I actually have a spare Samsung 128Gb SSD. This could go into one of the two HTPCs which would give up it's 64Gb SSD for the cache drive, or I can use a spare 50Gb SSD for that purpose, and eliminate the need to shuffle drives!

Of course, that doesn't address the bigger headache of getting that server configured properly and all the computers on it so it can serve it's intended purpose. 

.....Which of course is this. To be the center of our digital life! This one is going to be the "bear". That's understood! I know what I know because I managed desktop support, not servers! I'll get it done though. Is there a trickier project on the horizon?

You Bet! What's so tricky about this? It's the replacement/upgrade to my wife's T61. Now you understand. There can be no slip-ups on this! The make it even trickier, I want to do a little drive shuffling. Even the upgrade to the T500 won't be able to take advantage of the SATA-III interface on the SanDisk Extreme II drive in her old machine. So my intention is to take the 256Gb SATA-II Samsung from my desktop and put it in the new machine and use her Extreme II SSD when I rebuild my desktop on the Ivy Bridge motherboard. This would allow me to upgrade without buying anything. There's going to be a little "tap-dancing" going on!

Last resolution this year? A little bit less of this! What is it? As you can see, it's an Intel 320 SSD. I got a GREAT deal on it. It's brand new, 30Gb+ bigger than the 128Gb that's in my X301 right now, AND it supports TRIM, so it should run better for longer than what's in there. Oh yeah..... I paid $50 for it locally off of Craigs List. That's really a great deal, but the fact is, I didn't need it. The X301 gets along fine with the Samsung 128Gb SSD in it. Which points to the fact that, as good of a deal of it was, I didn't need to do it. It's not like the old manual lenses I bought. It doesn't serve a real purpose. So, it's my intention to make 2014, a purposeful year for the Frugal Propellerhead. It doesn't mean, I won't buy, but only to do so out of need. Next time, I'll examine what it is that I see as real needs for the upcoming months.

"Good Glass Is, As Good Glass Does"

You might be able to tell by the Post title, that this is a little bit of a different piece. And no: it isn't some sort of a Confucius saying..... it's adapted from that famous and fictitious Alabaman, Forrest Gump of course.

I realize that I've spent a lot of the last couple of months talking about cameras, lenses, and flashes. Unlike my other topics, such as computing equipment, who's function is self-evident, photography equipment demands a higher level of proof. By nature of the beast, we want to see what it does. For the last 2 weeks, I've been doing just that; culminating in last night's visit to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Fair Park, here in Dallas. 

It gave a perfect sample of something that most any family photography might encounter. An outing that offered challenging lighting, subject material, sometimes awkward shooting angles in a crowd, and an event that demanded to be recorded! 

I carried my high-powered camera, the D300, but mounted the 18-70mm (27-105mm eq.) lens instead of the 18-200mm super-zoom. I didn't need reach, but needed the extra half-stop of light that the shorter lens gave me at the long end. I gave up the VR function of the longer lens for that. I'm sure, looking at the lighting in the pictures, you can see why. Although I carried the flash, I didn't use it at all. I'm sure most of you understand that virtually none of the colored lights would have shown up when using the flash. I'll actually show you an image later where I used a flash, how and why I did it. 

In this case, the stage lighting was plenty to get the performers, but I had to also get the colored lights of the stage as well. So, I ended up using a very high ISO, which the D300 does very well without too much "noise" so I would high enough shutter speed to stop the action. In actuality, I didn't want to completely stop the action, I wanted to have some sense of motion without completely blurring the performer. And that's why I used the manual focus, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor that my brother sent me. Sure, I would have loved for it to be a little "longer", but it was OK, at the 75mm that the APS-C sensor sees it at. This ultra-fast lens allowed me to see a VERY bright image in the finder which helped with the focusing. 

For these other pictures? I used the AF zoom for it's ability to frame exactly from the angle I wanted to use. It turned out to be easier than I thought since the "lanterns" themselves gave off plenty of light which leaned more toward "daylight" than night. Everything was fine as long as you didn't get too much of the night around the subject(s) to throw the camera off. 

Before we go away from the D300 and the 50mm Nikkor, here's another reason for it's use. Not only is it very sharp (barring photographer error), it can also give you as thin of a depth of field as you want! Check out this Crepe Myrtle "berries" encased in ice from our early December storm. 

 

Now, on to the D40 and it's stable of manual focus lenses that I've been jammering about. The first picture is of course from the same ice storm, but it was shot with the $15, Tamron Adaptall 300mm lens. The second is from some time later to demonstrate it's sharpness, contrast of color rendition. 

Then last weekend, we ran up to northeastern, Oklahoma to see some relatives. This happened right after the arrival of the Tamron Adaptall-2 28-50mm lens. It was the pricey acquisition at $40, but hey; we all need to occasionally splurge..... right! It was quite challenging to focus in the indoor pool of our hotel, but the unique underwater lights gave a very interesting effect. So I decided to play around a little. I knew if I adjusted for the ambient light, I could get it, but then, I'd have a fine picture of a pool. If I wanted my kids to be visible in the picture, I'd have to use a flash. As it turns out; I found to my dismay that the Quantaray XLF-50 is Nikon iTTL automatic ONLY!!! As such, will not work with a manual lens mounted. So I went completely manual, shot some test frames, to find that; what I read some years ago was true. If you use a slower shutter speed, it lets in more ambient light, and the flash cycle will stop the subject motion in the foreground. Using the D40's pop-up flash; as you can see, it did just that! My other pictures were of our relatives which of course, I don't want to use without their permission, so you'll have to trust me in that the D40 handles beautifully with the 28-50mm Tamron and that it's a perfect carry camera for random stuff.

Now you know. I actually do shoot photographs with the bargain equipment that I seek out!
 

The Compact DSLR System: Part 2

Every time I think of a compact camera "system", I think of this thing. Introduced in 1978 into a world where the mystique of James Bond had yet to be diluted. After the first few of the film series, there was always the inevitable interlude with "Q" where he would briefly go through the new gadgets for that particular episode. Over the years, there have been assorted knives, cameras, guns, explosives, and specialized vehicles. They all seem to be delivered in some sort of specially fitted case. Maybe that explains my obsession with cases! Anyway; I digress. It's really the completeness of the "system" that I want to discuss in this part of my Compact DSLR System series. 

As amazing as today's DSLRs are, they still can't do everything by themselves.... not if you want them to be any good at it! I must say though, compared to the days of yore, there is quite a lot in there: automated frame advance (no need for a winder/motor drive), pop-up flash, kit zoom, and all manner of other abilities that used to take some random gizmo that needed to be bought. All that being said though, if you want to get the most out of your camera, you do need to assemble a "kit" of sorts, even today.

So, let's look at my kit. I think we can dispense with any further discussion on how I derived at using the Nikon D40. All of you will be able to come up with your camera based on your needs and financial commitments. Let's start at the len(es) then. My intention is to be able to go from a "normal" wide out to a rather long telephoto. For my needs, that would be a 35mm camera equivalent of 28mm to 300mm which translates to be 18-200mm in APS-C (or DX), which is 14-150mm if you are doing 4/3rds or m4/3rds. For me, the base lens will be the Tamron 28-50mm zoom which gives me a range of 42-75mm eq. I can throw in the 70-150mm Vivitar made by Kiron which has a matched multiplier giving me 105-450mm depending on whether I have the MM on or off. My alternative is to use the Tamron 300mm f/5.6 prime lens instead. What about wide? I have my 18-70mm AF-S Nikon for that. 

Funny story about this lens. After spending a weekend with the new Tamron 28-50mm zoom, I started wondering what I'd have to give up if I wanted a little more reach. This led me to the 24mm focal length which would be about equal to a 35mm wide-angle. While researching that idea, I found that Nikon had/has (?) in AF-S of 24-85mm AF-S in their line-up. It looked to be not too expensive at between $70 and $125. So I started looking at it's physical size to make sure it wasn't going to overpower the D40. I found that the filter diameter was 67mm....... hey wait-a-minute!?! That set off alarm bells in my head! It sounded all-fully familiar! Yeah; that lens is virtually identical in size and weight to my 18-70mm AF-S Nikkor that I use for portraits mounted on the D300. The 35mm eq. is 28-105mm! Don't need to buy a lens at all! So basically, I'm done with glass. Maybe, I'll pick up an "E Series" 28mm which would function as low-light (f2.8) or a "pancake" lens. 

So basically, if I want a really small kit to take places, I can pack the 18-70mm and the 70-150mm and be done with it. Two lenses and one convertor would give me the eq. of 28-450mm coverage! Wow, that's pretty slick. If I throw the 28-50mm into the luggage, then I can mount that in case I want a very small "walk-around" lens, which is the physical size of an old "normal". There's a couple of things, yeah.

The Quantaray XLF-50 (Sunpak RD2000), I picked up last month. Very small, not a bunch more powerful than the pop-up, but can be bounced and has a diffuser panel.

And there's the bag. I'm going to use a tiny little Timbuk2 "messenger" style bag, that'll hold the camera, the flash and at least one other lens, along with batteries, memory cards etc. It's great since it completely doesn't look like a camera bag, folds flat, when I need it to, and cost $6 at Goodwill. And that, folks, is pretty much all there is to my compact DSLR system.

So, now that we're done (of course I'll do more later), let's total up. Starting point was the $175, that I sold the D50 for, then of course, the D40 with the 18-55mm "kit" lens was bought for the same amount. Zero sum at this point. The lens sold for $99, and it cost me $10 to ship it, bringing that transaction to $89, which puts me in the plus range. The 28-50mm Tamron was $39.99, which makes the "package" cost to me to be about $135. I had previously bought the flash to go with the D50 so there was no $$ involved with it. So, even if you put the Tamron 300mm ($15), AND the forthcoming 85-210mm ($18) into the equation, on top of the eBay transaction fee from selling the "kit" zoom of $8, I'm still a few bucks in the plus range! I got all this all for the price of the willingness to focus.

Android Tablet: My Photographic Secret Weapon!

Actually; I didn't know. I had a tablet, but I wasn't using it. My wife uses tablet(s) in relation to school. The kids did school work, AND play on theirs, but me......? I've had a tablet for some time now. Got it just about for free, AND it's a nice one too! 

But other than playing Solitiar or Ma Jong Tiles while waiting for the kiddos to finish some activity: PeeWee Baskball practice, Cub Scouts, little girl birthday party, about the only thing I did on it was read. Zinio (when it doesn't crash) has been nice. I've basically ended all paper magazines and switched to the electronic version. Not only is it cheaper, but I don't feels as guilty for contributing to the landfill.Other than that......? You could hear the crickets chirp.

OK, I do use it as my Bible, and I've gotta tell you, it's GREAT for that. I use eSword, which is free, and it's so much easier to find things, plus you can also switch between translations, find maps, get commentaries, and dictionaries as well. All kinds of stuff. It's really awesome in this application....., but again the reading. So is it just a reader? That was the question that I was asking myself not too long ago. That is until, I found it's true purpose in my life.

Photography! No, I don't mean this....., which might be the dumbest thing out there right now.

I mean using a tablet as a repository of photographic tools! Gracious! It's awesome for this! I've just started scratching the surface, but it appears the number and variety of APPs out there are ridiculous, and the vast majority appear to be free. 

It all started with this; the Weston Master III. It was produced from the late 50's into the 60's, and I have one that I love. I was thinking the other day, that using the D40 with the old manual lenses requires me to set everything manually on the camera. That's all fine and good when you aren't in a hurry and can just take several images, checking each and making the necessary adjustments. What if you don't have time, or just want to shoot a few photos and run? I needed a light meter for that. So I started digging around in my drawers to see what I could come up with, and this was the best available. It's old, but it still works. Unfortunately, these old selenium meters aren't the best for low light. What to do? I could get out there and try to buy a newer CDS, or Silicone cell meter, like a Gossen Luna Pro, but you never know whether it's going to be working either! Plus, many of them used mercury batteries which aren't available any more. As this idea was rolling around in my head, I was reading some of my photography magazines (electronic version of course), when I ran across mention of Android App light meters. Further more, I found a YouTube video comparing a few of them.

After a little research and trying out a couple, I found this: The LightMeter App. It struck a cord with me, because it's graphic UI is basically set up like the old style meters that I'm used to using. Of course, this really isn't a good example since if you've probably already figured out, this sort of thing isn't really conducive for use with a big tablet, they are designed for a Smartphone (on which I've already downloaded a few). But that's just an example of what's out there.

There are lots of things; like this field calculators such as the PhotoTools App that can help a photographer calculate depth of field as related to aperture and focal length of lens, Sun Surveyor Lite and Golden Hour to help you know exactly when the light will be the best and the angle that the sun at in your location at a given time. There's Map-A-Pic that you can use the GPS and store good locations for future use for yourself or share with others.

Then there are organization (and sharing) apps so you don't have to wait to get home to see your images on something bigger than 3". There are any number of image editors to allow some level of adjustment in the field before you put your cherished photos out there for everyone to see.

And then, there's the whole world of remote control via smartphone/tablet. I've used the Helicon Remote which seems to interface fine with my Nikon D300, but I haven't tried it with the D40 yet. I've also come across one called the DSLR Remote that's supposed to do either cable or IR. So now, when I go out with my camera(s), there's virtually always, a table or a smartphone with me.