It's Summer/Photography Time: My Starting Team of "Role Players"

I'm actually supposed to be at the Tyler (Texas) Zoo this morning with the kids, cousins, In-Laws, you name it. But the little excursion fell through, so here I am "blogging"..... about photography ..... instead of doing it! 

Some photographers are like me (no, that's not my collection), as much, or more collectors. Although, I must admit that I do have a bit of a wee collection myself. I'm not here to talk about collecting which is actually a bit out of my areas of expertise, but creating a stable of cameras to shoot pictures in different situations by using different cameras that suits the purpose the best. Although it might actually seem like conspicuous consumption, my intent AND application is quite the opposite (as you'll see). 

It all started here some years ago when I went "whole hog" DSLR and sold everything for a Nikon D70 and 18-200mm lens. It could just as well have been the Canon 20D, but that buying decision was completely driven by the lens. This turned out to be the correct one, since I still have it and use it as my primary lens. Some 7+ years down the road (and one VR motor replacement later), it spends most of it's time on my D300 which does our family's photographic heavy lifting.

When I say "heavy lifting"; that's exactly what I mean! Configured like this (or some version there-of ), it's a little bulky and difficult to manage for long periods of time. However, I must say that it does a fantastic job (when I do mine), and has alleviated me from employing a professional for family and children portraits over the years. Although it's no longer "state of the art", it does what I need it to do. But, what about when I don't need to do as much?

As of last year, I have the option to take; not as much camera!  As you might have read in my "Compact Camera/System" series, a progression over several camera models has brought me to this option. AND over that same amount of time, I've also been accumulating lenses of a size/performance appropriate for it as well. Although a lowly 6mp by today's standards of 24 and 36mp, it's does a fine job for snap shots in package size that will fit in a winter coat pocket. It goes to places like amusement parks, and family gatherings where I neither want nor need the bigger/heavier/more capable D300.

And then there's this. Given the size of the D40, does it even have a role? Well yes, it does actually. I probably wouldn't have gone out and bought it on my own, but since it arrived unbidden (along with other stuff) from my brother when he was cleaning out: I took it in like that "stray kitty". Interestingly enough; unlike it's brother Coolpix 8800 with the 35-200mm eq. lens, this 8400 with the 24-85mm eq. lens gives it the ability to do quick indoor pics unlike anything else I have! Plus lacking the pentaprism hump of an SLR and having a completely retractable lens, gives it an advantage over over the D40. Is there more?

Oh, there's LOTS more! But as part of my day to day line-up of "starters"; this is it. The Nikon CoolPix 995 of 2001!!! What on earth do I do with it? First of all, it only tops out at 3.3 megapixels, so it's not too difficult to dial down it's file to sizes to be appropriate for web use without having to fiddle with them in software. You know; pics for ads and such. Plus it's unique split body design allows me to have it twist into contortions for different angles instead of my old aching body! A couple more things. Yes, I have adapter lenses for it as well. Right now, just a wide and a fisheye, but with a 28mm accessory mount size, it's easy to find adapters for any kind of instruments like telescopes and microscopes! Another area that the twisting body design comes into play. Besides, I got mine off of Craigslist locally for about $10, then a second one showed up courtesy of my brother with the fisheye attached!

So, there they are; the "starters" on "my team" (left to right- 995, 8400, D40, D300). In fact, I employed the second 995 to shoot this picture! None were bought new. None were bought anywhere close to their original selling price. Actually, I'm not even certain that every piece of photographic equipment I own put together cost me as much as the $1800 list price of the D300 by itself! Yes: old equipment have their limitations. However, they can all be very useful if used for the right tasks. They can all be easily found out there for a ridiculously small percentage of their original selling price. They're kind of like the San Antonio Spurs of cameras!

The Computer/Computing "To-Do" List

The first thing on my computer related list for this summer is to rip a "good" number of our movies on DVD into a universal portable format. From where I stand, "universal" video format would mean MP4. Please understand, that when I mean "rip", I don't mean to download! I mean to take DVDs that we've bought, own, and convert them to a different format for our personal use. I'm going to bet that, that fits in the vast majority of peoples' definition of "Fair Use". I'm going to leave the how part of it up to you to find out in the wilds of the internet. There are plenty of sites that describe the process in detail. The fact is that we are going to be spending a fair number of hours in vehicles, cabins, and hotel rooms this summer and the obvious use of movies in some computer file format will be advantageous.

The need for this comes from our family's conversion to the common use of tablets; iPads to be specific with the exception of myself (Android). You know of course that the iPad has no facility to physically connect to external storage. So an intermediary needed to be found. Earlier this spring, I came across the HooToo Tripmate as a wireless means of getting files to my students in the classroom. In the midst of that, I realized that it could just as well stream media to various platforms as long as they had the Tripmate App. About a month ago, I tested it with my ThinkPad Tablet (Android) while my friend Pat did the same thing on his iPad Air. I put a movie converted to MP4 on a flashdrive which was plugged into the HooToo Tripmate Elite (Newegg special, about $20). We both streamed the movie to our respective machines without issue. All that needs to be done is for each device to log onto the Tripmate's access point, open the App, navigate to the folder/file that the user wants and voila', INSTANT STREAMING MEDIA. Unfortunately, there is the "Teddy Roosevelt" digging the Panama Canal part, which is to laboriously rip and convert the a decent library of movies for the kids to access!

Item #2? Yeah, a power supply replacement. I recently came across a very nice Seasonic M12 II, 80 Plus Bronze semi-modular PS unit for about half of what the normally sell for.....so...... at some point, when I'm really ready to pull the giant Cosmos II back out from under the desk, then I'm going to switch it out from the Cooler Master 600w PS that's in there. So I needed this? No! But I'm a big Seasonic PS believer and they are quiet and run cool. I'm all about that. Plus; the price was right. About $45, after shipping. 

My garage isn't exactly an e-waste dump, but I've really got to get in there and do some cleaning out. Most of what I'm going to get rid of will go to the new computer club but there are some items that need to be sold....

....which of course, leads to this sub-list. Items to sell off! This is very difficult for a border-line hoarders like me, but I've gotta do it. 

Unfortunately, all this good planning to get things done isn't completely contingent on my motivation alone. I really need for my wife to figure out where she's going and get all the stuff in the garage into her new classroom! When that's been taken care of, then I'll be free to get my cache of computer parts out of the garage. Till then, the main trick to to NOT add to the pile!

It's Finally Summer!!!

It's finally summer time; that precious space between school years during which teachers like my wife and I recharge. If you don't believe me that we need to recharge, I challenge you to think on how badly you want your kids to go back to school at the end of the summer so that your life can go back to "normal! Of course, we don't really get the whole 3 months as most people perceive. In most states, the "school year" starts for teachers by mid-August, and doesn't end till the 2nd week of June. The old days of starts after Labor Day and ends on Memorial Day are long gone. So, we're really talking about a little over 2 months. Back when I was coaching, another 2-3 weeks were eaten up by "other duties as assigned"...... basketball camp, football camp, open gym, equipment sorting, coaching school, "2-a-days"..... you name it! Oh, least I forget, there's the ever popular, "professional development" that's strictly "voluntary" and on your own time, but if enough hours aren't accumulated, you'll be docked pay! I don't mean to be griping, but those are our realities.

In our house, there is also the yearly cleaning out, where my wife goes through not only the household stuff, but each child's room "top to bottom". That means every item! When all is said and done, this has taken one whole week. This year, we've also had the pleasure of moving all my wife's classroom stuff into our garage for the summer as she's moving grades and parts of the building.

This year, we also had my missionary sister-in-law (and her family) come home for furlough. That's six more people. On top of which, her dad and step-mother had already moved out here last Thanks Giving. So that makes 8 adults and 8 children at all events! When you put that all together with the cleaning, and everything else, the first two weeks of the summer got wiped out. 

So, yup....today is the first day of summer for me! As is typical for me in the summer, there are list of things that I'd like to get done, need to get done and "have" to get done. So for the next few posts, I'll talk about those list, the subjects that they encompass and how I propose to get as much done as possible during the 2 months that I have before we start school again.

Of course, I'm going to try and cram as much fun in as possible involving my favorite hobbies! After all: what's summer for?

The "Compact Camera" Reunion

Back in mid-December, while in the middle of my "Compact Camera" series, I wrote a post talking about my photographic roots. Of course, roots about anything for techno-geeks usually involves hardware and in this case, the Konica TC which back in the mid-70's was the object of my teenage photographer lust. In that post, I really only referenced it, but never really got into the discussing that camera and what drew me to it at the time. 

So, let's back up and start more or less from the beginning when pharmacist Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling photographic supplies at his store, the Konishiya Rokube in 1873. Note, that this pre-dates Kodak! Five years later, he gave the original shop to his younger brother and opened a new one called the Konishi Honten in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo. In 1902, Konishi began selling the "Cherry Portable Camera", and later, the Konica I in 1948. So you can see, there's a little bit of history there and not just what most people think of today as a copier company called Konica/Minolta which had exited the photography business in March of 2006. In the intervening years, the Konica name developed quite a reputation for not only their fine cameras, but their Hexanon line of lenses which are generally thought of as top-notch. In their day, comparable to Nikkors, Canons, and Rokkors. 

So, it was in this state of affairs that I became enamored of Konica products. Nikons were just too professional (read expensive), Canons were too clunky, Olympus' too expensive and Minolta's stodgy. I was like the legendary little blond in the bear's house! Really, lenses were a non-issue. They were all good, and I couldn't afford any of them!

And that's were the situation stood in 1976; my freshman year of high school. Looking around at the lower end of all the major player's camera lines was an exercise in frustration, until the launch of the TC. I'm going to bet that the TC stood for Autoreflex "T" Compact. In any case, it had everything I wanted; great roots, impressive family of lenses and accessories, shutter-priority automation. WooHoo!!! What more could a 15 year old aspiring photojournalist want!?! As I've discuss before, I spent the summer of '76 and pretty much all the following year pining for this camera. However, by the time I had earned enough money to earnestly contemplate purchase, the Canon A-1 had come along and as they say; "that's all she wrote". 

 If, that's all she wrote, then why are we even having this discussion? Please humor me on this. Let's start by looking at the above image. Yes, it's a TC; so what? First of all, let me describe it's physical size for you: somewhat larger than the Olympus OM series/Pentax MX/ME which were the smallest of that day, but clearly smaller than it's contemporary, which was often described as "compact" Canon AE-1. Furthermore, as depicted it's fitted with the 40mm/f1.8 "pancake" which as introduced with the later FS-1, this is truly a compact camera. Small enough to fit in a coat pocket, but large enough not to feel awkward in "man-sized" hands!

"Holy Deja Vu" CameraMan! Yup, it's the compact camera rig, before my "compact camera" rig. Yes, yes, I'm aware that there are lots of makers out there during those 30 years between the two camera that made something similar. But the similarities in function, feature set between the two are astounding to me. Until a few days ago when I started reading collector websites about the TC, I had no idea that I had either been completely unaware of, or subconsciously recreated a modern day compact camera in the idiom of my first love. It's a little like those stories you hear about people who go a high school class reunion and rediscover an old flame!

 

The Internet Is At Fault

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know that I take full advantage of the Internet. However, on occasion, there are things that I've come to love that the ubiquitous use of Internet has/is killing off. 

Some years ago, there was an electronics parts supplier located on the east side of downtown Dallas which on a monthly basis would bring out their slow moving inventory onto their parking lot and have a clearance sale. Apparently, quite a lot of their patrons were "Ham Radio" enthusiasts and they too began to set up tables in, first their parking lot and it being on a Saturday (virtually all area offices being closed on Sat), make use of adjoining parking lots. At it's height, the whole thing had an appearance of some sort of "bazaar" in a middle-eastern country! 

At the, what became know as the "1st Saturday Sidewalk Sale/Flea Market", one could find pretty much anything related to electronics. By the time I discovered it back in the '90s, it had been taken over by computer folks. At that point; what with the proximity of Texas Instruments, EDS, Dell and other firms, lots of corporation offices, Dallas had become a bit of a "Silicon Prairie". In those days, the Internet was in it's infancy (if not adolescence), and the price of computing equipment was relatively high. My geek friends and I would come in from Lubbock (where I lived and worked at the time) about once a year and just wander around in a techo-drunk stupor. It was the most wonderful weekend trip I could think of! When we'd finally had enough or the East Texas heat got too much, we'd go over to Tandy Corps (think Radio Shack), new "super-store" concept, called "The Incredible Universe", were we'd spend the rest of the day in air conditioned techno-lust. 

Then came the 2000s. Incredible Universe was bought out by erstwhile grocer, Fry's and "broadband" became commonplace. In 2003/04, now married, I and moved from the High Plains to Dallas/North Texas. This was right around the time that 1st Saturday began it's slow and inexorable slide toward irrelevance. 

This last Saturday, I took some of my Computer Club students down there so they could get a sense of what "street prices" were really like, versus the fantasy world that is Wal-Buy, where most people purchase their equipment. Of course they was fascinate and somewhat astounded that such a thing exist, but to me, it just looked sad. What was once a sprawl across an entire section of downtown had first moved across it to an area under the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Then about a year ago they moved closer to a landmark building called West End Market (Dallas Alley) where there is more general foot traffic and tourist . At each move, the number of vendors has gone down and now there seems to be about a 2 to 1 balance between computer vendors and general flea market sellers hawking deoderent. Of the technology oriented sellers, the bulk either deal in nothing but corporate surplus, or merely random junk. I'll have to admit that the vendor that I go to first is a guy that has probably 20 tables of any manner of old stuff. This last time, I found a Minolta Hi-Matic 7S II in pristine condition (with the exception of the name/ss number inscribed baseplate), which is commonly considered to be one of the very best of it's (compact 35mm camera) breed. One of my students wanted it badly, so I ended negotiating for it in a bundle of stuff. In the end, it cost about $10. And that's the draw and beauty of these sort of places, and why it's sad to see it slowly wither away.