nikongod

Just got back from a ride in the blizzard to go to Nerd Nite NYC. Whatever those wide mountain bike tires with no treads are are no good for blizzards. Just saying.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

My friend Nechama is running a Lucky Ant crowd-sourcing campaign to raise some money to help move her very young bike shop into a new space. Check it out here: http://www.luckyant.com/project/detail?project=674 Thanks

I'm a fan of Weller irons, but I don't really know the differences between the brands. In any case, buying quality tools is never a bad idea. If you do this stuff for a living you will wear out or break cheap tools too fast. If you do this stuff for fun cheap tools are not as much fun to use. Simple.

Happy (belated) Birthday!

The HPA-1 and 2 were basically high end RA-1's. Think of an RA-1 but with a $50 pot (Alps RK40) and "film&foil" caps (I dunno the brand...) instead of a $2 pot and Solen caps. One mustn't forget that they were wired with Grado wire... because that makes all the difference in the world.

Not that I find humor in this guy's poor luck, but... After reading his story the banner ad at the bottom of the page is for wood flooring. It made me giggle.

Happy Birthday!

In soviet russia room temperature is colder than outside.

Sorry to hear this Dusty

Happy Birthday!

This car is usually parked in the same spot when I take my same walk through NYC. So I usually take the same photo of it. This time it came out a bit better than the others. Ferrari by Lord Nikon 12, on Flickr

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Although he needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, have you read the Ken Rockwell "how to use ultra-wide lenses" guide? I found it quite helpful considering how little information I could find on these lenses elsewhere. Ooh, KR's article showcases a perfect example of something that looks better with a normal 37mm lens than with 14mm in the truck 2/3 of the way through - there is that pinch of salt.... Sometimes wider is just not the answer.

My searches all turn up stuff in the 40-50mm range. I "picked" my camera by seeing it on CL and saying "ooh, $15 and will work without the un-obtainable mercury battery." http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Camerapedia Is awesome for specs and stuff. If you want to borrow mine let me know.

M-lens on a Nikon will not focus to infinity. Voigtlander makes a few M-mount cameras that wont set you back more than a few hundred dollars - the Bessa R2 is cheap as dirt if you can find one. B&H has a used R2a (with aperture priority) for $400. If your comfy with full manual I'd wait for an older and cheaper R2 to come around. Voigtlander has a SERIOUS advantage over Leica in that the flash sink is 1/125 or better. Leica seriously sucks with 1/50sec. That extra stop can be nice if you want to play with fill flash in daylight. On that note The bessa does not feel like a Leica in the hand so just get an M6, keep it pristine (or buy a beater and just deal with it) and flip it at the end of the class. An M2 or M4 would also be on the list, with a handheld light meter. The shoe-mount-meters (voigtlander, Sekonic, Gossen) are quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. I like that you can meter with the handheld with your camera in the bag (or dangling around your neck which is almost equally stealth), set the camera without lifting it to your eye which is very stealth, pull it out and snap in about 3 seconds. If you are comfy with an external meter (will your class require to do this anyways? I find using the external meter forces me to pay more attention to the light, which is always good too - just a weird psychological thing I guess) you could also go REALLY old school with one of the 1960-70's era Japanese fixed lens rangefinders. These cameras have really nice lenses ignoring the $10-50 they usually cost. Considering the $10-50 they cost this is an extremely solid option. As an added bonus a lot of these cameras use leaf-shutters which sink at any shutter speed (even 1/500 sec!) so they open LOTS of options for flash in daylight. My facebook album "Wandering NYC 4/14-4/15" was shot entirely with a Minolta Himatic 7 that I bought for $15. I LaLaLove my M3, but the 50mm frames can be kind of hard to see with my glasses on. The lack of reasonable 35mm options is kind of a killer for me because 35mm is my normal.

Christmas In Rockefeller Center by Lord Nikon 12, on Flickr

Can you return it for a different one? If its normal for those things to make some noise and potting the inductors usually solves it: Devcon 2-ton epoxy. It will never melt and should flow into voids better than hot glue.

Very nice! I now want to do something like that with my headphones. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_nikon_12/8247814113/'> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_nikon_12/8247814113/'>Sunrise over GWB by http://www.flickr.com/people/lord_nikon_12/'>Lord Nikon 12, on Flickr

This is not news to anyone with functional hearing.

Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy Birthday Tom!