Knuckledragger

Have you seen Some Kind of Monster?

At the risk of sounding like a complete assfacedhole, I am going to ignore the existence of Death Magnetic and dig up a few more Kyuss live boots. I haven't cared much for Metallica since the 1980s. I did enjoy the trainwreck that was Some Kind of Monster, however.

It is true that Nikon's kit lenses are much better than Canon's, particularly in their DX cropped sensor line. In the 1990s, Canon successfully stole the pro market away from Nikon with superior autofocus performance, and their line of L glass (both primes and zooms.) Nikon seemed to basically stop competing in this area. When the D3 came out last year, Nikon also announced a bunch of telephoto lenses aimed at the pro and sports world. Clearly, they want to get back in the game. I wonder if some decent fast primes will follow. Nikon used to make an excellent 28mm F/1.4 that was quite expensive new, and now commands Orpehus-like prices on the used market. The truth is Nikon is a much smaller company than Canon, and while their optical engineers are very clever, they don't have the resources for some of the ventures Canon does. I don't know about sales numbers, but Canon sells enough L primes to keep refreshing the line pretty regularly.

I think for APS-C sized sensors, 6-8 MP is ideal, and for full frame 12-16MP. I have no interest in APS-H, frankly. Some wiggle room to crop is nice, but real point of significance here is pixel pitch. Part of the reason the Nikon D3, and D700 have such amazingly low noise at high ISOs is that they have a comparatively low pixel density. Really, the megapixel race is at this point marketing bullshit. The areas where real improvement is needed is dynamic range and high ISO performance. Nikon has recently edged out Canon in both these areas. The D700 really is the ideal camera for me, except for one tragic flaw (it lacks a Canon lens mount.) I will be watching the reviews of the 5D mk II very closely. If it's dynamic range and high ISO (and auto ISO) are even close to Nikon's, it's clearly my next body. If the D700 bests it, I may seriously consider selling my entire Canon kit and going Nikon. This would be equivalent to Sprtizer going dynamic. Seriously, there's one thing that will probably keep me in the Canon camp forever: L glass. My 17-40mm F/4L ultrawide is a dream. The 85mm F/1.2L is one of the greatest camera lenses, period. If the brand new 24mm F/1.4L II lives up to its promise, it will be glorious indeed. Nikon is either unwilling or unable to compete with Canon when it comes to fast primes.

In honor of grawk putting the lawk on a certain thread, I present, the Top Ten Head-Casers Most Fixated on That Other Site:

Good question. The future wiring arrangement of my setup is more than a little unclear. I'll let you know when the sawzalls have stopped.

h/t to Hopstretch for pointing to the eBay seller.

MINE MINE MINE MINE

I am moments from sniping a pair of 12L Actives on the 'Bay (so all of you watching them back off.) If this turns out well, I will soon be returning to the world of speaker audio.

Atari Modern Classics

You mean the new 24MP A900? I cannot fathom the point of that camera. In-camera image stabilization is nice, especially on medium to wide lenses (it won't do much for teles) but the high ISO performance is terrible. Slashgear took it to task for this very issue. 24.6MP looks good on paper, but it's going to clog memory cards and hard drives at an even quicker rate than the 5D. For $3000, I'd much rather have the 12MP D700. Image stabilization isn't so necessary when ISO 6400 is less grainy than previous generation camera's ISO 1600.

The 35mm F/2 has the (in)famous "angry wasp" focus motor. It has never bothered me, especially in light of the optical qualities of the lens. The 85/1.8 is USM, but I'm not sure it focuses any faster. The main advantage of the 85 is that it has absolutely gorgeous bokeh. It has arguably the best bang-for-the-buck in the entire Canon lineup when it comes to background blur. Being something of a bokeh obsessive, this key for me. Speaking of obsessive, Canon announced the 5D Mk II today. 21.1MP full frame, ISO 100-6400 (presumably in 1/3rd stop increments) and 12800 and 25600 in trick modes. I hope it comes close to the high ISO performanceof Nikon's D3 and D700, but I am not optimistic. Nikon wisely kept the MP of those two bodies at something sane. 20+MP is really not good for much except for filling up one's memory card and hard drive. Still, they're offering the 5D II with a 24-105L for just over $3000, which is the cost of a D700 body only. Anyone want to buy a kidney?

Last two disks of The Office Season 4.

The headlights came on partway through that clip.

Internet Porn & You // Current

I want to work there.

Look, quad Sylvanias! ...not exactly.

I arranged a temporary trade this evening. I lent my EF 35mm F/2 (my favorite lens, I shoot with it extensively) to a friend of mine, and he in turn let be borrow his EF 85mm F/1.8 portrait lens. This is a very mutually beneficial swap. If he is sufficiently pleased the 35mm F/2, he'll buy it instead of it's F/1.4L cousin (which is about $1000 more expensive.) Other than EF 70-200 F/4L IS, the 85/1.8 is the lens I am most likely to buy next. It takes me a while to "get" a lens. Much more time than 5-10 minutes in a shop, or even an afternoon's rental (not that there is a lens rental place around here.) I'm looking forward to spending the next couple weeks working with the 85mm. This is why I love the 35mm F/2: I have shot with the 85/1.8 before, but none of the results are remarkable enough to post here. Hopefully there will be some soon.

Alternate caption "There goes the neighborhood."

The short - but eventful - life of Ike

Wow. Ninja cat is kind of creepy. Nope. According to Snopes both the driver and his 10 year old son survived.