RE: Re: Images or Photographs

2001-09-25 Thread John Francis
Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict? :-) TTYL, DougF Shouldn't that be 'Several Species ...' ? (Yes, I'm back from the UK) -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA 94041 Hello. My name is Darth

RE: Images or Photographs -- reeeeally long.....

2001-09-25 Thread John Francis
From: Shel Belinkoff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] . . . I no longer have any cameras or lenses so it's a moot point. I know I've been away for a while; did I miss something? -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101

RE: Re: Images or Photographs

2001-09-25 Thread John Francis
-Original Message- From: Bruce Dayton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 1:01 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Re: Images or Photographs Welcome back, John. How was the trip? Far too short - I could easily have used another six weeks! I didn't

RE: UBERdigicam, some meanderings from Wheatfield Willie

2001-09-26 Thread John Francis
. Image depth and capture rate (or density ratio and film speed) are interrelated. Again, the theoretical limit is physically based; you can't have a sensor that measures in units smaller than a single photon. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com

RE: Darth Vader meets Princess Bride is back

2001-10-01 Thread John Francis
. As for accents - I just spent six weeks back in the UK, and kept getting told that I hadn't picked up any trace of an American accent in the years I have been over this side of the pond. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101

RE: October PUG

2001-10-02 Thread John Francis
a wider colour gamut than CRTs, and a far better contrast ratio. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA 94041 Hello. My name is Darth Vader. I am your Father. Prepare to die. - This message is from

RE: MZ-S Cost...Hey Pentax.

2001-10-02 Thread John Francis
Aaron muttered: p.s. trick question: I don't have a car. Is this car you don't have automatic or manual? -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA 94041 Hello. My name is Darth Vader. I am your

RE: Favorite Film Roll Call Results UPDATE 28

2001-10-03 Thread John Francis
colour aliasing artifacts and/or a slight colour cast at the extreme ends of the intensity range. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA 94041 Hello. My name is Darth Vader. I am your Father. Prepare

RE: Oh the agony!

2001-10-05 Thread John Francis
)... Gianfranco One can only hope... Yes - that was indeed Tonghang Zhou - I recognise the address (I purchased a spare MX winder from him at one time). -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA 94041

RE: OT: Honda Longevity

2001-10-05 Thread John Francis
For real longevity, buy a Volvo. The current record-holder is a Volvo P-18, with 1,690,000 miles. And that was 2 1/2 years ago, so who knows what it reads now. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA

RE: OT: Honda Longevity

2001-10-05 Thread John Francis
PAUL STENQUIST added: The previous record holder was a 1958 Mercedes 180D diesel sedan. I was a little surprised to find a Volvo claiming the honours - that Mercedes was the car I expected to find. Guess what Shel drives, by the way ... John Francis wrote: For real longevity, buy

RE: Dear Squid

2001-10-05 Thread John Francis
William Robb answered this query: William, May I ask you to explain what a Dear Squid letter is ?? I'm at a serious loss here ! A rejection letter that leaves you feeling really depressed. William Robb I know what would cheer you up - a nice slice of toast! -- John Francis

RE: More UPS Crap I Hate UPS

2001-10-18 Thread John Francis
for if not ruining the wedding, at least taking the icing off the cake :-) was to offer to refund us the difference between surface and air shipping. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 429-4427 MyWay.com 444 Castro St. Suite 101,Mt. View, CA 94041 Hello

RE: Pentax Digital NEWS! Part one

2001-10-22 Thread John Francis
? By interpolation (a less charitable answer would be 'by lying'). Doesn't that screw with quality, especially with larger prints? Yes (according to reviews posted on the digital camera review sites). -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 565-4427 MyWay.com 1070

RE: Manual vs. motor

2001-10-22 Thread John Francis
from the camera to advance the film. Evan That's the primary reason why I have winders for my M-bodies; not only am I left-eyed, I also wear glasses, making it even more difficult to advance the film manually. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 565-4427 MyWay.com

RE: Pentax Digital NEWS! Part one

2001-10-22 Thread John Francis
the sensor technology ceases to be the limiting factor in the quality of digital images we can expect to see the cameras continuing to become obsolete at around the current rate. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 565-4427 MyWay.com 1070 Arastradero Rd, Palo

RE: Pentax Digital NEWS - FULL STORY from AP 27th OCT.

2001-10-22 Thread John Francis
sensor. We, the Pentax users, feel this pain more deeply than Canon/Nikon users because we don't have any alternative K-mount digital body to tide us over until the eventual high-end bodies become reality. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 565-4427 MyWay.com

RE: A Week in the Life (long response to everyone)

2001-10-22 Thread John Francis
that? Photoshop, Ulead PhotoImpact, and imagENGine will do that. There may be other programs with an Export for Web or similar feature. I'm pretty sure ThumbsPlus has an HTML option, too. -- John Francis . . . . . . . . . . (650) 565-4427 MyWay.com 1070 Arastradero Rd, Palo

RE: Non-Pentax equipment

2001-10-24 Thread John Francis
to lie to you to get my images shown anywhere. But if it matter to you that much, don't worry - I'd be quite happy to have all my images removed from the Pentax gallery. I don't think I'll bother to submit to any future galleries, either. In fact I think I'll just unsubscribe from the PDML. -- John

Re: OT:No camera=first Concord siting

2003-10-03 Thread John Francis
This will be my last post on this subject, but let me say I have really enjoyed it, as far as off-topic threads go. To bring it back onto topic, somewhat: A few years ago a SR-71 was supposed to be making a low, slow pass over Moffett Field as part of their airshow. (It wasn't exactly a

Re: *ist D and the 1 gigabyte card

2003-10-03 Thread John Francis
The ist D supports a 1 gb card, saying it will store 70 RAW files, 56 full resolution tiffs. It will do smaller than full resolution tiffs also, 87 medium resolution (2400x1600) or 512 small (1536x1024). Something seems wrong with those figures. Only 56 full-resolution (6MP) TIFFs, and yet

Re: OT: Jpeg Q

2003-10-04 Thread John Francis
Am I remembering right that JPEG format files re-compress each time they are saved? In other words, saving the image on your CF card as a JPEG and then transferring to the PC would be two steps of loss? No. Copying a JPEG file is just like copying any other file - lossless. You could go

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-05 Thread John Francis
Boris wrote: BL This is most unusual. My ZX-L for instance, shows aperture value in BL the viewfinder if a lens that has A position is set to some other BL aperture. I thought that it came through electronics, this displayed BL value. Why it is not supported in this case? Aperture

Re: Very first impressions Ist D

2003-10-05 Thread John Francis
I guess I've used the DOF preview button on my other two bodies more than I knew, miss it here. Camera could very well do this but I don't know how yet. Isn't it the same as the MZ-S? Push the On-Off switch beyond the On position.

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-06 Thread John Francis
I own over a dozen PENTAX KM lenses, all superb. I own 1 (ONE) A type or later lens . . . This represents maybe ONE new lens in the last twenty years? Unless you've bought a whole lot of other stuff, I don't think that's the sort of customer that keeps a company in business. Not that I've

Re: OT: Problems with Flash Card Reading

2003-10-06 Thread John Francis
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] (graywolf) wrote: You may need a powered hub. Often that is the case when there is more than one USB device per controller. Thanks - that's just solved my problem with a Hama USB 2.0 Pocketdrive 6-in-1. I have Windows XP running on

Re: Old lenses and *ist-D

2003-10-07 Thread John Francis
Hi, John F wrote: I've spent far more than that, over the same period, in picking up used equipment. Nice for me, but it doesn't support Pentax. I disagree. Although indirect, it does support Pentax. Buyers of new equipment would do so at a much(?) lower rate if there was no

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-07 Thread John Francis
As I've said before, I think Pentax has plans for electrical contacts (for USM, electronic aperture control, etc.) in places where the aperture simulator is located on the original K mount . . . I'd be very surprised if they used that part of the lens mount for new purposes; it would

Re: M lenses

2003-10-07 Thread John Francis
Another of the things you have to realize here is that most of folks here on this list, or any other photo equipment list for that matter, are nitpickers. One honestly would be hard pressed to tell the quality difference in any non-defective Pentax lens or another in a good 8x10 print.

Re: Pentax 35-135ish lens?

2003-10-07 Thread John Francis
I got mine from KEH. CW In fact they show three of them right now: 2 As, one F

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-08 Thread John Francis
This still comes down to demanding that everybody pay the extra $10 or so, even if this is for functionality they don't want and will never use. No offence, but everyone keeps pulling numbers out of thin air. Sometimes it's ten bucks, sometimes it's twenty, but no one with any

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-08 Thread John Francis
Yeah, this is my problem. I bemoaned the lack of aperture control on the body with the MZ-S because I liked using the TV wheel on the PZ-1p to set the aperture. It's a real pain having to change the lens setting when switching a lens from a PZ-1p (or *ist/*ist-D) to an MZ-S or MX, for

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-08 Thread John Francis
I never got the MZ-S, so I'm going from the PZ series to the *D, which should prove to be an easier transition than if I had. What was it about the MZ-S that made people move from the PZ-1*? Far, *far* better autofocus Extremely rigid metal chassis Battery grip that took AAs (and

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-08 Thread John Francis
Peter Alling wrote: I have three things to say, if simpler is better 1.) Don't use auto-focus don't use digital neither is simple. 2.) If you insist in using a camera that sets exposures that are not guestimates then you have one choice, the LX. Everything else is just that

Re: If Pentax were like an automobile company ...

2003-10-09 Thread John Francis
Caterham has improved them a bit. Many more engine options. De Dion rear suspension. Actual seats that slide forward and backward to adjust for different sized drivers. But, they're still pretty basic, elemental things, that go like stink. I'm sure it's anathema to mention them in

Re: If Pentax were like an automobile company ...

2003-10-10 Thread John Francis
want to think about what sort of power you could end up with if you really tried. Certainly well over 500HP. What are they REALLY called, then? keith John Francis wrote: Caterham has improved them a bit. Many more engine options. De Dion rear suspension. Actual seats

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-10 Thread John Francis
I'm sure that the market for SLRs of any kind is pretty small, and getting smaller every year. The 35mm SLR was successful against the cameras of the day because it was smaller, lighter, and cheaper. The picture quality wasn't as good, but it was good enough. And the SLR design was ideal for

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-10 Thread John Francis
I remember those days. Those big heavy ugly DSLRs which were not designed for the general public, but press photographers only. Even so, few were using them. I guess it depends where you looked. In my experience as soon as the D1 came out you could hardly find an F5 in the media centre at

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-10 Thread John Francis
Perhaps I have a different way to approach the digital products. The 1st thing I check is the picture quality. If they aren't good, I don't care. Why bother to produce a 5MP model when the images are(sic) that good anyway? Have you checked the Canon PowerShot G1/2/3/4/5? The Olympus 30x0

Re: *istD vs. Digital Rebel

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
I wonder how many users of digital equipment carry a white card to do white balancing? Just like how many digital slr users carry a light meter around with them all the time so they can get more accurate metering that their dslr doesn't seemingly give them. Lots of extra stuff to carry.

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
What I am worrying is that good quality processing might become harder and harder to find in the near future. Alan Chan Near Future be blowed. In two years I've had to find a new place to get my slides processed twice because the lab I was using closed down, and one of the two labs that

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
What is the exposure accuracy requirement of a digital sensor as compared to film? Well, just like slide film, you really don't want to overexpose; blow out the highlights and there's nothing you can do about it. Underexposure introduces noise (pretty much as can be seen by looking at shots

Re: WTB in the future: 300mm f/2.8

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
Vic is right. IMO there can only be 2 possible reasons for buying a 300mm 2.8 lens: 1. You need the extra stop over a much cheaper f/4 lens, notably for sport or (say) rock concerts or whatever (where flash may not be appropriate)... ... or if you plan to use it with a TC

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
I can't see spending $1500 for a six megapixel camera. In two or three years it will be a paperweight. No. In two or three years it will still produce 6MP images. That's more than enough for most purposes; it's a full-frame 8x10 print at 300ppi. Unless you're shooting on a tripod, at

Re: which focusing screen for PZ-1?

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
Guarav asked I am quite used to the split-image and matte (?) screen of the ME-Super. Are there such screens for PZ-1? Beattie Intenscreen has made such a screen for the PZ-1. I think I bought mine from BH. Jost one word of caution; the Beattie screens can cause the in-camera

Re: *istD vs. Digital Rebel

2003-10-12 Thread John Francis
Here's my little theory about WB - you don't need to worry about it. What have print labs been doing for years? Working with a media that is stuck on daylight balance but shot in a multitude of conditions. If you're making prints, find an expert printer and let him do his job. Yep. I must

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-13 Thread John Francis
passed by before you are convinced that the outlay on the digital was worth it. -Original Message- From: John Francis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 13 October 2003 04:51 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Has Pentax missed again? And, of course, in three years it's

Re: which focusing screen for PZ-1?

2003-10-13 Thread John Francis
Guarav asked I am quite used to the split-image and matte (?) screen of the ME-Super. Are there such screens for PZ-1? Beattie Intenscreen has made such a screen for the PZ-1. I think I bought mine from BH. Jost one word of caution; the Beattie screens can cause

Re: Memory cards and batteries for the ist D?

2003-10-13 Thread John Francis
A lot of people get excited about CF speed, but I really don't think it is too big of a deal unless you plan on shooting sports or other things were timing is critical. The buffer on the *ist D is pretty big and I've never filled it in normal shooting...only when I was holding the shutter

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-13 Thread John Francis
Next question, how much more accurately (if at all) is the diaphram controlled on an A lens rather than a K lens. Simple question, tricky answer. First of all: there's no requirement for the aperture response of any K lens to be the same as a different lens; all that is required is that the

Re: *istD vs. Digital Rebel

2003-10-13 Thread John Francis
OK, now we're getting to the part where my analysis has to be spot on. Shooting motorsports, I'm not going to have time to review in camera. Not something you want to do, in any case, with large heavy objects whizzing by at 200mph. Not that I haven't seen people doing that; sitting on the

Re: Take this simple test

2003-10-13 Thread John Francis
On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 09:57:50 +1000, Rob Studdert wrote: Will this high speed shooting be out of doors? If so set the white balance to a fixed value and get it right all the time instead. It will, and if a fixed value or the presets is close enough for this usage, that sounds great

Re: Old lenses and *ist D

2003-10-14 Thread John Francis
At 01:41 AM 10/14/03, you wrote: Given the above info, is there any way that the back of a K mount lens could be modified to let the *ist D fire using stop down metering in similar modes? snip I suspect that more people would complain about the loss of full- aperture

Re: *istD vs. Digital Rebel

2003-10-14 Thread John Francis
John, have you got a web site? Fast cars fast cars fast cars fast cars *~* I get my track access from motorsport.com, so most of my stuff goes there. I've got a few older shots up at my home page http://www.panix.com/~johnf/, and I've recently been given some space on a system operated by a

Re: feature for digital camera

2003-10-14 Thread John Francis
one feature i would like to see in a digital camera is a portrait mode that would rotate the orientation of the sensor in the camera without rotating the camera. Why? It's an extra mechanical thing that could go wrong, and one which affects the most critical element in the camera - the

Re: Does exposed film travel?

2003-10-14 Thread John Francis
I am on holiday in Greece and have shot 2 Kodak T-MAX 400 (@800, if it makes any difference). I would like to develop them in my favourite lab (Ilfords in the UK) but I am worried about X-ray machines and metal-detector arches etc. Do you see any problem? Would you fly with them back to

Re: correct exposure

2003-10-14 Thread John Francis
-Original Message- From: J. C. O'Connell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I stand by my reply. His post makes no sense. You cant really do studio strobes at weddings and receptions. His teachers must be the stupid jerks. Actually, a stupid jerk is someone who does all his

Hand-holding 300/2.8

2003-10-14 Thread John Francis
I knew I had an example somewhere! This is a shot I took at Goodwood a couple of years ago. http://www.panix.com/~johnf/temp/airshow.jpg I was using an MZ-S with the A* 300/f2.8, quite probably with the AF 1.7 adapter. I started off trying to use a monopod, but soon gave that up. I believe

Gretag Macbeth colo(u)r checker

2003-10-15 Thread John Francis
It's been a good day for finding things: I also found the scans I made to compare two film scanners. So if anyone has been wondering what a checker looks like: http://www.panix.com/~johnf/digital/chart.html (Now you can see why I switched to the LS30, can't you?) The colours of each

Re: Has Pentax missed again?

2003-10-15 Thread John Francis
Cotty wrote: C Rob, I bet you are soo relieved you didn't cave in to the Sigma C DSLR a while back ;-) The *ist D is a little cutey. Yes, a nice box but still a box around the sensor. And the cutey thing in Sigma is that Foveon sensor, something I wish to see in a Pentax

Re: Old lenses, *istD, and the Pentax Mad Scientists

2003-10-16 Thread John Francis
UPDATE: The basic mod is pretty simple -- changing M to A. And you don't have to modify anyting. 1) set the lens to the minimum aperture. f22, etc. 2) short the A pin to the body or lens. Use a piece of foil or 32 awg wire. Without the lens information pins you'll not get matrix

Re: *ist-D ad claimed to be sexistic

2003-10-17 Thread John Francis
Anders posted: In last week's issue of Resumé, the Swedish weekly magazine for the advertizing business, there is a full page article where a long list of female photographers accuse Pentax of being sexistic in their adverts for the new *ist-D. They make clear that because of this ad,

Re: *ist-D ad claimed to be sexistic

2003-10-17 Thread John Francis
John Francis: The complaint is just as bad as the original ad - possibly even worse. A long list of *female* photographers? Why is there this assumption that only females might find the advertisement offensive, or that only the opinion of female photographers is worth reporting

Re: *ist-D compact flash benchmarks and recommendations

2003-10-17 Thread John Francis
I'm shopping around for new compact flash memory cards for my *ist-D and noticed that Rob Galbraith has now posted benchmarks for the *ist-D: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6432 Can anyone with an *ist-D using any of the cards verify the reported numbers? Are

Re: *ist D and BIG Glass

2003-10-17 Thread John Francis
Wish I had that setup anyway! There's several folks on this list with the 600/f4; I don't know if any of them are getting an *ist-D. When mine gets here I'll be using it with a long lens, too. Not quite as wide, but the 250-600/f5.6 is still quite a nice lens. I also plan on trying the

Re: New to the list

2003-10-19 Thread John Francis
you are kidding, right? i am almost envisioning a large, mostly empty highway from Boston to NYC ( i guess that should count for major towns, eh? ). The Atlantic corridor is not representative of the US as a whole. But the point is that since the Eisenhower administration created the

Re: We need a theme song!

2003-10-19 Thread John Francis
Electric Light Orchestra, by any chance? Egad, am I dating myself! And no, I didn't look it up! Doesn't matter, as I don't recall anything they did. Think that's dating yourself? I know what they were called before they changed their name to Electric Light Orchestra, and can name several

Re: New to the list

2003-10-19 Thread John Francis
Well, I'm sure I'll be corrected by someone in the Mother Country if I'm wrong, but I think there are several express trains and a controlled access highway between London and Glascow, so that the travel time, either by train or car, is the same as it is between Montreal and Toronto. I

Re: *ist 35mm

2003-10-19 Thread John Francis
*The Marvelous Toy recorded by Peter, Paul Mary ... amongst others, including Val Doonican John Denver. And, of course, the guy who wrote it: Tom Paxton. For an on-topic reference, see my May 01 PUG entry: http://pug.komkon.org/01may/paxton.html

Re: *ist D makes me cringe (was Pentax 6x7 in the rain)

2003-10-19 Thread John Francis
if I had spent $1500 on a camera that will undoubtedly be obsolete in less than a year. You reckon? What's going to obsolete it, then? And even if Pentax *do* come out with a new model (which I don't believe will happen) what's going to be wrong with the *ist-D?

Re: Vs: Old lenses, *istD, and the Pentax Mad Scientists

2003-10-20 Thread John Francis
Raimo Korhonen wrote: Hi! MZ-S prints exposure data on the film between the sprocket holes - easy to retrieve. All the best! Raimo [B]etween the sprocket holes? I measure that width at about 2.8 mm. How does one put ANY info in that small a space? In teeny-weeny letters.

Re: *ist D makes me cringe (was Pentax 6x7 in the rain)

2003-10-20 Thread John Francis
På mandag, 20. oktober 2003, kl. 18:40, skrev John Francis: Nothing new here - it's just the normal semiconductor technology progression. Yep, that was what I was saying in the lines you omitted in you response. We´ve been discussing this for months :-) It would have been hard

Re: Still need help!

2003-10-20 Thread John Francis
Thanks John, but that's the way it's set and still no thumbs or photos. Try emptying the Internet cache (Tools/Internet Options/General, then click on Delete files... in the Temporary Internet Files. If that doesn't work then toggle all the settings mentioned below, exit from IE, restart it,

Re: SMC-A lens and *istD use

2003-10-21 Thread John Francis
There is also a thing called hyper something or other. The word hyper scared me off, and I still don't know what hyper whatever does. Probably my favourite feature (also found on the PZ-1p). If you put the camera in HyperProgram mode then it starts off in full-program point-and-shoot mode.

Re: SMC-A lens and *istD use

2003-10-21 Thread John Francis
On Tuesday, Oct 21, 2003, at 10:59 America/New_York, alex wetmore wrote: The *ist D does Hypermanual too and it works exactly in this manner. Yup. Because parts of it operate so similarly to my PZ-1p, I can pretty much use the *ist-D out-of-the-box without having to read the

Re: SMC-A lens and *istD use

2003-10-21 Thread John Francis
John, thank for the explanation. What you are describing is what I call Program Shift (I come from a simpler era). It is a form of program shift, although not the usual one. On the Canons, for example, using Program Shift will simply bias the camera away from the default program line so that

Re: Sell me your useless film cameras

2003-10-21 Thread John Francis
well, i suppose, for printing uncropped images at 8x10, 6M of RGB pixels is as goot as it gets. but i don't now any digicam capable of that. yet. Not yet. The Foveon sensor in the Sigma XD-9 is only 3MP 6MP digicam has exactly 2M of pixels of each color Not even that. It's usually 1.5M

Re: Sell me your useless film cameras

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
What I meant is that it should be spec.ed at the number of independent |full color| output pixels I'm sorry, but you're several years too late with this argument. The pixel count on all digital cameras (with the exception of BW cameras and one one other case mentioned below) is the count

Re: Wildlife Photographer of the Year

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
The shot of the beetle drinking dew is, of course, much better on the wall than on a screen. There's still no substitute for a real exhibition! I assumed this to be the case. While I expect to disagree with the final placing quite often (I much prefer the jackrabbit to the pelican, as just

Re: NorCal PDML Meet Pictures

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
I finally have some pictures from the Northern California PDML Meet up. http://members.aol.com/doepage2/PDML/ Some people pixs, more scenery pixs, and a humorous (to me, anyway) accompanying little story. Nothing fantastic photograph-wise, but some passable. A little better than

Re: *ist D shutter delay?

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
One thing which make shutter lag bad on PS cameras is that the CCD in them is always live, updating the LCD. When it is time to take the picture they need to turn off the CCD for a short amount of time to let it clear it's registers and go completely black. I don't think this can be the

Re: Hypermanual

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
It looks like I have a lot of reading to do. I just bought my friend's PZ-1P. From the initial inspection it appears to be a robust, capable camera. It is. For many things it's the most capable automatic camera that Pentax offer. As a recent thread discussed the MZ-S can surpass it in

Re: *ist D shutter delay?

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
Thanks everyone that replied to this post so quickly! They were very positive answers since I had heard that the earlier Canons also suffered from shutter lag. Which earlier Canons would this be? I've never heard any complaints of shutter lag from Canon DSLR users, and I hang out with a

Re: NorCal PDML Meet Pictures

2003-10-22 Thread John Francis
The MZ/S really IS that good, huh, John? Maybe we need to arrange a mini-PDML meet. You're going to be up in Boulder Creek; Thomas is in Santa Cruz; I'm in south San Jose. You could try the MZ-S and/or the PZ-1p. Or even the *ist-D, if I'm prepared to take my hands off it ... I could probably

Re: Fascinating - a must read!

2003-10-23 Thread John Francis
The refresh rate is 60Hz. I don't know if that's high or low. That's low. Minimum specs for workplace monitors in some parts of the EU is 72hz. I have my home monitor set to 85Hz. 60Hz with a low-persistence phosphor will cause flicker. Even worse is if you are using the system in a

Re: It's arrived!

2003-10-23 Thread John Francis
The microdrives aren't here yet, but I've got a 256M CF card stolen from my Canon PS (it can live with 128M). Yeah - I'll bet that the Canon PS won't be seeing a lot of use over the next few days... ;-) You think? But it's got the 256MB card back, anyway; the microdrives turned up a

Re: *ist D shutter delay?

2003-10-23 Thread John Francis
D30. Lotta guys said you couldn't shoot action with it. I will admit that most of the D30 users I know did switch to D60s as soon as the new model came out. But several people did manage to shoot action with the D30 quite succesfully. I assume the same sort of tricks that let me use a

Re: Fascinating - a must read!

2003-10-24 Thread John Francis
I'd disagree with a lot of the opinions expressed in this thread. But in this post I won't talk about digital in the pro market. Digital penetration of the mass market isn't because of agressive marketing; it's because digital is a better product, *when judged by the criteria that are important

Re: Re[2]: A3 printer recommends please

2003-10-24 Thread John Francis
The latest round of HP's (6 color) are much better than people give them credit for. I got a chance to see the latest HP photo printers this week; HP were partial underwriters of a Computer History Museum event, and sent along some HP 945 digital cameras, some of their 6x4 printers, and one

Re: What do the photo labs print with?

2003-10-24 Thread John Francis
This one time, at band camp, tom [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Photo labs do every kind of printing. What are you talking about? What type of printing machines do they use? dye sublimation or other? Other, usually. They don't use printers - they use light-sensitive photographic paper,

Re: Digital issues

2003-10-25 Thread John Francis
My (presently) biggest gripe with digital imaging is the cost. For a process that is not significantly better, except in immediacy of results, I am expected to pay a very significant premium? No, thank you. I can do almost the same thing by buying a film scanner for about 1/5th of the

Re: On how *istD handles.

2003-10-26 Thread John Francis
I wish the Av wheel was on the front of the camera to be operated by the index finger with the Tv wheel on the back, operated by the thumb. Hmm. So that would be at least eight different variations; Av or Tv on the front wheel, plus choice of direction for each of the two controls. I think I

Re: pentax-discuss-d Digest V03 #1290

2003-10-26 Thread John Francis
Mailwasher is my choice. Same sort of thing, but it lets you 'bounce' spam - those sending spam messages think it never reached you. Not true, usually. The normal result of mailwasher (or other post- delivery anti-spam tools) is that the poor innocent third party whose mail identity is

Re: *istD output?

2003-10-26 Thread John Francis
OK, I've read through the last few digests and learned all about how the *istD feels, who would like which knobs in different places and so. Don't you guys take pictures with those things? Naah - why would we do that? Actually my other half has me fairly busy this weekend, so I can't get

Re: What DSLR Improvements I'd Like To See

2003-10-26 Thread John Francis
1. It's good that those with some discretionary funds buy early, They partially finance the better camera everyone else will buy in 3-5 years That already happened, of course. The original DSLRS (such as the Kodak) were horrendously expensive - I believe the high-end model was $25,000 Then

Re: A3 printer recommends please

2003-10-26 Thread John Francis
After much to-and-froing, my own Canon/Epson/HP decision finally got resolved in favour of HP. It's only six-colour (not their latest eight-ink unit), but the biggest difference there would be if I did a lot of black-and-white printing. The single biggest factor was my fear of printheads

Re: Av Wheel Wanted....

2003-10-26 Thread John Francis
All, I was doing some still-life and macro shooting with my MZ-S this morning with a couple of big lenses. I wanted to do some aperture bracketing to experiment with different depths of field, and I caught myself wishing that my MZ-S had an aperture wheel! So perhaps hou should consider

Re: What DSLR Improvements I'd Like To See

2003-10-27 Thread John Francis
When I last posted that live preview caused an increase in shutter lag I had a few people who doubted this. Here is the design book ... That just shows that some particular chip designs have this problem. It doesn't mean that it's an inherent problem if you use CCD sensors. As I pointed

Re: What DSLR Improvements I'd Like To See

2003-10-27 Thread John Francis
On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, John Francis wrote: As I pointed out, CCD TV cameras work just fine, so it's obviously possible to have a live-preview CCD SLR which adds less than 1/60 of a second to the shutter lag - something you'd be hard put to detect. On the other hand, CCD TV cameras

Re: Cinema projection - WAS - Re: What DSLR Improvements I'd Like To See

2003-10-28 Thread John Francis
You score 8½ for intellectual snobbery g Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me! Kenneth Williams (RIP), Carry on Caesar, IIRC.

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