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Memes + more London picspam
Still not feeling too great, but nothing like yesterday - nose still blocked (and sore from yesterday, although I put plenty of cream on it last night - which burned like hell, but was worth it) and throat could be a bit less sore, but in general, I'm hopeful it'll have passed by tomorrow.
76 words
Not that bad really - not massively good either, but I still do most of my typing in Estonian and my brain always needs a bit more time to re-orient itself with English.
ETA: Yes, I know it said 68 before, but I took it again. Practice helps!
Snagged from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dickgloucester.
Seems about right. *nods approvingly*
Also got a few more random London pics uploaded, so here they are.
Click for a bigger picture.
A bit of ceiling in the British Museum.
A squirrel somewhere close to the British Museum. (Damn those things are fast. It was practically impossible to get a good shot as they just wouldn't stay still!)
The Gherkin.
Security barrier (er, somewhere by the Houses of Parliament I think?) in the rain.
Big Ben.
Random street crossing.
No idea what this is. A building in the City, anyway.
London Bridge.
I've actually managed to make a tiny start in catching up with all the reading... although I've only managed to read a few of the shorter exchange fics so far. Should get myself some tea and get on with it.
76 words
Not that bad really - not massively good either, but I still do most of my typing in Estonian and my brain always needs a bit more time to re-orient itself with English.
ETA: Yes, I know it said 68 before, but I took it again. Practice helps!
Snagged from
dickgloucester.| Your Pirate Name Is... |
 |
Seems about right. *nods approvingly*
Also got a few more random London pics uploaded, so here they are.
Click for a bigger picture.
A bit of ceiling in the British Museum.
A squirrel somewhere close to the British Museum. (Damn those things are fast. It was practically impossible to get a good shot as they just wouldn't stay still!)
The Gherkin.
Security barrier (er, somewhere by the Houses of Parliament I think?) in the rain.
Big Ben.
Random street crossing.
No idea what this is. A building in the City, anyway.
London Bridge.
I've actually managed to make a tiny start in catching up with all the reading... although I've only managed to read a few of the shorter exchange fics so far. Should get myself some tea and get on with it.
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http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/The_Lloyds_building/Pictures_of_the_building-exterior/
Yep. Lloyds. Started in a coffee shop in 1688 and runs the world's insurance market.
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At least I know it now! :-D
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Thanks for the pics. Good squirrel shot!
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I've never got a good squirrel shot at home. They tend to be much more shy here it seems. But even in London, most of the squirrel shots I got were of their butts for some reason.
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And when did they roof over the courtyard of the British Museum? I haven't been there for 10 years and stood in the rain for a LONG time waiting to get in after a fire alarm forced us out.
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I have no idea. :-D
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For the other, about 2000. Foster again. The man's a genius.
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Nice pics! Strange getting a new view of London. It's only the Inner Court of the BM that always inspires awe in me every time I see it with my own eyes.
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Thanks. There was a lot to photograph in London! But as usual, I tended to get more detail-oriented. And not all the pics came out well - the risks of taking pics at night without a tripod.
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However, typing in English is quite different than typing in Estonian, considering half the letters needed in English are practically never used in Estonian. So there's always a fraction of a second of extra time needed whenever I need to type a w, c, f or x for example.
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Hmm... which reminds me ... I need a new camera ... any recommendations? I don't want to fiddle with extra lenses and stuff, because I'm really not good enough a photographer for that, but the camera I've got is beginning to seriously annoy me.
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No lens change needed. :-D
Which is something purists wouldn't say, as the image quality of such a zoom lens means that certain compromises have been made, but it'll beat a superzoom camera by a huge margin in anything but absolutely ideal light conditions. And you can easily use it on auto (or P mode where you can still change some things but which is essentially auto) - 99% of the time there wouldn't be any need to change any settings really.
Of course, this combination weighs a bit over 1 kg and doesn't come too cheap (the bodies of entry level DSLRs are not expensive compared to better compacts, but e.g. the Pentax/Tamron 18-250mm lens is likely going to be around 500 euros). On the other hand, you get much better image quality (especially in less than ideal light) and better dynamic range.
For anything smaller, my top suggestion is the Fuji F31 (er, yes, I am recommending the cameras I have myself ;-) with the good reason that I did think it through when I got mine), which may not be available any more; if not that, then either the F20, F40 or F50 (the latter two are newer and more readily available but not quite as good any more).
For medium-size with a bit more reach, and still decent... I'd probably go for the Canon G9 for the luxury option or the Canon A650 IS, which should be priced more reasonably (they have the same sensor and same lens though). Neither is really what I'd want at this stage, but if I didn't have a huge pool of cameras at home already, then the 6x zoom and decent optics+sensor would be a good combination.
One thing most compacts have issues with is very slow shot-to-shot performance with flash. The two aforementioned Canons should be relatively decent. The Fuji F31 has a terrific battery and is much better (not that flash is usually needed at all with it). Any Canon that only uses 2 AA batteries is going to have problems with that, and most other compacts as well.
DPReview.com (http://www.dpreview.com) has excellent reviews, which might well be worth checking out.
I suppose the question is really what your priorities are! Mine are very clearly good low light performance without flash, since - apart from mid-summer - 90% of my photos will be taken in low light (and I don't just mean night). With anything less than DSLR, there will be a loss of image quality (but you would win in convenience and price).
I wouldn't suggest ultra-compacts, especially those with non-extending lenses. They're convenient and handy for snapshots, but they really involve too many compromises for my taste.
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I bought my first digital camera early in 2005, and as I didn't know how I'd take to digital picture taking, I didn't spend a lot of money.
By now I'm doing a LOT of macro shots ... flowers, food, also close-ups for digital design, like still life pictures of books. And I -would- like to be able to take pictures of stuff that's not a mere four metres away from me. Currently my stomach ties into angry knots when I just glance at shots of stuff that are a little farther away. *sigh*
As for light - *generally* I seem to end up in surroundings with rather too much light. Except of course when I'm trying to take pictures inside cathedrals. *more sighs*
I'll check everything out you mentioned and then I'll probably bother you with a thousand questions. I'm thinking that I might use a part of the pay for my next translations assignment to get a new camera. *squee*
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Macros really are the one area where compacts excel compared to a DSLR with a general-purpose lens. Although as I said, with bigger objects (as opposed to, say, insects), any decent modern camera should do fine.
Too much light isn't necessarily a good thing either! :-D As it can easily lead to clipped highlights, overblown (white) skies etc. It's really a dynamic range problem and one most cameras can't deal with too well on auto... you might really need to fiddle a bit in such conditions, e.g. use exposure compensation.
In low light the ideal thing would of course be using a tripod. But not that many places (especially museums but also quite a lot of cathedrals, I think) are not going to allow that. Unfortunately using an average compact hand-held in a dimly-lit cathedral or museum is not going to give great results.
I think this picture is what cemented my belief in the Fuji F-series... took it with my F10 in 2005, and I am positive that I could not have taken this picture with any other compact camera around at the time, not at 1/20 seconds at ISO 1600 (meaning, hmm, an 1/2...1/3 s exposure at ISO 200, I think, which is about the best other compacts could do at a time without a big loss in quality):
Yes, the darker areas are noisy when looked at full size, but this is a straight out of the camera pic, with zero processing of any kind... a DSLR would be better of course, but still.