Rendezvous@NanoMakia

Have you ever wondered how good your digital SLRs sensor is? Or you just want to compare some models before you buy your next camera. DXOMark shows a list of cameras and the ratings that they give are quite helpful in giving you a general idea of the camera’s sensor which is one of the most important parts of a camera.

This is one of the tools you can use online to compare cameras. Explore more and you will find more information you need for your future purchase. Or just gives you a general idea of what your camera sensor’s performance is. But best way is still to try out the camera yourself and check out more reviews online.

General things you need to consider when getting a DSLR camera:

1. First thing you need to consider is, what system do you want to invest in? Canon? Nikon? Sony? This is important because once you are in a system and you have bought a lot of lenses and accessories… it will be very hard for you to switch to another system.
2. What sensor size do you want to settle with? There are crop sensors (1.5x, 1.6x or 2.0x) which are smaller sensors than full frame sensors. Full frame sensors will have the advantage of allowing an ultra wide lens to be used than what is possible on a cropped system. Full frame will usually have better ISO light sensitivity performance with lower noise. Full frame will also be able to retain more color dynamics. But full frame cameras are a lot more expensive than a cropped camera. An advantage of a cropped sensor camera is that the telephoto range can be further… a 300mm will be equivalent to 300×1.5=450mm on a 1.5x cropped sensor. Some people will choose to buy a cropped sensor camera first and invest on full frame lenses. In the future they can just upgrade their camera bodies to full frame bodies. The only issue is a full frame lens may not be wide enough for use on a cropped sensor and they are quite expensive.
3. Megapixels, nowadays anything above 10 megapixels looks good unless you want to print super huge photos. The more megapixels packed into a smaller sensor usually results in more noise when you crank up the ISO. But it also depends on each manufacturers noise reduction algorithms as well.
4. Speed, most cameras can shoot 3 frames per second. But if you are into sports photography, you might want it to be faster.
5. Lens, it is good to start off with kit lenses… but you might want to invest in better lenses further down the road. Or you can just get a camera body and buy a better lens to begin with.
6. Camera bodies, do you need it just for normal use? or a rugged environment? If you are more adventurous, you might need a weatherproof or sealed cameras. One more thing to consider.
7. Interface and feel, do remember to try out the camera. You might like the feel of the camera differently from another model. Also try out the user interface.

That is basically what I think is important when purchasing a digital SLRs

A great website you can use to check out reviews of cameras is from dcviews. They compile a list of reviews from around the web for camera models and are listed in numerous useful ways. Check it out.

Yesterday I was so excited… finally I can mini size my computer. I assembled everything as I usually do… with a hint of help from the manual every once in a while. Feeling so tired especially after having a headache the whole of the day before. The hard drive had an issue… had to reinstall everything from scratch. I was all excited… putting everything together. It’s like playing lego… except it’s sensitive lego.

I was happily stressed fixing everything together. When I thought I was done… boot up the system. Guess what! The sign of life on the computer made me smile a little… happily adjusting the settings in the system… Tick! the system shut itself off. I opened the case and checked everything. Everything looked in place. I was suprised, shocked and frustrated. Tried turning it on multiples times only to have it shut itself off after a few seconds. There was no beeping sound… the beeping sound is how the computer tells us that it is not working properly.

Then I tried disconnecting the wireless adapter.  Then power it on. Whooosh… loaded up Windows 7 installer. Left it there while I went off to do something else. Fingers crossed, hoping that everything would not shut down. Came back after around 30 minutes… still on. I thought it might be the wireless adapter shorting some connections… so I had to remove the entire board and unscrew the wireless. Power up again, system shut down after few seconds.  I am now totally perplexed and oblivious.

This is a summary of my actions:

Unscrew casing, check connections, remove motherboard, check CPU and memory… do this multiply by around 5 times. I am getting pissed off… hungry and angry and annoyed. This is the hardest time I have ever installed a PC… it is supposed to be easy. Googled up… then I looked into the BIOS and saw the chipset temperature… 90 degrees Celsius… that is almost boiling. Totally not normal. I don’t wanna cook eggs with my computer.

Then an Eureka moment… I remembered myself telling myself that I would regret it if I kept the CPU heatsink pressing against the chipset headsink. It truly came back and haunted me… I had to cut off a part of the plastic on the heatsink to avoid touching the other part. Finally turn on the computer and everything worked fine.

If you make it this far into this boring babble… congratulations. Imagine the trouble I went through just to get a system running… the headaches, the torture, the torment and the horror.

Moral of the story is… try to do major activities when you are calm. Do complicated or major things when you are tired only when it is necessary. Try to avoid doing anything major when you are frustrated, angry or sick. Sit back and drink a beer. Cheers, Paul.

A hot day afternoon with me wondering around Fredericton just enjoying the sunshine. I was walking on the walking bridge and just across… with the greens, Christ Church Cathedral looks so pretty. It is an Anglican Cathedral built more than 150 years ago. I decided to drop by the Cathedral to take some photos. And it happens that there was a guide there and he gave me a tour… and I was the only visitor at that time, a personal tour… hahaha.

luscious greens surrounding the Cathedral.

Me approaching my destination for the day. From the tour, here is a quick history. I do apologize if I made any mistakes recalling what the guide said in the tour, my memory is not too good lately.

Christ Church Cathedral was founded by Bishop John Medley around 1845. During that time Fredericton was not yet a city and church can only gain Cathedral status if it was located in a city. Bishop John Medley was involved in requesting the Queen to grant Fredericton the city status. The requirements to become a city at that time was a population of 10,000 but Fredericton only had around 1000. Now when you see the Fredericton city crest, you will see a Cross on it, it is to thank Bishop John Medley for helping Fredericton gain city status.

Here is a short description of the Cathedral. The Cathedral was declared as a National Historic Site in 1983 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

The entrance to the Cathedral.

Another view of the Entrance.

Approaching the cathedral

From what the guide told me, you will noticed that their is a shorter bench just below the longer piece. The shorter piece was part of the original design. It was just upgraded to be longer not too long ago.

Here is the Royal Seat for Royalty. It can be used by the public as well when there is no Royalty present. The last time it was used was by Prince Charles as few years ago.

Here is the pulpit where the Priest will speak to the public.

The Phoenix symbolized the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a prominent symbol in Anglican Churches.

Here is the keyboard for the Church Organ…

And here we have the special effects panel where you can modify the organ sounds.

The pipes for the organ… tall and strong.

Here is the wall of the sanctuary. The guide told me that when they wanted to do restoration… it was discovered that the paint was actually milk based. And the safe way to clean it would be to use erasers. Imagine doing that for the entire wall.

Here are the seats in the sanctuary for the priests from around New Brunswick.

Here is the seat for the Bishop.

Here is the keyboard to control the church bells.

This is a memorial for Bishop John Medley the founder of Christ Church Cathedral.

Here we can see the entrance. Nice stained glass windows. And you can see the guide sitting there.

This is the area between the sanctuary and the nave.

Another view of the sanctuary.

The walls and ceilings of the nave.

Here is a Stained Glass picture of Jesus Christ.

Here is another Stained Glass picture. I was told that the yellow you see here is actually made from gold.

And finally here is the overall view of the Cathedral.