Camera on a CarabinerThis is how I’ve taken to carrying my little NEX-6 now, rather than a neck strap or wrist strap:
A neck strap just got in the way too much. A wrist strap just means I have to pack the camera away into pocket or back when I want to put it down for a moment. This can attach to my belt loops, or to a neck strap, at a moment’s notice. It doesn’t take up much pocket space. It doesn’t get tangled up.
Also, it looks a bit ridiculous. I like that.
New Yahoo! Weather App for iOSWeather apps on the iPhone are a great playground for app developers. I’ve tried a few of them, but keep returning to WeatherPro from MeteoGroup – it isn’t the prettiest, but it’s got lots of data, fairly well presented. When Yahoo! released a new weather app, though, as a tie-in with Flickr, I had to try it out. And it is good.
The big selling point is the photography – the main screen is a big photo of something similar to your current weather conditions, somewhere near your current location (or the location you’re checking the forecast for).
There isn’t as much detailed data as in WeatherPro, but that can be a bit much sometimes. The basics are beautifully presented, in a nice simple, flat design, with a nice modern look, and there’s as much detail as I generally want. It also ties in with an official Flickr group, so Flickr users (like me) can add photos to the group, and they’ll be used to represent the weather at that location. It’s a weather app that looks great, presents just about the right amount of information, and that you can take a little part in yourself.
It’s become my weather app of choice for now at least.
Update: Oh, one little detail I forgot to mention originally – it’s free.
Digital Pinhole PhotographyI’d noticed a speck of dust on my camera’s sensor while out recently, so I decided to take the lens off and give it a quick clean with the classic Giottos Rocket Blower (Amazon UK, Amazon US). While doing so, I found myself wondering how simple a lens could get – there didn’t seem to be any reason I couldn’t put a pinhole in front of the sensor, with no lens attached, and take a photo. Yes, it would look rubbish at best, but it should work.
I stabbed a rough hole in a handy empty crisp packet, and held it over the front of the camera. There was an image. It was rubbish, but it did work.
In an attempt to get a slightly better result, I made a smaller and neater hole in a brown envelope, and stepped outside. Here’s the view I often use here for test shots:
And here’s a shot of the house across from our door:
A shot of the steps leading down to the ground from our flat is reasonably recognisable, including our neighbour’s yellow van:
So, the results are all a bit rubbish, and do show why cameras actually need lenses. The fact that it works at all, though, is a reminder of how simple this stuff can be – we’re just putting light on a surface, and the surface can be a digital sensor, just as it used to be film.
Telephoto Test with Old Hanimex 200mmThe view from our steps with a 35mm lens:
The white building in the middle distance is a school, on the other side of the canal from us. The closest white part has a window and a decorative pattern on it, and a diagonal roof sloping down to the right.
The next photo is that part only, taken with a strange lens combination:
It’s an old Hanimex 200mm f/4.5 lens, picked up nice and cheap on eBay, with two 2x converters between it and the adaptor that connects it to my Sony NEX. That makes it a total of 800mm. I used my Tamrac Zipshot tripod, which was really pushing the limits of such a flimsy portable tripod. The image was shaking about all over the place in the wind, but I tried a couple of shots, and they came out ok. Not good, but kind of impressive considering what they were taken with.
Here’s the ‘lens’ on the camera:
And this is what it looks like on the Zipshot tripod:
I wouldn’t call it a practical combination for day-to-day use, and the quality isn’t good, but it’s fun to play with, which is important too.
New Toys from WexI sent most of my old Nikon gear to Wex for part exchange recently, and spent the proceeds on new toys for my Sony NEX-6. They arrived yesterday. I haven’t had much chance to play so far, but here are some very brief first impressions…