The contenders are: Conclusions Which to get? Neither lens is clearly better than the other, technically. They have similar features and each exceeds the other in at least some areas. But the 18-55 is slightly smaller, significantly lighter, and much more consistent in its performance. Consequently I rate it as better value, given it’s significantly… Read more
I’m worried for Aperture – it’s ageing, slow to get RAW support updates, does some nasty, funky shit with colours in NEFs, and can’t do some fundamental corrections (like geometric distortion). So I finally decided to download Lightroom and give it a shot. Thoughts on this: Adobe requires you make some stupid user account in… Read more
I used my new monopod properly for the first time last weekend, wandering along the cliff-tops of Santa Cruz and so forth, and two things caught me by surprise: It doesn’t really yield better results than hand-holding (at up to 300mm, or 450mm in 35-equiv.). Apparently I can already hand-hold steady enough, in concert with… Read more
I went in to the camera store speculatively looking for an old, $50-or-so AI-s lens for star photography, and walked out with a way more expensive lens (Nikon 10-24) and a new camera entirely. I suck at this. My first impression is that the lens is fun, and I’ve been grumpy at work because I… Read more
After my prior investigation into SD card performance, I wondered if shooting JPEG instead of RAW would make a meaningful difference on both “buffer capacity” and write rates. What I found was rather interesting, for many reasons. All the following use “JPEG Fine” except where otherwise stated. At ISO 100, with noise reduction & distortion… Read more
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why two out of three IBOutlet-connected properties were being connected just fine, but a third wasn’t. What was different? Long story short: One was “(weak)”, meaning implicitly readwrite. Apparently when I added that one I got it right accidentally. One was “(weak, readonly)” and yet still worked.… Read more
SanDisk Ultra 32 GB vs Lexar Professional 600x 32 GB. On paper the Lexar is at least twice as fast for writes, thrice as fast for reads. Test setup: Nikon 55-300 @ 55/4.5 switched to manual focus (and slightly out of focus), VR on, in Program mode in a dimly lit room, framed roughly the… Read more