MichaelChang

<p>"Outsource to China or die" seems to be the operative mantra for German consumer electronics brands, and the surviving brands that have done this are now mere shells of their former selves.</p> <p>In fact it's surprising to me that Metz has lasted this long given their peculiar product mix of televisions and lighting equipment, and I don't think any amount of restructuring is going to turn it around. </p>

<p>Dave, I use multiple computers with different operating systems, so different programs for different machines, especially computers with older hardware such as a laptop dedicated to astronomy, photography or automotive diagnostics to keep it lightweight. </p>

<p>Thanks for the reminder, William, and wishing for your full recovery. </p>

<p>Dave, I've been using TrueImage for years and it works just as advertised. For cloning purposes I also use MiniTools DriveCopy which works equally well, and it's free, but has a more basic interface:<br> <a href="http://www.minitool-drivecopy.com/">http://www.minitool-drivecopy.com/ </a></p>

<p>Bob, I use a 150 qt hard shell plastic picnic cooler to store and transport camera gear in bad weather. It suits my needs perfectly. </p>

<p>That's an impressive advance but is probably in its infancy akin to speech recognition in its early days, and presumably relies heavily on image quality to determine accuracy - humans can recognize a herd of elephants and count their numbers in a 75x75 pixel thumbnail which I imagine will be an incredible challenge for machine analysis. </p> <p>I just read about an impressive real time machine vision system able to recognize a person in a crowd and follow him across multiple cameras with law enforcement application in mind - see the video in the page:<br> <a href="http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/11/12/moving-cameras-talk-to-each-other-to-identify-track-pedestrians/">http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/11/12/moving-cameras-talk-to-each-other-to-identify-track-pedestrians/</a> </p>

<p>Dave, maybe I'm a bit late, but here's the Microsoft planned end-of-life schedule:<br> <a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/lifecycle">http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/lifecycle</a></p> <p>Rumor has it that Windows 10 will likely be a free upgrade from Windows 8.1 although I haven't read any confirmation from Microsoft. </p>

<p>John, the GrooveBook venture could easily have gone either way so even more kudos to the founders and O'Leary's guidance. It's interesting, though, that O'Leary and company sold it at $14.5M; clearly they don't see themselves taking it any further to profitability, and there is no evidence the company was actually making money. </p> <p>I'd love to learn of the backdoor negotiating that must go on in the show. It's simply not possible that deals are made on the show without any prior knowledge and research of the participants by the sharks. </p>

<p>Transferring OS from one machine to another will be problematic if the hardware is substantially different. You can try it by cloning the source computer drive and then run the cloned drive in the target computer. You'll be in business if the target machine boots and searches for new drivers successfully. </p>

<p>Good for them! </p> <p>Kevin O'Leary is quite a character with as many admirers as haters. He had just quit as a guest host on a CBC show with Amanda Lang that I thoroughly enjoyed.<br> <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kevin-o-leary-leaves-cbc-s-the-lang-o-leary-exchange-1.2733971">http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kevin-o-leary-leaves-cbc-s-the-lang-o-leary-exchange-1.2733971 </a></p>

<p>I understand now, Hoi, and it makes sense :-) </p> <p>On DSLR video quality, my feeling is there's likely not a significant enough difference for this type of application such that just about any HD-capable DSLR will probably do a great job. The scenes will be slow moving, lighting will be controlled, so really not much of a demand on video performance compared to the overall video quality in terms of aesthetics, composition and movement, etc. </p>

<p>Hoi, is there a particular reason why you would prefer a DSLR over the Panasonic, apart from weight? </p> <p>It seems to me that walk through real estate videos will be quite a challenge with a DSLR, hand-held, compared to the available handle on the Panasonic in terms of image stability, and the weight issue pretty much goes away if you use either a shoulder rig or dolly.</p> <p>Then there's the issue of focus and zoom while shooting; much easier with the Panasonic, and nearly impossible with a DSLR unless you equipped it with ancillary gear which would make it impractical to use hand-held. </p> <p>The only advantage of DSLR video is their easier-to-achieve depth-of-field, but a conventional pro camcorder like the Panasonic will be a much better choice if the cinematic look isn't important. It'd be near impossible to achieve with a DSLR anyway without some camera support system.</p> <p>Finally, the Panasonic weighs about 6 lbs with battery and is much easier to handle than a DSLR, which when loaded with a pro lens isn't going to be much lighter. </p> <p> </p>

<p>Somewhat related and rather interesting are articles from the perspective of Russians on "Why don't Russians smile?".<br> <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?q=why+don%27t+russians+smile">https://www.google.ca/search?q=why+don%27t+russians+smile</a></p>

<p>It seems to me that facial expression, especially a highly nuanced expression, is one of those hit-or-miss things that happens more often by chance or discovered post-shutter than by effort on the photographer's part. </p> <p>It happens too quickly for photographers to react (as per discussion on frame rate <a href="/nikon-camera-forum/00cwHa">here</a>). </p> <p>If indeed that is the case, how can one modify ones approach to portrait photography without the benefit of high frame rate? </p>

<p>C.P.M., the VR has its own time constant which begins at the half-press so the image will not have time to stabilize if the shutter is full-pressed rapidly. It would be helpful if Nikon publishes a timing chart to show the various events' time constant.<br> Re: Willows; one of my favorite subjects to shoot! Thanks! </p>

<p>I think what the article is saying is that AF-ON and VR are separate systems such that if you use AF-ON to pre-focus, you should simultaneously activate VR by half-pressing the shutter as to allow it time to stabilize.</p>

<blockquote> <p><em>"what percentage of your photography (non-commercial) is planned vs spontaneous?"</em></p> </blockquote> <p>My ratio is easily 1000:1.<br> <br> I have planned for as long as 2 years and taken 5 years to accomplish that elusive prized shot. On the other hand, an on-location "model" shoot might net a few hundred pictures with little more than psychological planning.<br> <br> Over the past few years has been the planning of a 2 hour total exposure of the <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?q=Andromeda+galaxy&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=B-toVJ__LIutyQTti4H4Dg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=770">Andromeda galaxy</a> using amateur gear by solving every imaginable problem I can anticipate beforehand. The expectation is high since I won't have many opportunities to access dark skies, and the interesting part is, the more I plan, the more the challenges become apparent making the journey take even longer.<br> </p> <p>It's a target that has been successfully shot by many amateurs and some day I'll end up with my own drop-dead gorgeous picture, just not any time soon. <br> </p>

<p>This is an expression some friends have described as pensive that somehow solicits more view-time than "simpler" expressions such as a smile or some other obvious expression, hence the question. </p> <p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/4470014-lg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="531" /></p>

<p>How much does facial express matter to your perception of a portrait photo? </p> <p>Does a smile, scowl, or neutral expression matter? or is one subject to more interpretation than another thereby thought to be more artistic? </p>

<p>It's interesting to observe that in those pictures, there are highlights, then there are blacks; there is no surrounding landscapes to reflect light into shadows and I imagine no amount of long exposure is going to extract anything from those black areas. </p> <p>Space is true black body. </p>

<p>Among strangers, I sometimes wear a laminated ID badge dangling from my neck and people think I'm press, other times I pretend to be an Asian tourist with a Nikon camera who speaks no English. </p> <p>Among friends, my stock answer is, with a heavy accent: "Nikon tai goo pitcher!". </p>

<p>A little more tasteful than the other but the gold trim still looks to me like bling in all the wrong places.<br> I think they should really hire a highbrow industrial designer to create an even more tasteful design. </p>

<p>Les, one possibility is your hard drive power options settings - they might be in sleep mode after some predetermined idle time and causing it not to appear in certain applications until it's powered up. </p> <p>Try checking these power settings in the control panel. This is a screenshot from Windows 8.1 but 7 should be similar. </p> <p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17904668-lg.jpg" alt="" width="418" height="449" /></p>

<p>Sanford, just a guess: I think the comet is so distant from the sun that it probably receives very little light making color pictures a real challenge. </p>

<p>Nice! <br> But to be honest, I could have made similar photos in my backyard without all that expense. :Þ</p>