CFV-39 Digital Back Review

A three-part review brought to you by Mr. Oleg Novikov is up.  Much of his review is from his field experience while shooting in Inner Mongolia.

Halloween Party

The first time ever I actually wore something special on Halloween.  It wasn't much of a costume, but a mask was a start.

New York Public Library At Bryant Park

Park Here

Empire State Building

Yellow School Bus

An American icon, sort of.

This was taken on my way to the first day of the Photoplus expo at Jacob Javits Center.  Shot using a Canon SD880 IS.  Opened in GIMP, scaled to 1600 width and did a bit of USM to make it look sharper.  I wish I am a bit more proficient in enhancing the color, make it more saturated or giving it a technicolor look.  Perhaps I can just underexpose it a bit.  This was pretty much a grab shot but I did try to make sure the bus was right in the middle of the frame.  I was shooting into the light so I was mildly blinded when looking at the LCD screen.  I guess what I was trying to say was I did an excellent job capturing the bus.

First Family Portrait

P090109-0127

Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.
First Family picture by acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz. The picture is a bit controversial as it's pleasant as it's seemingly ordinary. I don't know if it's a deliberate effort to be low key by the White House or by the photographer. But it's a big departure from Leibovitz generally elaborate celebrity larger than life shots I used to see. Is Leibovitz joining the non art direction and non Photoshop camp? I am not sure. I think there is definitely a revolt against over art direction and over Photoshop in general. This is a good family portrait, like one taken at Sears perhaps, it is homely, cheerful, and effortlessly good looking.

More Cameras

What's not clear in addition to the picture is actually the digital back attached, that's the Hasselblad 39MP CVF-39

 

Canon 1D Mark IV with a 35mm f1.4.  I like.

Project Overcompensation

Canon 1200 mm comes with a price tag of $99,000

Another view of the monster

 

 Bigma

Nikon

liveBooks

Our friends from liveBooks ...

The Leica Man

Me at Photoplus Expo 2009, holding some ridiculously expensive equipments.  On the left (or top if your screen is kind of smallish) is a Leica S2 with a Summarit 70mm f2.5 lens.  On the right (or bottom) is a Leica M9 with some astronomically priced lens.

UPDATE:  There is of course, some interest in the S2 ... I was so enthralled by the mere experience of holding a Leica that costs more than my car so I didn't even notice anything.  Later I read it has some one single AF point.  Yes, you read it right, one, so you won't pick the wrong AF point by mistake.  I think that's kind of neat.  I did remember in the sub par lighting condition that's the expo, the AF wasn't doing its job with any more conviction than my Canon P&S.  Actually I wonder why they bother AF at all, why not just manual focus, I don't think people are going to shoot formula I with an S2.  As to the M9.  It's hefty, more than I imagined it would be, the S2 on the other hand doesn't weigh as massive as it looks, so I don't know. Leica is a brand that is pretty much impervious to negative reviews, plus I guess it really has its merits even most (sorry if you can afford one I don't mean to be offensive) people can't afford one.  So what does it really matter?  If you like it and can afford one, go ahead buy one and call it a day.

Note:  For the fashionista, more utilitarian actually, out there, that's a Uniqlo +J jacket by the purity obsessed Jil Sander as worn here over a 100 years old gray pocket Gap T-shirt.  The jeans was a pair of originally unwashed shrink-to-fit Levi's 501, look what I did to it, it's on the verge of disintegrating and falling apart.  Clear Freeway frame by Shuron USA.  Messenger bag is a Coach.  Not seen are brown Blundstones boots and lime green American Apparel brief.  The hairs, on top of my head and on my face, are all mine.  I finally relented and bought myself a Dovo straight razor, beard, here I come.

Windows 7

Are you 7 enough to use Windows 7?  Windows 7 is not as 7 as I have imagined, at least that's what all the reviews told me so far.  But does it really matter?  Even The New York Times described Windows Vista as "epic fail" but to me, it really doesn't matter.  I just use it to browse the web.  It could well be Windows 3.11.  As an aside, I think the word "fail" is really on fire.  I try to be trendy so I have adopted it to my post usage as well.  I know the really hip people are going to hate that as a hip lingo is once again summarily appropriated and adopted by an uncool person like me and even by the Gray Lady.  There is chance that I will have to go 7, like it or not.  But really it doesn't matter.  Not much anyway.

Canon EOS 1 D Mark IV

As if the world needs another big ass digital camera.  I say yes actually.  Canon just announced its latest high speed professional DSLR that once again offers a dizzying array of features that at once appeal to professional photographers and professional gear heads.  According to my quick glance at dpreview, where else anyway, the new camera has 45 AF points that have the potential to focus correctly as opposed to its predecessor that is mired with focus problems, real or perceived.  The thing offers full 1080p video and can shoot in the dark, i.e. ISO 120400, not that it means anything to me,  It is totally outside of my knowledge and experience.  If with any luck, I may be able to see it in the PhotoPlus in NYC.

The World Is Not Enough Of Apple

There is an avalanche of good news coming from Apple.  First and foremost, the stock is now over $200 and most likely will stay that way and if Cramer would have it, it probably is going to shoot past the $300 or even $400 price point.  Sky is the limit.  As if that is not enough, Apple just rolled out some minor upgrades of its notebook and desktop line, the details of course can be found in Apple's site and other sites that are peripheral and feeding off Apple's success.  The new unibody hard plastic, er, I mean polycarbonate MacBook lacks FireWire and SD slot, bummer.  Perhaps what's old is new again, it just looks like my broken iBook G3 from way back 30 years ago.  Anyway, for FW and SD you have to go MacBook Pro.  Anyway, people are lapping up anything Apple makes.  The state of Apple is strong and reality distorting, just like it should be.  Disclaimer:  I own Apple stock and products.  If you buy Apple stock and end up losing more than your underwear, don't blame it on me.  I can't be responsible for anybody's stupidity and misfortune.

Random Thoughts

It's really not the equipment.  I have similar equipment but my pictures are pedestrian at best.  Mostly I just admire my equipment, they are my objects of affection, sometimes I feel bad for my gears, it's like I never help them fulfill their potentials even they are capable of taking great pictures.  Oleg Noikov's October 21 2009 pictures just blow me away.  Sure I don't have a CFV-39 back but that's not really irrelevant.

Apple Can't Do No Wrong

Just like pseudo model Chrissie Chau, Apple can't do no wrong.  If you disagree, you are wrong.  In the midst or at least the immediate aftermath of an economic death spiral while most companies are struggling to stay afloat, that's with the exception of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, Apple is yet having another stellar quarter.  The share price of Apple hit $200 at some point.  You can see even people are struggling financially and losing their homes to foreclosures, when it comes to computing, people are willing to pay a premium to be cool or perceived to be cool.  You do pay more to be cool, just look at Apple's profit margin.  Apple's gross margin is over 32.26% while Dell was around 20.4%.  Disclaimer:  In the interest of disclosure, I own Apple stock and products (broken G3 iBook and free iPod something, the 512MB gum stick).  If you were to lose more than your underwear buying and selling stock, don't blame it on me.  I can't be responsible for anybody's stupidity and bad luck.

Something About Shoelaces ...

It's the morning rush.  Everybody is in a hurry.  There is no time for anything.  Everybody has to be out at 7:28AM.  That's except for one thing, tying up the shoelace in a butterfly bow securely.

I pulled over the curb once I found out Harry just tucked in his shoelaces instead of doing it the right way--securely tied in a butterfly bow.  I would not tolerate this infraction.  It is one of my many excuses to get mad at them.  I just think there is really no reason not to know how to tie the shoelace.  With the invention of Velcro, both kids and parents are just too happy not to know how to tie their shoes.  If I see any otherwise healthy ten  year old wearing Velcro tied sportshoes not because of any misguided aesthetic reason but out of necessity, it really makes me sick.  I wouldn't like them to just slip in and off a tied pair of shoes either, especially when they whine and scream while trying to squeeze in their untied pair of shoes.  I feel like to yell and slap them around.  But I choose my war to fight, sometimes I just give up and back off.  Like any parents in the morning rush.

Digital Back CFV-39 For Hasselblad

This is a digital back for Hasselblad V series cameras.  I think.  I don't bother to read the fine prints.  Oleg Novikov is in the process of penning his field experience with this 39MP back.  The site is good old html, and I don't know if it has any perma link.  Anyway, do a search or something, the update is on October 17, 2009.

Daily Fodder From Donald

The guy is on a roll.  After playing grammar cop, with spectacular failure, in a legco meeting, Donald Tsang continues his daily blunder by trying to give nepotism a bad name.  The father-in-law of Tsang's son turns out to be a vendor and a likely beneficiary of some government sponsored energy efficient light bulb program.  There won't be any conflict of interest if it has been properly disclosed and approved by some certain branch of government.  It looks like this was not the case.  Another Oopsie from your Chief Executive.

Sourced from mingpaonews.com

The Year After

Dow is inching towards 10,000.  JPMorgan Chase is having spectacular quarter profits.

What happened a year ago seems so far away now.

• Bear got saved by the government and bought by JPMorgan Chase
• Lehman Brothers, not so lucky.  Paulson let it go under.  The bankruptcy had a domino effect, a run on the money market, a liquidity freeze, a collapse of confidence.  Barclays bought part of Lehman at a good price.
• AIG was considered too big to fail and saved by the Fed.
• Merrill Lynch sold at $29 a share to Bank of America.  John Thain got a good deal from Ken Lewis.
• Morgan Stanley was saved by Mitsubishi
• Goldman Sachs got money from Warren Buffett.
• The Fed got Congress to pass legislation to spend $700 billions on TARP.

The free market is not free.  The Fed spent taxpayers' money so the free market can remain free for the bankers.  How we got to the point where we couldn't let one financial institution fail without dire consequence to the whole global market is beyond me.

I am not sure if we are having any financial reform.  Or any health care reform at all.

UPDATE 3:24PM:
Dow passed the 10,000 mark.

Staedtler Eraser

When I was little like eleven or twelve, education was a privilege. We needed to jump through hoops just to go to secondary school (or what we call junior high school here).I remember our primary school teachers made sure we had the right weapons for this Primary Six public examination, i.e. three sharpened HB pencils and a Staedtler eraser for those multiple choice questions. To this day, I still believe in a good eraser. Every time, my kids erase their homework with some sub par eraser, I can't help but tell them to use a real eraser. It irks me to no end seeing them using the eraser head from the pencil.

Nikon D3s

I am live blogging live blogging the supposedly Nikon D3s launch. Just kidding. I can't be live blogging that. Anyway, the "s" is not meant to indicate plural but a new model for the incremental evolutionary upgrade of the Nikon D3 model. There is some excitement, manufactured or not, really depending on who you are, to this launch. And the usual rumor sites are prepared to blog more about this should it really become a real product. The Leica M9 is the camera du jour, everybody is still very much excited about it and got a bit hung over since its 09/09/09 launch. But if you are looking for sheer speed and high ISO and expandability, nothing really beats a Nikon, there I said it--as if I really know what I am talking about. I want a D3 like DSLR with 18MP selling for a thousand bucks. Give it to me Nikon.

UPDATE:
Sorry guys, there isn't really anything first hand here.  But thanks for visiting.
You got to go to Nikonrumors.com to see all the D3s rumors.

Lee Jeans

I remember once upon a time Lee made some killer jeans.  But now in the US, Lee just specializes in selling the ugliest jeans it can possibly make.  They re-design all the good old jeans they can and make them look as ugly as they can possibly make them, the cut, the wash, everything.  If not ugly they simply won't sell them.

I really don't get it.  If only they don't change a thing they would look the best already.  Now instead for the best looking Lee you will have to find them in Europe or in Japan.  America somehow deserves the ugliest looking Lee jeans.

GPS Experience

I am spoiled by Google Map and Google in general.  So when I have to type in something in my GPS, and it takes like a minute to give me choices I am not at all happy.

J Crew and Levi's

I don't know what Levi's was thinking.  But I guess if the price is right, one can sell his mother.  That's what I feel about the transaction between J Crew and Levi's.  Allegedly Levi's sold its LVC, or Levi's Vintage Clothing (Collection?) to J. Crew.  If you were to do a relevant search on Google you probably can find traces of this relationship.  I don't know it's made public or if it's even true but that's what I have gathered from my source.  The collection typically sells for $200 for a vintage 501 replica and I guess J. Crew would probably jack it up maybe 25% more why 25% because that's what Google cache is telling me.

UPDATE 2 seconds after the above and some Google result reading:
The above was indeed old news.  I found reports on that in August.  So it's a done deal.  My post trying to be a fashionista fails. Miserably.  I guess the LVC is not offered online.

I Love You All

Again it's time to thank a very small number but dedicated readers out there ... some where--my imagination runs wild during this time of the day.

Clean Is Not Enough

Empire State Of Mind
warning: explicit lyrics, maybe offensive.

Every time somebody reminds me how dirty New York is, I just shrug.

"When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is.  Clean is not enough."--Fran Lebowitz.

Bear Mountain Trail

I am still searching my own identity in this world.  One of the roles I play regularly is my boys' Dad, though I am definitely not going to get any Oscar award for that judging from my lackluster performance.

It was a five-hour hike and I made it back alive without totally embarrassing myself and my kids, I think.  Just look at the pictures, I was always the last one trying to catch up, always on the verge of losing my will to walk another step or live another day.

The inept photographer in me says:  notice the purple fringing around the tree branches?  I think Canon compacts or maybe most compacts have this problem when shooting directly into the sunlight.  But big deal, I'll just leave it as it is.  If National Geographic decides to call me, which is like never, then I will learn how to remove this purple fringing thing.  For now, I just love the color purple.

Ralph Lauren

FAIL.
 

Photoshop fail, legal fail, publicity fail, what now, fashion fail?

I think the dude is selling Americana, like romantic vision of the great American ideals, great outdoors, freedom and individual liberty.  But dude is suppressing freedom of speech through some big wig lawyers.  Shame on you cowboy.

via bb via Conscientious via hongkie tweet.  Yes, I am just recycling the news.  No you won't see the picture except via the link.  I am afraid I will get a cease and desist from Polo.

Note:  There is no freedom of speech in this blog.  Comment at your own risk.

The Inevitable Pseudo Intellectualization of The Pseudo Model Phenomenon Part II

Don't let this die.

I can really appreciate the humility of this chick girl.  She is the first to admit she is the one to blame for perhaps her sub-par performance, because as she puts it she doesn't have "enough ink" in her to answer those supposedly intellectually profound and challenging questions--my words not hers.  I mean how can you hate her?   Her meteoric rise to fame and fortune can be attributed to her good look and good management.  But I guess it's also because she is a girl of our time.  By that I mean she didn't come from any of the traditional establishment in Hong Kong, i.e. traditional TV beauty pageant.  People are already deeply critical and cynical of traditional TV if not downright sick and tired of it.  And Chau proves that those people are right.  TVB can no longer be the arbiter or purveyor of taste, or as a gatekeeper and hold you back to become successful though it may help when you have it on your side.  The public, read guys, don't need TVB to tell them which chick has the beauty and the brain to be named Miss Hong Kong, not anymore and not even relevant to a large part of the populace.  The most severe critics that I am aware of turn out to be from the good old fashioned venues, some chick from a beauty pageant and a woman whose dad is a billionaire casino mogul and an openly practicing polygamist.  Both suggest Chau, is pandering to sex and bad taste in general, and hence deserves absolutely no respect and worse is like committing the  biggest crime ever, which is mind-boggling considering both are in the same business though admittedly with less publicity and grassroots support than Chau.  Epic fail.  People tend to root for the underdog and the underdog is Chau.

The Inevitable Pseudo Intellectualization of The Pseudo Model Phenomenon

The first rule of being a model, you don't talk.  The second rule of being a model, refer to rule number one.

The inevitable pseudo intellectualization of the pseudo model begins.  Epic Fail.  I like her the same regardless. (note to Chau:  don't be intimidated, if you were, by this professor or the academic setting, his questions aren't necessarily hard or intellectually challenging.  If you feel like it's a dumb question, probably it is.  What's profound is how far you have gone from where you were to where you are now.  Enjoy your fame and fortune.)

via ESWN

Success Has Many Parents ...

picture via wiki

Success has many parents while failure is always an orphan.  (update 10/11/09:  apparently it's no long available as linked image from wiki, but single click on it still gives you the picture, so click away.)

Charles K Kao, Nobel prize winner.

Failure Is An Orphan

Epic fail.

Just take him, anybody?



via ESWN

Jackie Chan, unintentionally funny.

Cast Iron Grill Pan With Ridges

I am a fan of cast iron cookwares.  I guess I must have said it a dozen times already.  What can I say?  I got nothing better to write about.  This one has ridges, so you can really make nice looking grill marks on it.  It's also coated with enamel on the outside which I don't think is necessary but can add different colors to  the same pan for aesthetic and marketing reasons.  Some has the enamel on the cooking surface so that makes it non-reactive to acidic food, me think.

Patricia Cornwell

I like her novels.  She is reliable and I feel like she's always done her work.

Cable

I am happy with the HD pictures from cable.  I have seen HD pictures from satellite, and I have to say they look pretty bad to me.  I don't know if it's the setting or what.  So I never bother to switch to dish.  Plus I am a man of habit.  But since this summer, I don't know exactly when, the cable software got changed, and I don't like it one bit.  I think there had been a few random reboots already.  The navigation is not anywhere near intuitive, there are times when the navigation seems dead end, you just can't back out or exit your way out the menu.  The interface is worse off than before upgrade.

Letterman Owning The Narrative Of His Own Story

Instead of just watching others make fun of himself, he makes fun of himself and makes a show out of it.  A week after he broke the news that he was being extorted for having affairs with his staff, Letterman once again takes control and shape his own story.  He makes fun of his affair and shortcomings during his entire opening monologue.  He goes on to apologize to his wife, Regina and even once again apologize to Sarah Palin, perhaps just for comical effect.  The only problem I see with his affairs is he was doing that with his underlings.  Does it amount to sexual harassment, an abuse of power?  Or was he just a sugar daddy?

Well the truth will probably set him free.

FTC

The FTC announced today that bloggers should clearly disclose whether a post is editorial or advertisement when something like payments and free products are involved.  All my posts are editorial because nobody in his right mind is going to pay me anything.  I always appreciate bloggers who are upfront about the goodies they receive and clearly state that hey, this is an ad instead of a regular blog post.  Because some readers just don't have it in them to discern the difference.

via theonlinephotographer.

Recession. What Recession?

Photo jacked from Nytimes.com.  Copyright belongs to its rightful owner.  Photo by Danielle Levitt

This pair of artfully aged and perfectly torn jeans is selling for $575 at Barneys New York.  You just want to kill yourself, don't you?  It's like people have a lot of money and willing to spend a lot of them to just look like not rich or some hobos.  People are too ashamed of their wealth or what?  I guess I will never ever find out in my lifetime how the rich people think  I wear torn and deconstructed jeans too, but I don't pay people to do it for me because that would be too contrived and too expensive.

To learn more ridiculously expensive stuff or stuff that makes you want to kill yourself, click here.

Overgrown Fig Tree From Neighbor

Chinatown

I just got my film back from processing.  I mailed them on Monday 9/21 during lunch break on priority mail.  Today is Saturday 10/3.  Usually I am fine with the time it takes to get back the pictures.  But it just seems a bit too long.  As usual, the majority or should I say all of the pictures are sub standard.  Technically they are by and large OKAY.  I mean, you can't really go wrong shooting in auto, can you?

Chinatown

Breakfast At Home

This one comes out all right, (by my probably ill informed standard that is). I think ideally I should shoot a single roll of film under the same lighting condition so when I develop, the same roll would get the same effect, consistently good or bad. I mean you can't develop frame by frame from a 120 roll film. Anyway, for me, all different lightings across a roll of 120. So it's not really that great when it comes to develop. More work needs to be done after developing when it comes to print.

Bark

The scans come back OKAY, but the prints look pretty bad, The majority of the pictures I took them with a yellow filter in the front, I was hoping it would increase the contrast a bit. Still some of them came out pretty flat, just a mushy shade of gray, in part could be a result of overcast outdoor lighting; there was no black at all. It's hard to take good pictures and it's even harder to get some nice black and white prints. I am still agonizing, like I do with many things most of the time, over if I should proceed to develop my own black and white. I don't want to just buy stuff and end up not using them.

A Day In The Park

Big Disappointment From Big Wong

I like to exaggerate.  It's a disappointment, even it's not big, in the scheme of things.

Last night I was in Chinatown.  I went to Big Wong.  I ordered a rice plate of Roast Pork and Roast Duck over rice.  It came instead Chicken and Roast Duck over rice.  I was OKAY with that.  I took a look at the check, the waiter got it right, at least on the check  Probably the kitchen messed up or the waiter ordered it wrong.  Anyway it didn't bother me much.  The dish was definitely below average.  The rice wasn't warm or soft and the meat, both the roast pork and the chicken were below average.  I have it much better in mid town.  So I was disappointed given that it's the very famous Big Wong in Chinatown.

Bring Sexy Back To The Armed Force

Photo: Diego Azubel/European Pressphoto Agency jacked from nytimes.com.  Copyrights of photo belongs to its rightful owners.

Sex And Violence.

Nothing sexier than a legion of women soldiers decking out in hot pink skirts and toting some seemingly semi automatic weapons.

China Celebrates 60 Years of Communist Rule

China’s leaders marked their nation’s 60th anniversary on Thursday with a precision display of military bravado that included, improbably, a female militia unit toting submachine guns and attired in red miniskirts and white jackboots, and a fleet of floats with representations of a giant fish and Mount Everest.

Letterman

Letterman is enjoying unprecedented ratings.  But I am mildly disturbed by a couple of recent incidents, not even counting his latest:  he admitted he was bedding some staffers.  The first was during the pre-interview of President Obama, he was making fun of the woman who brought the heart-shaped potato.  I don't like it how he made fun of her especially she was/is a fan and a woman.  Then came another show when he again made fun of an Indian guy who asked for a jacket or jackets to bring back to India for Christmas.  In the end he got a couple "skankets" from guest Bruce Willis.  I don't know whether the show did or did not give him a jacket or jackets.  Granted the guy was aggressive but sometimes all you need is to ask for what you want.  I like Letterman when he makes fun of the rich and famous but not when put down his audience in some sort of borderline insulting ways.

Ken Reviewing M9

I am live blogging Ken live blogging his M9 review.  M9 is now in his, gasp, "sticky little hands" now as he puts it.  I have no idea why they are sticky.  Could that be he is in Arizona?  Or because of something insidious?  Anyway, I am delighted to read his review.  I can't possibly link to his article as there isn't any permalink yet, he's still crafting his html like in the 80s.

UPDATE:
For what is worth, here is the link about sharpness.  I didn't own any of the cameras and unlikely to get any one of them, but I found it pretty appalling that given the founding as it is, the Canon whatever Mark II can't even focus correctly.  I think that's pretty ludicrous.  I guess some people are going to suggest you need to use certain focusing technique, i.e. suggesting it's a user error.  But I don't buy it one bit.  If I paid $2,700, or even $270 I fully expect it, and rightfully so, to acquire focus 99.99% all the time with all my manufacturer's lenses.  I like how Ken says it without irony or anything, "and let the Canon shoot at f/8 since it was having a focus problem." like as a matter of fact.
----
I just now went to dpreview.com, somebody is saying the same thing with Canon 7D, focus problem.  I think even long time ago, when the Canon whatever 1DMarkII came out, it had focusing problem too, and Canon even acknowledged it and it was a big big deal.  I simply cannot believe that.

Not counting any P&S, the lowly Nikon D70 and my ancient F5 never have any auto focusing issue.  They are so reliable that it's just ridiculous.  Reading all these online hearsays about Canon auto focus problems spanning from one model to another over the years, I guess I would never ever take a chance with their DSLR.