Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Camera Gripes, V 2.0

Newbies shoot in bright sunlight, and overexpose everything. Pros want to shoot in as low a light level as they can possibly get, and want to underexpose to create "mood". Newbies outnumber professionals by at least 10:1, if not more. As a result, we get the Sony a550; a camera which answers none of the questions that professionals ask while solving problems newbies never knew they even had.

Sony, where's the A700 replacement and will it have the full-frame sensor you make for the D700, and a handy pop-up flash so it can control the wireless flash system?

On the other end of Sony's schizophrenic lineup is the A850/A900 cameras. So close in specs that they might as well be the very same camera, yet one sells for $1900 and the other for $2699. Neither one will control the wireless flash system. Just a hint guys, Minolta built film cameras for at least two DECADES with full-size viewfinders which could control the wireless flash system!

So, please build a full-frame 12.4 MP camera with pop-up wireless flash control! Soon!

Monday, June 7, 2010

So things are hectic with 3 kids here...

Yeah, my blog's become like an orphan lately. There's really no good excuse I can offer except to say by the time 9 PM rolls around each day, I'm fairly well exhausted. The kids just suck energy right out of you with their needs, whining, and constant messes. When they smile it's heavenly. When they scream it's ear-shattering, and not conducive to coherent writing. Ah well, there will have to be some changes happening this summer, that's for certain. With all three kids and my wife home all day long, my nerves will be toast!

In other news, oil is still leaking into the Gulf. (C'mon BP, get your act together before Obama bans all oil-fueled devices!) Helen Thomas just got herself canned by being incredibly-insensitive to Israel's desire not to be bombed into oblivion by neighboring arab populations. I saw a great quote the other day. "If Musims laid down their weapons, there would be peace. If Israelis laid down their weapons, there'd be no Israel." Fact: rockets were shipped by Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Fact: Hamas bombed civilian populations in Israel with these rockets. Where's the condemnation for that? Israeli commandos boarded a ship running a legitmate maritime blockade of WEAPONS; all other aid gets through to Hamas and the Gazans.

In acts of unbetold transparency, the Obama White House has offered positions to at least two individuals running in Federal elections. That's a big-time felony, but will it ever be investigated? Nope. Making this even better is the fact that Rep. Sestak wasn't eligible to hold the "non-paying advisory position" on the WH security council because he's a sitting politician! So were they simply stupid, or did they offer him a sweeter, paying position in the WH, and he told them where to stick it? Are they lying about it now? They cannot blast him in the media though because NOW that he beat Arlen Specter in the Dem Primary, they need him to win that seat. He's going to run on an anti-Obama platform this fall. Just watch and see...

Obama went to PA last week, and only one politician came out to meet him at the airport. Heh. Sarah Palin goes ANYWHERE and people flock from all over to hear her speak, including politicians! Heh! November will be fun.

Baby Jack's now 5 months old, and eating constantly. I've never seen a child eat so often at 5 months old. No, he's still not sleeping through the night, as much as I'd like him to start doing that very soon. My wife Betsy's just happy she gets to go through a summer without being pregnant for the first time in two year! Yes, we live in a desert, and yes, summers are predictably miserable. Evidently they're worse if you're pregnant, or so she says. LOL