Miscellaneous: June 2005 Archives
Yesterday Claudia asked for a review of the new camera. Because no scientist can resist an experiment I set about doing the first test of the two devices: color in natural light and under flash conditions, with the cameras set to "auto" so that the electronics could select what it thought was the best option for the pictures. The outdoor test was on my back porch in late afternoon light, lots of cloud cover, but no flash required by either camera. The indoor test under one of my standard picture taking scenarios -- under the Ott lamp on my desk at night in a reasonably well lit room. Both cameras used the flash indoors at night. I tried to select a scene with a wide variety of colors to get a sense for whether or not either camera had a "push".
The first thing you will notice (at least I did), is that the Sony is noticeably brighter. To me, the darker colors (such as the blue skein in the bowl) look a little washed out and the deeper purples in the yarn and in the dyed roving dont come out very well. The light yellow roving in the bowl is "blooming" in the Sony shot as well, even though the lighting is dull and there is no flash.
On the other hand, the Nikon is a little over the top with the reds and tends to make them a bit oversaturated looking compared to their real life colors. The Nikon shot is also a little darker than true life.
The dark and light issues that I noted in the outdoor shots persist here. In fact, if I didn't know better I'd wonder if the Nikon was really even using it's flash. The Sony handles the yellows better in this setting, and the reds are truer to life, but rich blues and greens just don't come across that way (for instance, the blue in the roving is really more deep teal).
For a final test, I used the macro modes on each camera indoors (macro mode is the way you get your camera to focus correctly for very close up shots). This set amplifies the faults of both cameras. The reds are a little too red and some of the blues are too purple in the Nikon picture and the saturated blues are a little too washed out in the Sony. In truth, the actual color of this little bit of handspun is somewhere between these two pictures. If I had to pick one of these as representative, I would probably pick the Sony shot.
And speaking of handspun... that spindleful is important for two reasons... 1) it's from the batch of Blue Faced Leicester that Julie and I dyed up a while back and 2) it marks the first stuff I've spun using a drop spindle as a drop spindle (there would be pictures, but the husband is off busily researching how to tweak the Sony to deal with it's color and lightness issues better). I might actually be getting the hand of this spinning stuff, folks. A testimony to the what you can do with a little bit of persistence and a couple of good and patient teachers. This yarn is a little uneven, but is definitely a lot more under control than my earlier efforts. And I now know why so many folks rave about the Blue Faced Leicester. Definitely nice stuff to play with!
It appears that I am awash in lovely new toys. My husband, the ultimate bargain shopper and all around greatest guy ever, found an electronic device in desperate need of a new home. Since we worry a great deal about the fate of small and homeless electronic devices, John decided that it was time to embark on another adoption. Since it comes so closely on the heels of the arrival of the Tapwave Zodiac2, and we didn't want to upset its settling in process, I had to make sure that a proper introduction was made.
So far, the Sony CyberShot DSC-T1 seems to be getting along famously -- with both the Zodiac and my husband. I have a feeling that the real rivalry is going to be between the new kid on the block and my sturdy old Nikon CoolPix880.
As to me, I'm in love with the idea of having a purse-friendly camera, but will definitely have to see how it stacks up against my Nikon when I have some bright sunlight to test things out in.
I had a very nice weekend with my parents in Ann Arbor. There's something wonderful about going there, with nothing planned, doing very little besides knitting, spinning and visiting some local nurserys to take a look at perennials for my mother's garden. We told my dad, when we got there, that in honor of Father's Day, we had brought no "dress up" clothes with us and weren't going to plan any major outings. This was, apparently, just the kind of weekend Dad was hoping to have.
I did get one small project finished, along with a little spinning, but that will have to wait until the light is better.
In the meantime, I've also been quite negligent about acknowledging all the very nice people who have stopped by to tell me where they are from. So I think now is a very good time to re-habilitate my...
Blog of the Day
With a trip to visit Dani at Knit, Stitch, Click. Dani is a Canadian scientist with a very lovely rendition of Frieda from one of the recent Debbie Bliss books. Very happy big cables with a gorgeous sleeve detail -- and some pointers about how to deal with the finishing work.
I'm playing with a new toy...
A Little Piece of Geek Girl Heaven
Thank goodness for husbands who enter to win goodies at conferences. Bluetooth and WiFi enabled, friends and neighbors. And the most beautiful screen I've ever seen on a Palm-based device.
Could it be time to do some more Palm programming.... hmmmmm....
