Trooper #2 Day 1

Happy...hips...New Year eferybuddy...yeah you're my buddy right? Right? Is it me or it's getting cold?

Happy New Year everybody. We wish you all the best and mostly health in this New Year 2012.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Introducing Trooper #2

Hello there!

 Introducing the new subject of my 2012 365 day project: Trooper #2. Why number 2? Well Wolverine was a trooper and this will be the second one. Let's find out what this guy is all about.

So Trooper, how did you come about joining this little adventure you're about to get involved in?

"After leaving the clone factory, I was drafted by Legends Action figures and then I got assigned to this detail. It's not like I had a choice."

What sets you apart from your predecessor Wolverine?

"I guess I'm more articulated and a bit slimmer. You'll also notice the helmet that hides my face so you have to guess my facial expression. Like right now, I'm making a funny face and you can't see it. That's right, a real funny creepy face."

Any worries you might face the same faith and go MIA like Wolverine?

"Dude! Don't talk about that. You wanna jinx me or something?"

Apart from that, you feel ready for the task at hand?

"Bring it on! I'm ready for anything. The past couple of days I've been played with so hard the plastic in my joints hurt. So yeah, I'm ready baby."

You think you'll be able to work with Gerry no problem?

"The guy seems cool and he can actually build things for me. As long as he keeps me out of his pizza plate, I guess we'll be OK."

I hear you have weapons and possibly other accessories?

"I came with a staff(A glorified stick really.), a bazooka laser kinda thing and a wimpy laser blaster. I mean come on, us background characters couldn't hit a barn at 3 feet with a canon and you expect us to hit something with a precise laser burst? I hope Gerry makes me a shotgun, don't need to be accurate with those. In the meantime he got me this cool Manga Japanese made assault rifle. I'm also planning on raiding this figurine collection in Montreal-North I heard about for some accessories."

See you January 1st then?

"Sure thing. Gotta go. These cops at an accident scene want to match me up with a couple of chicks."

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Canon Powershot G12 an honest review, first impressions.

The Brick

 Why am I calling this an honest review of the Canon G12? Because I forked the $429 bucks for it. Some of my blog readers also contributed thru their donations and I owe them a big thank you. You won't be getting a corporate song and dance here.

Notice the level at the bottom of the screen. Very practical.

First impressions are that this baby is rugged! The hard plastic shell protects the camera from abuse and feels pretty nice to the touch. It doesn't feel cheap. I've read a few comments about some of these dropping on to concrete with no ill effect.

Program mode, no flash, no tripod.

If you've ever owned any Canon Powershot camera as I have, you will feel right at home with the G12. All the controls are where they should be with the usual icon and buttons. However, the G12 affords you the luxury of a few more knobs and buttons to shortcut those controls right on the body. ISO, modes, exposure, shutter speed, aperture and manual focus can all be controlled on the camera itself. There is also a button that can be assigned a function of your choice. I use mine for white balance. It's great to be able to take care of all these things on the fly without going deep in the menu. Mind you Canon has one of the best layouts on menus that I have ever tried.

Manual mode with auto focus not given a chance to react!

Did I mention "manual"? Yes, this baby has a real manual mode. You can have as much control or as little as you want with this camera. If you only want to shoot on Auto, I don't know why you would bother with it. There are also a bunch of special effects available in the scene mode. Black and White and sepia of course, but they have also added a tilt shift, fish eye, poster and nostalgic mode as well among others. I haven't seriously played with the fish eye mode yet but the others offer some interesting results.

Scene mode, miniature or tilt shift effect.

3 things stand out for me on this camera that I wouldn't expect from a point and shoot, a flash hotshoe, a viewfinder and a swiveling LCD screen.  The hotshoe is great for a better flash unit on or off the camera, the viewfinder is not that great (but still useful) and the swiveling screen is great for street photography or self portraits. The display also offers a rule of third grid and a level on screen option.

Program mode with Macro setting no flash.

The camera is operated by a Canon specific Ion lithium battery that promises 370 shots with the LCD on. The charger is off camera so I'll be getting a spare battery.

Full manual mode with preset zone focusing.

Start up, auto focus and shutter is lightning fast. One area where this camera has done miracles compared to my last Powershot is low light performance. Wow, it even outperforms my Nikon which is very good in low light.

Scene mode with nostalgic effect (or "film", pretty much the same.)

How does this camera compare so far to the one it replaces? I know it's not a fair comparison, but the Nikon S8100/9100 is the one being set aside in my camera bag and comparing them is inevitable for me. The Nikon has a bigger optical zoom (10x instead of 5X), more mega-pixels (12 compared to 10), a better wide angle lens, cost less and it is more compact. But the Nikon, apart from some exposure control and white balance, is automatic everything. I need more control for what I want to do. This is not a DSLR but it does a whole lot for what it is and the picture quality is outstanding.

Very low light, no tripod, no flash, program mode.

The bottom line is this, would I buy another one if I would *shiver* lose this one? You bet. Keep posted as I get to learn more about this great camera and try to push it beyond, 'cause that's what I do!

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Santa delivered!

Well Santa was nice this year as I got some new gear, the Canon G12. So here is the new camera that I'll be using to document most of my next 365 Project: Trooper #2.

Trooper #2-"Do you have your papers?" G12-"No, there on a CD for Mac and Windows so if you run Linux, you're out of luck."

I had to download the manual off the web but it was well worth it.

Of course both of these pictures were taken with the Nikon S8100 that I will keep for wide angle shots.

Here are some of the first shots taken with the G12. Now it's just a matter of getting used to it and learning just how far I can push that thing. It is very rugged and it has the same Canon layout menus as any other Canon Powershot, which I'm already familiar with. Except this one has a few short cuts to the functions in the form of buttons and knobs readily accessible on the body of the camera.

The coolest Grandson

The swivle screen makes self portraits easy.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

To all a Merry Christmas

All the best to you and your family. Here are a few pictures of our family Christmas tree for you to enjoy.

If you just went blind from all that Christmas bling, well that's the idea.

Gerry :)

My "new" Minolta X-570

The initial shot of every new camera I get.

 I just got my hands on this well used Minolta X-570 35mm film SLR with an incredible 1:1.7 50mm lens off of Kijiji. The results are just amazing. I had a bit of doubt since it does depend on batteries for shutter operation but I'm quite pleased with the performance.

I used a Kodak 200 ISO film for my test roll. Today was a great day with large snow flakes coming down with no wind. I went through that test roll within a few hours since I had already planned a shoot for the scenes you see here.

The price was cheap at $35 since the UV filter is jammed on the lens after being dropped. I can live with that and this purchase ended up being a wise gamble.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Night flash photos, graffiti.

A regular tag around here.

One trick I recently learned from Youtube was to use a flashlight in pitch black condition. You use the flashlight to allow your camera to do the focus, shut the flashlight off and shoot with the flash on.

Various tags

Here's what it looks like using my Minolta Z1 in black and white mode. speed was set at 1/60 and aperture at f8. I used a cheap dollar store LED flashlight to set the autofocus.

I like the humor in this one.

 These shots were taken in an alley of my neighborhood this evening.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Remembering Wolverine.

The fact that Wolverine has left us is quite sad and I had a hard time telling the other guys at the house when we got back. Here they are sharing with you there thoughts about the awesome little yellow guy.

"He was a deep and kind creature who loved me."- Girlfriend #1

"Sure Woverine had a temper but he was a good guy."- Batman

"Wolverine was the only one who could listen to my war stories...and survive."- Flippy

"That cheating bastard!"- Girlfriend #2

"The dude was a blast."- Cop #2

Yes, I am insane.

Gerry :)

At the Mall.

I take my cameras everywhere not just in case I find a great shot, but I also go on the hunt for good shots in odd places and sometimes places of no real interest whatsoever. I guess I like to prove myself wrong.

Case in point the shots presented here. All were taken in shopping mall parking lots while waiting for the Misses. Apart from weird looking cars and people dressing funny to go to Walmart, you wouldn't think that any subject of interest could be found there. Seems I was wrong. All shots were taken with my Nikon S8100.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Wolverine Day 64...the end

Wolverine, MIA December 18th 2012

What you have here is the last image of Wolverine. Shortly after taking this picture, he went missing. What was supposed to be a routine suicidal Sunday before Christmas shopping excursion turned to tragedy when I realized that Wolverine was gone. I looked over every single pocket and he was nowhere to be found.

He was last seen at the Centre Laval food court around 1500 hours on this December 18th 2011. He might have fallen from my pocket or I might have dumped him in the trash by accident after this picture was taken, I don't know. I'm not worried, the way I see it he has escaped once again. I'm pretty sure he did so with his previous owner and that's how I got to find him on the ground of a parking lot. Even if he ends up in a landfill, I'm not worried. Wolverine is tough, as a lot of character and he is non-biodegradable. I'm certain he will be found by alien archaeologists thousands of years from now and mistakenly identified as a religious idol from a barbarian tribe of humans.

I will not start a new 365 day project right away. I'd like to start one on January 1st and I'm open to suggestions. Please feel free to send me feedback.

Thanks for watching and Wolverine where ever you are, thanks for a great ride. It was a lot of fun.

Gerry :)

Wolverine Day 63

Woaaaaaaa!

Wolverine swimming (or drowning) in cameras!

Thanks for wtaching.

Gerry :)

Wolverine Day 62

AAaaaRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Gerry :)

Wolverine Day 61

Just another day.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Wolverine Day 60

It's MINE!

To the victor the spoils.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Wolverine Day 59

Do not mess with me!

With egos flying, so did plastic.

Thanks for watching.

Gerry :)

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera

This camera was originally made to work with 620 film. That format hasn't been around for years and you can only buy it online for about $13 bucks a roll. You can actually respool 120 to old 620 spools also.

However, this one is made in a way that it will take a 120 roll of film with no modification. One catch, you have to use an empty 620 spool in the take up end. Just make sure you ask for your 620 spool back when you get the film processed. They are getting hard to come by.

I'm not keeping this one since I already have a decent 6X6 camera. It's up for grabs but still a nice little piece of kit.

Gerry :)