nikongod

There is a bit of a learning curve to it, but once you get the hang of how the various things work basic adjustments should not take more than a couple minutes for an image. I like youtube for instructions. Basic adjustments to think about for EVERY image. Decide what to do based on the image, but these 5 should always be on your mind. Adjust levels - Where the black and white points are, and where the "middle" point is. Adjust saturation - how colorful colors are. Can usually be done to individual colors, or all colors at once. Crop Resize Add "effect" if desired (Vignette, film look, B&W conversion, etc) Sharpen After that you get into stuff that is only applied to certain areas or uses layers. Layers are a bit abstract and many people have a hard time figuring them out, but once you do they offer incredible levels of power and control.

I took a bunch of pictures at the NYC pride parade on Sunday. I posted some shots "straight out of camera" for Shelly. Pride 2014 by Lord Nikon 12, on Flickr Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_nikon_12/sets/72157645457141961/

Congrats on the new cart! Technics seems to use the Stevenson alignment points. Totally different from a Baerwald/Lofgren alignment, and IMO much more better. If you want to fine-tune it, you can print Stevenson protractors from Vinylengine. I have heard mixed reviews of the Techincs gauge - although that may be because the Technics gauge does not follow Baerwald and when people put it on their generic protractors (almost always Baerwald) to test it does not line up... http://www.vinylengine.com/protractor-user-guide.shtml

Its a pretty sexy lens. Konica used to make a 57F1.2 with crazytoast bokeh, in manual focus. Sony Nex-5N + Konica Hexanon 57mm f1.2 by Arsuchelsy, on Flickr Not my photo.

I agree that the Fuji cameras have always PWNED for JPG quality, but don't think that the Ricoh GR is necessarily lacking compared to other compact cameras. Especially if the GR is set up for SOOC use, as opposed to being set up for post processing... High(er) contrast setting, high(er) sharpness setting, high(er) saturation, and possibly an "effect". Something neat is that the GR offers "effect bracketing" where you can apply multiple effects to the same JPG automatically. Gobbles up memory, but mneh. That being said, I still post process everything. To do what the camera does does not take very much time (even in Photoshop/GIMP) and you have so many options for extra stuff - dodge/burn, selective saturation adjustments, cloning, etc.

Happy Birthday!

Yepp. It is an amazing camera. My only caution is that it is 28mm only... If thats for you, its AMAZING! if not, no. I wish Ricoh would make it in "blackpaint" on brass plates, like Leica or the Pentax MX-1. Such sexxyness. I personally would not have upgraded from the S90 if it were not for the really slow AF and some ferocious distortion in the RAW files. I really liked the S90, maybe just stick with the S95.

Happy Birthday CJ!

Happy Birthday Scott!

Happy Birthday Justin!

Makes me think of fancy beer-glasses with laser-etched patterns IN the glass (nucleated bottom) to keep the bubbles forming & retain head longer. http://www.ratebeer.com/forums/etching-on-the-bottom-of-a-beer-glass_210550.htm

There is some cool stuff going on in the circuit. I wish more people would post more stuff like it. Whats up with B+ on the bottom and B- on the top. Whoever drew it deserves to have their eyes clamped open clockwork orange style and made to watch someone take their slide rule out of their desk, reset it, and put it back in a different drawer. If they happen to have a copy of A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (Paperback) they should be forced to find the number: 1164562923 (row11710, column 3&4) and then told that they should have just googled it where they would have found this post. If it were any decent human being, I would also question such harsh punishment, but don't feel any sympathy, they deserve far worse than this. Why 10M90 instead of the BJT CCS in the gain stage? It is in series with that 68Kohm resistor, which is high enough to make the CCS little more than a fine tuning device. Even if you increase the current and change the 68Kohm resistor to compensate the resistor will STILL be big enough to be good enough. STAX probably used the 2SA1156 here to save stocking a better part, but I dont see why not a better BJT CCS then You already have the LED from the next stage. That is kind of the most open ended question in the history of ever. What part of the circuit don't you understand? Type that into google. If you *really* dont understand anything, start with ohms law. Ohms law is good for lots of stuff. Then start reading about how transistors (BJT & FET) work in various simple circuits. You could read about tubes too, if you like to do things the better way. NTTAWWT (not that theres anything wrong with transistors.) Since that (probably) wont cover differential pairs, Constant Current Sources (CCS), or voltage shifters read about them too. People will help you a lot if you can show that you have put forth a reasonable effort on your own.

Happy Birthday David!

They don't convert cleanly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candela_per_square_metre http://www.unitconversion.org/luminance/nits-to-lumens-per-square-foot-per-steradian-conversion.html Lumens has very little meaning for comparing devices. A 96" TV putting out 1000lumens is not as bright as a 48" TV only putting out 700lumens... By a reallly wide margin.

Left handed keyboard. http://www.fentek-ind.com/modular.htm#kblhusbsb

Does anyone know of a high quality keyboard with the number-pad on the left?

If you sold all of your Grado headphones* you would have no Grado headphones. I'd say that puts you ahead. *Excludes RS-1 (vintage) HP1000 and SR-60 (pink driver) These 3 you should keep.

This is something I have seen in many kinds of expensive hobbies. I get the impression that lots of people could not spend enough money on a (insert desirable thing to spend lots of money on) so they send it off *IMMEDIATELY* after receiving it to get it upgraded or fix a problem they once heard one guy might have had. Cameras, Cars, Audio, Bikes, you name it. It is kind of disgusting with vintage gear. At best it dries up repair parts for people who actually wear their shit out. At worst it just makes your own gear worthless, or your guru disappears with your gear. PS: Totally guilty and hypocritical for what I did to my Melos. Just saying.

I borrowed a GoPro Hero2 the other weekend for some street shooting. It is a very fun little camera if you like fisheye lenses. Supposedly the Hero3+ has infinitely better high ISO performance, which sounds reasonable because the 2 has pretty bad noise - pretty much anywhere but base ISO has obvious noise. Otherwise it is wonderful. ZERO AF lag. stupid-high frame rate (10FPS@11mp, 30FPS@12mp for the 3+) and a big fat fisheye lens. So much fun. Really tempted to get a 3+ Click through for a few more pics.

Whats not to like about tube amps for electrostatic headphones? The only thing I can think of is that tubes need replacing every few-thousand hours? Big deal. A few dollars spent on tubes ever other year. Instead of going to that jazz club you have a nagging feeling is too expensive, don't. Once. Or don't buy 3 new records and its even. Nit-picking Almost any STAX amp you will ever see with tubes in it is a hybrid. Its sort of worth note. Anyways. First rebias the amp. Or Bias the amp, as the case may be. There are instructions on Head-fail. I cant be bothered to find them. If you have already done that try different tubes. I'm also not a tube roller, but tubes do wear out eventually.... New tubes should last like foreverlong. Years of average use.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that it will result in moar DACses. Certainly, every MFR who could afford to buy the apple-chips necessary to get the digital stream off of ipods will have a DAC. So maybe we get 4 or 5 new DACs and another ipod-SPDIF converter... WOW. The really cool thing (for apple) is that after you buy those $350 headphones you are gauranteed to buy another ipod so you dont have to obsolete your headphones when you upgrade to an Android.

Bob Carver vs stereophile. Very broadly, with the exception of very obviously experimental stuff, amp designers do have a rough idea of what their new creations will sound like before they make them. Most of these designers have heard something similar before, and they have used circuit components they intend to change before, and with the smallest element of skill and knowledge they form an educated guess of how things will turn out. That being said, they often like to build amps "their way." Ignoring what amounts to "stupid engineering tricks" why would they want to build an amp like someone else? There is nobody better at being me than me. Nobody better at being George than George. Nobody better at being Steve than Steve... You get the point. Could Steve build an amp in his own style that sounded like one of George's amps? Of course! But why would he? Steve has "found his sound" so why play with someone else's shit? Can you define what "warmth" is? Yea, you can design that into an amp. Soundstage and detail are better dealt with by getting headphones that are not abject crap, but you have some control over them in amp design. We were hoping for a better question.