nikongod

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday guys!

Thanks Guys

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

A while back I was looking into ball heads for my tripod. I have always wanted one, and the 3-way pan/tilt head I had was no fun unless the tripod was perfectly level. On Dan's advice I was looking at Really Right Stuff heads, and I found great reviews of Acratech heads as well. In my research many online reviews compared one to the other! As luck would have it, craigslist NYC smiled down upon me and an older Acratech head came up for sale upon which I pounced. Its an Acratech V2, which is an older version of the current "GV2" head. I am quite happy with this head. Now, fast forwards to last weekend when I went on a photo-taking trip with the local camera club. As luck would have it there were many people with tripods on the trip, and one with an RRS BH-55. Naturally I asked to play with it a bit. Here is what I think: The clamp thing that looks like a bike-wheel-release lever is totally badass. The Acratech camera release knob is also very nice requiring just a snap of the fingers to release your camera. The ball action on the RRS is nicer than the acratech that I have. At the extremes of motion the acratech changes friction in its socket (when you move it towards the notch to take a vertical shot, or if the center column is at a 45* angle) while the RRS head has very even friction at any position in or out of the notches for vertical shooting. The friction adjust knob on the RRS had more control range, using almost a full turn to go from sloppy to pretty stiff, where the acratech knob has a little less than 1/2 turn for the same amount of control. OTOH the ball lock knob on the acratech requires only a snap of the fingers to release the ball where the RRS knob took a good turn and a half. I didnt actually take any photos on the tripod, or even bring a heavy lens (I only brought wide primes & my 90mm macro which is pretty light) so I cant comment on creep or shift on the RRS, but I doubt there is much. On the acratech there is a minimum of "sag" when you take your hand off of the camera, but once it settles it is LOCKED. It feels like slack in the system being taken up, ya know? Its pretty predictable and can easily be compensated for. If I had a better system for balancing the camera (an L-plate, or lenses with their own tripod mounts) I think most of it would go away but as it stands now the weight of my camera/lens is never evenly distributed over the head. So all in all, Im quite happy with the head I got, but if craigslist comes up with an RRS I may be upgrading. On the tripod front: Ebay smiled down upon me and provided a huge unilock (benbo) tripod for a silly price. This is what I brought on the trip. I call it tripodzilla because it weighs just under 10.5lbs with the acratech head and packs "down" to just over 3ft long. If you like to take pictures upside down, at or below ground level, from 8ft above ground level, or even right side up (yawn) I HIGHLY recommend it. Its a bit of a pain to use, but IMO makes up for it with its ability to contort its self into some freaksih poses and very good stability. I have been getting into macro photography of flowers and this guy lets me get right in there. Its also fun for shooting from the middle of a stream if you dont mind getting your feet wet. Now, the above mentioned RRS ballhead was on a bogen/manfroto carbon-fiber tripod (190cx?)with 4 leg sections... I'm not such a fan of these legs. They weigh basically nothing, and pack down to basically nothing, but the stability just wasn't there. I think I have been spoiled by the unilock/benbo tripod which you can almost kick without screwing things up but these did not inspire confidence compared to my older Bogen/manfroto 3021. Maybe the 3-section version would be more stable, but eeh. I'l deal with carrying tripodzilla.

Happy Birthday!

I want a hug. Not from Marc. Just in general.

soundclips or it never happened.

The 770's are no where near as bad as many people say. OTOH, they are no where near as good as a few people say. I'd agree, they are fairly nice headphones. Many open headphones do better in many ways, but the 770 certainly have their niche.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday

Happy Birthday! Have a great one!

When I try to use the "report post" button I get an error message. It happens using Chrome & Firefox.

Happy Birthday!

The input impedance of your volt-meter is loading the output of the bias supply. Check the datasheet for your meter, betcha the input impedance is somewhere in the 4-5Mohms range. Measure the voltage BEFORE the 4.7Mohm resistor, or account for the drop your meter will cause due to the various impedances interacting. Do both if your feeling paranoid.

Happy Birthday!

I wanted to play with my new to me tripod head: an Acratech V2 that I bought used. The camera/lens shifts a bit more than I care for under certain conditions. At the moment I only have a camera based mounting plate (my 80-200f2.8 lens is the generation before it came with the tripod collar) I think that considering the pretty wicked balance error this is excusable: the full weight of the lens is hanging off the front of the camera. Once the head is locked there is no creep with the big lens. With shorter (physical size and focal length) and lighter lenses the head is an absolute joy to use. I rarely use the 80-200, and I dont think it bothers me enough to get a different mounting plate for just that lens. Now that I talked about it a bunch, none of these were shot with the 80-200 lens. I think they were all shot with my Rokinon 14mm

Second hand HD800 are only just outside the price quoted. With some careful haggling you could totally do it. Im actually quite happy (confirmation bias?) about what Tyll posted above. I have really been enjoying my HD800, with a touch of EQ to calm the highs a little I think they keep the impulse. This goes back to something Chris posted a while ago: find the fastest impulse response you can, and EQ the rest to sound like whatever you want.

Acratech V2 ballhead.