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3rd of August 2004 (Tue), 21:27
I decided to head down to Federal Hill early this evening, to get some panoramas of downtown Baltimore. (Federal Hill is Baltimore's clichéd spot from which to photograph downtown and the Inner Harbor.) The weather was nice, it would be an opportunity to try out some new accessories I'd recently purchased, etc.
Well, things started out okay. I even stopped by the library on the way, and found a great book by O. Winston Link (the late master of steam locomotive photography). I got a prime parking spot at Federal Hill. Walked over to the location I had in mind for the photos.
Here's where the trouble started.
For the first time in over 25 years, I watched one of my cameras crash to the hard ground. Seems one of the tripod legs was barely tightened. Although I've used this tripod (my Bogen 3001) countless times over the years, and automatically tighten the legs properly.
It was like I was watching a slow motion movie. I saw the tripod leg collapse, the tripod begin to fall forward, the camera strike the ground, the shattering of glass.
Well, it could have been worse. For one thing, the camera didn't really strike the ground, so much as the lens did. The shattering of glass was the UV filter being destroyed. The lens itself is damaged - the rim is bent, so I can't unthread the remains of the filter, and there's a crack in the plastic. Tomorrow will bring a trip to the camera store, for a filter wrench.
It was the cheap, mediocre quality 18-55 EF-S lens that came with the Digital Rebel, so even if the lens is a complete loss, I'm only out, like, $100. I guess that's a plus.
I went on to use the camera (which hasn't a mark on it), with my 50mm f/1.8, and it seems to be fine. Another plus, right?
So I take my pictures, and eventually decide to head home. Now what? I'll tell you what - I can't unscrew my polarizer from the 52-28 stepping ring. Oh, well, I said I was going to pick up a filter wrench tomorrow, anyway.
Well, now I'm home. I transfer all my RAWs into the computer, and see if I've got myself any keepers.
Yes and no. Yes, I managed to get the shots I needed to put together a splendid panorama. So what's the no? I'll tell you what it is - I've had my computer for about 2 years now, and it generally serves me well. It's not cutting edge (bleeding edge?) technology, but it's always proven perfectly adequate.
Tonight was the first time I tried working on a big panorama.
A 1.8 GHz P4, with 512 MB of RAM, running Windows XP, is NOT the ideal machine on which to fine tune 300 MB TIFF files. Operations that normally take a second or two for ordinary sized photos, take minutes on 300 MB panoramas.
Anyway, just thought I'd whine a bit about how things didn't go auite perfectly. I guess I could take this as a sign, that fate really wants me to buy that 20-35mm zoom I've been thinking of getting (since my 18-55mm zoom is at least seriously impaired, if not a total loss).
Well, things started out okay. I even stopped by the library on the way, and found a great book by O. Winston Link (the late master of steam locomotive photography). I got a prime parking spot at Federal Hill. Walked over to the location I had in mind for the photos.
Here's where the trouble started.
For the first time in over 25 years, I watched one of my cameras crash to the hard ground. Seems one of the tripod legs was barely tightened. Although I've used this tripod (my Bogen 3001) countless times over the years, and automatically tighten the legs properly.
It was like I was watching a slow motion movie. I saw the tripod leg collapse, the tripod begin to fall forward, the camera strike the ground, the shattering of glass.
Well, it could have been worse. For one thing, the camera didn't really strike the ground, so much as the lens did. The shattering of glass was the UV filter being destroyed. The lens itself is damaged - the rim is bent, so I can't unthread the remains of the filter, and there's a crack in the plastic. Tomorrow will bring a trip to the camera store, for a filter wrench.
It was the cheap, mediocre quality 18-55 EF-S lens that came with the Digital Rebel, so even if the lens is a complete loss, I'm only out, like, $100. I guess that's a plus.
I went on to use the camera (which hasn't a mark on it), with my 50mm f/1.8, and it seems to be fine. Another plus, right?
So I take my pictures, and eventually decide to head home. Now what? I'll tell you what - I can't unscrew my polarizer from the 52-28 stepping ring. Oh, well, I said I was going to pick up a filter wrench tomorrow, anyway.
Well, now I'm home. I transfer all my RAWs into the computer, and see if I've got myself any keepers.
Yes and no. Yes, I managed to get the shots I needed to put together a splendid panorama. So what's the no? I'll tell you what it is - I've had my computer for about 2 years now, and it generally serves me well. It's not cutting edge (bleeding edge?) technology, but it's always proven perfectly adequate.
Tonight was the first time I tried working on a big panorama.
A 1.8 GHz P4, with 512 MB of RAM, running Windows XP, is NOT the ideal machine on which to fine tune 300 MB TIFF files. Operations that normally take a second or two for ordinary sized photos, take minutes on 300 MB panoramas.
Anyway, just thought I'd whine a bit about how things didn't go auite perfectly. I guess I could take this as a sign, that fate really wants me to buy that 20-35mm zoom I've been thinking of getting (since my 18-55mm zoom is at least seriously impaired, if not a total loss).