I like exploring in computer games, music, cricket, drawing and pizza and sharing those with people. Oh and I also inherited the name Sleepydwagonman too ! The site is a work in progress at the moment but it's getting there, features will come in over time !
I was thinking that it’s been a while but actually just a few weeks. I’m actually a couple of posts behind, even after this one. It’s been a good but draining month or so, I’m definitely in need of taking a break from things for a while. (Don’t worry, I’m working next week then have next week off). So, what happened on the May Bank Holiday weekend ?
We haven’t been able to get to a Comic Con since before the pandemic, so it was a lovely day to be able to make that trip with Comic Con Friend. It’s been 5 years since we’ve been able to make that trip together (there was the Oct Comic Con trip too but that was just me.). And there was another smuggle again 🙂 It was a good smuggle.
So, what happens at Comic Con ? Lots of merch, lots of stands with things to see. Comics, anime, very creative art of all different kinds. Wonderful cosplay like what we see in the picture above, from all genres.
I have no idea what genre that’s from but the amount of work that’s gone into making something that good is incredible. Top job, totally salute you there. I definitely haven’t done it justice with the alt-text.
There’s always lots to see and it’s much better to experience it with a friend coming along too. I like seeing the different artists work, especially the stuff that comes from their own imaginations instead of being inspired by the other media out there. That’s the best thing, seeing what everyone has to say and produce to show us. Be that super cute cards, detailed art to go with stories, quick funny cartoons or stunningly well realised artwork that needs to be seen.
There was a small cadre of Daleks patrolling the show, possibly in search of the Tenth Doctor who was there in the very tight blue suit outfit. I saw him there (perfect cosplay down to the appearance and body language) but he zipped away too fast for a picture.
Also dragon.
Talking of dragons, I haven’t got to the loot yet … Scorch’s Pyrography was there and it was great to see her making it to the show. She’s been in the wars recently breaking all four limbs in a bus related accident (ambushed by pavement) so it was good to see her recovered enough to make the show. There was also Ocean City Crafts … They do wonderful things with 3d printing :
That’s all 3d printed creatures, including multiple types of dragon and all different colours too. They’re fully articulated as well, with the resin segments linked together. I was a little doubtful but bought one (will show pic later) and I’m rather impressed. Well worth checking them out, hopefully we’ll see them going to more shows.
Gosh, think I’m running out of steam. I did get bitten mildly by something while at Comic Con (was ok, just a little out of sorts for the week after!) and I’m heading towards the end of the energies so I’ll close up soon. My outsides have considerably worsened as well, hopefully that’s turned the corner now into actively healing.
There are more pictures than I’ll show here, mostly because I’m very careful about putting pictures of me or friend people on the blog. When something’s on the internet, it’s very difficult to take it back again. So while selfie pictures of the shoulder dwagon are on Facebook and various Discords, they won’t go here. Same as there are a few lovely pictures of Comic Con Friend from the Sunday and other people which I’m careful about where they go to.
Shoulder dwagon ?
There we go. Possible deceptive sizes there 😀 The dwagon is the perfect size to sit on a shoulder, the d20 there is HUGE and that’s a decent size cookie there too.
Lovely day out, really enjoyed catching up with the wonderful Comic Con Friend (it’s been a while!) and sharing in seeing all of the wonderful things at the convention. Time for me to sign off now I think and pop the dinner on but … one last loot ?
I got shiny light up dice too 🙂 And t-shirts from Teeturtle. This was also the first Comic Con with the new camera, I think it’s done a wonderful job. (Some of the pics are from the mobile 😀 )
Have a lovely weekend everyone, see you all next time. Wait … one more ?
I needed to show just how big the dice was :-D. The d6 and the red d20 to the left are normal sized.
Time seems to be going whoosh at the moment ! Maybe that’s a sign that I need to step away and slow down for a bit. Maybe 😀 I do have a plan forming for that … Hopefully you’ll see some of that later in the year. The current plan involves a large island, a ferry and maybe even … beach.
First up – a review ? Devastating news for the gaming communities this week with the Insomnia gaming festival. I’m glad I got to one of these in March because it could well be the last one as the company running it collapsed. Hopefully all the people affected find places that will take full advantage of what they have to offer. Especially the ever lovely Tashnarr and her colleagues who would come in to her streams, join in the fun and be part of that community which, with Tashnarr being the focus, is one of the most chill, relaxing and great vibes communities on Twitch.
Work has been as busy as usual, not much to be said about that apart from it being one of those things. Would you prefer work to be busy and you’re getting things done, or would you rather it be too quiet ? Can’t talk about the work stuff much though, it’s not something for the internet.
In books, I enjoyed reading through Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s a future space scifi where a near invincible enemy is menacing humanity. There’s an excellent variation of characters in there and the interplay between them is a highlight. I’m looking forwards to seeing how this trilogy unfolds. Latest book is A Fire Born Of Exile by Aliette De Bodard, which is the latest in her fantastic Xuya Universe. Well written, intriguing and huge intensity of emotions in the characters. Much recommend for both of these books.
But wait, where’s that traditional opening thumbnail pic ?
Thursday saw me heading off to Lords for the 2024 Interservices T20 day. I’d thoroughly recommend this event if you’re a cricket fan. The historic Lords stadium is always a great place to visit (although a bit lacking on concessions hospitality this time), you get a great view and they steadily improve the facilities. There’s been a number of changes since I started coming. Plus the cricket is usually ultra competitive with all the skills on show and the games are balanced. It’s always best watching a game or sport where you have no idea as to who is going to win, right up to the end.
But …
We did lose the morning game and half of the afternoon game to rain. Bit damp but it cleared later. Today was a day of playing with the new camera too, to see what it could do and how it would work. The angle above is courtesy of Geraldine, official photographer from the cruise, who challenged us to try and get interesting and unusual angles to take pictures from. How’d that one do ? I’m maybe 6 inches off the floor there. Maybe a bit more looking at the Shutter Priority mode it has to catch more of the rain.
It all went a bit watercolour
Spot me checking out more of the options that the camera has for taking the pictures. This is the watercolour effect, which adds a post processing effect. There is also a monochrome, fisheye, vivid, toy camera and a miniatures filter which I need to figure out how to use. Fun while waiting for …
Play on !
We lost the ladies’ game due to the rain, this was RAF in the light blue batting and Army in the red fielding. I started out playing with a Continuous Low Speed shooting option, where it was taking a picture maybe every half a second after pressing the shutter button. Here’s a great one :
Happy with that :-D. One thing about the new camera is that with it having more megapixels in its sensor and the different way the lens works, it’s much easier to get shots like that going. So that’s … with the 55-210mm lens and the original was taken at the 135mm setting, so about the middle of the range. I’m not zooming all the way in that I can, so I have the option of cutting the outsides down if appropriate. And then I’ll take the resulting picture down from a potential 6000×4000 before cropping and scale it to 2000 pixels wide for the blog. Hopefully that works for viewers without losing detail.
(This is going to sound like a Canon ad ! Disclosure note – I bought all the bits in use here, nothing free by Canon) You change the zoom on the 18-45 and 55-210 lenses by twisting the outside of the whole lens, whereas the zoom on the Ixus is by a tiny addition to the shutter wheel. The R50 is bulkier but it’s far easier to handle. The response time on the shutter feels massively better, with a lot of the unused shots (can only show so many 😀 ) having the ball in shot still. And the image stabilisation is proper excellent.
I did have the usual buyers remorse after spending all the money but I think it’s worth it. The R50 is proving to be an incredibly massive upgrade over the Ixus and the various features included make Every picture good and usable, whereas I had to be very careful with the Ixus to get something usable.
Looking forward to trying it out at Comic Con next week. Actually really looking forward to Comic Con next week because Comic Con Friend will be there too this time and these things are much better in company. Still got the good memories from last time too with the smuggle for Tashnarr, it’s good seeing the FFXIV flower appearing occasionally.
More cricket ?
I always loved seeing things like that as a bowler. Ball, stumps and bails in the air. The first game finished with a tight win by the Army, with it going to the final over.
Over to Navy vs RAF. This was a full 20 over game. It was getting dark towards the end but the umpires managed to keep the players on all the way. A good game too, the Navy batters were led by one of the guys getting the first 50 of the day with unorthodox …
And orthodox hitting …
When the RAF came in to bat, they started making the Navy score look small with some excellent hitting. I nearly touched a cricket match ball again for the first time in over 10 years as one of the ball in the stands moments ended up pretty close to my little corner of the ground. (I got beaten to it by a more nimble guy speeding across 😀 ).
But cricket has a habit of making games closer than they really should be and a spirited performance by several of the Navy bowlers led to a succession of wickets that nearly turned the result around. Fun game to watch.
The RAF won the last game narrowly but because all three teams won 1 game each of the tournament and Navy had the better overall run rate, the tournament went to the Navy this time. With a finish past 7pm, I didn’t go anywhere else in London for the day but well satisfied with a good day out at the cricket again.
Last thing … I may have resubscribed to an older game again … there’s a new Iceangel on World of Warcraft. We’ll see how that goes :-D. I did look at Star Trek Online again but while that game has the Star Trek setting, WoW is just a more charming accessible game.
I’ve just been trying to figure out what I’ve been doing for the last fortnight … Yep, it does feel a bit like that :-D. I think it sums up as a lot of late finishing days in the office and topped off with a castles trip and a very late night research run.
Oh ! I was trying out another game …
I’ve had the daft idea for a while to make a game character inspired by the fridge magnet character I got from Norway and Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord has what you could call the ideal character creator for the purpose.
And by that I mean it’s pretty crude and excels at making characters that most people would call cursed. But there she is, my latest Bashara character, all set up for forming a warband that will hopefully grow into an army fit to conquer nations. I think I got the eyes right ? (Unfortunately 😀 ).
Outside of that, another Deus Ex Mankind Divided run is finished, I think I lost part of a weekend by falling off the Little Big Workshop wagon again (great game, very cute much addictive). And I’ve been looking at Star Trek Online again. While enjoying reading Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Maybe a few starts of plans appearing as well too. Since the cruise, I’ve been actively wanting to take better pictures and the current thing is the night sky. A separate inspiration there is Wildbeare (youtube link) and how she goes out into the wilds and comes out with lovely stories for her watchers. And being out in the wilds away from city lights seems ideal for being able to see the night sky. I’ll come back to that.
In the mean time though, I was picking up some gear again with a side trip to see castles on Friday.
That’s the gatehouse of Carmarthen castle, which is sadly mostly just what’s left of Carmarthen castle. The main castle part has been displaced by the council buildings. There is a little bit left of the outer wall but no access to the top of those gatehouse towers. (More pictures on my Facebook than I’ll put here)
A side reason for going to Carmarthen outside of Somewhere New and castle was because they have what turns out to be an excellent camera shop there. Things may have been acquired … Picture later but I now have the bluetooth remote trigger (will be handy for star pics and tripod pics) and a way better tripod than the one I got last year. This one is articulated with a ball joint, the old one was on a couple of hinges which got incredibly stiff and seized. It was nearly impossible to point the camera accurately at the bridge when I took the old tripod to Portishead’s Battery Point in the last post.
Classic now and then shot. Carmarthen is on quite a wide river there, so when river and sea traffic was the main option it was a very prosperous market town. As trade moved to the roads and larger ports, everything moved to where things were a bit closer. Carmarthen is 100 miles away from where I live, which would have been even more of a factor in the days of sail.
So, tripod acquired, remote clicker acquired, tasty brownie acquired, off again. It was Star Wars day so I was drawn to Cardiff …
That’s Cardiff castle. I went to Cardiff because it has the Lego shop (with offers for Star Wars day) and the Snack shop. At some point, I’ll go to more of the Welsh castles … although it was getting late on Friday and I just about only made it for both the snack shop (close at 5.30pm) and the castle (close at 5pm). There’s a bit more leeway for the Lego shop (close at 8pm).
Cardiff castle is one of very few to remain mostly intact, with the small bailey castle inside the surrounding curtain walls. It was too late for me to visit the museum part (again) but I’ll make it there some day.
Castle for squirrels ?
They were clever centuries ago, being able to build miniature castles on top of the trees for the guard squirrels to help in the defence of the realm. (I swapped to the longer lens for this one).
Before I close up, this wasn’t the only trip of the weekend … The skies cleared on Saturday night and I had (somehow) enough leftover energy to try and indulge that need? to try and see the galaxy. I do enjoy doing that in Elite, although that’s suffered due to my arms being poorly and sore. So if I can’t go to the stars, can I get pictures of them ?
I didn’t get any usable pictures from Saturday night but I took away a good number of learning points …
First was – there are very few parking places open or accessible after dark around Bristol, located in places away from the city. I think I know why but won’t go into it here (they’re over wary about people setting up semi permanent camp). I think I have one now. The main criteria is that it has to have an open view to the South because that’s the part of the sky with the galaxy in it.
Second – need a good view of the sky with a parking place that you can get in and out of. The place I did take (bad) pics from has a car park resembling a moon crater. So I won’t go there again.
Third – bring Stuff. And by Stuff I mean light. And probably more things as well to add to the list which would strongly resemble things people would take when camping. That’s one reason why the camping option is really strong, because it means everything is set up well in time for the stars to show themselves.
Four – I learned more about the camera ! I did manage to take some pics but I hadn’t bothered setting up the tripod so they’re unusable. But what it’ll do when you persuade it to take a long exposure shot is turn off the display, have one ominous red light and be unresponsive. Cue me thinking that I broke it. Oops. But it was actually just taking a long 8 second exposure shot. So I have success there, switching it to Manual Focus is how you get those night sky pics.
Will have to be back for another attempt when timings allow and the skies are clear. The Lords trip could actually be a good option there. It’s not something I can really attempt with work the next day as it involves getting back in at 3.30 or 4am. I’d recommend a phone app called Stellarium there, it’ll show you the night sky wherever you are and show you what stars you are looking at.
Any more from Cardiff ?
There was, of course, plunder. In the form of nice snacks, the Lego Pod Racing diorama, the tripod over to the left there and a Lego Dwagon. I’ll show the dwagon build at some point, although I do know that I’m way behind on a few build type posts (and the rest of the cruise) and actually putting some things together as well.
I think that’s my cue to disappear from this post though, have a lovely week everyone.
I meant to do a post last week but something happened which meant having to ration the rational thought for a while :
Eek. That happened while I was cleaning the reading glasses while at an off site meeting a couple of Thursdays ago. The optician and me didn’t think it was fixable but they were able to pop me in for a rather emergency appointment on the Friday. And the new pairs arrived Friday two days ago. I could have done with an upgrade anyway, that pair were done during covid times and the mask was making the machine fog up … so the prescription was a bit off.
So what happened there ? The learn from experience wise after the event thing points me towards that join there. Most of the frames in the shop look like they’re made with a bend in the metal or plastic to make that 90 degrees between the lenses part and the legs part. A bend means the metal is somewhat gently formed through that 90 degrees and it’ll keep the bonds between the atoms intact. Those frames were made with a fold, which will break the bonds between the atoms and introduce a weakness that’ll lead to cracking and the fairly clean break you see there.
If you see the metal formed into a U shape throughout the bend, that makes it still more stronger.
So I have new glasses now but for a week I’d gone back to an ancient maybe 25 year old pair which were before my broken nose. I think they’re actually the pair that mean I still have 2 intact eyes, because they withstood the impact of a cricket ball. And I can still read in them ! The misalignment (my nose is still 2mm off centre) leads to headaches though and a rationing of that rational thought.
I’ve had another couple of arrivals and deliveries as well since last time. The Canon R50 did remarkably well at Insomnia, with all of the pictures coming out looking great and most importantly … properly sharp. Love that, people were loving the pictures I was sending out as well.
That’s a big thanks to Geraldine of the MS Maud cruise too, Geraldine was the ship’s photographer and part of the expedition team. Early on in the cruise, Geraldine was leading workshops on how to get great photography pictures out of the cruise. Because it’s not just about the time on the ship, it’s about getting those memories to look at afterwards as well. There were separate workshops for those with DSLR and Mirrorless (like the R50) cameras which I didn’t go to but a couple of tips from the main presentation are things I’ve tried to keep with me … So that’s :
Be selective about the pictures you send to the world. The Insomnia day collected 109 pictures, of which 18 went to the bigger collection on Facebook. That might still be too many for a day :-D. That’s the thing though – people will turn off their attention by picture 25, if they even get that far. With this age of digital photography and big memory cards, take lots of pictures but just show off the best ones. Hold back the mediocre ones or the ones that didn’t quite work.
Composition – it helps a lot to turn on the 3 x 3 grid facility that’ll be in any camera (if you can find it!) Our brains like to see things in certain places in the pictures. The 3 x 3 box grid helps to set everything up for best effect. Maybe that works here …
Or maybe I need to upgrade my tripod :-). That was from the first little field test of the new lens. It’s a 55-210mm lens to fit the R50 camera. That means it picks up from the maximum zoom of the lens I got with the camera and extends all the way out to get pictures like that of the nearer Severn Bridge between England and Wales. That first bridge is 10km away and you can (on the native resolution ! This is 1/3 height and width) electronically zoom in to see individual suspension bridge cables.
Happy with that, looking forwards to seeing how it does in the cricket at Lords. I took that picture at Portishead’s Battery Point, which has the advantages of 24 hour parking, easy roads to get there and great access to cafes.
Good little trip to the sea side, with it taking about an hour for my fingers and eyes to thaw out again. Shoulda brought my scarf :-).
Not sure whether the bridge pic was on the tripod or not but it was a good trip out and test of the new lens. Found some wildlife too :
That’s something we can all do with our cameras as well, with modern ones with so many pixels in the sensors. The native resolution is 6000×4000, that little cut is just the 1078×768 pixels in the middle with it mostly arranged to have Birdy in the centre of the 3×3 grid. The rest of the pictures from the R50 here are the 6000×4000 reduced to 2000×1333.
I might be looking at my tripod though because it was being very awkward to adjust it to the optimal angle. It’s gone a bit stiff and there’s a huge change in angle when you tighten it all up. Perhaps fixable by taking it apart, might be looking at one with a ball joint instead though. That’s one for when I go hunting for pictures of the stars again though, wonder when I’ll get that chance ? (It’ll need a late night trip now – lots of daylight)
Thinking of late night trips …
Last delivery – a consignment of goodies from the Naked Marshmallow Co. At the back, there are Chocolate Orange and Mini Egg marshmallows. In front, Vanilla Bean, Candy Floss and Salted Caramel. I’ve gone through the Candy Floss and Mini Egg marshmallows already, on to the Salted Caramel and they are as lush as you can imagine them being. More from Naked Marshmallow, thoroughly recommend them and they still have some last chance sales going.
Link to camping ? I knew I wasn’t going to be in so I opted for the “deliver to pick up”, with the chosen spot being the camping place. (I’m not going to give them free advertising this time). A wonderful recent video discovery has been Wildbeare (youtube link). She’s a lovely person who goes off for camping expeditions and comes out with fun, quick videos to capture the adventures. Hugely recommend giving her a watch, both for the lovely chilled out vibes and also for very honest and open opinions on how the gear does in the conditions she takes the gear into.
They’re inspiring stuff and picking stuff up from the camping place let me evaluate with my own eyes what’s available and what kind of size and weight it might be. Cos chasing those stars is looking like it might need an overnight in a tent in a place where Dodgy People won’t be.
I think I need to change car though again before I think of doing that … as my current physical condition (aka potato from legacies of the condition of my outsides and pandemic living conditions) would mean I wouldn’t want to be too far from transport. And while Red is a lovely little car, it also suffers from only having 140mm of ground clearance and I’m worried I might tear something off the bottom of it on the more rugged roads and tracks.
Time to close out though (10 minutes left in the Imola World Endurance Champ race). Time for pre dinner noms ?
I’ve been off to another of those gaming festival thingys … This time it was a fun weekend in Birmingham at the Insomnia Gaming Festival. It’s been going a few years now, starting form humble beginnings of a LAN* party, growing a bit by happening out of I think it was Coventry football stadium and they now run the show out of the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
(Urg – looks like they’ve changed the image linking / insertion thing, if it goes funny I’ll fix)
* A LAN is a local area network, it’s a term from the olden days where we’d need to bring computers together in the same location and wire them all together with cables in order to play the multiplayer games. That’s like … before broadband internet, before wifi, before online servers. Insomnia still does the LAN area, it’s their own dedicated area off to the side of the main show where people can take their gaming rigs and play together. You can read more about Insomnia on their site (Linky), next show is in September.
I was hoping to meet up with a few more people in the streaming world in and around the show (spoiler – that happened, made me happy) plus there’s usually lots more to see around shows like this.
Friday saw me settling into the hotel before planning munchies … One thing I’d like to do with these events is to link up with more people for dinner afterwards but for this one, it was good to take myself off somewhere on my own around Birmingham. (The Fort shopping centre has some good eating places) And … Barr Beacon gave potential for testing the camera out at night, which was maybe a bit too much adventure. Let’s see :
That’s a … handheld shot. At night. The camera was saying no to taking pictures of the stars (think I know why) but on the way out of Barr Beacon, I thought I’d try seeing what one of the automatic settings could do. And there we go. Even on the full resolution, the dots are pretty sharp. Happy with that. The adventure was supposed to see me drive all the way up to the war memorial up there but, the gate was shut (it shouldn’t have been) and I only walked a little way up there. There was one car parked off the path, plus more vehicles active further up too. I didn’t want to get anywhere near them cos I like life, so I set up with the tripod safely away from them.
A good little adventure but it seems quite tough to get to places with a good view of the sky at night, partly due to the parking areas being closed off, partly due to Safety. I didn’t go all the way up to the war memorial due to feeling unsafe and this was repeated by tales from one of the streamer people trying to get to their hotel. Gotta take care where you’re going in the cities these days.
My Insomnia day was the Saturday, lovely sunny day too. I was on a priority ticket as a bit of learning from MCM – priority entry means less queue, which gave lots of time to wander around the show. And there was a little chilled out munchie before going in. One side note there, it’s really important to have your fluids with you at shows like this. The atmosphere can be really hot so it’s important to stay hydrated. I must have gotten through at least 3 refills of the bottle that my Comic Con friend bought me (more than!) a few years ago. My legs survived too (after extreme bad cramp at Comic Con) and I’d note that there were very visible first aiders standing by in case people got into trouble, that’s definitely appreciated.
Yorkshire Tea brought the sustenance. Free tea ! Much appreciated. My highlights of the day were getting to meet Tashnarr (twitch link) again, not just once but three times ! One of which included a lovely natter from this wonderful individual. She is working for the people who organise Insomnia now, so was being a busy bee on the day.
The other massive highlight was seeing Session Zero on the main stage doing a live Dungeons and Dragons style role play show. They are Josh Strife Hayes as the Game Master, plus Ragedarling playing a barbarian and Billietrixx as a sorceror. Pictures ?
There’s Josh and Ragedarling …
And there’s sorceress Billietrixx looking resplendent (with shiny new outfit upgrade too).
There were too many pictures to post here but the better ones are all on the Session Zero Twixxer thread (Linky). It was a massively fun show to watch, there was massive audience involvement, much daft, much enjoyment and I’ll definitely be looking out for when they’re doing more shows.
And after the show and a lovely little natter with Tashnarr on the way (there is a selfie, it’s not for the internet :-D), I had a chance to say hi to them after their Meet and Greet. There’s a fourth person there, their name didn’t lodge in my head but they were a wonderful special guest for the show. I’ve met Billie before at Creator North, was great to see them here again.
And they all loved the pictures too. That gives me a happy buzz too. This was the first time I’d taken the new R50 camera out to a show like this and I think it did really well. It’s almost an entry level for the higher class of cameras (it’s a mirrorless) but what it gave me on the automatic settings and mostly handheld (or braced on the knee) were an absolute revelation compared to what I was getting from the Ixus. I think the pictures look amazing, hopefully I’ll see them again if people think they’re good enough to use for later material.
But … my social batteries were hitting their limits later on in the day so I disappeared before the end. It was a lovely weekend. I’ve been struggling with my mental health lately (mostly from being worn down) and meeting the following gave me a very happy buzz that kicked me back off into having a much more positive mental state :
Tashnarr – as always, lovely bean. She helped organise a wonderful show and I should be back for the next Insomnia.
Billietrixx & Ragedarling (and Josh!) off Session Zero – the show was huge fun to watch. I’ve been watching Billie for about a year, Rage for about a month or so. They have a lovely energy that comes through their streams and it’s infectious. They’re good people to watch.
MiyukiPanda – a first surprise running into. Miyuki is a huge fan of racing and will often be seen streaming games like the F1 games or there was also the Lego racing game. Miyuki has a selfie of me too which is on her discord but I got this pic of Miyuki with the show mascot :
I also ran into Saffypie, Peachypixel8, Josh aka Gamingftl and Bentham aka Mangledpork after the show. I’d met Josh and Bentham before but this was first time seeing Saffy and Peachy. And got hugs. They gave me the idea of heading to Nandos … Hope they enjoyed their dinner as much as I did mine :-D.
I did miss running into one little group though, which was Dontrachquit heading round the show with a few of her community. There will be a next time there :-D. Rach is another fun streamer lady from Scotland who I’ve been enjoying watching again lately. I missed spotting her at the show but was enjoying seeing the little updates that were popping up on discord.
I’m now looking ahead to the Summer events … I’ll be taking the camera to Lords for the Interservices T20 in May, looking forward to that, plus maybe MCM Comic Con at the end of May too. However, the general buzz from enjoying Insomnia has me turning the maybe maybe not for Twitch Con is turning into a lot more interest. Hopefully I’ll be able to tag along with some of the communities for that, as that would make that experience so much better. We’ll see. Current plans are a road trip and a ferry. I’m not a fan of air travel, seems like a lot of restrictions and a definite too many people in the airport. Ferry would allow for a nice bit of chill out time in the middle with more room and very few restrictions.
Loot ? I did take away a bit of loot …
Not that fella, although it was a very close run thing. (Too late in the day so Brain was a bit fried, plus I don’t know where I’d put something that size) Nah, I came away with these :
The dice are from Trayed and Tested and there’s a link to their Etsy shop. So all in all, wonderful weekend. It was great to get away for the Insomnia show and I’ll definitely be looking to do that again. It would be good to be in with more community next time but it was lovely seeing the shows and meeting up with the people I did see (including a random oneOnline!)
And it gave me a reset for my mental state leading to a very happy buzzing, especially hearing that all the people got home ok ! I do worry about the good people and it was good to hear they all returned safe and sound.
I’ll leave it there, I dropped more pictures on the Session Zero Twixxer link above. Time for me to put some dinner on while enjoying chilling to Tashnarr painting a miniature (Peachy is on as well at the moment, in Cities Skylines).
As it always seems, it feels like it’s been a long time since being off at Xmas. I’m off on leave for the pre Easter week at the moment, definitely need it, the tiredness has been sinking in for a little while now. And that manifests in not posting so much here. And I still have the rest of the cruise things to catch up on !
What’s been happening ?
Slowly finishing the last book – Velocity Weapon by Megan O’Keefe. I’ll be back for more there, the author set up a pretty decent space scifi universe. There’s some handwavingism in there but that lets them concentrate on a story that promises to develop nicely over the second and third books in the trilogy. Next up is Declaration by M R Forbes. It’s the last of a series of 5 books which haven’t grabbed me nearly as much as the Starship for Sale series. This one is darker, much less fun. But I want to know how it ends, so I’m back in there for the last one of the series.
Camera stuff – I haven’t had a chance or energy to do much more scouting with the camera yet. Part of that is the weather around here, things are warming up towards spring but … almost constant rain. No stars !
I have a new thing coming there. Soon. Hopefully. I’ve ordered a 55-210 lens to supplement the 18-45mm lens I got with the camera. What’s that for ? Let’s see if something will work …
One of those pairs is from the Ixus 265, one is from the R50. The zoom kinda gives it away :-D.
It’s curious seeing the pics side by side like that. This was from my first attempts with the R50. It definitely shows in me not getting the focus on the Bridge, the camera was wanting to focus on the foliage on the fence. Also curious seeing the difference in colour balance between the two. The mud path is much more mud like from the R50.
These were all taken with the cameras on the tripod, although I knew very little about the R50 at this point so it was on fully automatic settings and a focus that liked the foliage. I’ve reduced the quality as well there, so they’re a bit more bandwidth friendly. The R50 has just under 50% more pixels in there than the Ixus.
The Ixus was showing off its zoom range there though, with that being at its full 54mm extension which is equivalent to 300mm on the 35mm scale. The 45mm on the R50’s lens is equivalent to 72mm on that scale. It’s a nice range on the lens but I’ll be looking for a bit more when I go to Lords for the cricket. I do like to zoom all the way into the play. The 55-210mm lens goes out to an equivalent 336mm, so hopefully I won’t need all of that for Lords.
I definitely won’t need all of it for where I’m going at the weekend :-).
It’s Insomnia gaming festival. I haven’t been to one of these yet, looking forward to it. It’ll be a chance to meet a couple of creators I’ve met before … The wonderful Tashnarr and Billietrixx. I’ve enjoyed watching Tashnarr for (gosh) almost 5 years now. Lovely person, doesn’t stream as much now as before because a full time job happened but it’s a pleasure catching the streams when they happen. Same with Billie who is definitely a fun one to keep an eye on. Looking forward to seeing if I can say hi again this weekend. Tashnarr helps set up and run the events, Billie is going to be there as part of the Session Zero RPG group.
Also looking forward to bumping into DontRachQuit, Knightenator, Saffypie, Miyukipanda and I think there are some more I’m missing there too. Plus there will definitely be a few community meet ups as well. It’ll be a fun weekend.
One of the things I want to see about seeing more and getting pictures of is the sky. And by sky, I mean the night sky and the stars. That’s coming partly from the cruise and finding out that the little Ixus wasn’t really equipped for taking pictures of the night sky. (There might be a setting I haven’t found yet). So that’s one thing I want to do with the R50. I think it’ll mean getting a decent distance away from civilisation though. Which is never a bad thing.
One new channel I’ve found over the weekend actually is Wildbeare’s youtube channel. I would thoroughly recommend checking out what she does. And that’s go off into the wilderness with a tent for the weekends, have a wander around and come out with simply wonderful videos of the adventure. She’s in her element as she shows off what’s out there and how she connects totally with that world of the wilderness. And I’m recognising the occasional “hello fren” “hello mushroom” as she spots something to show us. Yep, I think that’d be me doing that too and showing the pictures :-D.
I’d massively recommend checking that one out, it might ignite a little wanderlust as well as a healthy bit of respect for the conditions especially in the less hospitable times of year. It’s been a genuine pleasure finding Wildbeare, watching the adventures, listening to the lovely voice and how she perceives the world.
How do I perceive the world ? I think I’d like to get out there as well, although I have none of the equipment required and nowhere to store it. But I’ll look into that some more, maybe even come up with a Plan.
Tonight’s plan though is food :-). Gotta put the dinner on. Nite all, have a great Easter weekend if you celebrate that. I might be back later in the week with more castle pics.
Yep. Went for it with the camera. It’s the Canon R50 mirrorless camera in the package that comes with a backpack, 32GB memory card, extra battery and a 18-45mm lens. I ordered on the Friday afternoon and it arrived with me on the Tuesday afternoon.
Quick aside – I’m struggling a bit with the physical and mental health at the moment … I’ll be ok, just getting older on the physical side and I think I needed to go back on the multivitamins to help me out mentally. It’s almost certainly why I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like lately. Just so tired and mentally blasted.
So … mid last year, Doctor Sleepy was looking for an answer to tiredness. So Doctor Sleepy started taking Vitamin C/D supplements as well as the multivitamins and Magnesium (for cramp). However, I was getting increasingly savage cramps. When the cruise happened, I deliberately didn’t take the multivits and was just on the Mag and Vit C/D. And the cramps were almost gone. So I’ve been off the multivits since. I think that’s been starving me of some of the brain chemicals … And it’s been manifesting into snapping off at stuff that really shouldn’t get to me.
Like having a fraud check imposed on the buying of the camera. Yeah, I flared over that. I should probably be seeing an actual qualified Doctor about the mineral imbalances that I still have, instead of trying to go by Doctor Google and Doctor Sleepy. Cos I’m a techie and engineering geek, not a body or brain geek.
The TLDR though is that the online Canon store did a cracking job getting the camera to me in very quick time and they dealt very professionally and courteously with the email comms with my angry email about the fraud check. Would totally go back to them again and not just because they gave the best deal this time. (Disclosure note – I bought all this stuff and went back to Canon because while the Ixus has limits, it’s a great little camera)
Camera ?
There we are. I’ll hopefully get chances to do some comparisons of all 3 cameras I have available to me now. In that pic, we can see the R50 pointing at us. That’s it without a lens attached. The Ixus 265 is behind and to the right. It suffers for stabilisation and low light but they pack incredible zoom capability into the tiny pocket package. And there’s my Pixel 4 sitting in front.
That’s from the first out and about and it’s taken from a camp site that will hopefully offer good views of both Severn Bridges. I hadn’t used or investigated the camera much but it was good to be out and about. I’d been suffering from an increasingly painful back at work (I think one of the chairs violently disagrees with me) and heading out over the bridge to find a little place called the Black Rock Picnic Site. (Link) There used to be a service station that offered incredible views of the Bridge (and was accessible) but the prime location got bought by a company that locked off the access … and have since moved out. Looks like it might be accessible again in 2026. (Handy Linky)
Anyway, that’s from the R50 on a tripod. It was steadily drizzling, so I didn’t want to venture out too much into the open with the new shiny … so the tripod was a bit too far back meaning the camera’s focused on the foliage instead of the bridge. Next time :-D. The little Ixus was able to zoom all the way into the vertical spars of the bridge and focus into the cables.
First attempt at a night time shot. Not sure what’s happening on the left there with the lighting. Maybe something was being sprayed. It was a bit of a fight making the camera take the shot, I think it was demanding a flash. I do like the definition there though, this was with the camera braced on a fence. I wasn’t going to stick around to figure out what was happening with the lights on the left, by this time I was massively tired (first day back on the multivits) and while my back had freed up a bit, it was still Angry. I’d gone partly into survival mode by this point (and annoyed at pizza shop guy attempting to clear up uneaten pizza while trying to rush me out of the Hut) and needed to get home.
Friday saw me getting out and about again. First up, Cardiff to have a quick look around. I’ll likely acquire a longer lens for the R50, especially for the cricket in the summer. I’d like to see what it can do there and I’ll have the tripod along as well. I might pick up something from the Cardiff camera shop, as it’s really handy to be able to check the sizes of stuff before you buy them. However, it’s also really handy to be able to check the prices of what you’re looking at.
There’s a saying “if you need to ask the price, you can’t afford it”. I prefer to go by “if you’re not showing me the price, you’re planning to rip me off”. I could look up the price online … but that’s not the same as actually displaying it. Anyway, Cardiff let me look in the model shop (where I got put off a bit by them talking disparagingly about “over educated student types”, Sleepy will remember that) and the snack shop. More on that later. I didn’t have too much time in Cardiff though because I wanted to try and look at the castle before it was too late in the day …
There we are. This is Whitecastle, in the depths of Wales near the border with England. Nice little castle … not much left of it though. I managed to completely blow someone’s mind by saying that this castle was rebuilt in 1260. Here’s the wiki link. There isn’t much left of this castle and to be honest, the nearby Raglan castle has much more to see and is in better condition. I didn’t stay here too long, you’ll probably see how lush the grass is there. The ground around here has been treated to a Lot of water from the sky and wasn’t in great condition. I could see a slip and fall and lots of mud in the immediate future of my jeans :-D.
So I moved on and had too much fun on the roads on the way back, letting the car make very nice brum brum noises on the tight and twisty roads. I may have to do that more often. Setting the satnav for “short” instead of “quick” makes it avoid the motorways which are just set cruise control to Snore. Tight and twisty roads with no one else on them are more fun.
Snacks ?
Snacks ! That’s the haul from Wally’s Delicatessen in one of the Cardiff arcades. Good place, nice people, great snacks. And a tasty haul of (back row) candy mice, pineapple chunks and cola bottles plus (front row) fudge, fruit jellies and chocolate coin things.
Time to hit post though and get tonight’s dinner in the oven. Nite all 😀
PS The lens cap survived 3 days before I lost it … I realised before leaving the castle though and spotted it, lying on the path where it had been dropped. Will have to figure something out there.
Actually – lots of boats. Found a dwagon there too …
Gosh, it’s been over a week again since the last post. I do need to keep posting more often, although that’s tempered by what my own state can support. So last week, I was getting affected by a certain amount of brain fog. Maybe I’d picked up a cold again, more likely it’s that seasonal affective thing where people don’t do so well with cold weather and lack of sunlight.
Not sure there, I was doing ok with that kind of conditions on the cruise, where going North meant the days got really short and the outside temperatures were pretty cold. Mind you, I always had the option to retreat inside to the warm where the coffee was on tap, the cookies were available. That might be part of the difference between cruise and now.
Here and now – the responsibilities are there and to be honest, my current chair is pretty bad. It was a good idea at the time to get that one but a seat with bucket seat type bolsters is not healthy. You learn :-D. I can disappear into the games as well, although that’s also tempered by physical condition where I’m currently having trouble with the arms again. And that means no space piloting for a bit and I’m holding off on going back into games like Skyrim, Bannerlord and a replay of Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
Back on the cruise – it was a curious state where I completely set aside my usual stimulation of keeping up with the social media (except the Discord communities). I didn’t put the music on in the cabin either. I was attempting to watch streams in the evenings, but that’s mostly about the communities there. The streams I’m usually in are wonderful for the communities.
(aside – currently tapping this out while Caustic Phoenix is doing a work stream in the background – HI CAUSTIC)
The cruise swapped one set of stimulation for another and it was a wonderful thing to be learning so much about Norway, as well as seeing new parts of the country every day as the ship moved from location to location.
Oh and I was greatly enjoying the food and the milkshakes.
Back to littler boats ?
Talking of dinner, I should put mine on. That boat in the picture is a 60 foot narrowboat. It’s probably the most common type of barge on the British inland waterways. In there is a self contained package of kitchen galley, fully featured bath/shower room, I think that’s a 4 berth as well (possibly 6) and there will be the saloon area for chilling out in. Oh and there’s also a little engine at the back. These boats don’t go too quick, anything more than about 6 knots is bad for the canals. The wake causes damage to the banks if the barge goes too fast. So it’s a chilled out way of getting around.
I’ve got another link for you there, one of the youtube channels I’ve found recently is The Mindful Narrowboat. The lady who runs that channel is absolutely lovely, has a keen eye for the nature by the canals and a wise head for poetry. The artwork is wonderful too. Check out the channel, it’s one where I’m going to go back to the start to see all of the waterway adventure.
That’s the other type of canal barge. It’s a widebeam by Collingwood boat builders. While the narrowboats are a bit too cosy (i.e. tight) for me, widebeams have a lot more room inside. But … that also limits how much access they have to the canal network, as the canals around Birmingham in the centre of the UK aren’t navigable by the widebeam barges.
As for the show, I don’t think I’ll be back next year. It was worth going there again but … apart from the barges, it doesn’t really feel a useful show at the moment. The dominant vessel type there is the tender, with a small number of liveaboard capable boats.
That’s your typical tender. They’re smaller boats, intended to allow crew or owners of larger boats the ability to do a quick run ashore to pick up supplies or do other things you’d want to do ashore. (Like dining out etc).
That kind of boat isn’t any use to me (unless I win the lottery big – the ticket is in again). Even the smaller boat shaped boats aren’t too good, because the living area isn’t suitable for … living in. The show this year seemed mostly about these little boats, either outright tenders or bigger boats that also would not be suitable as a living place. They were more for going at outrageous speed on the water or for showing off.
Oh well, it was good getting out and about again and it gave me the chance to do a few other things like go to the place on the motorway with the great snacks. We like snacks.
I have an events list as well now … it’s because there’s likely to be a few things colliding in the summer and there won’t be enough time to do it all. Let’s see : next up is Mother’s Day, it’s March in the UK. Insomnia gaming festival #72 is at the end of March, I haven’t been to one of these yet and it should be really good. Last year, covid intervened and I don’t think I was healthy for the second half of the year either.
Interservices T20 is in May this year, I want to get my new camera well before then and that’ll be a good chance to give it a good day out. I’m pretty much settled on the Canon R50. It’s a mirrorless camera that’s a step up from what I was first looking at, that’s the choice because there is better tech built in. It’s worth going up to that step, anything more is too expensive.
MCM London is at the end of May. That’s a maybe … We’ll see who’s going to that. Then it’s into the great 24 hour motor races at Nurburgring (1-2 June) and Le Mans (15-16 June). Le Mans clashes with a very promising cruise to south Scandinavia from 13-27 June. I don’t think I’m doing that one because it’s too close to Twitch Con EU in Rotterdam on 29-30 June. But I think I do have the cruise bug now and definitely want to make time for another one this year.
I’m hoping for another Creator North as well, that was a fun cosy event last year run and set up by wonderful people.
Ok, time to put the dinner on and hit the post button. One question before I go, it’s from Caustic Phoenix’s stream earlier. What would be your walk in song to accompany you if you were walking up to a stage ? I just thought of one for me … Here’s a bit of KT Tunstall singing Still A Weirdo to close out the post with.
Nite all, have a great rest of the week.
PS Ok maybe not as a walk in song but it’s still a fantastic song.
Hang on, I haven’t done anything rash with money … yet …
We might hit that as we go into what I’m about to launch into … Hopefully not that deep but let’s see how far it goes.
One thing wasn’t making sense to me yesterday with the camera specifications. If a lower f number for the aperture is better, what’s the advantage of getting a mirrorless camera with a lens that goes down to f4.0 over a mobile phone camera that was taking pictures at f1.7 aperture and the little Ixus that was going to f3.6 aperture. Lower number better right ?
And then I realised that I wasn’t talking like for like. The phone camera is the smallest, the Ixus camera is in the middle and the mirrorless camera is a bit of a whopper. Time to look at numbers :
Pixel 4 has 2 main cameras. Camera 1 is 12.2 megapixels with aperture f1.7 and the metadata told me it was a focal length of 4mm with a 35mm number of 27mm (I think they compare everything to a 35mm camera standard). Camera 2 is 16 MP over a 50mm telephoto sensor with aperture f2.4 and a 2x optical zoom. The Northern Light pic would have been with the Camera 1. Oh and the resolution is 96 dots per inch with each pixel being 1 micrometer (0.000001m) so the sensor will be 4mm across.
(note to geeky tendency readers – run a check over numbers as you do them to see if they make sense. A 27mm sensor in a phone doesn’t feel right, a 4mm sensor feels right)
The Ixus 265 has a 15.2MP sensor with 180 dots per inch resolution. The focal length is quoted as 4.5mm to 54mm (the lens comes in and out on a motor) for 35mm numbers of 25-300mm. The f numbers for the aperture go from f3.6 to f7.0. It does actually have 2.5 stop image stabilisation … (Spec sheet link) The sensor is 1/2.3 inches which is apparently 6.16mm across making it 50% bigger than the phone sensor. (Dunno about the sums there, feels about right again).
Let’s see what the chonky camera has …
Canon EOS R100 has a 24MP effective pixel sensor that’s 22.3mm by 14.9mm. So that’s 5.5 times the size of the phone camera. Peek back at yesterday and the focal length is 18-45mm for a 35mm equivalent of 29-72mm. The f numbers on the lens go from f4.5 to f6.3.
What do all those numbers really mean though ? Let’s look at the sensor first. The bigger the sensor, the more light can hit it in a set amount of time. So the mirrorless would bring in over 5 times the light information in a given amount of time, compared to the Pixel 4 camera. The little Ixus sensor brings in 1.5 times the information of the Pixel 4 sensor but …
The Pixel 4 won with the Northern Lights pictures because the Pixel could be set for a far longer exposure time. Yesterday’s picture was over a 16 second exposure, the best I could get from the Ixus was a surprisingly short 1 second. Let’s invent a unit called the Light Wibbly, the Ixus pulled in 6 LWsecs (Light Wibbly Seconds), the Pixel 4 pulled in 16LWsecs with the 4 second exposure pictures. Result, you can see Northern Lights in one camera and can’t in the other. The EOS R100 can do shutter speeds as fast as 1/4000 seconds up to an exposure of 30 seconds. So, bigger sensor, more light getting in per second, much bigger range of how long it’ll take the light in for. The R100s would pull in 22LWsecs with a 1 second exposure, which is how people can get those time lapse videos of the Northern Lights.
And that all adds up to me looking at future Google searches for “star seeing viewpoints Bristol” :-D. The Pixel was just starting to pick up galaxy background pictures … I really, really want to see those. But I’d need to be somewhere relatively remote with minimal light pollution and those areas are tough to find in the UK.
On to the focal length – a big number means that distant objects can be brought much closer. That’s how I get the really zoomed in pictures of the cricketers at Lords, the camera is operating at a really high zoom level. I’m curious as to how the 25-300mm numbers of the Ixus 265 compare to what could be gotten out of the starter 29-72mm lens of the R100 pack. But … that’s one other reason you get the cameras with interchangeable lenses. There’s a lens that goes to 800mm for being able to read the road signs in London from Bristol but that’s also £1100 so maybe not. There’s also a more affordable high aperture one for low light photography which I might have to check out (£200).
Oh gosh. Big yawn. It’s Friday afternoon / early evening and I’m going to be catching up on sleep all weekend. Time for a sum up ? First another link for some optics theories, it’ll help peeking here (linky).
Mobile phone camera – they’re doing an AMAZING job with these. They only have a tiny amount of real estate to work with in terms of space for the sensor and the depth to turn the picture from light into 1’s and 0’s. As you’ll see from the Visual Education link above, cameras benefit from having a lot of depth to focus up the image. Mobiles do a fantastic job with the space they have available and the software is incredible at making the great pictures happen. Cost is minimal because they come with the smart phone you likely have already.
Compact digital camera – they do the best they can with the package available and the little Ixus is a really flexible device. It has massive zoom capability and it fits inside a small pocket. Portability is a wonderful thing but … you have to be really careful about keeping the camera steady and it’s almost useless in minimal light conditions. The latest Ixus 285 is £270 but it looks like they’re being phased out for Powershot cameras.
Mirrorless / DSLR modular camera – they have the size and versatility to get professional level amazing photography but … they’re also way more expensive. I’m still going to get one though because I do enjoy taking pictures of Stuff and sharing them with people. The pack I’m looking at is currently £650 or you could win the lottery and get the R3 camera body for £5500 and multipurpose RF28-70mm f2L lens for £3400.
No I’m not going to be spending nearly £10k on a camera system :-D. That’s actually double what you could get a Rolls-Royce for. (True statement ! Autotrader has a 1976 Silver Shadow for £4,675) I’d actually save a few pennies more for the pretty Mk3 Spitfire going for £16k.
Oh there I go dreaming again. I wouldn’t actually want to drive a Triumph Spitfire (horrifically dangerous suspension set up) but they are a very pretty old car.
It’s been a Week again … Mostly about stuff at work where we’re trying to do lots in a very short time, without enough in the way of resources. So, situation normal there then. It means we focus in on what we can do and defer plans for what we can’t. But getting there can be pretty exhausting, so I’ve been hitting the napping hard after the work laptop gets closed up.
Enough about work though. I’ve got some purchases / upgrades coming up. Let’s get the rant out of the way first 😀
So it came round to car insurance renewal time and it looks like the insurance company (Axa – don’t go to them) has decided to get in on the 2020s trend with hiking prices. For my 2018 Lexus CT (aka Posh Prius), they upped the premium from £350 to just over £600. Wowser. The reasoning when I gave them one of those unhappy emails “How did we do” “I will never do business with you again” was :
A rise in the claims for this type of car – I have over 20 years of no claims, how other people drive is up to them.
A rise in the cost of parts for cars – it’s a 2018 car that only just went out of manufacture.
An increase in the amount of technology in cars – it’s a 2018 car that has the same amount of technology in it as it did last year. (Although I have considered getting a dashcam)
An increase in injury compensation and medical costs – I have over 20 years of no claims and have no intention of getting involved in other people’s injury claims.
Incidentally, Axa had good financial results last year with steady growth (I checked them out), decent profits and I think dividends for the shareholders too. It’s not a savage raise in charges because they’re short of money, it’s pure greed.
So … another of those customer disservice emails that acts clever but the only thing it achieves is to lodge a last impression memory in an ex customer who will remember that the next time it comes to do any business that might involve them. In short, it’s one of those emails that should never have escaped the company, like when Novotel nickel and dimed me on a hotel last year. (Incidentally, Novotel denied me access to the car that weekend, the locked secure garage was also locked to me due to me not being provided with the code until check out)
I’m with eSure this year thanks to the meerkats for £360 again. Disclosure note – I went to them, I’ve never had approaches from insurance companies apart from where I’ve had to check a “yes you can contact me” as part of the normal business with them.
Next up is phone – I should be doing the mobile phone update soon. The one I have is a Pixel 4, which has done well over the last 4 years. It’s paid off now though, so I can go for the upgrade with not much cost. Highlights are the camera, which brought those Northern Lights pictures, battery life has been good and it’s blissfully free of the spyware and annoyanceware garbage that was on my Galaxy S7. So I’ll go for a Pixel 8 “soon”. I could hold on to the Pixel 4 but it’s been showing odd behaviour on failed incoming calls and there’s awkwardness on using its hotspot for my second work laptop.
I’m looking more seriously at cameras … I don’t think I’ll have it before Boat Life 2024 in just over a week but I’ll definitely have it for the Lords cricket in May. What am I looking at getting ?
The Canon Ixus has done well, although it has its flaws in poor image stabilisation. The upgrade would be a Canon EOS R100 mirrorless camera. These are a new type, where the mirror that sends part of the image light up to a viewfinder isn’t included in the camera. Means more light goes to the sensor but you lose the optical viewfinder. Which is fine because I haven’t used a camera viewfinder in decades, I just take the pictures using the rear display.
Here come the links ! This one is for Canon’s page with the camera, memory card, lens and bag. (Linky) Disclosure note again – I’ll go Canon because the little Ixus 265 has done very well (except needing to keep it really steady) with excellent battery life and reliability. I’ve not had any approaches from any camera makers. (Us content people have to put these disclosure notes in so we’re not hiding an inducement or ad)
The specifications on the cameras look very much of a muchness. That’s the cheaper Canon mirrorless camera, which means cheaper plastic materials used to put it together. The sensor looks like it’s the same. The trick seems to be in the lens and one thing impressing me about Canon is that they put that little bit of extra effort in to make it easier to spend your money with them. Things like a guide to what all the letters and numbers in the lens mean. (Linky again for the full how to read those numbers guide). I need to get my knowledge up to speed on why all these matter but here goes for the numpty view :
Canon RF-S lens – this is the attachment type, means it’s designed for the mirrorless cameras.
18-45mm – this is the focal length. Two numbers mean you can zoom in and out. Lower number means everything is smaller. Bigger number happens for when you zoom in. (The linky above has pictures included in the guide, well worth a peek)
F4.5-6.3 – this is the aperture size. A smaller number means a bigger aperture, which lets more light in.
IS – this is for Image Stabilisation, so the camera should still get fairly sharp pictures if you’re moving it around. This one has a 4 step image stabiliser.
STM – this stands for Stepping Motor Technology. Most motors will be designed to keep spinning. Stepper motors are designed to go direct to a position and hold there until they need to move again.
Pulling something out of the Northern Lights set :
That’s one of the ones from the Pixel 4. It’s taken from the ship flight deck, looking out aft. You’ll be able to see some light lines to the lower left and in the stars, where the exposure time has combined with a bit of ship movement. For partially sighted readers who depend on the alt-text being read out, the light lines are perhaps about 1cm as I see them on the editing screen, going horizontally and they’re curiously only visible on a small number of the visible stars.
Good to see stars in there too. The ISO level isn’t actually too high in this one. ISO being the exposure sensitivity. The file metadata is telling me the Pixel 4 chose settings of focal length 4mm (so it’s looking at the sky as intended), F1.7 for the aperture, a whopping 16 seconds of exposure time and ISO 695. The phone was on the tripod at the time. Looks like the little Ixus was able to get down to F3.6 aperture and I got a maximum of 1s exposure time out of it.
Being able to get into the detailed settings helps a lot and the little Ixus couldn’t really give those options.
I’d add a remote trigger, for the camera being on a tripod, and a spare battery to that camera, lens, memory card and backpack package.
One thing I’d say though – if you’re doing a big purchase, like a phone, or a camera, or something bigger like a car or a house, be an Intelligent Customer. Research what you’re buying before you commit any money. Sometimes the people with the products make it easy to find out what you’re buying. Sometimes they’ll hide why their product is cheaper than the alternatives.
But the thing to take away is that it’s Your Money you’re spending. It’s only the sales person’s when they’ve done a good enough job of parting you with the money.
And enjoy what you buy ! See you next time folks 🙂
Thanks for reading, would you like to share ?
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