itcrashed.com

Dubs

itcrashed — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:35:42 +0000

I brought my V1 to a game to take a few videos. I didn’t take any pictures. Unfortunately you cannot use a flash and you are limited to lenses that are less than 3″ in length. Pretty lame. Handheld shots are near impossible so I didn’t even bother since it was relatively dark.

Here are the Flying Dubs:

Drunk fan sitting near us:

And yes, we lost. Friggin’ Dubs!

Filed under: Warriors

Photography Wishlist

itcrashed — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:22:20 +0000

There are quite a few things still left on my photography wishlist:

Nikon full frame camera (D4, but more realistically the D800)
Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
Nikon SB-910 AF Speedlight (I know, I had it, but now I want it again!)
PocketWizard MiniTT1
PocketWizard FlexTT5
Think Tank Shape Shifter Backpack
Fujifilm X100 Black Limited Edition
Manfrotto MT294A3 Tripod
Manfrotto 460MG Tripod Head

Click to view slideshow.

I don’t know if I will be able to conquer all of this gear this coming year since this list costs between $8,000 and $10,000! This has to be the most impractical hobby I have ever been inundated with!

Filed under: Fuji, Manfrotto, Nikkor Lenses, Nikon, Think Tank Photo

Nerding Out

itcrashed — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:00:33 +0000

“Nerding-out with Nikon” at the California Academy of Sciences, DeYoung Museum, and Legion of Honor:

Filed under: California Academy of Sciences, DeYoung Museum, Legion of Honor, Nikkor Lenses, Nikon

Nikon FT1

itcrashed — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:45:00 +0000

I purchased a Nikon FT1 adapter for my V1. This allows me to attach any of my F-mount lenses to my V1! For $250, and with a 2.7x crop factor, this was an extremely cheap way to get massive reach with my existing lenses.

Nikon pron shots and sample photos will be posted down the stretch… In the meantime, here are a few teaser shots of the Nikon V1 + FT1 + TC-20E III + 70-200mm VR II = 1080mm:

Update: Clear sky and moon is out, so here is a quick shot:

No cropping:

Cropped to fill frame:

Filed under: Nikkor Lenses, Nikon, Nikon 1 V1

Nikon D4

itcrashed — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:23:33 +0000

Stoked! (Even though I will probably never own one!)

Filed under: Nikkor Lenses, Nikon

Nikon V1 after a few weeks of shooting…

itcrashed — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:29:01 +0000

I’ve had the Nikon V1 for a few weeks now. After about a thousand shots, I’m finally starting to get a good understanding of this camera’s capabilities along with its limitations. My expectations were very humble given the sensor size, but as I am learning the system and taking more shots I found that this camera can really be pushed beyond the capabilities of cameras with significantly larger sensor sizes. In my humble opinion, the overall image quality exceeds most micro four-thirds cameras on the market today. Here are some samples I took today:

Statue at the Legion of Honor:

World Peace Monument near the Legion of Honor:

Bernini’s Medusa at the Legion of Honor:

The Nikon V1 is performing way beyond my expectations! I can’t wait for more accessories to be released. And because I have been so impressed with it’s performance, I may pick up the 30-100mm lens just to expand it’s capabilities even further!

Filed under: Legion of Honor, Nikkor Lenses, Nikon, Nikon 1 V1

Bakesale Betty

itcrashed — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:23:02 +0000

When Stephen was attending Cal, he would frequent a sandwich and bakery shop, Bakesale Betty, in Oakland on 51st and Telegraph. SheryAnne’s coworker, who is a long time foodie of Oakland, introduced the shop to her several months ago as well. SheryAnne and Stephen had no idea that they were both huge fans of this sandwich shop until we all happen to be talking about great “hole-in-the-wall” eateries. Since then, both of them would rave to me about how great their fried chicken sandwiches were. They would tell me about how people would bear standing in long lines just to have a chance at getting one of these chicken sandwiches. They would also tell me that the sandwiches were so good, they would run out by mid-day. And because of this, SheryAnne would never have a chance to bring one home for me after work to try. Since Stephen and Shaun were here to visit during the holidays, we decided it was a great time to wait in line so I could finally get a taste of this hyped sandwich! Wow – all I can say was it that it was totally worth it!

Stephen and Shaun fighting the cold weather at 10:30 am to take on these sandwiches:

The sandwich tastes as good as it looks!

The tables at Bakesale Betty are converted ironing boards with stools – way cool!

If you are ever in the area, it’s totally worth the stop!

Filed under: Bakesale Betty, Oakland

Doh!

itcrashed — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:19:54 +0000

Filed under: Monta Ellis, Warriors

Nikon SB-910 Speedlight

itcrashed — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:25:58 +0000

Ever since my renaissance with Nikon, I have been neglecting my need for a Speedlight. I wanted the flagship SB-900 since day one with my D7000, but knew there were complaints of overheating issues and rumors of a replacement coming soon.

And the rumors turned out to be true! Nikon released their new flagship, the SB-910! I placed my order the first day of availability from Amazon.

So I received this hardcore piece of kit today…

It’s the greatest feeling in the world to open these gold Nikon boxes:

The cases that are included with these new Speedlights are plain stupid. Who the heck has a bag that can carry this? Nikon should go back to including long sleeves that pocket the flash fully tilted up. The included case is just plain dumb:

I knew this flash was large, but I didn’t know it was going to actually be larger than my camera body!

From the back, mounted on the camera. Whoa this flash is HUGE:

Mounted on its stand. Did I mention this flash is HUMUNGOUS?

So normally, one would throw some batteries in it, take a few test shots, play around with it as a remote, as a commander, do some strobist work, etc.

Not me. It went straight back into the box for a return. I was a proud owner for 42 minutes and 12 seconds. While there isn’t a flash better than this one at the moment, it’s shear size was a turn-off for me. If I had a studio or was a little more serious about photography, the size would be acceptable. But as a hobbyist, it’s size overpowers it’s usefulness, at least when it comes to being used on-camera. As a dedicated off-camera strobe, it would be awesome! But that’s not my thing at the moment. This sucker is so big, it could shoot lasers, create world peace, and feed the hungry – I’m still not going to carry it.

Filed under: Nikon, Nikon D7000

HP ProLiant N40L MicroServer

itcrashed — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:03:58 +0000

I have been busy all week integrating a new server for our home network. It’s been 3 years since I added an HP EX470 MediaSmart Server to our home network. 18 months later, I replaced it with an HP EX490 MediaSmart Server. And now, 18 months after that replacement, I am performing another replacement – this time with an HP ProLiant N40L MicroServer!

The key differences with the new server:

Video card! No more headless install and configuration!
Optical drive! Again, no headless install needed!
Larger, lower RPM fan! Less noise!
Windows Home Server 2011! Whoa – so much better than V1!

EX490 on the left and N40L on the right:

Ripping this sucker apart to upgrade to 8GB EDD RAM and to add an optical drive:

After backing up my existing data (roughly 1.5TB of data) I wanted to put the best drives in my new server. I had to do a lot of planning, testing, and swapping:

Unfortunately with the floods in Thailand, hard drive prices have tripled. Populating each HDD slot with a 2TB drive would cost me over $1000! Um, I’ll stick with my 1TB drives for now

My old server is up on Ebay – and because of those ridiculous HDD prices, I may actually make money even after 18 months of use! I originally bought the 1TB HDDs that are included in the auction for $65 each. With today’s market, they are going for over $125 each!

I’m glad I was able to do all this work during the work week. I would have really hated to waste a weekend on this stuff. After all, you all know I hate computers

Filed under: HP, HP Home Media Server