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Messages - martinch

Pages: [1] 2
1
General / Naseem Hamed jailed
« on: May 16, 2006, 04:23:02 pm »

Quote from: bounty hunter
The once 'great' boxer has been jailed for 15 months for dangerous driving.  He was going at 90mph when he crashed head on severly injuring another driver.  It was a miracle no one was killed. 

True.  He should have got longer.  Let alone the BBC reporting that he'll only serve 7 months...

2
General / Bounty’s garden photos
« on: May 16, 2006, 04:21:25 pm »
Great capture of the rabbit!  They're normally super-nervous...

3
General / Just a warning! of TV
« on: April 28, 2006, 02:23:39 pm »

Quote from: 623058
Yes Big brother start in  3weeks tiem!! dear god

Noooooooooooooo! I just wish they'd banish it to E4/More4 (I can't receive either of those channels ) ... or ITV

4
Foreign Products / Lindt 99%
« on: April 28, 2006, 02:18:43 pm »

Quote from: chocolate chick
It's awful. I have tried it. It is just like eating packed cocoa
powder. Vile stuff. The smallest of nibbles almost made me wrech. 

Why can I imagine the it's the chocolate equivalent of 77X42*?

*The Super Sour Lemon Ball invented by Professor Frink in the Simpsons, which is so sour it has to be held in a magnetic field, and when Homer eats it, it turns his mout inside out

5
General / My Garden Pics (Big Pics!)
« on: April 28, 2006, 01:51:27 pm »

Quote from: Cherry_Ripe
thanks for your full response. I shall definitely try the deep breathing!

No prob   Just don't breathe too deeply - only marginally deeper than normal! (otherwise you'll shake more!)

Quote from: Cherry_Ripe
My camera is a Canon PowerShot A80 ... It's 3 years old but I don't particularly want to change it yet. I have a small tripod but it's not helpful for taking photos of my magnolia or sunflowers both of which are 6 feet off the ground!

The only thing I can think of it to build some kind of "stand" out of boxes or something, put the tripod on top, and use the self timer ... Tripods that extend to about 6 feet are, unfortunately, all aimed at pros/serious amateurs (as far as I've seen), and are as much as a compact digital camera, and rather heavy ...


Quote from: Cherry_Ripe
So Canon still haven't sorted out the purple fringing? I get that with my camera when taking night-time photos. My friend has the Canon G5 and she gets it too!

Chromatic abberation (its "proper" name) is a problem that is prevalent with zoom lenses.  It should only be noticable at high-contrast transitions (black-white borders, highlights on metallic objects, etc).  It's cured by using extra-low dispersion (ED) glass in the lens, which is harder to make, and expensive.  I'm not going to try to explain why it happens myself, but if you have a look on the glossary on Nikon's site, they have a 2 paragraph explanation of ED glass, which explains it all (direct link).  If you go to DPReview's review gallery for the S2 IS (here), and click on the picture of the pink flower (last but one image), you'll see the fringing - it's not too bad, but it's still there.


6
General / My Garden Pics (Big Pics!)
« on: April 28, 2006, 12:34:50 pm »
Thank you cherry_ripe & choccy chic


Quote from: chocolate chick
Are you sharing the chocolate 


Alas, the picture of the Lindt mini-bars is a picture "in memorium"

Quote from: Cherry_Ripe
Do you use a digital camera?

Yup, I use a Nikon D70s.

Quote from: Cherry_Ripe
I find it difficult to keep the camera
steady when taking close-up photos.

I know what you mean.  I've used a couple of the really light, compact digital cameras.  I found them quite hard to hold still because it was like I wasn't really holding anything!  I find heavier cameras much easier to hold (within reason!) as they "balance" better (the set-up I used for these pics weighs about 1.5kg!).  There's a few ways to try to stop this - either (1) steady your hands, (2) change the camera settings, or (3) use technology. 

(1) When you are getting ready to take the picture, try to breathe in a regular, slightly-deeper-than-normal pattern, and press the shutter release when you start to breathe out.  When you press the shutter release, don't stab at it - "squeeze" it smoothly.  Also, try not to take your finger off of it until after the picture has been taken (it's surprising how much of a difference these two things make!).  Alternatively, you could buy a small tripod, or place a bean bag under the camera to try and deaden any movement.

(2) If your camera has manual controls, and you can find out what the focal length of the lens on your camera is (it's expressed in mm), and can get your camera to show you what shutter speed you are using, the denominator part of the shutter speed should be at bigger than the focal length (e.g. for a 105mm lens, you want 1/125s or faster).  To get a faster shutter speed, you can either add flash, increase the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO value), or use a bigger aperture (the "f" number - they're really fractions, so the smaller number, the bigger the aperature [e.g. f2.8 is bigger than f8]).

(3) Some manufacturers make "compact" type digital cameras with image stabilisation on them.  Canon make the S2 IS, Panasonic make the DMC-FZ30 and DMC-FZ7, and Nikon make the CoolPix 8800.  None of these are cheap (the Panasonic's the cheapest at about £250), but I am told they make life easier.  I haven't used any of them, but, from what I am told, the Panasonic and the Nikon are great (some semi-pros use the Nikon as a "backup"!) - both have sharp lenses, and the stabilisation works well.  Apparently, the stabilisation works less well on the Canon, and it suffers from purple fringing a bit.

Hope this helps!

Well, that was a bit dry and boring!

Couple more I've just processed...

Cherry blossoms:


Double-bloom daffodil (not mine):



7
General / ebay
« on: April 27, 2006, 03:51:38 pm »

Quote from: minty
looking on ebay now someone selling cream eggs starting price 50p plus £1 postage who would buy this?

Heh ... I've seen some not inexpensive Nikon SLR lenses (which were used) go on eBay for more than their new list price (e.g. a new 80-200mm cost £1000, and the used one went for about £1250).  Some people ...

8
General / My Garden Pics (Big Pics!)
« on: April 27, 2006, 03:46:30 pm »
Hi!

Seeing as Bounty's posted his garden pictures, I thought I'd have a go with some of mine.  As I tend to have a different "style", I hope I'm not treading on his toes!

Hope the file sizes aren't too big...

Dandelion "Core":


Dandelion Stamen:


Water Droplet on Dandelion:


Cherry Blossom:


Moss Growing on Tree Bark:


And just to make this slightly chocolate related, a pile of Lindt mini-bars :



9
General / ebay
« on: April 26, 2006, 03:09:05 pm »

Quote from: smurfboy
I sold a mobile phone I believed was unlocked to this woman. She says it isn't, and instead of asking for a refund, she claims she took it to a shop and paid £10 to have it unlocked - which she now wants ME to pay.

Well, if you were a retailler, she wouldn't have cause to force you to pay up (it'd be a refund/replace jobby).  However, PayPal seem to be a bit on the idiotic side, so I'd watch them.  They can and do take money out of your account to settle disputes without telling you (banks can't do this), although I believe if you keep your account empty, they can't take any money that isn't in there.

I only use PayPal sparingly with "known" retailers, and have never had any problems, but I know enough people who have (and their report on Watchdog wasn't exactly good either).

10
General / Bounty’s garden photos
« on: April 24, 2006, 04:02:05 pm »

Quote from: goldencup
Don't worry Martinch - Bounty knows we're only teasing.  I hope!

Yeah, I know 

Quote from: goldencup
And somehow I don't think they were all in HIS garden.

Yeah, he said that he went away to grab a few of them (Puffins), but even if I did that, I wouldn't have many "exotic" subjects - there's not much here

11
General / Bounty’s garden photos
« on: April 24, 2006, 03:49:02 pm »
Heh ... they all look good to me   I'm rather envious of you having all that interesting wildlife in your garden to photograph - I'm more-or-less stuck doing tight shots of flowers & the odd "weed" as the wildlife (badgers, foxes) only normally seems to come out at night ...

12
General / New random good pictures
« on: April 12, 2006, 04:48:33 pm »
Chocadmin thought I should post this, as it seemed appropriate to this forum:


More amusing than good:


More of foxy here


13
General / Come on England!
« on: August 11, 2005, 12:01:41 pm »

Quote from: wjp666
JEEZ... CRICKET. HOW BOUT WE LIVEN THINGS UP WEITH A DEBATE ABOUT QUANTITY SURVEYING?


I've got a better one ... CHOCOLATE!


14
General / Come on England!
« on: August 10, 2005, 10:35:49 am »
I'm too young and male for you 

15
General / Come on England!
« on: August 10, 2005, 09:58:47 am »
Quote from: bounty hunter
Martinch, it was a classic wicket, which gave a
bit for the bowler and yet was worth batting on too.


Well, towards the end, yes, but I'd still say it was "flat"



Quote from: bounty hunter
You're not always going to get centuries and
because you don't, it doesn't make it bad batting.


I didn't say that ... all I was saying was that once you get past about
20 it is generally the batsman that gets themselves out, not the bowler
getting the batsman out.



That's my experience anyway - I consitantly get people out who've got
40-80 before within 6 balls because they think "oooh, it's a spinner, I
can smack them!", but it's just them playing a daft shot...



Quote from: bounty hunter
It was a competitive game of cricket where both
sides had their moments, particularly Flintoff's boundaries and the
considerably wagging tail of the Aussies.


Agreed



Quote from: bounty hunter
I think you are too critical.


I probably am.  I'm forever whinging about minor things



Quote from: bounty hunter
I respect your views though.


Thanks - there are numerous views on this game, all as valid as the next


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