My Panasonic FZ35 has been ordered by an amigo in the US and I will be the very happy recipient in just a matter of days. I can’t wait! And yet, I’m planning its sale already. Not immediately. But give it a few months. I’m going to be keeping that baby in pristine condition. Why am I already contemplating its sale, before I’ve even taken delivery? Well….
The new Fuji HS10 is why. It looks absolutely awesome. Some specs for you. Backlighted CMOS sensor. A 30x lens with manual zoom ring. A fab 10fps, with a special 1000fps sport mode. Proper HD video in 1080p with stereo mics. And so many more fancy features. And it looks incredible. Why don’t I just buy it now? Well, it doesn’t come out till April for one. Secondly, as good as the specs are, I wouldn’t buy a new camera without reading a few reviews, and they’ll take a couple more months to come through.
Thirdly, the price. My FZ35 is $315, give or take. The Fuji is $499. The price will come down in a few months. Plus, I have a cunning plan. The FZ35 is costing me just a little more than 4,000 pesos, because I’m having it bought in the US. Its retail price in Mexico? A ridiculous 8,500 pesos. Like all imported products, it has a hefty amount of tax added on. I could easily sell (or so I believe) a mint condition reasonably new FZ35 for 5,500 to 6,000 pesos, thus making me enough profit to afford the Fuji. Cunning plan indeed. Click on Read More for the full official press release if your interested in all the details.
Thousands of these signs have been put up along roads around the country to signal an historic route.
I have been taking part in a group competition on Flickr, called Flickr 64. The games is simple – the first 64 members to sign up for a game get a place. Each member is paired against another member for Round 1, and on a specified date both members upload recently taken photos. Other members vote on which photo they like the most. At the end of the vote, the counting is done and a winner pronounced, who then moves on to Round 2. And so on. I habitually go out in Round 1. In fact I am always eliminated in Round 1.
Until today, when I managed to get through to the second round for the first time ever with the photo below. I won by a whopping 43 votes to 9, so I’m thoroughly pleased with myself! Sadly, I will be going out in Round 2, as I have drawn one of the best photographers in the group. Such is life. Still it’s all good fun, and what makes Flickr the great community it is.
A huge candlestick illuminated with hundreds of bulbs, with the Mexico 2010 label on it. Cuernavaca, Morelos.
The first month of my Faces project is complete. I managed to capture a total of twelve portraits, including the one of Angus, my per Turtle. I have another nine turtles, so they’ll give me one shot a month till October. Below are the best nine of those shots, and you can vote for the best one of the month. The poll is in the sidebar on the right. You can choose up to three photos to vote for.
The countdown clock in Cuernavaca.
An old lady sits on the steps of the mercado in Oaxtepec selling wicker bags.
For the last year or so I’ve been using Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 to create my videos. But a year is like….forever. In software circles. Time to see if there’s anything new available to improve my videos. First thing first – I bought a monopod. Far more convenient to carry around than a full tripod, far quicker to extend and put to use. A tripod would produce slightly better results, but if you don’t take it with you, then it’s no good at all.
Secondly, before I check out the new PowerDirector 8 video, I thought I’d check out the competition. Corel’s VideoStudio Pro X3 has just hit the virtual shelves, so a quick trial download and a walk around Mexico City’s Centro Historico later, I was ready to test it out. My first impression, was that the interface is sleek and easy to understand. Really very similar to PowerDirector’s UI, but easier on the eye. It also offers at start up the option to choose the advanced editor or the easy editor, which I guess is a nice touch for those new to video editing.
Putting together the clips I’d taken, trimming off unwanted bits of video and adding transitions, audio and text was a piece of cake. As it should be. I thought the transitions weren’t perhaps as inventive as on PowerDirector, but that’s a pretty minor matter. There sure were plenty of transitions to choose from.
The two biggest things for me though were in speed and rendering. Speed wise, Corel’s piece of software flies. But with rendering I have a bit of a problem. My laptop is prone to overheat and turn itself off if the rendering process goes on too long. I simply can’t, unfortunately, create huge file sizes. I’d like to, but it’s just not possible. With PowerDirector I have a much more flexible production facility that allows me to create a video file exactly as I want it. VideoStudio does have a wide range of options, but it is a little less flexible in this regards. But to be fair, this isn’t going to matter to the majority of users.
Anyway, without any further ado, here’s the video. The music is Ghost Geisha by PeerGynt Lobogris, available on Jamendo under a Creative Commons license.
