Stu's Shed

So the furniture arrived, and the blinds have also gone up pretty easily as well. All just in time for Christmas.  I foresee plenty of relaxing out there!

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Had ‘fun’ with the courier (Kings) for the furniture – they apparently pickup, and drive to the destination, but then expect you to unload their truck (or ute in this case) for them.  Door to door? No – only door to roadside kurb.  If you want door to door, it is an extra $200 according to the driver.  This is to unload items, the vast majority of which I was literally able to lift with one little finger.

So for my birthday/Christmas (they are almost one in the same), I did end up with a new camera body to replace the ailing Konica-Minolta 7D.  This means I did go with the Sony, as after pricing the resale value, I had no hope of getting a decent price for the glass (lenses), so that just means I am still locked into a brand of replacement camera.

I chose the A55, which has to be the smallest (main) camera I have owned since I was 9.  Unfortunately the equivalent replacement camera (professional-wise) is now $3500 for a body-only.  It is no longer valid to call it an SLR (or DSLR) as there is no “Reflex” – the mirror no longer moves.  It is semi-transparent so it is now a DSLT (don’t think the name will catch on).

One benefit is the shooting speed and noise is significantly improved.  The camera is capable of 10 frames/second and still has Minolta’s movable sensor – adjusting its position +/-5mm to compensate for camera shake. It is also a small step up from a 6MP (which was good at the time I got the 7D) to 16MP.  Still no gigabyte cameras on the market (although they are coming if Adobe’s preparations for their arrival are anything to go by).  It now means that for this site, I am downsizing 4912 x 3264 to 400 x 270.  So the extra resolution doesn’t help when the IT world isn’t keeping up with the resolution race.

While buying the camera, I was mentioning the camera it was replacing – the 7D.  I wondered if it was worn out through use, but got a strange look when I said that in the 6 or so years, I had taken over 10000 images. The shop attendant then said he takes 2000/day.  I should have said I’ve taken 10000 good photos. (You can’t just randomly shoot off 2000 images a day every day and call yourself a photographer – that is like playing the slots with a camera – keep feeding the machine, pulling on the arm and hoping to get a result.)

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