Bose IE2

So, I had the Bose IE1 lying around all my other electronic junks that were waiting to be thrown out. It had been in the pile for roughly 3-4years. Now I use the Beats by Dre Studio headphone. However, they are a hassle to carry around.

Wanting a new earphone, I had been searching the internet for a replacement of my old Bose IE. When looking through the Bose page I came across the warranty page (Bose Japan.) I discovered my earphones could not be covered by the 1 year warranty, but it could be sent for repairing. Well, since I had nothing to lose I filled out a form attached on the page as a pdf, and sent it to Bose Japan. The condition of my BoseIE: music only plays from the right ear piece.

Today(a week later) I received a package in exchange with payment of 6300yen (about $78.)

So my Bose IE1 became IE2 for paying 6300yen which is half of the price on amazon.

If you have useless Bose products lying around look through the warranty and see if you can have it replaced.

Reference:

Bose Japan Warranty

http://www.bose.co.jp/jp_jp?url=/consumer_audio/user_support/repair_service/repair_service.jsp

Amazon Japan Bose

New Lens Sigma 30mm f1.4

Yesterday I bought my third lens: the Sigma 30mm f1.4.

I was first surprised at the weight of the lens which weighs about 400g. Adding that to the 820g 7D adds up to about 1.2kg. The weight does help out stabilize the camera during shoots, but after a while it does get tiresome.

The lens came with a bag and a hood.

Now on to the lens itself. I had difficulties with the lens to focus correctly. There are blogs written about the Sigma 30mm to have Micro Adjustments. When I had the lens on my 7D, I also felt that the focus was off. I tested the lens by shooting objects with the center focus point in f1.4. However the focus was slightly off to the side.I really didn’t think that this was a problem until one of my friends used the lens on his rebel and told me that he couldn’t get the focus going (I didn’t tell him about the problem). I then thought whether I should take the lens back to the shop to have it checked.

but… after using it for a day, the problem was gone…

Strange…Now I can shoot crisp images.

Overall: Although I have only used it for a day I am liking it. I have been using the Canon 50mm f1.8 II, but the 30mm makes it a lot easier to shoot portraits. I will stay away from my 50mm for a while. ^^

 

 

Sunlight + white curtain

The sunlight was nicely lighting the white lace curtain, and i couldn’t help myself from trying out a product photography.

I didn’t do any retouching to these photos except add watermarks.

The setup is simple: the lace curtain is back lit by the sun, and the object is placed on a small box covered with a piece of white paper. I used the pop-up flash of the camera to soften the shadow.

Btw, the Cactus V5 and Monitor X just came like 2 hours ago!! Will post more detailed pics and a short review if I feel like it.

Grip that sh*t

Guess what finally came today (Guess what I had to go pick up at the customs and pay 19% tax for)….

BATTERY GRIP for my 60D!!!

Besides the fact that 2 batteries it came with are 1400 mAh instead of 1800mAh as written in the description, and the fact that the jog wheel being very hard to rotate, I’m loving it.

Longer battery life, easier vertical shooting, and other things that these battery grips are supposed to do for you.

Canon 50mm f1.8

I took a trip to Kyoto to buy the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.

The lens is really really light.

However the body is made out of plastic and feels cheap. I put the lens onto my camera at a restaurant that serves dumplings.

Notebook stand and some DIY stuff

I went to this part of town where I’ve never been before. The area is called Industriegebiet, which means industrial district. It’s where all the huge stores like OBI, Bauhaus (home depots), MediaMarkt (electronics store) and Mann Mobilia (furnitures and shit) are. Pics of and around the area will follow in later posts.

One of the reasons I went to the area was to buy a notebook stand. I’ve always used one for my laptop cuz I like having some angle on the keyboard, and keeping the notebook off the table is supposedly good for the health of the laptop. I was looking for a really cheap one like the one I’ve been using in the past, which was just a simple sheet of steel with holes and 4 legs. They didn’t have that there, so I ended up buying one with 2 fans for around 25 euros.  I can change the angle in 6 levels, so that’s not so bad.

 

After I bought the notebook stand, I went to a home depot nearby called OBI to buy some rings for a DIY quick release strap that I saw on Cheesycam.com

I didn’t like using the stock strap that came with my 60D cuz it says Canon and 60D all over it, and I wanted to be less conspicuous.  It’s also not really comfy strap to use, it got twisted and tangled a lot, and most of all, it’s really a big hassle to detach it from the camera, which I would like to be able do easily. So I bought these small rings and put them on the strap holders.

 

And then I took this comfy strap from this Adidas back that I had with the clip thing on the end which can be detached easily from the bag. ( I also like the military green shoulder pad :p )

I then attached the strap on the rings, and Voila!

Simple yet effective. Paid only about 1.50 euros for a set of 10 rings.

 

When I take handheld videos, it shakes considerably, and I wanted one more point of contact. I didn’t want to buy a rig yet, so I looked around for things I could use.

Something simple like this Redrock Micro Nano Stealth was what I had in mind.

That’s when I saw my tripod from 20 years ago.

I held “him” down on the table so he wouldn’t struggle, and took his head off, along with the spine!

I then simply mounted the camera and put the end of the pole against my chest and look what I got. One more point of contact.

Yeah, i smudged my face cuz I’d just woken up from a long nap and looked like shit. I’m sensitive like that. Gotta always look fresh for the ladies, u feel? hehe

That’s about it. I shot a short footage to try out twixtor properly. Stay tuned.

Digging up the old

I had known for years, that our family owned a 35mm SLR Camera. From time to time I had asked my mother about the camera, and she had made me believe that it was a Nikon. Today my mother asked me whether I would like to see the old SLR. There was no reason I would deny her from reveling the old camera hidden deep in her closet. From the closet I heard her say, “Oops it was a Canon!” That is when she caught my attention.

The old Canon SLR was an EOS650

I did some research and found out that this camera itself was older than me. It came out in 1987. The first step I took? I used a piece of tissue to wipe the dust off the almost 24 year old machine. Yes a machine. This is how she looks.

Top

Back

From observing the camera, I can see a resemblance with the 7D.

EOS 650 is said to be the turning point for Canon where the camera, and the lens link together through an electric lens mount.

The lens that was attached to her was a Canon Zoom Lens EF 100-300mm 1:5.6

The next step I took? Off course I attached the Zoom lens to the 7D.

I have taken some pics with the lens and compared with the Sigma lens.The two photos below are not edited and are shot at a distance of about 4m-5m away from the GHOST on my desk.

100mm

300mm

 

I took a picture of the GHOST from the same spot with my SIGMA 18-50mm 1:2.8-4.5

18mm

50mm

Overall the lens has auto focus which will be quite useful to quickly zoom at things that are far away.However since it does not have a stabilizer, it makes it quite difficult to take stills when you’re zoomed in. Thankfully I use a DSLR which allows me to shoot without thinking about the number of shots I have left.

This lens will suit me to practice shooting Zoom lenses. Also it will allow me to think whether I need a zoom lens in the future.

One thing is for sure, my backpack will become heavy with a tripod and the extra lens.

&

Eiken, we have a EOS 650 in our family now!

 

 

 

Wish List

これほし～

Redrock Micro Nano Stealth

これもほし～

Jag35 Monitor X

ちなみにこれもほしい・・・

The Rubber Player by Nixon

 

 

 

Finally here….

my laptop. HP dv6i. i7. 8Gb ram. 1TB HDD. 15.6 inches. White.

It’s got some weird but nice patterns on the white part as u can see in the pics.

HP ENVY

Forget what I said about wanting the HP Pavilion dv6.

HP ENVY is wassup!!
Sleek minimal design like a MAC, which is the only thing I like about them.
Just a beautiful piece of laptop…