Well, not only has the internet here decided to become even flakier than usual, the program I usually use to post to my blog is acting weird as well. I’m posting using another method, but I hope to be back to normal soon. In a nutshell, I have a new job, Yemen is run by klptocrats, and I managed to absolutely ruin a woman’s day today… More later!:-)
Isaac
I got some Logitech v70 speakers for Christmas and I brought them over so I could listen to my music without using headphones. When I got here, I found that the previous tenants left some computer speakers. They were the typical ones that plug into the headphone output and plug into the wall. Because they had longer cords and were a little easier to place, I used them when I first got here. On a whim, I went back to the Logitechs. They’re USB powered, so they are a little more limited in volume, but wow, they sound much better.
I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that I’m skipping the analog amp section in the computer. Usually, that’s designed to power headphones. These speakers take a digital signal out of the computer and convert it into an analog signal and them amplify them off of the 5v rail of the USB port. I see a lot of promise in this approach and I think that I will explore this in my DIY projects when I get back home. I own a really nice CD player, I’ve never heard a better stand alone player. I have heard better performance with an external D/A convertor, but those are hampered with the ancient (by technology standards) SPDIF standards that are used for digital playback. The USB connection can avoid all of the problems that the traditional connection has. If you reclock at the DAC, there is no jitter (mistiming between the source and processor) and there isn’t any weird cable impedance issues either. It can be much cheaper to boot. Combine that with the convience of having your entire music collection at your fingertips and that makes for a dream for music junkies like myself. I can see retiring the Denon CD player and replacing it with a computer based system. The old CD player is getting cantankerous in its old age, combine a USB DAC with a nice tube amp and I can see a type of audio nirvana on my horizon!
Tami and I wandered around a while and found some really interesting things. Of course the problem is that we’ll probably never be able to find them again… The old city is a total maze. The cool thing about that is that sometimes you find new things even in places you walk all the time. The bad news is that it takes a while before you can really navigate the place. We saw the “National cinema,” and they were apparently showing movies. That surprised me, I had heard all of the movie houses had been shut down, the one on Hadda street certainly looks pretty grim.
I’m still figuring out the cameras. I had some issues with the one I used before, I kept forgetting to cock the shutter before I advanced the film. The result was several overlapped frames. I’m also having difficulty judging how sharp my negs are. The scans are less than great, the lab doesn’t seem to have a 645 mask, so I get a 6×7 portion of the neg scanned every time. Most of the distance shots sharpen up nicely on the computer, although I have to hammer them with sharpening to get there. I’m still having issues with the people shots though, if the negs are slightly soft I can think of several reasons for it. I could me misfocusing, but I doubt it. The rangefinder could be off, that’s possible, it might have gotten knocked out of whack on the way over here. It’s also possible that the rangefinder simply doesn’t have the accuracy needed to focus accurately at portrait distances when the lens is close to wide open. I’ll have to keep testing to see what my problem is. I’ve been getting some decent shots, but it isn’t consistent enough. Hmm, inconstancy usually points back to the photographer. We all know that can’t be the reason…
On the upside, almost all of my shots with the pinhole camera were technically fine. I had forgotton just how wide angle that thing is though, I am going to have to get much closer with my next shots to make them decent. Anyway, as usual, some more shots can be found up on my flicker site. You can click on the right side or here to see them.