Meet Madge, My New Camera

I suspect I have my compulsive nature to blame for my purchase of the Panasonic GX1, but I'm okay with that. When I got to see and hold it and played with the controls and menus, I new I had found a good fit. I have a lot learn about the many settings but I'm on my way. The camera feels strong and hearty, unlike the G5 the guy at the store had me check out, and I like its somewhat retro look. It's not as retro as the Olympus OMD EM5 (which, from what I have read, is perhaps one of the best MFT cameras out there right now and several hundred dollars more), but the GX1 is still a sexy little piece of hardware.

Along with the body and the standard 14-42mm kit lens, I also purchased the 20mm pancake (really like this lens so far), a 45-200mm telephoto (which I haven't yet tried) and the electronic viewfinder. I wasn't sure how I'd like the EVF, but that has been put to rest - I dig it.

The guy who helped me at Keeble & Shuchat was good about pricing the gear for me. I had my B&H shopping cart printed out as reference. I didn't get prices quite as low, but I console myself by buying local and getting an immediate purchase gratification fix. Not to mention I got started playing with it almost immediately (well, two hours later, after the battery was charged). So, thanks K&S!

Below are some of my first pics. They are using iAuto mode, one of the scene modes or me messing with settings. I need to do more note taking when doing test shots so I can get a better sense of what's happening. Regardless, I'm happy with them.

Lucy: she was very patient as I snapped a bunch of shots using different settings. This was with the 20mm lens.

Matt in monochrome. I think this was with the 20mm.

Faraday: pretty sure this was with the 14-42mm lens.

Vidar: 20mm lens.

One of Matt's escaped bees, up close and personal with the 20mm (I cropped this pic on the iPad).

Keiko: using the 14-42mm lens with available light.

I guess it's obvious l like to get close to what I'm shooting.

On my way home from my visit with Lucy, I stopped to take some shots of the bridge. I wanted to get a sense of how wide the 20mm and 14-42mm lenses would look. It was a bit hazy and was so crowded in the headlands that I wasn't able to park in the place I wanted to be for the pictures, but at least I had a chance to get a sense of space in the shots.

20mm

14-42mm @ 14mm

Next weekend I'll be up in Sea Ranch and will do much more experimenting. I'm very excited with the new gear. Expect to see more photos as I continue learning.

 

On the Road to a New Digital Camera

I love my Panasonic DMC ZS3. I did have a problem with it on my 2011 Steam trip; the lens stopped working. I'm pretty rough on the point and shoot. I've dropped them, banged them, had them flopping around in my purse with who knows what all else, so I'm not sure I can blame Panasonic for the failure, though at the time I wanted to. Getting it fixed on vacation wasn't an option so I picked up a Canon Digital Elph (the store didn't carry any Panasonics). The Elph is also a great camera (it was my first digital camera) and having the Panasonic on the first half of the trip and the Canon on the second, I honestly can't decide which was better. When I got back, the Slacker swapped cameras with me and now I have two Panasonic ZS3s, one that works and one that doesn't.

I have, however, reached the point where I feel I'm ready to move beyond the limited flexibility of the point and shoot. I'd like to have more control over adjusting aperture and shutter speed, be able to swap out lenses, that sort of thing. My dad taught me a lot back in the day with the 35mm. I've forgotten most of it, though, so I've been going through the photography intro classes at Lynda.com. I think I have a good eye for composition but it needs to be buffed up with some of the technical knowledge. There are things I want to see in a photo that I know I can achieve, I'm just not exactly sure how to make it happen. I've also been taking notes for future reference.

That being said, I had no idea what I was getting into as I begin to review my options. Cost. Weight. Kinds of lenses. Manufacturers. Specifications. Features. I've spent countless hours over the last three or four weeks reading reviews and comparisons, looking at model specifications, reading photo blogs, looking a sample photos and talking to friends who are photography enthusiasts.

I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to two possibilities:

If I stick with the traditional APS-C DSLR I'll go with the new Canon SL1, due out at the end of April. It is the lightest DSLR body as of the time Canon announced it and is part of the Canon Rebel family which suggests it would be a good entry level DSLR. With the Canon reputation and their range of lenses, it looks to be a fine option.

If I break away from the familiar comfort of a traditional DSLR (and by familiar I mean most of my friends who are big on photography all have DSLRs with the APS-C sensor) and go with the Micro Four Thirds option, I'm leaning towards the Panasonic GX1. The reviews I have read are positive, they have a good selection of lenses with a good rep and the sample photos I've seen look good. With the kit lens, it only weighs about 13oz, compared to the 14oz of the Canon without a lens.

Feature-wise both seem to have the things I'm looking for - in as much as a novice like me can know. I'm going to try and check both out in-person this weekend. A key differentiator right now, though, is price. Amazon and B&H Photography have the Panasonic GX1 listed under $450, and that's with the kit lens. This suggests to me that Panasonic may be getting ready to announce either a new version of the GX1 or some comparable new model. I'm just not sure I want to wait around for them to announce or not announce such a thing. Price is the differentiator right now and if I wait for the new model then that would cease to be an advantage. Plus, I might be able to get an extra lens, too.

So, we shall see what I determine after I check the cameras out in person. I confess I'm ready for the new camera and want to start experimenting!

It's been a while since I posted a fluffy picture. Here's one of Katja taken with my ZS3 and the same one "enhanced" by the Slacker on his iPad Mini.

 

Comcast Addressing Mental Health Issue

Just an update to my faithful readers who are waiting with baited breath on an update to my recent Comcast excitement.

First, let me just note that since Wednesday, my connection has dropped more each day with such consistency that I all I can say is I'm actually glad I blogged about the issue and Comcast responded so quickly. I say this because after Wednesday night, if I had been left to calling on my own, I know my angst would have been at a high level. Which just goes to show, you should NOT wait until a problem is so bad that you are so completely frustrated you just want to take the perceived source of the problem -- in this case my moden -- and throw it out the window, before you call for help, regardless of the vendor. And let's just also note how many times I've said that to my own customers when I was managing the Help Desk and how even now, when I hear someone at work complaining about a tech problem that's frustrating them I ask, "Have you reported this to the Help Desk?" and they say, "Uh, no." So here I am, typical human, failing to practice what I preach. Of course, this doesn't help much if the vendor is totally lame and has a history of giving you the run around (which I will confess has NOT been my general experience with Comcast, even if they are an evil corporate giant, which I just so happen to own shares in, but only by accident).

But I digress, so back to the story...

As I noted in an short update to my original posting, Comcast, via Sandy from their Executive Customer Service Center (or something like that), made arrangements for a technician to come out and check my network (or, as CO likes to say, my intrawebs). My time slot was for today, between 9:00 and 11:00. The technician, a very nice young woman (I love that, girl tech power!) showed up sometime around 10:00, temporarily saving me from my compulsive zombie killing on the SnarfffPad (I had planned to play some WoW but shock, my connection had dropped!). I left her to her own devices, keeping out of the way in the kitchen and being productive in going through the gynormous pile of mail I had been accumulating.

She goes about her technical machinations and soon tells me that it looks like the problem is outside (whew, I was really dreading the "well, I can't find anything wrong with the line so it must be your ----." (where ---- is my modem, or my router, or just me in general). She then goes outside and does some more technical stuff and comes back to let me know she's got it working for now but that she's going to have some other tech come out to check the line out on the street. This might cause an interruption, but once that's resolved I should see no more dropped connections. Then, just in case there are issues, she provides me with her supervisor's contact information should the problem start to manifest itself again.

We shall see what happens over the next few weeks.

As to Comcast's blog-stalking behavior, it is paying off so far. The original comment to the post, from Mark, was very nice, even if he did miss my not-so-subtle reference to the problem with my phone number not being associated with my account. He and another colleague responded to my e-mail very quickly. Sandy from the Executive Customer Service whatever office was very polite and friendly and responsive (I expect she will be checking in with me on Monday). The tech today was more of the same. So, for my own personal experience, at this point I'm content, with no immediate plans to move to DSL -- unless my network goes down again :-) And you know if that happens, you'll be reading about it!

Until next time, Comcast...

And just speaking of zombies...

Comcast Causes Mental Health Issues

Okay, so maybe it was my fault that I decided to use the Comcast online help instead of calling. But I figured, how hard will be it be to get my Comcast uername so I can log into my freaking account to see if there is any freaking way to update my new cable modem MAC address online through, oh shock me silly, their customer account interface? I swear, I really should have kept the transcript of the discussion with the person who was helping me. First, they need to lose some of those lame auto answers. Ugh. Add to my angst that none of my recent phone numbers seem to be on Comcast's record of me. Finally, after much back and forth and delays and my revealing my under-things -- ok, I really just mean my cable modem's MAC address -- she finally reset my password and revealed my top secret username. Great. So then I think, well, I've got the person right here, let me ask her how I can register my new modem's MAC. She tells me -- which I confirm a second time, as I find it hard to believe -- that I have to go down to the Comcast office in person. I also need to return my existing modem (which I own) so I don't continue to be charged for using their modem (which I am not charged for). I said thank you and disconnected.

I then did what I should have done in the first place. I called them, navigated through the annoying phone tree to tech support, and got a VERY NICE GUY on the other end who hooked me up in just a few short minutes. Yes, lesson has been learned.

Now the only outstanding issue is whether this new cable modem -- a Linksys CM100 -- will provide me with a more stable and reliable connection then my old modem (a surfsomething motorola, which has been loyal until the past x-months or so). I would like to point out that as I was doing my taxes via TurboTax (yes, I waited until the last minute, shut-up) my connection dropped 3 -- count it, 1-2-3 freaking times! Ya'll know how cranky I can get. Well, imagine me cranky and then magnify that by a factor of 20 and you might have a sense of how irritating my night has been. I take full responsibility for my crankiness.

But the VERY NICE GUY who hooked me up made it all better. In fact, I will go to bed imagining him whispering sweet techno-nothings in my ear. I anticipate sweet dreams tonight.

UPDATE: Thursday a.m. - woke up to, surprise, a dropped connection. Had to do the usual unplug, wait 60-seconds, replug. Maybe I should start considering moving to DSL.

UPDATE: Thursday p.m. - as you'll note from the comments below, Comcast has discovered my humble little blog. I guess my blog title gave them some pause for concern. They are being very helpful so far and have scheduled a tech visit to see if they can get to the root of my intermittent dropped connections. I will, of course, update Bellhops with the breaking story of their efforts. And for those of you who may be thinking my blog title overly dramatic, it wasn't when I wrote it! As if filing your taxes at the last minute isn't stressful enough.

And a shout out to E for hitting the 6-month mark - if you don't know what I mean I won't be telling ya so don't ask. Here he is back in the day (2006).

I'm Still a Total Geek.

Got my new fancy, super smart pen in the mail today -- a LiveScribe Pulse Pen. It's a pretty neat little thing. Of course, I was totally excited when I saw my work colleague show me his, but when I was telling the Slacker and others, they were all, like, "oh, yeah, I've heard about those" or "oh, yeah, my boss has one" or "oh, yeah, those are pretty neat." Once again, though a total geek, I was completely out of the loop.

But I don't care. I still get excited by new-to-me technology! So there! And my enthusiasm convinced my boss, so we both have one now! We'll see how it works out. I'm not in as many meetings as I used to be (oh, if only I'd had one of these when I was Project Director or implementing Banner). But workflow, business analysis, etc. can still benefit.

On a separate note, AMERICAN IDOL is BACK! This week, Chicago auditions. I'm finding they aren't as painful to watch as in previous seasons -- okay, maybe the are (as I listen to someone singing Tiny Tim as his audition). I'm not a big fan of the auditions, so I look forward to when the real competition begins.

Bring it, Simon!

Hard not to be a little motivated...

I tend to be skeptical about what you can get from a keynote speaker at a conference. I think I liked the keynote at SunGard Summit 2006, but I've forgotten who gave it and what it was about. I have been at SunGard Summit 2008 since Friday, the start of the executive portion. I've listened to 3 "keynotes" so far; 2 for the executive summit and 1 for the general summit. Both of the executive keynotes were interesting, though BJ Fogg's presentation on the Psychology of Facebook stands out. BJ is an excellent speaker and by the end of the presentation I was ready to sign up for a Facebook account (haven't yet, but give me a chance). And I came to understand the fascination with Facebook and similar technologies a bit better, including some of the pros and cons. He's also committed to the idea of peace in 30 years, a goal I'm more than happy to work towards. As long as we imagine peace is possible, peace is possible.

The keynote speaker for the general Summit, though, was exceptional. The speaker: Erik Weihenmayer. His accomplishment: the first blind man to climb the Seven Summits.

Now, I haven't climbed any mountain of any size since I climbed Mt. Washington in my early teens with my older brother -- a feat I accomplished after much moaning and complaining as we approached the final leg of the climb. Yes, I was almost there and thought it would just be better to go back down. Luckily for me my older brother managed to find in himself the capability to motivate me through something other than brute force (as my older brother he was, by definition, a bully). I'm glad he succeeded because even now I can remember how I felt when I reached the top. Exhausted but exhilarated -- a natural high, as you will.

Listening to Erik and hearing about his accomplishments reminded me of how I felt when I reached the top of Mt. Washington. And it reminded me of many other times I've felt that exhausted but exhilarated feeling, whether from doing something that was a physical challenge, or an emotional one, or a mental one, or even just getting through a tough day. Sometimes we get through it alone, sometimes we get through it only because of the help we get from others. Either way, we get through it... and move on... and we keep moving on. That's why I found him motivating.

He made a comment something along the lines of when people take on and succeed at a challenge they thought they couldn't possibly achieve they open the door for the next and harder challenge. They very thought of all the challenges ahead of me is both exhausting and exhilarating.