Scattered Thoughts . . .

A fter I wrote about my new-to-me Fuji GFX medium format camera last night, I got to thinking that I should probably add more camera size comparisons since I had written about how small this new Fuji medium format camera is compared to other cameras with smaller sensors.  So, I captured a few more photos this morning. This first photo shows my tiny compact Fuji X30 camera (on left) compared to the new Fuji medium format camera.  This compact Fuji X30 is small enough to easily slip into a coat pocket...   This next comparison is showing a camera that has a sensor that is a bit larger than the above compact camera but now the camera body is almost as large as the Fuji medium format camera!   This is my Panasonic G9 (on right) with its relatively small four-thirds sensor (same as 110 film size) yet the camera bodies are quite similar in size and shape.  The Fuji GFX medium format camera (on left) has a sensor roughly the same as a 6x4.5 film camera so the...

A s I mentioned in this blog many times in the past, I've always wanted to move into medium format digital photography.  Cost is a huge factor but patiently waiting for a decade while keeping an eye on prices daily has helped me slowly acquire a couple of medium format cameras recently.  One camera is an old film camera while the other is a digital camera from 2021.   Twelve years ago, I upgraded into Sony's full frame format and I still love that system.  Even compared to medium format, this Sony system has some significant advantages over medium format.  My Sony camera has great image quality and is ideal for sports, wildlife and fast moving grandchildren so it gets a lot of use and I'll likely never put it to rest anytime soon.  The image quality of this full-frame system is great and it is a fast shooting camera which definitely comes in handy when there are kids often nearby. As good as the images are when captured on full-frame sensors, medium fo...

I really haven't written much nor done much in the past three months or so but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things now.   Sheila and I had COVID through December and into January and that always takes a lot out of me mostly due to my primary health issues.  Before I even had a chance to recover from COVID, Sheila and I picked up flu-A which, for me, lasted until about two weeks ago.  Sheila felt miserable for only a week or two.  I, however, have had great difficulty getting past these two back-to-back viruses though.  Fortunately and at long last, I'm now feeling as though I can get back into having some fairly productive days...  as much as my other health issues will allow anyway. Over the past couple of weeks, I've spent my few waking hours each day exercising in an attempt to build up my strength and stamina.  I also gained about 12 lbs during this extended period of riding the couch every single day and I definitely want to lose...

W e are two solid weeks into having the flu and I still feel like crap.  I'm still coughing and trying to clear out my lungs.  I have a pounding headache especially whenever I cough.  As expected, my breathing is worse than usual too.  My throat is still a bit scratchy and, generally, I feel exhausted and lousy.   Sheila is still coughing too but she seems to be faring a bit better than I am.  My struggles are probably due to my primary illness affecting my mast cells.  Mast cells are the key players in colds and the flu too so my over-active mast cells make things a bit worse whenever I pick up any kind of bug.   Since the flu is also affecting my mast cells, my usual health issues are worse than usual too.  There is no need to get into details on this other than to say my usual symptoms are worse than usual.  Mostly, I'm simply completely worn out as my body tries to fight off the flu. I captured a photo of my thumb this week...

W hen I shot these photos below capturing the view through the viewfinders of cameras of two different formats, my purpose was to see if I could capture better images through the viewfinders than I had shown in my previous blog entry.  So, in short, this was initially an exercise in trying to capture better photos shot through a small viewfinder.  After capturing these photos, I noticed something else that I wanted to point out. I should first explain that I had used my cellphone for these photos and it is difficult to hold the cellphone perfectly lined up with a clear view through the rather small viewfinders.  Then, when you touch the screen to capture the photo, the whole cellphone moves ever so slightly causing some motion blur.  It was tough keeping the cellphone lined up perfectly to capture the entire view through each viewfinder. I really can't understand why anyone would want to shoot photos with crappy cellphones and I am reminded of this every single time ...

M y 40 year old medium format film camera had a simple matte focusing screen on it which made focusing a bit difficult.  This matte screen simply showed the scene and you would have to sort of guess what was the best focus.  There was nothing to help you actually see if the image is in perfect focus.  Using only your eyes makes it easy to slightly miss focus especially with older eyes like mine.  I knew I wanted to replace this focusing screen with a better one. The main problem with wanting to replace anything on this camera is that this is a 40 year old film camera that has been out of production for decades.  Finding parts can be difficult.  Regardless, I went on a search for the type of focusing screen I wanted.   I wanted a screen with a split prism in the very center, a micro-prism collar surrounding the split prism, and a matte ground glass field.  These can be difficult to find now but I happened to find one in Japan so I purchased i...

I 've been wanting to go back to medium format film since the very beginning of the pandemic.  In fact, I restored a 75 year old folding 6x6 medium format camera in January of 2020 when the pandemic first began (pictured below, at left).  Now it is six years later and I still have not shot any film through that camera but I'm still itching to go back to film alongside my digital photography. I do occasionally shoot some instant medium format film through a twin lens reflex camera (shown in photo below, top center) and I have a medium format film printer that prints any of my digital images on medium format instant film.  My Sony a7 images look great on this film. I suppose the main reason I have delayed shooting any film stock in my older film camera is because I have had COVID twice a year, every year, since January of 2020.  Each time I get this virus, it knocks me down for a few months.  By the time I'm feeling well enough to tackle anything, my list of prior...

W e've had an old, beat-up, dented, filthy range hood residing in our kitchen longer than I myself have lived here.  Shortly after I moved in, I noticed it was an eyesore so I cleaned it up and sprayed a nice new coat of paint on it.  Now it looked a bit better but it didn't work all that well and, as a result, it always seemed to be perpetually covered in slimy grease.  When I moved into this house, the light wasn't working on it anymore either so I replaced the electrical bulb socket too.  This was a "temporary fix" until we were able to renovate the kitchen.  Now it is almost 20 years later and I still have not gotten to renovating the kitchen.  Life and poor health have gotten in the way multiple times. Although we still have not yet gotten to renovating the kitchen, quite a few temporary fixes were done to various parts of the kitchen.  We've been slowly reconfiguring the kitchen to our planned new kitchen.  We never did anything with that ol...

I nside the house throughout the winter, we've always had extremely dry air that dries out our sinuses.  It gets so unbelievably dry that we even have difficulty swallowing while sleeping because our throats and mouths get so dry!  Not only is that annoying but it also makes it a bit difficult to sleep through the night.   To counter this, we've always left a big stock pot of water simmering on the stove.  Unfortunately, this simmering stock pot remedy never seemed to resolve the dry throats and mouths.  It did help increase the humidity in the house but it wasn't effective enough.  This 24 hour a day simmer stock pot idea also caused a pot to rot out on us due to constant use with hard water!  The mineral deposits ate right through that first stock pot.   The humidity in the house drops down below 10% in winter.  For comfort, it really should be in the 40-60% range but the stock pot solution wasn't getting us any higher than around...

W e awoke this morning while it was still dark outside to another blackout due to downed tree limbs covered in heavy ice falling on power lines nearby.  The ice adds too much weight for the branches to bear and it has been a bit windy too which doesn't help.  I think we had power again in about two hours.  That was just long enough for us to collect all of our battery operated lamps, lanterns, flashlights and power stations.  This time of year we worry about freezing pipes but short blackouts aren't a major problem unless they fry electronic components throughout the house and we had that potential today! When we lost power, the power was flickering for about ten or fifteen minutes which caused all sorts of problems with our electronic devices, appliances and entertainment center.  Once we had power back on I quickly realized that all the flickering had pushed everything into "pairing mode".  This meant that I needed to set up each device again.  We al...

I n just another seven days, we'll have a house full of people including excited grandchildren bursting with energy to open Christmas gifts.   There is no more room left under the Christmas tree for more presents.  We even have presents stacked up against an armchair and the piano.  We only have a few more presents to wrap but those presents still have not yet arrived here at the house.  We had a couple of late additions to our Christmas present list.  Most of these gifts were purchased in early November!  I think the last present will be delivered to us on Friday, the day before our Christmas party.  That is cutting it too close for comfort! I've already decided on what we will be eating for dinner on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and on Saturday for the party but we still need to compile a shopping list of food and to go grocery shopping.  We'll do that sometime early in the week.  If all goes well, we won't need to go back to the groce...