[Barbaton]

a new wrinkle in my lens quest.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022113canonefs1755f28g.asp

of course it'll expand my budget by nearly 50%, but it gives me more overlap w/ than the 17-40 while gaining a full stop. it would also make my 50mm prime lens probably useless, so maybe i could get $60 for that baby and buy a filter.

What body are we talking about? That's an EF-S lens so it will only fit on the 20D, Rebel XT, and presumably the new 30D. Don't know abou the 1DS, or 5D. Film bodies are out.

 

[narlus]

350D (rebXT).

 

[Barbaton]

350D (rebXT).

oh, you're good then. For some reason i thought you were talking film.

 

[Toshi]

oh, you're good then. For some reason i thought you were talking film.

narlus is old, but he's with it

 

[narlus]

watch out or i'll swipe at you w/ my cane.

 

[qualude]

fwiw, i personally don't shoot in that focal length range much. 50 (= 80) for portraits, sure, but otherwise i like to be at at 12 (20) or 135 (216) the majority of the time...

Don't know if you checked out the Tokina 12-24 f/4.
Recently picked it up, and was really suprised at the build quality and glass quality in the lens.

 

[narlus]

well i placed the order for the 70-200 zoom last night...still on the fence for the wide angle...

in un-related news, does anyone have any good ideas on salvaging emails from a crashed hard drive? my laptop drive finally bit it last night, and it's unrecoverable. i assume that all the data's lost, eh? the only real stuff i would care about is the outlook express stuff...

this sort of thing will definitely drive me to using gmail mail for all my email needs.

:angry:

 

[Toshi]

yeah, gmail + imap for other accounts for the win. qualude, i don't think the tokina 12-24 was out when i picked up the sigma

 

[Toshi]

watch this with your sound turned on!

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/drum.php

and take this if you have a musical ear (or don't) and have 10 minutes to spare. it's amusing and will provide data for interesting research (on the heritability of the ability to discern same and differing fragments of melody):

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146441

 

[WTGPhoben]

Images from my Colorado trip last weekend are posted. I didn't bring the 20D, but the P&S did a pretty decent job:
http://www.phoben.com/photos/pgal/subGals.aspx?albumID=455

It hadn't snowed for two weeks when we got there, but conditions were still pretty good.

 

[narlus]

nice photos! what's ty P&S camera?

deschutes obsidian stout...

 

[WTGPhoben]

nice photos! what's ty P&S camera?

Thanks

The ones I took were with a Canon PowerShot A85 (4.0 MP)
The ones Chris took were with a Panasonic DMC-L22 (3.2 MP)

and then there was some photoshopping...

 

[WTGPhoben]

just when you thought I was a good Idea to put hot water in your Camelbak (in the winter)...
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html

 

[Barbaton]

in un-related news, does anyone have any good ideas on salvaging emails from a crashed hard drive? my laptop drive finally bit it last night, and it's unrecoverable. i assume that all the data's lost, eh? the only real stuff i would care about is the outlook express stuff...

this sort of thing will definitely drive me to using gmail mail for all my email needs.

:angry:

I just got back to town so this may be too late, but if you put the disk in the freezer for half an hour you may be able to get info off of it for a while. Try and make sure that it doesn't get wet or condensation, etc. We've done that with drives whose disk heads are going bad with frequent success in our shop here. Something about the contraction due to temperature, i guess.

 

[narlus]

cool, i will give that a try.

just checked w/ adorama, the lens will be here wed!!
nice.

 

[dG video]

Toshi,

I am looking into getting a WRX wagon for my next car, coming from an 4wd truck and living in VT I need something good in the snow, how does the wrx handle? Also whats the average mpg in town and highway? Another question is how big the cockpit is. I am almost 6'4'' and most cars are fairly uncomfortable to drive in. Thanks for the help, Dan

 

[Toshi]

there's plenty of headroom in the wrx - no sunroof helps out with that. go test one out to see if you'll fit.

its handling in the snow is superb, on the other hand. my street tires are Nokian WRs, and the combination of those tires + awd has not let me down in my skiing adventures (and there have been quite a few powdery parking lots with stuck pickups and fwd cars so far this year in the pac nw :devil: ).

finally, i'm averaging around 22-23 mpg. high was 28 mpg on an all highway cruiser up to whistler. my car's mods have an indeterminate effect on mileage, however (as does my driving style -- did i mention how fun flat foot shifting with the UTEC is? ), so don't put too much weight on my one data point. fwiw, i used to see 16 mpg in my '96 pathfinder w/31"s.

 

[narlus]

new lens came in

 

[Toshi]

excellent

 

[narlus]

it's funny...my first (albeit extremely brief) experience w/ a zoom lens. now i see what the fuss about IS is all about...

 

[Toshi]

it's funny...my first (albeit extremely brief) experience w/ a zoom lens. now i see what the fuss about IS is all about...

keep the shutter speeds over 1/(1.6 x the focal length) and you should be fine. it also helps that f/4 is pretty sharp on that lens, too. i think f/5.6 or so was the sweet spot? but i might be making that up.

 

[Toshi]

this is pretty sweet:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=947406&highlight=laguna+seca

 

[Toshi]

starting from later tonight i'm going to be without a computer for an indeterminate length of time. this'll be an interesting experiment...

 

[WTGPhoben]

starting from later tonight i'm going to be without a computer for an indeterminate length of time. this'll be an interesting experiment...

selling it to buy mods for your car? :nonono:

 

[Toshi]

i'm getting my macbook pro replaced with one that doesn't have a buzzing display, with any luck.

incidentally, my car is broken at the moment tho

 

[WTGPhoben]

i'm getting my macbook pro replaced with one that doesn't have a buzzing display, with any luck.

incidentally, my car is broken at the moment tho

aah you told me about the buzzing. What's the deal with your ride?

 

[Toshi]

it up and died yesterday. or at least had a cough that flared up: only started on the 3rd try, sounded horrible, would die every time i'd push in the clutch while off the gas. i drove it 300 feet up the driveway, decided that it should only travel on flatbed for the time being and then used my uber-skillz to coast it backwards and into my parking spot with the engine off. (parking spots at my development have a angled 4ish" curb so this was a non-trivial task.)

it's getting diagnosed and hopefully fixed on friday. if it's fixed then i'm doing a track day on saturday and an autox on sunday... if not?

 

[WTGPhoben]

it up and died yesterday. or at least had a cough that flared up: only started on the 3rd try, sounded horrible, would die every time i'd push in the clutch while off the gas. i drove it 300 feet up the driveway, decided that it should only travel on flatbed for the time being and then used my uber-skillz to coast it backwards and into my parking spot with the engine off. (parking spots at my development have a angled 4ish" curb so this was a non-trivial task.)

it's getting diagnosed and hopefully fixed on friday. if it's fixed then i'm doing a track day on saturday and an autox on sunday... if not?

It's a good thing they pay brain surgeons the big bucks

 

[Toshi]

i want to do radiology these days, not neurosurgery. sheesh, keep it straight. med students are woefully underpaid for the record

 

[narlus]

med students are woefully underpaid for the record

it's good to see that at least some of them can afford loads of cool toys though.

 

[Toshi]

it's good to see that at least some of them can afford loads of cool toys though.

ooh, your post was post # 1999909. seems like a cool number

in my defense i must note that i sell lots of cool toys, too ink: : (evidence: note that most of my ebay feedback is from buyers http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=toshiclark&ssPageName=STRK:ME:UFS )

other news: the problem with my car was traced down to a flaky mass air flow sensor. hopefully a $3 can of MAF sensor cleaner took care of that problem. unfortunately, the MAF acting up caused the car to backfire, and the backfire caused a weak weld on my already-leaking uppipe (the pipe between the engine and the turbo) to fail. so now i have a big exhaust leak and slow spooling of the turbo. looking at it from a positive perspective, at least nothing major (valves, pistons, etc.) is broken, and i can still drive the car around just fine.

other news x 2: old cascade powder is too heavy for my refined tastes . i demand fresh powder! oh well, day 15 under my belt in any case.

other news x 3: i probably won't have a computer for another 2 weeks, and if the replacement suffers the same problem as the original (macbook pro with a buzzing lcd backlight) then i might just try to live without a computer at all... am i crazy for considering this?

 

[Barbaton]

$3 MAF? hahaha

had that done last year in the Chevy and it cost me close to $300 (labor stinx)

In other news, I am officially in the car hunt. Looking for 3 - 5 yr old sedans that are reliable and relatively efficient given that I'm putting ~1K miles / month on the current car, and don't cost a fortune to repair and insure (Lex and Acura are sadly out of the picture)

So far I've looked at Toyo Camry (liked the 4cyl with stick. unfortunately they never made the 6cyl with standard), Accord, and Civic of several persuasions.

Any suggestions on the Subie front? Rumor has it they're underpowered, and I don't want a turbo. Wasn't there a Subaru sedan that had the WRX engine without the turbo? 2.5 RS or something?

What I really want is a new IS 350 AWD, but that'll have to wait until those post-med-sch radiologist checks come in.

 

[WTGPhoben]

$3 MAF? hahaha

had that done last year in the Chevy and it cost me close to $300 (labor stinx)

In other news, I am officially in the car hunt. Looking for 3 - 5 yr old sedans that are reliable and relatively efficient given that I'm putting ~1K miles / month on the current car, and don't cost a fortune to repair and insure (Lex and Acura are sadly out of the picture)

So far I've looked at Toyo Camry (liked the 4cyl with stick. unfortunately they never made the 6cyl with standard), Accord, and Civic of several persuasions.

Any suggestions on the Subie front? Rumor has it they're underpowered, and I don't want a turbo. Wasn't there a Subaru sedan that had the WRX engine without the turbo? 2.5 RS or something?

What I really want is a new IS 350 AWD, but that'll have to wait until those post-med-sch radiologist checks come in.

Staaation Waaagon....

But, you are correct. The 2.5RS is a non-turbo. It'll be plenty zippy compared to the cavy, although it feels a little tinny (construction-wise).

 

[Toshi]

it won't feel cheap compared to the cavalier i would suggest a 4 cyl/manual accord or camry. there's something to be said for a competent car.

as for my personal subie news the MAF cleaner didn't work, and i was stranded at the autocross on sunday (after winning my class!). oh, i was the only car in my class that day . in any case i've now used up 4/4 of my free AAA Plus tows so my car has to stop breaking down... right now it's dead in the driveway but i have a MAF sensor ($183, ouch) in the mail.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

there's plenty of headroom in the wrx - no sunroof helps out with that. go test one out to see if you'll fit.

its handling in the snow is superb, on the other hand. my street tires are Nokian WRs, and the combination of those tires + awd has not let me down in my skiing adventures (and there have been quite a few powdery parking lots with stuck pickups and fwd cars so far this year in the pac nw :devil: ).

finally, i'm averaging around 22-23 mpg. high was 28 mpg on an all highway cruiser up to whistler. my car's mods have an indeterminate effect on mileage, however (as does my driving style -- did i mention how fun flat foot shifting with the UTEC is? ), so don't put too much weight on my one data point. fwiw, i used to see 16 mpg in my '96 pathfinder w/31"s.

whats up with the gasoline in the US???? (or whats up with it here?) both places sell it by the US gallon (3.7L).

a couple wrx (with the round headlights like yours and basically stock) i know get 15-20mpg...
hey, i used to suspect something, i have some evidence for now...

a friend just imported a 2004 US sti.. he said he was getting 18 mpg while he drove it in the states... but over here, the same car gets around 13-14mpg...
my evo (6, it was a japanese right hand drive originally) used to get 13-15 mpg, and my buddies evo5 (original left hand drive) gets about the same....

toshi, what was you said were the different octane ratings and stuff...

 

[Toshi]

huh. 100 octane RON (japanese and probably your "100 octane") is roughly equivalent to US 92 or 93 octane (which is RON + MON all over 2). i don't know why the mileage would be so much worse on your gasoline, however -- the roughly equivalent octane in each mean that there exist roughly the same # of energy.

one possible theory might be that your suppliers are "watering down" the product, so to speak, and that the cars' engine computers are responding to inferior gas by pulling timing in response to knock. i'm not sure exactly how this would affect mileage, however, so i'm just waving my hands basically.

 

[enkidu]

Maybe Peru's high altitude has something to do with the engine efficiency?

 

[Toshi]

Maybe Peru's high altitude has something to do with the engine efficiency?

i don't think that should affect turbo cars: their turbos pump in air until a certain pressure is reached. it may take more pumping since the air is less dense, so turbos might wear out faster, but it takes a negligible amount of energy to spin the turbo. this is because it makes use of the energy in the rapidly moving, cooling stream of exhaust gases, energy that is otherwise wasted.

thus an equivalent amount of air is packed into the engine in turbocharged cars, whether at low altitude or high. in response the engine should meter out the same amount of gas.

on the other hand, i do think turbo cars run slower times on the dragstrip at high altitude, so maybe my theory here is wrong, too

 

[Toshi]

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2006/03/14/buggy-rollin-is-the-new-x-sport/

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

i don't think that should affect turbo cars: their turbos pump in air until a certain pressure is reached. it may take more pumping since the air is less dense, so turbos might wear out faster, but it takes a negligible amount of energy to spin the turbo. this is because it makes use of the energy in the rapidly moving, cooling stream of exhaust gases, energy that is otherwise wasted.

thus an equivalent amount of air is packed into the engine in turbocharged cars, whether at low altitude or high. in response the engine should meter out the same amount of gas.

on the other hand, i do think turbo cars run slower times on the dragstrip at high altitude, so maybe my theory here is wrong, too

i think turbos meassure delta of p, rather than absolute pressure of the admission.
so at sea level a turbo at 1 bar, means the pressure at the tb is 1 bar (turbo) + 1 bar (current atm pressure) = 2 bar absolute pressure...
if at 10000ft is 0.9 bar (or whatever atm pressure is up there) + 1 bar (turbo) =1.9 absolute pressure and so on.

lima is a coastal city, so no high altitude situation here.

i think the energy available in the gasoline here is lower than that in the US, independent from the octane rating...
must be watered down at somepoint.. and if they do, i wonder what they use to water it down... but seeing basically all of the gasoline burned in Lima comes from the same state owned refinery, so you get about the same mpg regardless the brand of gas (and i find it extremely hard to believe there is a nationwide conspiracy to water down the gas at the gas stations all at the exact same rate)... i still wonder what is exactly going on.