Check it out here: http://cliffmautner.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/101309-the-new-nikon-70200mm-f28g-ed-vrii.html

Well, now I have a 3-line review.

I will write a bit more later on, but bottom line is: it is a great lense which I like very much.

Some sample pictures taken with this lense today:

Zoo Zuerich – Images by Markus Linke

The expodisc is a tool to set custom white balance on a digital camera. Basically it works just like a simple grey-card. However, it’s nicely small and good to handle. I like it very much and use it all the time! On a Nikon you hold it in front of the lense and set the white balance to pre. Then you press the WB button again (press and hold) point the camera in the direction of the light source and “take a picture” (no picture is actually taken but the white balance is recorded). You should repeat this step every hour or so to make sure that the light didn’t change inbetween shots.

DSX 4563

Originally uploaded by markus_linke

I’ve rented a Nikon D3x from Profot.ch and compared it with my Nikon D700.

This is the placeholder for the review.

Pro:

- build like a rock
- 5:4 format
- professional gear
- viewfinder
- speed
- 2 card slots

Con:

- too heavy
- too expensive (for me)

I really like the 5:4 format, I didn’t realize until today, but it’s much nicer than the long pictures a D700 does, and if you crop the D700 picture you only get a 10 megapixel picture. I agree with Ken Rockwell on this. After some research I found Katz Eye which has crop lines for a D700 … I’m going to try this out.

Update 1: The KatzEye is ok but I was struggeling with some dust on the viewfinder after installing it (managed to get it clean finally), however, even with the 8×10 marks it’s too much of a hazzle.

Bottom line: the D3x is a great camera and I would love to have one, but the pricetag is too heavy …

From:     me
Sent:    today
To:    someone@accenture.com
Subject:    Scripts

Hi xxx, yyy,

You probably know, but I just looked at some of your scripts and saw:

user@server scripts $ more curdate.sh
#################################################################################
#!/usr/bin/sh                                                                   #
#                                                                               #

It wont work like this, because it needs to be in the first line with no spaces in front like this:

user@server scripts $ more curdate.sh
#!/usr/bin/sh
#################################################################################
#!/usr/bin/sh                                                                   #
#                                                                               #

Regards,

zzz

this was the response:

From:    someone@accenture.com
Sent:    today
To:    me
Subject:    RE: Scripts

Hi zzz,

We use this in all our scripts this way and it works fine. Why do you think, that it is not working?

Thanks,
yyy

after providing a link to Wikipedia explaining how Unix scripts work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix) ), this was the response:

From:     someone@accenture.com
Sent:    today
To:    me
Subject:    RE: Scripts

Hi zzz,
I can see the sentence where it says refers to the characters “#!” when they are the first two characters in a text file. I do not want to discuss whether the wikipedia article is misleading or just wrong. However, our scripts are working in the way they are programmed (even if not started with an explicit shell).

I have seen a comment block which includes the shebang already a couple of times and think, that it is common practice to do so. Therefore I do not see any need for a change.

Regards,
yyy

Autopano

Photoshop CS4 Photomerge

PTGUI

Stitcher Unlimited

and another Stitcher Unlimited sample with a limited number of pictures:

I’m disappointed with photoshop and would have choosen ptgui as a winner, but I didn’t like the windows (in the building) in ptgui, so overall the best results were from produced by autopano. I’ve added Stitcher Unlimited to this article afterwards, it appears to be very professional, but for good results you probably require a tripod with pano head which I don’t have.

Update 20091001: In the meantime I’ve done a couple of more images using autopano and so far have always been happy with the results. Please note that I not always cropped the pictures, so please excuse the black areas on some of the samples below:

Panorama and Stitching – Images by Markus Linke

Also I figured that using 30 images mixed horizontal and vertical is not a good idea. If I do panoramas today I only do either horizontal or portrait and usually do much less images (e.g. 5ish). If processed by autopana the merges are nearly undetectable.

Last but not least the scene choosen for comparing the products was appereantly very difficult for the software because of the electric cables in the scene. “Normal” landscape work far better …