Zerogain "homepage"

Bit of history first:

zerogain.com was a domain I registered a while back with the intention of making it my "personal" homepage domain. At the time groovehandle.org was still going strong and I had no intention of running a hifi forum. The name "zerogain" was merely one of the few relatively cool sounding domain names I could think of that wasn't already taken. The fact that has some connection with hifi was purely a coincidence.

So, setup my homepage at zerogain.com I did

Then GrooveHandle.org went to the big forum in the sky and I volunteered to start over. I didn't have much time and since I already had the domain and the web space all kitted up with PHP and MySQL it was the easiest thing to do to use zerogain.com for the new forum.

Well, now the forum has grown and it no longer seemed appropriate for me to have my personal homepage at zerogain.com. So....I've moved it all around a bit

Now at zerogain.com is a homepage dedicated to...erm...hifi and zerogainy type stuff

My personal homepage stuff has moved to: http://www.luacheia.com/ . The observant among you will notice that it's little more than a domain redirect to a subdirectory of zerogain.com but that's due to some dumb DNS issues I can't be bothered to sort out at the moment

On the zerogain "homepage" I've now got a page called "Systems" where currently is listed only my system but I'll start a new thread so that can be expanded to link to other members pages about their systems.

Michael.

 

Some really good pics in the photography section of the www.luacheia.com site – are you using film or digital? I'm kind of stuck between both worlds with a 67 Nikkormat FTn and a Canon G2!

Tony.

 

Thanks Tony. I'm using digital. Olympus E-10. It's a 4 megapixel DSLR with a fixed 35mm-140mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympuse10/

I used to use a Mamiya ZE 35mm SLR (which I still have). One of the handful of cameras from Mamiya's almost still-born attempt to break into 35mm from large format. Since getting the Olympus I've never used the Mamiya once.

For me, the switch to digital has really re-awoken my interest in photography. The level of control, especially in the "darkroom" (ie PhotoShop) phase is so much greater. The "instant" results (ie, go out shooting, come back home and have prints ready within 20-30 minutes) is also a HUGE bonus for me. I used to do my own b&w developing and printing but it's all so much easier with digital.

Even though the Oly E-10 is relatively old (3-4 years) and has "only" 4mp I find the quality of the pictures to be, for the type of pictures I take, as good as, if not better, than film. Since I rarely (if ever) print above A4 the megapixels really isn't an issue.

Michael.

 

Congrats for the success so far of Zerogain. I see that you're a bit into photography also. Maybe you'd be interested to visit and share some of your stuffs at these fora: http://www.popularphotography.com/ and http://www.phototalk.net/photos/ if you happen to have not yet visited them.

More power and a wish for a Happy New Year


regards

 

Mike,

anette has recently gone digital (uses a 5.1M pixel pentax) and she too finds that this is the case. She has taken some really excellent pictures with it.

 

I'm much the same – since buying the Canon G2 (a 4Mp digital) I completely “downgraded†my Nikon kit, I previously had a FM2 and a few lenses. I changed to a very old but absolutely mint condition black Nikkormat FTn as it was pretty cheap and can use old pre-AI Nikon lenses which are just as good and a hell of a lot cheaper. I've only got a 50mm and a 35mm now, both are lovely 60s Nippon Kugaku jobs from eBay in the states where this kind of kit is IMHO seriously undervalued. I actually far prefer the Nikkormat to the FM2!

The G2 is a whole different world – there is no 'feel', it looks and handles like a cheap compact whereas the Nikkormat is a beautiful solid piece of mechanical engineering, but the results from the G2 are remarkably good. Nice fast F2 lens too.

I think the thing about digital that totally changed my photography was being able to instantly review the results – I now know immediately if a picture sucks and can simply retake it. I also love digicam features like being able to adjust the white balance etc. This functionality coupled with Photoshop has improved my results beyond belief. The G2 is a great intermediate level camera to use while digital photography settles down into being a mature technology – I'd love a digicam that 'felt' like a proper camera in use, I guess the E-10 does to a degree.

Tony.

 

It does, more than to a degree Having been "brought up" on 35mm SLRs there was little or no adjustment required. You look and focus through the lens just like an SLR (no electronic LCD viewfinders urgh!) and the feel of the zoom, focus, aperture etc adjustments are pretty much just like on a film SLR. It's solid and feels extremely well built too.

The only downside to the E-10 really is that it has a non-removable lens but what a lens! 35-140mm (in 35mm terms) F2 - F2.4. I also have a 3x teleconverter (which only works with the main lens at full zoom to give a 420mm equivalent) but I rarely use it. It's very high quality aswell but with it mounted the whole thing looks like a snipers rifle

In a couple of years I might upgrade to a fully removable lens digital SLR at which time I'll decide whether to buy into Nikon or Canon or stick with Olympus and their new E-1 system which has smaller lenses designed specifically for digital.

Michael.

 

Digital Cameras and Removable Lenses

We have have a few digital SLRs with removable lenses at work (Fuji and Nikon). What is rarely mentioned is how dirty the CCDs become and how quickly this happens - even when used almost exclusively in a studio setup as ours are. This is not nice.
Lens quality is improving and the zoom on my Minolta digicam is far better in many ways than my not exactly shabby Nikkor zooms purchased 14 years ago.
THe Minolta lenscan't compete with the 20mm Nikkor prime, but not much can TBH.

 

Yes - dust on the CCD is a major problem with removable lens DSLRs, a problem that the E-10 doesn't have of course. The new Olympus E-1 claims to have solved the problem by having a cleaning mechanism that vibrates the sensor at ultrasonic frequencies to literally shake the dust off. Early results seem to suggest it works reasonably well.

Michael.