mbird

I'm so glad to hear there is some progress. By the sound of it Simon will be setting off all the metal detectors in the airport when he does eventually get back to blighty. Our continuing best wishes to both Simon and Susan.

Hi All Right, I'm sure this one is going to get terribly technical and very messy, but here goes. As I am spending more time tweaking and cropping pics (thanks to Lightroom being very quick to do the simple stuff), I am noticing more and more that what is shown on the screen is not what comes out of the printer. I also tend to order most of my prints and enlargements online from Photobox.com, and the results from them, whilst miles better than my own A4 inkjet, still are not as shown on the screen. Now I realise that the way the colours are produced on the screen are completely different from those from a printer, and that there are different "colour spaces" whatever the hell they are! I also know of ICC files but do not know what the hell they do, or where you stick them on the PC. Can some clever person give me an idiots guide (Paul, Bruce, consider yourselves being looked at hopefully.... )

Count me in Colin, as usual!

Wot no crane?

Wow Col, there were a few weren't there! I thought there were a lot when we went up earlier in the year to see the pups but it seems there are even more now

Hi All It was a pity the weather was so overcast, but an enjoyable wander in good company none the less. Heres a few of the better shots I took (there were also some pretty dodgy ones too though!) First one is taken of the inside of the Cow-Tower. The green of the moss I thought was rather attractive. This next one, I think we all took. Is it just me, though, or is there a definate face in the bridge? The classic cathedral view. I used a grad filter (on the camera, not in LIghtrroom) to try to improve the middle-ground exposure. I quite like the result. This was taken through one of the cloisters arches. I also tried a few with the flash on to give some ilumination to the fore-ground arch, but overall I thought this detracted from the main subject, the spire, and was therefore better left in silhouette. And finally my absolute favourite. Some of us had set up and shot the cloister through the doorway. After I had done this though, I noticed the little arched window. I think it frames the vaults nicely and gives a slightly different perspective to the whole thing. My opinion only of course! Here's to the next one chaps and chapesses

I'll get Sharon round to put them back on for you!!

Hi Barry Under our helm we have the fuse box for the domestic system (blade type fuses). I had to do a bit of rewiring, as we had things like the bilepump, water pump and horn all wired together through a 30 amp fuse (hire yard botch job). So I put in a second fuse box spurred off the main one in order to separate these various circuits to their own dedicated fuses. This left me with some spare fuse positions, one of which I took for the nav light switch, and another for the instrument lights. I was toying with a forward searchlight, but having read the earlier posts here, I shaln't bother now. I have only once night navved on the Broads, and have to say my night vision was non-existent (no moon + heavy cloud = bloody dark!), so had to resort to a torch. At least the nav lights now give us that comfort factor of being able to find a suitable mooring without panicing when dusk approaches early and late in the season.

Yes Trevor, I would bring the pod. There is a wier behind the Ribs of Beef pub which could give some interesting moving water shots, and it's better to "be prepared" like a good Boy Scout!

It sounds like Simon was a very lucky chap. Thanks for keeping us informed, Perry, and as always our thoughts are with him and Susan.

I've also been thinking about Solar panels. The question I have, is that with 110Ah batteries having quite a high internal resistance, would solar panels actually make any difference unless they were big enough to put out a good few amps?

Now that's a coincidence as we have just fitted nav lights this weekend, well my wife did to be precise! We had a new dashboard with new gauges and switches made by Brian Ward of Brundall, which we fitted this weekend, finally junking the old ex-hire craft one. I managed to get rid or an awful lot of spaghetti from under the dash (old alternator energising relay, horrid buzzer thingy etc), and whilst I was under the dash doing all that, SWMBO was fitting and wiring the nav lights I got for Christmas. The hardest part was finding a good location for the lights. As the boat is a forward drive Alpha 32 with a sliding canopy, the only place we could put them was just above the rubbing strip. I'm not sure if this strictly compies with all the relevant marine-law legislation, but I think it'll probably do on the Broads for the rare occasion we will need them. They are a little vulnerable to mooring mishaps, but there wasn't much option. Mrs B ran the wires quite easily for the port and starboard lights through the hull and under the floor to the helm. For the stern light, we have a convenient plastic tube running the full length of the boat from the helm to the rear cabin , which is behind the wall panelling, housing the rudder cable. I have an electricians draw tape, which can be pushed through tight gaps, so you can fix the cable to the end and pull it back through, simple! It's then just a matter of getting power from a fuse box (I had already put in another fuse bank for various accessories) and wiring the lights to the switch in the dash. Mrs B was very pleased with her accomplishements (as was I), although it did take her a while to get used to drilling a boat, whilst sitting on the deck of the one next door, and compensating for them drifting apart! Still she didn't get wet, or more importantly drop my drill

Hi All Looks like it's going to be a bit sparse then, but never mind. Okay, so we plan to meet at 10:00am in the public pay & display car park next to the Adam and Eve pub. I'll assume everyone knows the ring road okay, so I'll start from there. From the cross roads on the northern ring road where Salhouse Road starts, go down through Mousehold along Gurney Road (ie stright across the traffic lights if approaching from Salhouse). At the roundabout at the bottom take the third exit along Barrack Street, past Green's fitness centre. At the next roundabout (the one with the Puppet Theatre), take the first exit towards the city along Whitefriars and over the river. At the right hand bend in the road there is a turning on the left called St Martin at the Palace Plain. Take this turning and follow the road down to the sharp right hand bend. On this bend is a left turn, which takes you to the Adam and Eve and the car park. My mobile number is 07810 354277 for anyone who gets lost! I've attached an aerial view (courtesy of google maps), and you can see the car park at arrow B. Should anyone feel like joining us, just turn up on the day.

I've only just seen this thread after newf dropped me a line about it. What a shock! Can i add my best wished to Simon and Susan, and hope the road to recovery is fast and as pain-free as possible. If you need anything, Susan, just let us know, as we're only round the corner from you.

Oh I don't know Trevor, green wellies might catch on as city-wear yet!

Hi All So if I've got this right, it looks like we'll aim for the 1st of March (ONE week later than originally suggested, I just cant count ) So far we have: Me Paul (lorofsealand) Colin (newf) Col (HappyJax II) Trevor (chriscraft) and possibly Pete Any one else interested, let me know, or just turn up on the day. I would propose to do a bit of a stroll around Norwich, meeting at the pay and display carpark near the Adam and Eve pub at about 10:00am, (if anyone isn't sure where this is, pm me for directions) and we'll just see how the fancy takes us and what develops (ouch)! We could then walk down the river past Cow Tower, to Pulls Ferry, up to the Cathederal and on to Elm Hill taking in all the historical sights. There is plenty of scope for mucking about with depth-of-fields, exposure compensation and so on. As this is a tech type session with the emphasis on using manual features of the camera, it may be helpful if you have a specific problem or query, if you could dig out that old manual that came with your camera. I am okay with Canon (and Paul is even more so) but anything else I would struggle with. We'll firm things up, or adjust as necessary, nearer the time.

I hadn't twigged it was half term and as it turns out I am now up to my neck in it with work, so it may be better to postpone for a couple of weeks, say until Sunday March 1st? Would that suit people better (sorry to mess you all about.....)

Hi All I am currently having a new dash board made for our boat, and have noticed upon removal that the casing on our Morse control lever is broken. I can get a complete new one easily enough but they are expensive, so does anyone know where I may be able to source a second hand casing?

Hi All A while ago I posted a thread to find out if anyone would be interested in a little get-together with the the focus (pun completely intended ) on the more technical aspects of photography, rather than composition etc (for that side of things, refer to Bruce & Paul !). After meeting up with a few members last week, the idea was raised again by Bob (Happy Days), so I thought I'd ask the question again. This would take the form of an informal stroll, maybe around Norwich city (unless anyone else has any other good ideas) on a Sunday morning. It would be intended to explain, in layman's terms (cos that's what I am) things like depth of field, shutter speed, aperture etc or anything else anyone had a query with to help you get the most out of your cameras (SLR or P&S) I do not profess to be an expert on the subject, but I know enough about the theory behind photography to be able to help with most basic concepts. Don't expect to get any stunning photos on this one, but hopefully with a bit of information, it could make your future photography a little more fun (or at least explain why a particular shot didn't quite work!). Let me know if interested, and we'll sort out a date. I was thinking of maybe Sunday 22/2/09 at about 09:30 in Norwich unless there are any preferred alternatives.

Hi Bob You might like to check out the Gadget show website on channel 5. I tend to watch it mainly for Suzy Perry (cos she's gorgeous), but in the last series they ran a group test of various photo printers. The Kodak was pretty well received, as being the only A4 size printer to feature in the top echelon (the rest were the 6" x 4" dye sublimation type like the Canon Selphy range. The link is "http://fwd.five.tv/gadgets/computing/accessories-2/kodak-esp-5". I've always steered towards HP printers like Paul, but my recent bout of major Vista problems (documented in other threads) turned out to be down to HP's digital imaging monitor software that comes with most HP printers. It prevented Word, Adobe Reader and Autocad from opening, and then progressed to also knackering all my emails in Outlook and stopping me printing to my laserjet or A1 plotter too (not good on a business machine!). I found the problem purely by chance, and since removing the printer and all associated drivers etc everything has been tickety-boo. The driver was supposedly Vista compatible, but I have found scores of issues with the software on chat forums.

Simon, you are not alone! I bought the MN190XPROB legs with the same head just before Christmas for about £130 from WE. They did have an offer on at the time, but it was a different head I seem to think. I'm well happy with the legs I bought though, as they have the quick release clips, and also the centre column can be quickly laid over horizontal for straight up or down shooting.

Trevor, I agree with you that it seems to be a gimick. I can't think of a single reason why anyone wanting to take video would lug around a heavy DSLR, when the video cameras of today are so small and pocket friendly. I have a MiniDV camera not much bigger than a compact P&S that I bought about 5 years ago. The thing is that video really does not interest me in the slightest (too much time needed infront of the PC editing etc), so why would a DSLR be of the slightest interst? Maybe I'm out of touch......

Perry, there are lot who would disagree about my brain working the right way - particularly the wife

Hi Trevor I love this sort of mucking about with camera, playing with setting to see what happens! With water, I find it best to put the camera in Tv mode (shutter speed manual) so I can fiddle with shutter speeds to see what gives the best resut, but lets the camera sort out the aperture. Ususally in normal light conditions it will have to use a very small aperture thus giving a deep depth of field. Also, as Simon says, make sure your ISO rating is a low as possible to make the sensor chip less sensitive to light. I took a couple at Horstead mill when I way fiddling with exactly this sort of image. The first is simply the water rushing though a bypass channel taken at 0.5sec, ISO 100, f/29. This second one I was trying to capture the force of the water coming through the weir, and so I knew I wanted a slow shutter speed. The trade off was that I couldn't freeze the action of the canoeist, but I took the view the picture had far more impact like this with a bit of blurring of the subject, than if I had frozen the action completely. 1/8 sec, ISO 100, f/18 Of course, slow shutter speeds can also be used at night for some great effects. I like to play with "light painting" where you set a really long exposure at night, and then use a torch to "paint" light onto the subject where you want to, like this one of the arch at St Benets Abbey. 30 sec shutter @ f/14 And finally you can go really off the wall. This was at St Peters church behind the Waveny River Centre. I thought, fo some bizarre reason that escapes me now, that it would be good to photograph the graveyard at night. I set the camera on a tripod and Mrs B had the shutter control. I painted light onto the head stones in the foreground and then ran to be middle ground and tried to write "Death" in the air with the torch (not easy writing backwards). I must admit I'd had a couple of pints by this time though. It just illustrates what is possible if you mive from the Auto settings! Have fun experimenting. (72 sec shutter speed on this one)

Glad to hear your sorted Simon. I know what you mean about those video tutorials, as I still haven't managed to sit through a whole one yet. I'm sure they are an invaluable learning tool, but don't those accents grate on your nerves after a while!!!