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Fuji Finepix F31fd review

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As I mentioned earlier, I said byebye to my Fuji E550 and bought Fuji F31fd.

Now, after some weeks of use, I can tell it’s a really good camera, no matter if you’re a novice or an expert. Anyway, there are some things which I’d like to change:

– Adjusting BOTH Shutter Speed and Aperture at the same time. F31fd gives a possibility to adjust only one at a time.
– Maximum exposure time is 15sec. However, you can choose only 3sec exposure on S(hutter speed)-mode. To go to full 15sec, you have to choose “Night Shot”-mode. Why?
– Face Detection does not detect faces behind sun glasses or normal glasses. I don’t mind, I wouldn’t use the feature anyway.

However,

– ISO3200 has surprisingly small amount of noise. The amount of noise can be compared to E550’s ISO800. Automatic ISO also works pretty well.
– Fast deleting of images, cropping, rotating etc are nice features. Not necessary, but useful anyway.
– The response is very fast.
– Returning back from picture viewer to shooting mode happens by pressing the shutter button down. Quick and efficient.

All in all – getting used to the way the camera works took a bit longer than with E550, but after shooting some photos in different circumstances, adjusting seems to be much faster than in E550.
There are plenty of features which I find useless, but for people who search for a camera with lots of automatic functions, they make sense. The image quality, colours and LCD display are very good and a price of 190e is therefore the best price-quality ratio on compact cameras I could find.

Some example shots after the jump:

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Random entries from holiday

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Got an English copy of Frank Schätzing’s The Swarm. The best book in ages, highly entertaining and recommended.


I’ve been very satisfied with my current Fuji E550 camera. Despite the small size, the image quality has been remarkable (see: The Most Popular Photos, on Flickr). Also the sound quality on videos shot at clubs or in very loud circumstances has been fantastic. No matter how close to the sound source the camera is, there is no distorted sound on the video. Check some YouTube videos shot with E550.
Anyway, after some years of heavy use, my E550 is soon breaking to pieces. Pixmania provided a nice offer of Fuji model FUJI F31fd, which has gotten pretty good reviews. So, bought a new camera and looking forward to give it a test drive…


Time in Germany is running out and I’m heading to Nizza (or Nice, whatever) tomorrow morning. After five days there, I’m still taking a trip through Germany to Essen. Keith Jarrett is performing there on Monday, the 16th of July.


Last but not least, some music tips. Spushnik shares links to some free-to-download chill-out albums on his Last.fm journal. A one hour chill-out mix “Orion – From Rural To Urban” is also available for download.
While downloading and listening, take a moment and read about “Why We Don’t Care About Live Earth” and Seth’s short but excellent writing “Times a Million”.

No Torture Here

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No Torture Here beta website is now up and running.

The idea is simple: Your task is to declare a location to be torture free. At first you download and print the “No Torture Here” flag. Then you go to some location, plant your flag and take a picture or video of the event. Back in your computer you upload your picture and video to flickr, youtube (or where ever), come back to the No torture here site and locate your flag to the Google map in the site.

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Steal it, it’s on internet!

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Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uebfgpEdsBU

And then a photo which I took on a gig in Sotkamo, Finland:
Climax

It’s funny how some people still think that everything that can be downloaded from internet can also be re-used for their own purposes. The photo has been protected with Creative Commons license, which (in this case) means that the photo can be copied, distributed and transmitted, BUT only with the permission of the author.

I love giving my works forward for non-commercial projects for free. It’s always good if they spread around – and not rotten on my Flickr account – and people make the most out of them. But I definitely want to know when that happens. And I want to see clear links to my website and see the works used in a proper manner.

Well, of course this isn’t anything like Rebecca’s case, but it still sure pisses me off.

Becky

By | Entertainment, Music, Travelling | No Comments

During my days in lovely Escanda, I met Becky. Becky is a violinist, who has toured all over the globe with and without the violin and with and without rock bands and other artists. Truly lovely and wonderful person.

I came by her Myspace and listened some of her tracks. Incredible stuff, really fabulous strings – they remind me of the strings artists like Hybrid or BT tend to have on their tracks. Check it > http://www.myspace.com/bekidoe

Ilmastonmuutoskommentti

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Ilmastonmuutoskommentti

Suomen tilanne on suhteellisen hyvä. Olemme syrjässä pahimmilta myrskyiltä ja sateilta. Sateiden lisääntyminen ei ole ongelma, jos ne pysyvät jossakin kohtuudessa. Kuivuuskaan ei pahemmin haittaisi, kun meillä riittää kasteluvettä. Ilmaston lämpeneminen pikemminkin parantaa kuin heikentää Suomen maatalouden kilpailukykyä.

-Paavo Väyrynen

D:

Via: Tuunaa edustajasi

Jaiku

By | Blogs & Podcasts, Entertainment | No Comments

I joined Jaiku. Jaiku is like Twitter. It’s just Finnish. And better (also for other reasons;).

Even though the original or the main idea of Jaiku – blogging (or writing Jaikus) from everywhere, letting people know where you are and what you do – does not interest me too much, there’s still something very useful: bringing all your rss-feeds together.

So basically, by subscribing to the Jaiku feed of mine, you’ll get not only the latest Flickr photos and Youtube videos from my accounts to your feed reader but also the latest blog entries and the podcasts, too. No more lame, useless browsing :)

Here’s my Jaiku feed: http://orion.jaiku.com/feed/rss
And the site itself here: http://orion.jaiku.com

Go, give a try. And if not, don’t worry, the old feed of this blog and other services will remain unchanged.

Listening to oldskool?

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Ever wish you were back to the days when you could just throw on the Ol’ Gramophone and listen to some tunes. Now you can, and even play music from your iPod on it.

Yes it’s true, Designed by the Cucumber Lab the CL Sound Machine is a sound projecting music machine with a place to stash 12 bottles of wine.

via.
Thanks for the tip, Olli!

Delivery delayed.

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I ordered my FON 3.12.2006. It arrived yesterday (17.1.2007). That’s a bit more than two weeks they promised…

Also, my latest order from Hard To Find Records took one month until they mailed me yesterday. The package had come back to them. I had asked to deliver the package to the address of my friend, but now it seems, though, they had delivered the package to his address but with my name written on it. Of course it was returned to sender.

They have a “GIVE EXTRA INFORMATION HERE” box on their online order form, but do they really read what you write there…?
Surely they’ll be asking me to pay the delivery costs double now. Surely I won’t.

FON and HTFR could collaborate under the name “Hard To Find Finland“.

2006 look-back.

By | Blogs & Podcasts, Civilian life, Entertainment, In English | No Comments

To start the double-o-seven properly, I guess it’s time to sum up some of the moments of the past year.

Left Rovaniemi behind and moved to Helsinki. Getting a possibility of being part of Misc Management and working with some of the nicest guys in the southern electronic music scene has been more than delightful. The future looks exciting.

Got a possibility to travel a lot. Loved the Birkweiler wine fields. Saw Belfast, both sides of it.

Graduated. Wrote the Pro Gradu about Flyers in Electronic Music Culture.

After waiting for 11 years, finally saw Underworld live. Also enjoyed the Unity 10th Anniversary, both being the highlights of this year.

Finished remix of EBTG’s “Missing” and a remake of Innerself’s “Gautama”, released seven DJ-mixes and a couple of radio sets. Buried Worldwide Mix Selection podcast project and concentrated on DJ Orion’s podcast with a plenty of hi-quality guest mixes from Finnish artists.

Disliked Teosto and Gramex. Enjoyed some very good movies. Got sentimental while moving away from the north and couldn’t help looking back.

Experienced some very nice gigs such as Spinni in Tampere, Choon! in Turku, Rio88600 in Sotkamo and Sunburn in Kalajoki to mention just a few. Got new friends and got together with the old – humble, simple and honest people, who I – once again – just can’t give enough credit.

Made a new year resolution last year not to involve in any event production or promotion in spring 2006 – and got hands on way too many projects. Expecting the same to happen this year again.

Projekti: Klubivalokuva-automaatti

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Sain valmiiksi muutamia päiviä sitten jo useamman viikon työn alla olleen projektin: klubi- ja tapahtumakäyttöön soveltuvan valokuva-automaatin.

Idea on yksinkertainen: 2-3 henkilöä asettuu valokuvakoppiin seisomaan rinnakkain. Oikealla seinustalla on nappi, jota yksi kuvattavista painaa. Parin sekunnin jälkeen etuseinällä oleva kamera ottaa kuvan, joka heijastuu kuvattujen nähtäväksi seinälle asennetulle pienelle screenille.

Tämän jälkeen kuva lähetetään automaattisesti nettiin, Flickr-kuvapalveluun. Flickriä apuna käyttäen automaatin viimeisimmät kuvat voidaan lähettää reaaliajassa slideshowna klubin screenille tai pyörittää samaan tapaan klubin nettisivuilla.

Miksi tällainen projekti? Automaatin käyttäminen on halvempaa kuin ammattivalokuvaajan ja vaikkeivat kuvat ammattitasoon takuulla ylläkään, on tunnelma kopissa kavereiden kanssa takuulla rennompi kuin valokuvaajan tähtäillessä kuvattavien edessä.

Lisäksi kuvat saadaan jakoon välittömästi, mikä mahdollistaa niiden hyväksikäytön samassa klubi-illassa tai tarjoamisen niille, jotka eivät tapahtumaan päässeet, mutta ovat kotona verkkoyhteyden päässä. Lisäksi automaatin takaseinään mahdollisesti laitettu klubin logo löytyy parin illan jälkeen kymmenistä tai jopa sadoista kuvista useiden ihmisten tietokoneilta, mikä tuskin on omiaan ainakaan heikentämään klubin brändiä.

Miten tämä sitten toimii? Yhdistelemällä hieman scriptiä ja ohjelmia sain tietokoneen tottelemaan kauko-ohjausta niin, että infrapuna-kaukosäädin käskee yhdellä painalluksella tietokoneeseen yhdistettyä kameraa ottamaan kuvan, lisää kuvaan automaattisesti tarvittavat tagit ja uploadaa kuvan Flickr-palveluun. Koko automaatin toimintaan saattamiseen tarvitaan ainoastaan kamera, riittävän uusi tietokone, pieni feedback-monitori (ei pakollinen) ja verkkoyhteys, joka voidaan toteuttaa myös riittävän uudella kännykällä.

Valokuva-automaatti on näillä näkymin kokeiltavissa Kuudennella Linjalla tulevan kevään aikana (asiasta tarkemmin myöhemmin). Myös muut yhteistyöehdotukset tämän taholta ovat tervetulleita.