My Review of K200D SLR Digital Camera & 18-55mm II Lens

Originally submitted at Abes of Maine

The PENTAX K200D, perfect for developing digital SLR users, offers an easy-to-use interface and incorporates award winning PENTAX imaging technology. With 10.2 megapixels, this DSLR features many of the advancements that are incorporated in the PENTAX K20D, including a 2.7 inch LCD monitor, Custom ...

K200D SLR Digital Camera & 18-55mm II Lens

Excellent for hobbyist/semi-pro

By Matt the traveler from Greenville, SC on 11/2/2008

 

5out of 5

Pros: Fast Shutter Speed, Consistent controls, Nice Features and Settings, Rugged, Easy to Use, Excellent in Low Light, Good Battery Life, Great Resolution, Wide ISO range, Good sized screen, Works with old lenses

Best Uses: Outdoors, Portraits, Home, Travel, Pics for Video Slideshows

Describe Yourself: Photo Enthusiast

I have used the K-200 to get shots for video slideshows, as well as during travel. Takes good pictures, even in low-ligt due to high ISO range. Grain is acceptable even at high ISO setting. Accepts old Pentax lenses, but works best if they have auto exposure (manual exposure is a hassle with old lenses).

(legalese)

Eye can see!

I decided that I needed to move ahead sans buttons, and give Mr. Hanes some eyes. Quite the dapper fellow if you ask me.

Mr. Hanes

This is Mr. Hanes. He is my latest weird sock creature. I actually made him over a month ago, but he has no eyes, as I have no buttons. I found socks by the pound, but I am sorely lacking in buttons. Maybe he will never have eyes. I guess that depends if he is destroyed by my son or not before I get some buttons.

The Frog is back

I am playing with the lighting on my frog. I constantly go back
and forth between a more "realistic" ray-traced look (example here) and a cartoony, flat shaded look.

Excuse the lable. This was a screen capture and I didn't notice it until after I had uploaded the image.

Flags of Europe

I've been cleaning out my computer and I ran across this unused animation I did for a video. It's just flags of Europe waving and fading from one to another. I have a higher quality version I may replace this with later, but it is not rendered. Enjoy.

Ending Global Poverty

I don't usually get political on my blog, but this one annoyed me. The following is a letter I wrote to the Editor of our local newspaper. By the way, I forgot to mention that this bill was sponsored by our good friend Barak Obama. Kind of shows you where is priorities lie. (Drat! I forgot to mention Obama in the Editorial!)


Dear Editor:

I have just become aware of a bill passed by the U.S.House of Representatives, the Global Poverty Act (H.R. 1302).The lofty goal of this bill is to reduce world poverty 50% by 2015. Although the goal of reducing world poverty is a noble one,this bill is the wrong way to do it!

This bill is essentially a tax levied by the United Nations directly on U.S. citizens. The money will not be in our control, and it will not be benefitting our nation. The estimated cost of this bill is $845 billion by 2015--that is 0.7% of the national budget!

The bill passed by the House does not even solve the problem it addresses. This bill merely orders the president to find a way to end world poverty. This is absurd! Last I checked, congress was supposed to create legislation, not the president. Assuming this is even a wise course of action (which I doubt), the House should be doing it, not abandoning their responsiblities to the Executive branch.

Our economy is in bad enough shape witout giving hundreds of billions of dollars a year to the UN to spend as it sees fit. We are a compassionate nation, and reducing poverty is worthy goal. But the Global Poverty Act is NOT the way to do it!

I urge you to contact your U.S. Senator and the president and tell them to stop this bill.

I give you, O select few who read my blog, the same admonition: educate yourself and take action.

Joe's Goals

Joe's Goals is a nifty little on-line daily goal tracker. I am one of those people who need a way to make myself accountable, or I get very lazy. I just got an accoutn here, so I don't know how well I'll do at it. I haven't made all my goals public yet, but I added a widget to my sidebar so you can see how well I do in general. You can chart positve and negative habits and it keeps a graph. I only listed on negative habit, because I dont' have too many vices...other than being lazy!

Animation Test

Here's a short animation test I did a while back.

Anti-Spam!

I added a link in my address bar to an anti-spam page. It has a list of randomly generated email addresses, and a circular loop link at the bottom of the page. Theoretically, email address spiders get stuck in a loop filling spam lists with thousands of bogus addresses thus causing consternation to spammers. Don't know if it works, but I like the idea, so now if a haples Spam-Spider comes by my site, WHAM-O!...it probably isn't really that dramatic, though.

New Sock Critter

This is my second sock creature--a Socktosquid

Demented Sock Critter

I found a book at Barnes the other day about making sock animals. It's pretty Cool! Anyway, this weekend I made a Sock Creature. It is a blue-tongued polar rhino. It doesn't have a name yet.
I'll be making more of these guys as I have time and as I find cool old socks.