So I was searching through YouTube videos today and came across this one. In my professional opinion I find it to be the BEST on YouTube.
Please watch.
You may recognize (if you made it through the credits) that this video was edited by the “MR_A” who has expressed his opinions a few times on this blog.
No Comments »It has been a long time since my last post. i have been quite busy working on The Great Mardena Fence project. Which is going quite well, hopefully we will be complete in the next few weeks and then move on to dirt and sod.
Now as our fence project has slowed down (we are waiting for more fence posts to be installed), I’m looking at a solution for a stone veneer for my deck railing, as the deck I have created has a solid wall in which I wish to make to look like stone. Actual stone would be way too heavy and I’m even thinking that products like Eldorado Stone would weight to much. So I have found something called EasyROCK which goes on like vinyl siding. Check out this video and let me know what you think in my comments:
No Comments »Let’s see, we bought the Edge, finished the flower bed at the front of the house (just need dirt) also completed the 500 sq’ patio in the back, now working on stairs for the deck and putting up a fence. But first Jen and I are taking a short trip to Calgary for a break. Please don’t rob my place, I’ll be very mad if you do.
I will upload some pics of my projects (including more recent pics of bathroom) when I get back from cow town.
No Comments »My first impression is it’s not bad! It has some pretty cool features. like the SYNC hands free, worked great with my phone, backup sensor, heated seat and dual climate control, AWD, and it seemed pretty peppy too! Way nicer than the Cougar! This one also has a DVD player with 5.1 surround sound, tried it out and it’s was pretty awesome. A few features I would have liked it to have is a sunroof, and it’s creamy white in color… which isn’t my favorite. This a great possibility for my next vehicle. Though the price tag seems a little high at $22,000… I’ll have to dig deep to find that change!
6 Comments »Well I did it! I sold the Cougar! I let it go for only $5,500…
Now it’s time to look for an SUV, Looking for something 2005 and up, good on gas, four doors, big cargo area (for beer); any suggestions?
I’ll just leave these pictures up so I can remember it… 
2002 Mercury Cougar for sale!
I’d like to share this informative interview I found between John Clarke and Brian Dawe on the BP oil spill.
You can find the original here: Clarke and Dawe on the US oil spill.
My workplace is full of people that may, one day, need CPR performed on them. So I thought I should attempt to learn it. In the process I stumbled upon this instructional video and found it full of useful information. I don’t think I have ever paid as close attention to an instructional video as I did this one, and actually learn something too!!
Learn more CPR here!
Fortnight Lingerie
So I finally broke down and bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 digital camera (like two months ago). I haven’t used a lot of digital cameras in my time, I’ve owned a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P52, Canon SD700 IS and Canon SD1100 and that is all. Sure I have used others but not long enough to compare the results of my newest addition, the Panasonic. Mostly I will be comparing it to my last Canon camera The SD700 as this camera was probably one of the best compacts I have ever used.
If the Canon was so good why didn’t I go with Canon again? I found that the canon line is getting way too confusing. It seems like they have taken all of their great features from one camera and broken each feature into it’s own separate camera. To top it off they seem to all be pushed out of China now. I think their build quality has gone down the tubes, sure they may still take a good picture but my expensive SD700 camera only lasted two years before it had a fatal lens error and my wife’s SD1100 only a year before the same error. Basically I am mad at them!
First off lets get this clear, I’m definitely not a professional photographer, nor am I trying to be one. This review is only my, a casual photo takers, opinion with no outside influences. My first impression of the Panasonic are that it seems to be simple to use. You can pull it out of the box, set it to it’s intelligent auto setting and take some very nice pictures. However if you wish to do any somewhat manual setting, they seem to be buried deep in the menus. For the most part, I have found that the huge scene selection covers most of my needs, though I find it a little time consuming to pick out the correct setting which may just be a learning curve. For daylight pictures I find this camera creates nice pictures with great vibrant color but as for indoor pictures I find that it likes to use higher ISO setting which it is not so great at. Some pictures which I don’t think should be high ISO are taken at 640 or 800 ISO resulting in a grainy picture.
The 12 X optical zoom is great, but you really need a steady hand, which I don’t have. I do have a compact tripod that I use every now and then but I’m really not going to pull it out for every zoomed photo I take. Even though this camera has a great lens made by Leica, I find the camera processes the pictures poorly resulting in a great loss of detail. I find it very difficult to produce nice crisp pictures, even out doors at 80 ISO I still find that the pictures seem a bit noisy. I paid $350 for my camera and I just expected more crisp pictures. Now if you are using this camera to print off 4 x 6 photos, you should have no problem most of the time. However if you expect to be using it for anything bigger, don’t expect a great deal of detail. This camera seems to loose details even when the camera is focused on the object. I don’t know if it just me, because before I bought this camera I looked at numerous photos that were apparently taken from this model and they all looked fairly crisp, but when I take a picture I seem to loose the detail. I believe this is something that Panasonic cameras are known for and I somehow missed that memo before I bought mine.
Indoor Photos
indoor photo, kitchen
indor photo, basement
indor photo, basement
indoor photo, dinning rm
indoor photo
outdoor, shade
outdoor
outdoor
outdoor
self portrait, me!
self portrait, Jeff
portrait
baby portrait mode
baby portrait mode
long exposure
macro, poor lighting
full zoom
pinhole mode
film grain mode
stretch mode
Stretch mode
I really haven’t used the video feature all that much, but for a camera, it does take pretty damn good video. Of course if you are using the HD setting, It does take up quite a bit of space. For example, I took a small video of the Star Field I created in my bathroom to upload to this sight but found that 250M for a 1 minutes video was a little on the large side for web viewing. Of course you can take lower quality videos and of course it shows. This camera has no dedicated movie setting like on most digital cameras I’ve used. This camera has a separate REC button which you’d normally find on camcorders. You can press REC in any mode (I think) and it will record you a movie. The thing I don’t like about this is you have to set movie setting for each manual mode and auto mode (In manual mode you have slightly more settings to choose from). So if you are expecting movie settings that you set in the manual mode and you press record when you are in auto, you will end up with completely different results than expected, and you won’t realize this until you have downloaded the video to your computer and your small movie takes up half of your hard drive instead of the 10M you thought it would. Obviously this is a learning curve and you only do this once, or 10 times if you are like me.
I will update with a video I promise!
Now that I own this camera, I don’t think I would actually recommend this camera to any of my friends. For the picture quality that you receive from this camera I find it to be a little on the costly side, most likely you are paying for the 12x optical lens and not so much the picture processing capabilities of this camera. I think now that it is out (wasn’t out when I bought the Panasonic) I would have opted for the Fujifilm F80EXR Which had all the features I wanted (apparently great at high ISO), HD (720p) video and a 10x zoom lens plus it’s about $100 cheaper. Had I waited a month I would have went for the Fuji.
With that said if you wish to purchase a lightly used Panasonic DMC-ZS3 camera, I’ll let it go for $299.
My sample pictures from the DMC-ZS3.
DigitalCameraReview.com <-- Wish I had seen this one earlier
DPReview.com <-- Review of super zoom cameras
Cnet.com <-- I didn't find this overly useful
DCResource.com <–Another positive review
