Sutton Warrior

Fairy friends??? By 'SW' File size: 313365 bytes Camera make: Canon Camera model: Canon PowerShot A640 Date/Time: 2007:08:25 16:34:32 Resolution: 800 x 666 Flash used: No Focal length: 7.3mm (35mm equivalent: 164mm) CCD width: 1.60mm Exposure time: 0.0025 s (1/400) Aperture: f/4.0 Whitebalance: Auto Metering Mode: matrix

I would rubber stamp Steve Burke's assessment. Recently bought a Canon A640, I to, did not consider the swiveling screen much, but now, its a feature I very much appreciate in its context. No, it ain't a DSLR, I do have a Nikon D70s, which sits in its bag and has don so for 6 months now! Unless you are a pro, a hobbyist anorak, have a desire to impress others with 2lbs + of large expensive plastic and glass hanging around your neck . . . or just want to blue 500 squid!!! ??? . . . Go for the Canon, the one feature that canon have retained in their PowerShot range is an eye view finder, its a bit basic and only cover 80% of the actual picture area, but in bright sunlight a viewing screen is as useful as a 'chocolate teapot'. You will get used to compensating for the minor cropping of the view finder. The Canon give you both options, it has a great macro facility, and is fairly easy to navigate around the program menus. Money left over . . . rechargeable batteries, couple of memory cards, treat the Mrs to a slap up meal and you will still have change! O yes, the Canon has a timer, so a light weight tripod would be an investment as well, if you want trophy shots with you in them. SW

Happened to me a few weeks ago, solved it be enlisting the help of a mate, we stood facing each other, griping the rod, agreed which way to twist, on 3 we pulled and twisted together, the blank came apart !!! Hope it helps.

I'm no expert, I do have a DSLR, I also have a Canon compact. How much do I use the DSLR?? less than the fingers on one hand since Christmas. A wast, perhaps, however, I have had some very nice things said about my compact work, was in the comp., final three recently. A 28-300 lens is a very usable size (I know I would rather have 'wide angle' than an 'elephant zoom' given the choice) and there is always 'foot zoom' f11, I understand where Steve is coming from, but dont they say that a lens is at its best at f8-f11? Grey, I think you will enjoy the 6500, obviously its better than what you have now?? It will take you further up that learning curve, couple or three years down the line you will have another birthday, mm I'v been 39 for a long time though See how things are then? Just my two peneth for what its worth. SW

8am start at Pin Mill, vantage point along the foot path from Pin Mill to Shotley Marina. A lot of people like to walk around the Marina, watch boats lock in and out. Barges will be passing the Marina at Shotley point (marina) around 8.45 depending on the weather? They sail out to the Outer Ridge or Madusa bouys then back to Pin Mill. Speeds etc therefore return timeings are subject to wind! Crabbing? Felixstowe Ferry River Deben!!!???? http://www.geocities.com/rjsparadise/pinmill.html http://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walks/walks/walk_a/2017/ SW

In a blow, 6-8 knots, loads of red canvas sail, varnished and paited wood etc., an old restored Thames barge is an impressive lump. You get two or three in the same bit of water fighting for position . . . wow. Last year, two collided £100,000 estimated damage, as I say no quarter is given. Apparently it will be an 8am start at Pinmill. Pinmill its self is an old fishing hamlet, very photogenic, as is Suffolk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/360/views/pin_mill.shtml http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/suffolk/pinmill.html SW

Saturday 7th . . . Pin Mill Barge Race Start/finish: Pin mill, River Orwell, Suffolk. Restored Thames Barges, 40 + tones skillfully sailed, full on race, no quarter given. A photo opportunity, Vantage point; Shotley Marina. SW

Officialy old enough to use my 'bus pass' to day!!! SW

Mmm, I never though they would get away with the London congestion charge, now look, its been extended, price raised and will be in other cities very soon, 1984 . . . Licences to fish our UK sea??? Gordon Brown? is he going to do anything? doubt it. David Attenborough and co are running around getting worried about gorillas and the like . . . whats a gorilla ever don for the world, ah!!! Cod, bass, sand eel etc . . . not seen, but they provide jobs, food etc. Thank god I'm old enough to not care (see photo of day) Sorry Steve, the wold is going mad!!! and yes I am a miserable old sod. SW

Manual selection of bright sun 'white balance' may help, some lenses (lens coating) dont work as well as others. JPEG does not react to well in this extreme highlight situation, it will bleach out these extremes, RAW will retain more detail, but what a fag after? I wonder what affect a polarising filter would have?

The point I was making was; 'simple' = low cost camera and a budget Photo Shop package. The camera has full auto through to as much manual control as one would wish, the same applies to the Elements versions of PS. Elements Auto makes a remarkably good stab at an appropriate adjustment, especially when one compares it to the original and the more complex approach, and one presumes? the vastly more expensive pro version of Photo Shop? Sorry if you have used Elements, but the point still stands, cost is not everything, the words 'less user friendly' spring to mind Complex . . . nah' keep it simple, why do things the hard way? if the final result, is for me, the same If it were cheaper to do things manually? or your personal pleasure is manual manipulation . . . Takes me back to a previous life; records, LP's were wonderful things; CD's and the digital world we live in makes things very flat, 2 dimensional and uninteresting, the 'black art' skills are no more? . . . I wonder? recording techniques and understanding have improved in recent years Perhaps this is the case with digital photography, high pixel rating, better technology and relative low cost is capable of ringing some bells? The above may make a good, slightly controvertial topic to continue in its own right? S/W

Well, her we are again, same spot, waiting, wild roses out, but I spied these weevil type beetles, about the size of a couple of pin heads? Learning from my last shot of the spider I set the Canon A640 to Macro, selected F3.2, and took a few shots. That tad of extra depth of field has worked as I thought it would. I put the picture in PS Elements 4, selected 'Auto smart fix', ad a hint of 'un sharp' tightly controlled, and thats it. Its no David Baily, but minimum cost, and minimum fiddling, offers lots of uncomplicated potential to the basic no fuss amateur like me? This is the un touched original, for comparison, the 10m pixels makes the macro viable??? Sutton Warrior

Flat calm??? in your dreams, NE-E any strength in the South North sea is sloppy made the best of the weather, fished until lunch time, wind over tide in the afternoon would have been nasty!!! Usually take 3 or four in quick succession, and choose the best. Tomorrow will be good weather, so the forecast says Its a bass day tomorrow, wanted to go off for some tope, but time is at a premium this weekend, brownie points and all that!! S/W

Out on my boat last weekend, mate Roddy caught this very nice Common Smoothound, called 'common', but we dont see to many of them. So sleek, she looks to me like she is posing, 'I am so beautiful", released after the shot, that PS 640 again. S/Warrior

A little more on the Canon PowerShot 640 . . . Had a bit of time to kill today, parked down a lane, started looking closer at the hedge row. Camera in hand, I thought I would see if I could improve on the 'Macro' efforts of last week. The spider kept still, I am a bit stunned by the result!? minimum work in PS Elements, a little bit of cropping, could stand more but I wanted the web silk in. This is only a 'Point & Shoot' Powershot A640, cost me £150!! I took this one to see if I could control where the camera focused. Did OK I recon??? The detail and never seen a red Sycamore seed before. Equally, never seen red, holly either. The colour is fairly true, if my memory of 6 or 7 hours ago is good, just a minor lighting lift in Elements 'levels' control. There is a tad of unsharp, but I keep it under very tight limits. Other than the limit of a 4X zoom and 35mm wide angle, for this type of general amater work, for me, it is the bees knees??? Makes me wonder is I need to spend £!!!!**** on a macro for my SLR. I recon the spider would click into full focus if I went up a notch on the apature? I had control on the camera, used TV (2.8 aperture) in Macro, and that swivel screen again, it is such a plus point for this type of work. Any one got any comment, good, bad or indifferent S/Warrior

Yeah, its a bit like being back at school and getting a look through a big magnifying glass. Bees were not a good first subject, they dont stay put for long!! Elton, right Town, I think you have got North and East Hill mixed up, it is North Hill, I am standing on the trafic island by the Post Office. S/Warrior

Here you go Snatcher, a couple more I took this pm, with the curent comp in mind. S/Warrior

Been waving the new Canon PowerShot 640 around this week, weather was a bit naff early on, but today it was a bit to good? No David Baily me, but I'm impressed with what the Canon can do despite my efforts Macro is brilliant, (by my standards), Tamron dont have anything to worry about, but when I came across this black bury bush full of bees . . . The minimum focus, depending on which end of the zoom you are at is excellent, select macro and away you go. Used the twisting screen to frame the bees. Always had my doubts about such screens . . . yep in the sun they are poor, but even so I managed OK. The eye view finder on the Canon is a little restrictive, only covering 80% of the lens view, but its bright and clear, to day I took 64 pictures, used the screen for only 12, the rest I was much happier with the eye view finder. However, having now used the screen viewer, I would not want to be with out it. This pic of a train was taken straight into the sun!!! The camera has coped very well I think At £149.99 including discounts I give a to the Canon, it remains to be seen how long it lasts? My DSLR will always outperform it, but for convenience, and my 'grab and run' style of photography it great. S/Warrior

'Long Walk' by Sutton Warrior File size: 257752 bytes File date: 2007:05:31 11:41:27 Camera make: Canon Camera model: Canon PowerShot A640 Date/Time: 2007:05:31 15:25:36 Resolution: 800 x 487 Flash used: No (auto) Focal length: 7.3mm (35mm equivalent: 164mm) CCD width: 1.60mm Exposure time: 0.0016 s (1/640) Aperture: f/4.0 Whitebalance: Auto Metering Mode: matrix 'North Station, on a good day' by Sutton Warrior File size: 234641 bytes File date: 2007:05:31 11:40:50 Camera make: Canon Camera model: Canon PowerShot A640 Date/Time: 2007:05:31 15:24:51 Resolution: 800 x 534 Flash used: No (auto) Focal length: 7.3mm (35mm equivalent: 164mm) CCD width: 1.60mm Exposure time: 0.0012 s (1/800) Aperture: f/4.0 Whitebalance: Auto Metering Mode: matrix

--> QUOTE(Norm B @ May 29 2007, 10:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi Dave, try the Daiwa TDXU or the ABU Suveran uptide if money isn't a problem, otherwise there are loads of mid range uptiders out there. I like the ABU twist and lock butt extention on the Suveran and I think Conoflex do it too on their uptiders but I've not seen many of those about. My favourite is the Daiwa TDU 4-10, long discontinued but superceded by the TDXU which is almost as good. Mike Concannon is about to review the Daiwa TDXU, once he's caught a decent fish on it. Watch those 'twist butts' trouble with a capital 'T', they jam!! OK if it jams in the position you like I suppose???? Suverans are great in their 'boat rod' form, I have 3, I use them as boat casting rods, downtiders and for drifting, I know, I'm a bit weird. Have a look at the 8'6" Greys 'Longboat', again I love them. Superb moving reel seat, the 15-20lb or the 20-30lb might be an option if you are in big tide flow? The butty of the Longboat is, it is a great 'all rounder'. But thats just my opinion S/Warrior

Just gone through this with my mate. He wanted a cheap PC, his last one melted down 10 years ago. PC World, great deals, Vista preloaded, mate chose a Lexmark all in one printer, but that was his choice. We discovered Lexmark dont have Vista software in the box. No problem, inter net, Lexmark sight, you will be lucky. Back to PC world, "yes we know there are problems"! Changed horses to an HP 'all in one', great, installed with the supplied Vista disc, very impressed. PC worlds assistant said, if it does not have Vista compatible on the printer box, it has a high probability of not working!!! Why did they not tell us this in the first place Great care with the new stuff, are we being manipulated, it seems that way to me???? Hope my XP keeps going for some time to come? S/Warrior

Hi Snatcher, some nice suns', favourit time of day, sunset/sunrise, especialy sunrise. I liked the pictures from the last PowerShot I had. I'm hoping that I had a 'bad Friday afternoon one' The 640 has a much better control menu and 10m pix's. I do have a DSLR, but carting it and a heavy bag about can be a fag? Although I used it for a while on recent fishing trips, reminding me what a pleasure it is to use compared with the 'old' P&S. The main down side being excess 'Shutter lag' . . . it was slow!! Those early digital point and shoots were dire. The new 640 has minimal lag, not quite up to the DSLR but excellent in comparison to the previous vintage PowerShot. Focus and zoom are quick, and the menu is simple yet comprehensive. So we are back to the lazy 'pic up and run' style of photography I like, using the DSLR when I want to get serious This is one of my DSLR pics taken of a mat on my boat, a double figure Stary Smoothound, a PB for him as he has never caught a Smoothound before, that was a week ago, he is still talking about it A wet bank holiday Monday morning, 'Urban scape', using the Powershot 640. Auto settings, minimal photo shop, just to see where we go from here, as with the old PS, auto works remarkably well. A dull rainy morning, ISO 100. S/Warrior