Posts under ‘PhotoLog’

Recently I had to repair my Lumix compact digicam after I dropped it. The zoom mechanism didn’t work properly. I found Panasonic’s quick repair center in Akihabara, Tokyo and they fixed it in an hour. That’s their target turnaround time for repairing Lumix compact cameras and Let’s Note notebook computers. It was the quickest camera [...]

Released in Japan on Sept. 12, 2009, this movie is about Okabe Mataemon, a Nagoya (Atsuta)-based master carpenter who in 1576 was ordered by Japan’s leading warlord Oda Nobunaga to build Azuchi Castle on Mt. Azuchi fronting Lake Biwa. The main castle tower or donjon was to have an unprecedented five stories. It was to [...]

When I bought my EOS 50D in fall 2008, I thought it would last me for a few years. But I was wrong. I’m ready for the EOS 7D. I wish the 7D came out last year. But this is what I always say about new D-SLRs. There’s no end to it. One key feature [...]

Almost all photographers have a dream of publishing a book of their photos. Now anyone can easily publish their own photo book using an online printing service like blurb.com which I have recently tried out. I first heard of blurb on the Webby Awards list for 2008. Some months later, I finally got around to [...]

It’s near impossible to talk about Canon (see my thoughts about the EOS 50D) without mentioning Nikon. I was a longtime Nikon user during the film age (up to 2003), but switched to Canon. Canon’s revolutionary EOS SLR system, introduced in 1987, is more modern and well-suited for electronics-integrated cameras. Canon realized early on that electronics [...]

Prices of Canon’s midrange D-SLRs have finally come down enough for me to see a very good price-to-performance ratio. The price of the 50D body is now about the same as the price of the body of the EOS 300D/Kiss Digital five years ago (about 100,000 yen). I’m pleased to see this development even though [...]

A new book called “The Companies We Keep 2,” published in Hawaii by Bob Sigall, includes two of my pictures of Iolani Palace at the Sapporo Snow Festival. The book is a compilation of many illustrated articles about various people, places, and companies in Hawaii. Lot of interesting tidbits and anecdotes about Jack Lord, Marilyn [...]

Interesting program on NHK TV the other night about senility (Alzheimer’s Disease, etc.). Senility occurs when the brain shrinks or parts of it disappear. The program introduced various ways to slow down the disease with drugs, etc. There was this 60-something old woman with mild dementia and her 70-something old husband who was dedicated to [...]

Note: This note was posted the day after the camera was first announced on Aug. 24, 2006. It was also posted at dpreview where it received over 50 comments: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1031&message=19738022 The 400D (Europe)/Rebel XTi (USA)/Kiss Digital X (Japan) is on display at Canon showrooms in Japan. I went to the Ginza showroom in Tokyo today [...]

On April 9, 2006, the Annantalo Arts Center in central Helsinki will be holding its annual Japan Day event featuring various Japan-related events and exhibitions. In one exhibition room, I will be showing 25 pictures of Japanese women in Japanese costumes (kimono, etc.) and a short video of Japanese festival movie clips. This is only [...]

So I just bought another external hard drive to store my digital photos. It took about a year to fill up my last hard drive, a Buffalo 250GB drive. I hated that Buffalo 250GB (HD-HB250U2 to be exact, with a USB 2.0 connection http://buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp/products/catalog/item/h/hd-hbu2/index.html ). It was so slow. But it was cheap, less than 20,000 [...]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I gave slide shows in Finland in Sept. 2005 upon the inivitation of a small town called Kuusamo, northeast of Helsinki. It was a great trip and meeting so many photographers from Europe was very nice. I spent about 8 days in Kuusamo, and many of the days were spent on [...]

Here I am still using my 2-year-old, already-ancient, Canon PowerShot S50 compact digital camera with 5 megs. It served well, but I have grown increasingly envious of successor models such as the S60 and S70, especially since they sport a 28mm wide-angle lens. Something I really miss on the S50 with only 35mm wide angle. So [...]

Ciao! In early July, I visited Genova, Italy to see a major Japanese art exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale, the city’s grandest exhibition hall being held April to August 2005. It showed ukiyoe, posters, textiles, and photographs. I was the co-curator of the photography exhibition which showed images of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb [...]

If you’ve been keeping up with this BBS, you would know that I’ve switched over from film to digital last year. I don’t use film anymore. It started with a compact Canon PowerShot camera. That obviously was not enough so several months later I got the Canon Kiss Digital (300D or Digital Rebel). Having a [...]