Sunday, December 30, 2007 - Tuscaloosa AL
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My trusty old Olympus has good image stabilization system
See Steve's DigiCams review of the old C-2100.
I didn't get into too many situations it wouldn't handle and didn't think much about steadying the camera. Now I'm going to have to think and pay more attention. I'm not sure I like that. Canon didn't see the need for IS in the Power Shot SD1000 (Steve's DigiCams review) but at slow shutter speeds, especially in low light situations, it would be nice to have even with only the 3X zoom this camera offers. I limited the camera shake in the image above by holding the camera against an immovable object, in this case the side of the RV. That works but something more portable would be nice. Doug suggested a bungie cord hooked to my belt and stretched up to an eyelet screwed into the camera's tripod mount. The resistance of the bungie loads the arm muscles which tends to dampen the shake. I might try that. That would be more portable than a monopod for instance. If I have to carry very much gear I might as well have a more serious camera to go with it, maybe the new Canon G9 for instance.
Eight megapixels definitely leads to bigger file sizes which leads to bigger hard drives which leads to.... Ah, well, what's life without a little budget creep?
See Steve's DigiCams for a review of this camera.
Night camp
Wal-Mart Parking Lot in Tuscaloosa AL
Wal-Mart Supercenter in Tuscaloosa AL
Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #715, 1501 Skyland Blvd E, Tuscaloosa, AL 35405 - (205) 750-0823
This Wal-Mart is one of my favorite parking lots for overnight dry camping. There is good, level parking and access to lots of shopping and services useful to the traveler.
- Good level parking, reasonably quiet
- Books-a-Million & Michaels Craft store across the road
- U-Haul propane nearby, Lowe's and Home Depot 1 mile
- Major shopping centers nearby
- Verizon cell phone service is excellent
- Verizon EVDO Broadband service is excellent
- Find other Wal-Marts in the area
- Check the weather here
Skepticism is Helpful
If you want to notice things that seem wrong, you'll find a degree of skepticism helpful. I take it as an axiom that we're only achieving 1% of what we could. This helps counteract the rule that gets beaten into our heads as children: that things are the way they are because that is how things have to be. For example, everyone I've talked to while writing this essay felt the same about English classes-- that the whole process seemed pointless. But none of us had the balls at the time to hypothesize that it was, in fact, all a mistake. We all thought there was just something we weren't getting.
The Age of the Essay, Paul Graham, September 2004