Here We Go Again... One Year In Asia 2014-2015

[davidc]

This is the first opportunity I've had to do any macro work since moving, it was fun.


15. The Candle by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[davidb]

Hmm, I'm not too sure I'd want to get my lenses so close to a naked flame. Did you scorch your eyebrows?

I'm unsure what to make of the picture! It seems to be sharp where it matters including the tip of the wick. I don't know how to score it, though.

[davidc]

No need to score it if you don't want to and for Project 365 shots I'm happy to receive critique/scores but don't really expect them. Entirely up to you If all you get out of this is something to idly browse while having a morning coffee than that's fine by me

For this, I like it just because of the colours and the simplicity. It's not high art or anything, just fun exploring everyday things with a macro lens. In order to get it sharp I had to use quite a small aperture which meant the flame wasn't visible, it was just a burned out mess, so instead I took three shots at -3EV, -1EV and 1EV and then merged them, selecting only the -3EV flame to keep some detail visible there while using the other shots that lit up the rim of the candle and, accidentally, the coffee table I had it perched on. In other words, it's HDR, but massively selectively so.

[Mike Farley]

This is the first opportunity I've had to do any macro work since moving, it was fun.


15. The Candle by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

Inventive shot.

[davidc]

Don't worry, I am still here and still going but with my mother visiting over the last two weeks AND still working during that time I've had almost no time at all for photo processing. Still maintained the project though I have a feeling I may have missed a day. Also, two SD cards have failed me completely now leaving me with only three - a 64gb one, a new 16gb one and my eye-fi card which is too slow for anything except casual shooting. So I may have lost a few days too

[Mike Farley]

Good to know that you are still with us. I look forward to seeing your efforts once you get the opportunity to catch up.

As a matter of interest, what brand were the failed cards? I have now had a couple of Sandisk ones, both SD, go on me and I am not sure that I will buy any more from them. Fortunately, memory cards are not the expensive commodity they once were.

[davidb]

memory cards are not the expensive commodity they once were

Depends on the speed!

I've always used Lexar Professional and not yet had a failure (touch wood) but each time I buy a new camera I generally need to purchase a new batch of memory cards (because they use a difference card from the previous camera (Canon 350D [CF], 550D [SD], 1DX [CF]) but also over the years the speed has got faster and the price lower. I've never had the chance to use the cards to their limits.

I currently use 16GB 400x in my 1DX; shooting only RAW I can fill a card with about 440 images. I managed to get 665 (with space for another 50-odd) when I visited Biggin Hill earlier this year (I'm not entirely sure why!). I was getting to the stage of what would end the shoot - card space or flat battery (indicator was flashing by the time I left BH).

[davidc]

I've had four Sandisk cards fail on me, all class 10 and 95mbps sppeds. Two of them were 16gb but they were physical failures - I used them a HUGE amount during the 365, swapping in and out frequently, and the plastic bit that goes into the camera first shattered and snapped. On one, it snapped inside my 550D and I needed some needle tweezers to tease out the broken plastic that was lodged into the card port. The other two were 8gb cards and they simply stopped working one day.

Initially I was extremely annoyed, particularly with the 8gb ones as I have no idea what I might have lost from the card, and I've switched to using the 64gb Samsung card I won on the Denbies shoot & a 16gb 600x card for now. We'll see if they actually last any longer or if it was just the heavy demand I placed on the kit last year

So far no complaints whatsoever about the Lexar, it's very good, and the 64gb Samsung one is very nice albeit slower. I tend to use that one on a general basis and use the 16gb one for street or when I need the faster write speed.

[davidb]

it snapped inside my 550D and I needed some needle tweezers to tease out the broken plastic that was lodged into the card port

hmm, that's a sobering thought. Fingers crossed that I'm spared that fate if/when any of my cards give out. Now that I've retired I no longer get an income that can be saved so all my cameras will have to last a long time.

[Mike Farley]

I've had four Sandisk cards fail on me, all class 10 and 95mbps sppeds. Two of them were 16gb but they were physical failures - I used them a HUGE amount during the 365, swapping in and out frequently, and the plastic bit that goes into the camera first shattered and snapped. On one, it snapped inside my 550D and I needed some needle tweezers to tease out the broken plastic that was lodged into the card port. The other two were 8gb cards and they simply stopped working one day.

Initially I was extremely annoyed, particularly with the 8gb ones as I have no idea what I might have lost from the card, and I've switched to using the 64gb Samsung card I won on the Denbies shoot & a 16gb 600x card for now. We'll see if they actually last any longer or if it was just the heavy demand I placed on the kit last year

So far no complaints whatsoever about the Lexar, it's very good, and the 64gb Samsung one is very nice albeit slower. I tend to use that one on a general basis and use the 16gb one for street or when I need the faster write speed.

That has not made me feel any better about using Sandisk cards. When mine failed, I stopped being able to write to the cards, but on both occasions I was fortunate that I could still read from them. That is not an option if the card is physically broken. Yikes.

I have a number of other brands, including Kingston, Viking, Transcend and now Lexar SD cards. All my CF cards are Sandisk, with one exception, a high speed Duracell which I purchased as a lower cost option when prices were much higher than today. The Sandisk cards, of varying vintages, are still working, but not the Duracell. That too failed in the same way as my Sandisks when it was no longer possible to write to it, but I could still read it.

My policy with cards is to keep the sizes as small as possible and download from them often to minimise the consequences of a failure. The former is becoming more difficult as the smaller sizes are being phased out. My last purchase of Lexar cards had to be 16 GB as the dealer did not have any 8 GB ones, which was my preference. To spread the wear, I usually only reformat when the card is full as the maximum number of writes to Nand flash RAM is around 10,000. Given a limited life, it makes sense not to stress the same locations every time.