Route 79

I forgot to say in the main posting that my (very generalised) conclusions are:

* People in Japan are surfing/emailing on their mobile phones in public - more so than talking.
* Women seem to do it more than men.
* The "clamshell" design is dominant - the "candybar" design is very rare - and has a very niche appeal.

I too am having a clamshell design.
The only thing is, I am not sure how long it will be before wear and tear begins - since it has this big movable hinge - which is not good on the long run.

And how are they managing to type in that.
Even for typing the simplest name, I take such a long time - do they have an add-on Qwerty keyboard?

Nice video - though it seemed to stop abruptly. Audio stops at 1:53, and video stops at 1:56 - some download problem? And nice music to go along with it.

Having loads of fun with the camera (Fritz, you have company)
Can't get enough of it.
I love the manual focus presets, as well the ability to take long exposure shots - helps during low light conditions; the exposure setting doesnt seem to help much. And what to do with the aperture? How does it affect an image? And white balance?
Also, I fiddled around with the manual settings so much that I forgot what the original factory settings were. Is there any way to go back to it (apart from the reset button at the bottom?)

The only problem is that its battery life drains very fast, especially in cold weather? Do I need to buy an extra set? And the other minor detail is that, I am unable to transfer images to a computer in the lab (I am not an admin, nor does the lab have XP) So it will be a while before I can put up something good.

Hurrah! I was in Japan less than a month ago, and that video's a lovely reminder of the time I spent there. The other conclusion I arrive at (in addition to yours) is that the mobile phone is gradually edging out the ubiquitous Japanese camera for tourist pictures. Whereas traditionally the Japanese have carried around absurdly bulky and expensive SLR cameras, now they just snap away using their phones - because, judging by the quality of the pictures my brother sent me from his Japanese phone, the quality is about the same as digital cameras circa 5 years ago..

Chris - yes I noticed that you'd been to Japan recently - I saw your pics too. I was going to leave comments - but saw that your comments facility is not there any more. (Did you say something about withdrawing your comments a while back - can't remember now.) Anyway - yes I agree that in Japan the phone-based cameras are very popular - and that's because of their higher specifications - and they're getting better all the time. However - one thing that I also found out is that most of the pictures that are taken on phone cams are NOT transmitted "over the air" - but are saved to memory stick storage and then transferred to computers for later emailing etc. And this is due to many factors - one of which is file size. (i.e. the more megapixels - the bigger the file size - the more expensive it is to transmit over the air.)

Glad you enjoyed the video. I will put up some more pictures of Tokyo soon.

Sat: in Japan (just like in Europe) - the ability to rapidly manipulate a numeric keypad in order to create "text" *(SMS) has been very popular over the last 10 years. In fact - once upon a time I used to consider myself to be the "fastest texter in the West" - but now the younger kids can text even faster. A whole new language of "txt spk" has evolved 2. This is where u use ne abbreviations u can 2 convey ur msg.

I tested the video download - and it works fine - it's possibly a problem that you had with downloading at your end? Glad you liked the video too.

Good that you're having fun with the stills cam. When you say "exposure" setting - are you referring to "ev"? if so - this is the "exposure compensation" feature - which (in simple terms) enables you to manually control the automatic light metering of the camera for scenes where you ahve a lot of white or a lot of black. For a good explanation see the following page:

http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/995/EXPOSURE/EV-compensation.html

Also - regarding aperture - I'm sure you mean "aperture priority" here - which is often talked about in the context of "shutter priority" too. This topic is covered quite well on digital camera pages on the web - but simply put again; the aperture setting controls the amount of light that comes into the camera - the smaller the aperture number - the bigger the "hole" - and therefore more light to pass through. The aperture is often denoted by the "f" number. Anyway - if you vary the aperture - then you also have to adjust the shuter speed to compensate - i.e. the amount of time that the shutter opens in order to let in the light. And this represents one of the main things that is the art of photography - because once you start to be brave enough to manually control your picture taking rather than letting the autofocus/autoexposure system of the camera to do everything for you - then aperture, shutter and exposure correction are the three things that you will vary the most. The Sony DSC-V1 is blessed with not only an autofocus/autoexposure mode - but also aperture and shutter priority modes as well - that's the A and S dial settings. In A mode - you select the aperture - and the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed to compensate. in Shutter priority mode - you select the shutter speed - and the samer automatically adjusts the aperture to compensate. Why would you want to manually select the aperture or shutter? Because manually selecting the aperture allows you to control what is known as "depth of field" - which you can instantly recognise as that effect in close-up shots where the subject is razor-sharp - but the background is blurred. (In this case - this is very low depth of field.)
And manually selecting the shutter speed is handy in situations where you are trying to take a picture where there is movement in the scene - and you don't want a slow shutter to cause motion blurring in the exposure. I usually take most of my photos on the autofocus mode - because I am usually on the top deck of the bus and my picture taking is very spontaneous - i.e. I have little time to adjust any variables - but if I am out and about with no time pressures - then I use the A and S modes a lot.

Also - white balance is all about shifting the lighting effect towards the more natural - e.g. taking indoor shots sometimes have a overall ambient whiteness that doesn't look natural due to the artifical light that lit up the room. So you use white balance on the digi cam to correct this. I tend to do this correction in Photoshop rather than in the camera - as it is one of the few things that can be done after you take your picture.

Regarding the battery - well I find that I don't need a spare battery - but this is because I don't use the LCD display on the back of the camera. I keep that switched off - instead I use the viewfinder (like a non digital camera) to compose my shots. This enhances the batter life significantly.

Hope that helps! Happy shooting!

I loved the video and soundtrack - great stuff!

Cheers Vicky. Glad you liked it!

Jag: Yes, I broke comments a while back but they ought to be working again now (or at least they should be). I've got another 8 rolls of slides still to develop and scan from Japan...

Thanks Jag.

Well, text messages are costly - a buck each, I guess. So I hardly send any. And back in India, I hardly sent any (as I didnt own a mobile).

I will try to download the video again.

Thanx for those tips. I am still experimenting, trying to get the best focus, shutter speed and aperture settings. Actually, am trying to figure out which is good for nitetime shots of lighted buildings. I would need a slightly longer exposure to get in enough lite, but at the same time short enough to avoid blurs. Still fiddling around and achieve "the holy Grail of photography"

And did you get a chance to play Halo 2?

Chris: look forward to seeing your Japan pics!

Sat: text messages are less than a dime! In UK - text messages can be as cheap as 4p - and in Japan they are even cheaper - a few Yen - which is less than a few pennies.

And I *did* get a chance to play Halo 2. The game is great. I have played up to the end of the Arbiter level - and defeated the Heretic!

Interestingly - the topic of violence in computer games is very topical here in UK at the moment. (Run up to Christmas and many parents will be buying games for kids as Christmas presents.) So I'm not feeling too good about having played it.

Jag: heres some pictures of my morning row at Lake Wheeler in Raleigh ,North Carolina this past sunday. I was lucky to get a December day with flat water and sunshine, primo sculling. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironsculler

Fritz: those pictures are excellent. For a start - it looks like a summer's day - there's just loads of sunlight - and this is why the pics are so good! (The more natural light to fill up the cam - the better/sharper the pics.)
There's even a shadow of you taking the picture in one them. Cool.
I've been to Raleigh NC - well Research Triangle Park actually - was there for a while - so had a hire car - which I used at weekends to trip out to downtown Raleigh - as well as Durham - and other places - but never went to those lakes though. I do seem to recall that there are literally hundreds of golf courses around there - which is great if you're a golfer! I take it you are a "sculler" in your spare time?

Jag: Glad the pictures came through. I am the guy
rowing the boat.When I got to the dock that morning there was a guy taking pictures of birds so I handed him my cybershot and he was nice enough to take a bunch of pictures for me. I took up rowing this past summmer, I was looking for a different form of exercise, running sucks and going to the gym is boring so I looked into rowing.It is great because it is one of the few things you can do into old age to stay in shape.
I live more towards Durham but drive to Raleigh to row when there is a perfect day, alot of space to row for miles.Next time you come to the triangle let me know and I will find a boat for you to try your hand at sculling.

Text messaging never seems to have caught up here.
What I would give for cheap text messaging.!!!

I will wait for the PC version of Halo 2 meanwhile - much more comfortable with that.

And you are guilty because the game contains tooo much violence? Aren't you the only one in your household playing it?

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