The Pancake
Oh my god. What a lens. This lens tends to be the default choice for buyers for two reasons.
1. Buying a long, telescopic lens would defeat the object of the portability of the GF1. Off the shelf the pancake and GF1 set is an incredible package.
2. It’s a really good lens.
So Panasonic’s 20mm prime lens is known as the pancake lens. A prime lens is a lens that doesn’t zoom. The advantage is that they tend to be sharper than zoom lenses. Plus they get you hardcore points with “real” photographers who believe the more difficult the process the more professional you are. The lens alone if worth $400 and is worth every cent, which makes the total price of the package very attractive indeed.
The Lumix DMC-GF1 is a Micro Four Thirds Camera from Panasonic that has proved very popular with consumers and photographers alike. The GF1, along with [...]
To those of you who questioned our decision to buy a micro four thirds camera as well as a full frame sensor camera for Of Rice and Zen Studios, here are crops of a Panasonic GF1 and Canon 5D Mark II at 100% posted on the DPReview forums by Activatedfx. The Canon shot has been scaled down so it’s the same size as the GF1 shot, but they are close enough that I think you can see how utterly remarkable the GF1 really is. That a compact-sized camera is able to compete with one of the most popular, full-frame, pro cameras in the world is an eye opener.
Thanks to Activatedfx for the illuminating comparison and of course hats off to Panasonic for the GF1, it’s a stunning piece of kit.
A change is upon the photography world that most consumers seem not yet to be fully conscious of and it revolves [...]
Following on from my recent article iPad as iPad I thought I’d look again at the Japanese market. Since I published that article Apple have taken it upon themselves to become a lot more prudish in the way they maintain the app store and while I agree that heavy handed involvement in the app store has been a necessary part of the success of the iPhone, I wonder how this very American approach to freedom of speech will affect the iPad’s performance in Japan.
First, let’s look at the Japanese market. I have an (pseudo)HD cable for my Gamecube that doesn’t work with my TV because the connector is a technology that only ever took off in Japan and has now been superceded by the universally accepted HDMI. A D-Terminal or D-tanshi (Ｄ端子) is a type of analog video connector found on Japanese consumer electronics, typically HDTV, DVD, Blu-ray, D-VHS and [...]
Listen!
via AudioBoo
Listen!
via AudioBoo
According to Japanese mythology two deities are responsible for the creation of the Japanese archipelago and its gods. Their names were Izanagi (The Male Who Invites) and Izanami (The Female Who Invites). The myth says they descend to Yomitsu Kuni, the underworld and land of darkness. Stories about Izanagi and Izanami are were written in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan) in around 700AD. As in other culture, myth and history are intricately and misleadingly intertwined in Japanese historical records.
Legend tells that after they were born Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of heaven and stirred the primeval soup with a jeweled spear. It is unclear who was in the habit of giving large, heavy weapons to newborn babies. When they lifted the spear, the drop that fell back into the ocean transformed into [...]
If you’ve been discussing the iPad, it’s already won
So the iPad has proved it will be the most significant hardware release since the iPhone by being one of the most widely and passionately discussed subjects on the internet for weeks on end. But why is there so much passionate hatred for a device that hasn’t been released and most people haven’t even used yet?
Well the haters largely fall into two camps those who understand that the iPad is new and those that don’t believe there’s anything new about it. Ironically both are correct. Technologically the iPad isn’t a revolution, but philosophically it is a paradigm shift.
Thinking in binary
The Windows world has trained people to think in black and white. Actually that’s not fair, most people do this by default, but the PC world has pandered to it. More features good/less features bad. Or perhaps faster processor good/slower processor bad. That [...]
The world of the iNt@rW3Bz got it’s first glimpse of Ghibli’s Studio’s forthcoming offering this month with this new teaser trailer from the latest and highly anticipated Ghibli offering, Karigurashi no Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ – The Borrower Arrietty)
Karigurashi no Arietty (literally “Arietty, the resident borrower”) based on the series of books by Mary Norton based on the tales of a tiny (10cm tall) family living beneath the floorboards of a family home in 1950s England. The story has been transplanted to modern day Japan, Koganei in Tokyo to be precise, in a script by Miyazaki Hayao himself and the movie is named for the daughter of the borrower family.
Here’s a transciption of the titles in the trailer:
Unseen by human eyes
is the domain of the little people under the floor
the latest Studio Ghibli production
Arietty the Borrower
Nationwide roadshows summer 2010
Production is well underway
[...]
Listen!
via AudioBoo
bamboo stalk in a shaft of sunlight
a setting that sparks off the imagination like nothing else
When walking through the Arashiyama bamboo grove one finds the wending paths occasional reveals a privileged view of a wall of tall, green stalks snaking away into the distance. The uniformity, the gentle sway as the wind blows through the glade and the strange combination of strength and flexibility evident in the innumerable glade creates a truly haunting atmosphere.
The gentle klok of the stalks as they jostle in the wind, the winking shafts of light that fight their way through the forest to the path, the pad of the tabi as a rickshaw is pulled past you and out of sight [...]
