3.26.2012

A THEORETICAL RUN, BIKE RIDE & NX10 Camera Play (Repost)

This is a re publication of my original post from 24th Mar , to see if there is a reason why it does NOT appear on the Blog Lists and if the problem is resolved or NOT.


I converted it back to Draft Mode.
Then Changed the Publication Date
Then Reposted it, and Voila?

So, here it is again. (Sunday to follow)

Today, in preparation for our 'Theoretical Walk' across Scotland in May,
I went for a theoretical 50 mile (ish) bike ride.

The off shoot of which is that I now theoretically  have a very sore arse, even though I was wearing cycle shorts.
Not those horrendous lycra ones that look fine on the Tour De France, but which are sadly prolifically sported along with variations on King of the Mountains jersey's, by an ever growing population of Mid Life Crisis middle aged men, often levered into one size too small.
And don't even get me started on Mrs B the size 18 lycra gym bunny.

And before anyone says anything, Lucy is a size 10.

But I digress!

I also went for a nice long 10 mile theoretical run yesterday with DOG.

But I was NOT allowed to take him out today,
because I am told that I

"Take him too far and he is old".
He is not aware of this fact however, so does it matter?

Apparently it does, but it does not matter how far I go.


The other reason for these theoretical journeys, was so I could have a good session with the NX10 camera that I bought from Alan Rayner.

The Samsung NX 10



 It may not be the very latest model, but I can tell you that it does me very well, and it is an excellent bit of kit.
No good at all for the really ultralight mob, because with the rather fine Samsung 15-55 lens and battery in place it comes in at around 700g.

The camera body on its own weighs in at 413g with battery.





To give you an idea of size rather than the weight








So it really sits somewhere between a normal SLR,
and a compact digital.

I also have a Pentax K200D which I got because I already had a load of lenses that I had had for years with my really old Pentax ME Super.

The K200 is a nice camera, but rather heavy to carry on long trips,and although my little Pentax Optio is very light, it is just not up to the sort of photo's I want to take.

The other thing that drew me to this was the fact that there is a very reasonably priced adaptor (around £30) that you can get to convert it to any Pentax K lens.
OK, you lose most if not all  of the automated functionality, but if you have a bit of photo knowledge, which I guess you would have if you were going to buy the adaptor, it means that this little beauty will also work with ALL my Pentax lenses, including the 18-50 that came with the K200D.

All in all for ME anyway, a bit of a result.

So yesterday we went for a bit of an amble round the Fens.
The photo's are just to show the results of the camera.
Similar scenes have appeared in this blog before, so no point in describing the journey.

All these were taken with the Camera Set to ISO 400

The old Clunch pits again, using Automatic camera setting

This one and the others, were taken using Aperture adjustment and letting the camera choose the speed.


Black and White rather than Colour, with a bit of depth of field jiggery pokery on the Aperture

Same image obviously with Colour


SPRING?  It could be Summer (sadly it probably is, July and August will be SHIT  :)

Dawg, before I was not allowed to take him.
NOW, does he look unhappy and crippled to you?
OK, he is standing still.


This one has a story!
The bank is a lot steeper than it looks, and I dropped the lens cap,
which rolled down and luckily got wedged in a pile of twigs,
suspended 6" above the water.

I GOT A SOGGY FOOT!
 Today's bike ride.

I did not actually take very many photo's today, even though I took the camera.
To be honest, much of the scenery was rather SAMEY!

Very Very Flat and Brown!

The map below, shows the rough route, it is NOT interactive, what would be the point!

Looks more impressive on 1:50000, but I have not enough room for all those maps here


So, here are the ONLY photo's (well a few of them anyway ).

This time I did have the adaptor, and so I took my very old 50mm lens with a Polarising filter on it.
In fact, the older lenses, get an increase is focal length when used with digital cameras.
I cannot remember the exact increase, but I think it is between 20 and 30 percent, so this lenses is about 60 to 65 rather than 50.

Having cycled bloody miles and miles, I did find this little gem off the edge of the cycle way, about 2½ miles after leaving Ely.

These where taken with my old 50mm original pentax ME Super lens + adaptor + polarising filter






And so, in conclusion, this is the camera I will be taking on the Challenge this year.
I just need to work out something that weighs 400g that I do not need to get the weight back.

I can tell you now, it won't be the Jura, the Sloe Gin, or the Jelly Baby's....

I'll think about it!

If I carry it in a camera case on my belt, but NOT inside th rucksack, it doesn't count does it, so I have just saved myself 800g including the case.

Theoretically then that is a RESULT!

I could describe the bike ride, but it would be boring, and also unfair to inflict on you too many details of the sore backside I had for the last 4 miles.

Nuff said, but I did find a very old tube of Sudacreme that came in rather handy.

No pictures fortunately!

As a footnote to that though......................

My tip of the day: Bath water is 100% hotter on the sore bits than any other part!



Just in case you still want to look at our theoretical route across Scotland, here it is again!

 
The map above is interactive.
Use the controls or mouse and scroll wheel to scroll the map and also to zoom in and out.
You can go to 1:25000 beyond that you lose detail.


Big Eyed Beans from Venus - Captain Beefheart (Man that takes me right back)

3.18.2012

TGOC 2012 Interactive Route (The 3 Stooges)

This is our intended TGOC route for 2012 
Well read on for a bit obviously. The first bit explains what a pain in the arse it was getting the map to work on blogger.

I was hoping to make it interacactive and I have now, but I had a number of technical issues.

Firstly Blogger insisted on putting a  2mm  frame round each map segment, which made it look bloody ridiculous.

Then when I finally tried to publish it after the preview worked just fine, I started getting an http server error on the maps.

I am now investigating why this is with the technical folk at OS open source mapping.
I think the silly grid lines is a blogger issue, although there is a solution below.
I thought it was to do with the image frame, but I have now added some css stuff to stop that on pictures and it still does it on their bloody interactive map.

IF, I ever get a resolution from blogger,  then I will publish how it should be done on here.

I have had a response from OS Opensource though and they say that the iframe solution is the one that they recommnd, so there you go.

And as you can see I have the solution which places the OS map that needs to be sited on another site, in an interactive frame works.

See Interactive frame below ............ 
(It was iframe idea initially from Alistair's comment  NICE!)

You can View/Download a PDF of how I did it from HERE
 
The map above is interactive.
Use the controls or mouse and scroll wheel to scroll the map and also to zoom in and out.
You can go to 1:25000 beyond that you lose detail.

Below is a static map of the route. (you have already seen this on Alan's Blog)




 
If you click on this link BELOW you will be able to jump to a bigger version of the interactive map on my other site.
Once there, you can use the mouse to scroll the map, and also zoom in and out down to 1:25000 scale
It is a not completely accurate and some bits will change with the weather, BUT it is definitely accurate enough!

OK, the last day is seemples, and we are finishing at St Cyrus (again) but heh, look at the rest of it!

The route is courtesy Alan (BOSS MAN) Sloman and the other two poor sods who are doing it are Myself and Dave Wilkinson.

This is Dave's first and a pretty harsh intro it is too. :)

If the map above does not work for you then



Julian Sas - Looking For a Friend Full Version

3.16.2012

IT's HERE! (MLD Ultralight bivy)

Oooohhh the excitement (sad isn't it)

My NEW MLD Ultralight bivy has finally landed.



That is on a piece of A4 Paper

And in it's bag
 OK, it might not be much to you, but for me it is a jolly exciting thing

It is really mega light, and looks rather fine.
It has taken quite a few weeks to arrive, which I have no issue with, because it is fine kit.





What I do have an issue with, is the fact that despite several attempts at communication with Ron, I never ever had even the courtesey of a reply.
I am sure he is a really busy man, and he does produce rather good gear, but I am not overly anamoured with customer service.

Mind you, I have never had to send anything back, so I cannot give the definitive response here.

I do however, contrast that with Sean at Oookworks (that is another plug there), who is an absolute TOP BLOKE!

Nuff said

THIS BIT is for Alan



Spec

• Pro Level SuperLight Bivy
• Endurance 10D 3X DWR Top
• Pro Silnylon Bottom
• Top Fabric: MLD Endurance 10dX10d 3xDWR Nylon Ripstop
• #3YKK zip with two dual sided pulls extends to waist
• Half Moon bug net window over the face
• Overhead hang loop positioned over the face.  (That's the orange bit above)
• Four drying hang loops.
• eVENT foot box end panel
• Endurance 3xDWR 10d fabric

Weight.         XL 7.5 oz(approx)  [212.6g]
Girth              XL: 82" shoulder 60" foot
Length          XL- Fits users up to 6'6 and long and XL bags or very high loft winter sleep bags and 78" X 2.5" sleep pads.


I got the XL so that I could easily fit a larger bag and also a full length sleeping mat inside.
This includes mats up to 2½" high pumped up

I have NO idea what the hydrostatic head is but I think it might be 1500m.
I am willing for those with FAR more knowledge to supply that fact.

Price varies with individual spec (see link below)

It takes about 6 to 12 weeks for delivery
I ordered this on 2nd Feb and it arrived today (16th March), which is just over the 6 weeks

MLD Bivy here!

Part 3 of the Peaks weekend arriving soon.




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