Olle

The practically throw-away videocard ( GF 7200GS 256/64bit PCI-E ) which came with our new PC unit was useless in current high-end games so I went back to the local store and replaced it (plus additional cash) with GF 9500GT 512MB/128bit PCI-E . I re-installed NFS:Undercover and Crysis and my system now chews these games to pieces! Now, I can't wait to finish these games and move to Fallout 3 and GRID .

D40 & D90 High Sensitivity Comparison I took both cameras for a drive and here are the comparison shots. Even if both have the same sensor size, the high pixel density of D90's sensor still kicks D40's butt... Nikon D40 and D90 ISO 1600 Comparison (click on image for bigger version; wrong text input for D90 side: it should have been D90 ISO1600 f2.8 1/10s) Nikon D40 and D90 ISO 3200 Comparison (click on image for bigger version; wrong text input for D40 side: it should have been D40 ISO3200 f2.8 1/10s) Both images above were taken in NEF and post-processing (via PS CS3) was identical. But once weather cooperates (hopefully soon), I suspect that D40 still reign supremes over D90 in infrared photography (using a Hoya R72 IR filter). Well, let's see.

I woke up around 7am today, then remembered that I only need to be in the office around 11am so I booted up the PC and went directly to Speedtest.net . I was pleased with the report: I guess they have changed last night our "rights". Anyway, leadtime from the day we filed our formal complaint until today is 6 days. I hope everything will be alright with our connection in the coming weeks as their "leadtime" is really poor.

I received my Vivitar 285HV flash yesterday. Surprisingly, the postal office didn't collect any fees on this one. Hmmm... Anyway, the flash unit is huge and, uhm, not pretty but it's more powerful compared to my slick SB-600. Since we have a 3-day weekend coming, I'll experiment with a 2-flash setup and do some exercises for Strobist.com . I gotta pump my creative juices up!

My new AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED arrived today! Total leadtime (Cameta eBay-USPS GEM-Cebu) is 7 days! A great improvement of 3 days compared to last year. I'll be playing with this lens tonight, you know, the usual stuff --- front/back-focusing, VR-feature, etc. Yey!