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Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 8, 2012 0:11:57 GMT
Thanks again Ely, William, Tirso and Tito Poch! The atis-raiders were back this Sunday morning, but the feeding tree is so situated that lighting is better in the late afternoon. I'll do an anti-rain dance later to scare away the rain clouds, hehe. This morning's shooting session allowed me to experiment with the wide open 400 2.8 + 2x TC + the 7D's tiny, "noisy" pixels. Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, July 8, 2012, Canon 7D + 400 2.8 IS + Canon 2x TC II, 800 mm, f/5.6, ISO 400, 1/500 sec, 3421/516 support, manual exposure in available light, near full frame.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 7, 2012 12:50:45 GMT
Even at ISO 1600 there is very little noise on the 7D. I like the second picture because it shows that the Lowland White-eye likes Atis very much like us and here he is caught red handed stealing from your mother's tree. LOL. Well done Romy & Mabuhay. Thanks, Ely! I was surprised to find out that these little guys eat atis. I thought previously their diet was insects. Here's another one - Canon 7D + 100-400 IS, 400 mm, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/320 sec, hand held, manual exposure in available light. And a simple, but larger than life portrait - Canon 7D + 100-400 IS, 400 mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/400 sec, hand held, manual exposure in available light, near full frame.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 7, 2012 10:52:08 GMT
These tiny, feathered dynamos were marauding the fruiting "atis" tree (sugar-apple or sweetsop) at my mother's backyard in my native La Union this afternoon. I managed to get close with my handheld 100-400, but photon supply under heavily overcast skies was a challenge. I had to use higher ISOs for the faster shutter speeds necessary to freeze these perpetual motion creatures. Lowland White-eye ( Zosterops meyeni, a near Philippine endemic) Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, July 7, 2012, Canon 7D + 100-400 IS, 400 mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/400 sec, hand held, available light, near full frame. Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, July 7, 2012, Canon 7D + 100-400 IS, 400 mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/500 sec, hand held, available light, near full frame.
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Post by Romy Ocon on May 27, 2012 0:59:15 GMT
Thanks everyone for the comments, I so miss the company of birdnuts! I'm always a pixel-peeper, so here's a processed 100% crop of the companion shot of the first posted photo, with the same camera settings.
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Post by Romy Ocon on May 21, 2012 12:31:18 GMT
When a birdnut is deprived of feather-shooting for a long time, even an urban garden variety Munia brings much excitement. I had to make a quick dash to the city to fetch my old folks who just planed in from abroad, and bring them back to La Union. As expected, the usual munias are feeding at the overgrown grasses near our backyard.... perfect situation for my light birding gear. Scaly-Breasted Munia ( Lonchura punctulata) Shooting info - Paranaque City, Philippines, May 21, 2012, 7D + 100-400 L IS, 400 mm, f/5.6, ISO 400, 1/320 sec, manual exposure in available light, hand held, near full frame resized to 1500x1000, processed on a laptop screen.
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Post by Romy Ocon on May 18, 2012 1:40:01 GMT
Hehehe..... so Plain Idol is now a wildlife filmmaker. Superb debut, Tina!
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Post by Romy Ocon on May 15, 2012 8:19:04 GMT
Gary,
If you do a lot of BIFs, the 1D4 will bring to the table an extra 2 fps, deeper buffer, cleaner files, and a tad faster AF with TC'ed lenses.
Otherwise, the 7D is adequate. I never feel underequipped when I have just my 7D with me.
Romy
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Post by Romy Ocon on May 14, 2012 7:13:09 GMT
Up for sale is a very fresh unit of this BIF machinegun which is owned by my friend William Uy, Jr. (who is also a PBPF member). Those familiar with William know that he is a hobbyist who takes care of his camera equipment very well. He has 3 units of 1DMIV, he is unloading one ;D. - Canon 1D Mark IV (body only) - Includes everything that came in the original box - Purchased from Canon Philippines - Less than 1 year old and fewer than 10T actuation, mint condition Asking Price - PHP 175T, negotiable. Unit may be inspected and tested, just get in touch directly with William at cfone 09178192934 or landline 027826599. __________________________ Here's a couple of samples from my 1DM4, which I intend to keep for a long time if newer Canon pro bodies continue to sport big, short-in-reach pixels. Black-winged Stilt ( Himantopus himantopus, migrant) Shooting info - Sta. Cruz, Zambales, Philippines, February 9, 2010, 1D4 + 500 f4 IS + 1.4x TC, 700 mm, 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800, manual exposure in available light, 475B/516 support. www.pbase.com/liquidstone/image/132448770/original.jpg [/img] Collared Kingfisher ( Todiramphus chloris, resident) Shooting info - Coastal Lagoon, Manila Bay, September 17, 2010, 1D4 + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, 700 mm, f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/1600 sec, manual exposure in available light, 475B/3421 support
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Post by Romy Ocon on Mar 20, 2012 1:32:04 GMT
Thanks everyone for the comments! I miss birding very much, but I miss the company of birdnuts even more.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Mar 18, 2012 1:22:37 GMT
I haven't touched my birding gear for a while. But every morning after I cleaned my car here in La Union, this pesky fellow perches on the side mirror and "fights" its reflection for many minutes. Even if I yell and make gestures at it, it wouldn't fly away until I'm almost within arm-choking distance. There are many instances when I'm about to go to work and find my car a mess. I've to return inside the house to get some wet rags to clean the droppings. Ah, well.... life is what it is. A birdnut will always be hounded by feathered creatures, no matter what. ;D Yellow-vented Bulbul, Pycnonotus goiavier ( annoyensis race? !!) Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, March 18, 2012, 7D + 100-400 IS, 400 mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/1000 sec, manual exposure in available light, AI servo, hand held, uncropped full frame resized to 1500x1000. Quickly post processed on a laptop with a crappy LCD. Regards to all, Romy
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Post by Romy Ocon on Feb 28, 2012 9:09:13 GMT
Ok..... I just happened to wander by. I fixed your avatar, Ramon.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Feb 15, 2012 7:11:44 GMT
This laptop is designed for hardcore gamers whose interest in fast GPUs and processors coincide with that of HDV editors. The ventilation works very well. I've run it for extended periods and even when the Mercury engine kicks in during GPU-boosted HDV crunching, the temperature is manageable. Here's one positive mini-review of this model. laptoptester.blogspot.com/2011/11/laptop-tester-reviews-asus-g53sx-xt1.html#!/2011/11/laptop-tester-reviews-asus-g53sx-xt1.html Cool (pun)! Great to know the heat is well-tamed. Mark, i7 CPUs are supposed to run hotter than earlier chips. Their safe operating limit is 100 deg. C. I monitor my temperatures using CoreTemp and it hums along at 50-60 C in an A/C room if the turbo (overclock) is not enabled. If enabled, thereby boosting the CPU HP from 2.0 GHz up to 2.9 GHz, the core temp increases to around 70-75 C in an A/C room. When the Mercury engine is used by Premiere in video rendering AND the turbo is enabled, I've seen temp spikes of 85 - 90 C, but such feverish highs are short lived, happening only for a few seconds at the peak of video crunching. I've seen no system instability so far even during peak temp. Here's a link to an article about i7 temperatures: www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/02/26/intel-core-i7-temperatures/Romy
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Post by Romy Ocon on Feb 14, 2012 21:50:52 GMT
mastah! long time no see! now, we'd like to some bird HD videos crunched with your new rig! adri Thanks, Adri! I always have a 7D + 100-400 IS in my vehicle when I visit concreting project sites, in case a feathered creature just happen to strut nearby. Here's one project site at San Fabian, Pangasinan, I inspected recently.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Feb 12, 2012 0:40:38 GMT
Ka Mastah Romy, I am so delighted that you are around again. Oh, how we miss your presence in the forum. With your news, we will soon enjoy more of your posts? looking forward with much eagerness. telyds Thanks, TeLyds! I miss the gang and birding too. Right now, I'm earning back my internet name - Liquidstone. I coined this handle way back when I was deeply involved in concrete technology. Concrete of course behaves like a liquid when fresh and becomes harder than stone when cured. I've gone full circle and I'm now immersed again in concrete tech. Perhaps, after a few months, I can take a long break and go on a birding binge. ;D It's great to hear from you again, Ka Mastah! Thanks for sharing. Hoping to see the goods from your new machine very soon. How's it handling the heat generated by the i7 cores? A friend told me he's been having heat issues with his i7 Asus laptop (dunno the exact model). Thanks, Mark. This laptop is designed for hardcore gamers whose interest in fast GPUs and processors coincide with that of HDV editors. The ventilation works very well. I've run it for extended periods and even when the Mercury engine kicks in during GPU-boosted HDV crunching, the temperature is manageable. Here's one positive mini-review of this model. laptoptester.blogspot.com/2011/11/laptop-tester-reviews-asus-g53sx-xt1.html#!/2011/11/laptop-tester-reviews-asus-g53sx-xt1.html Romy
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Post by Romy Ocon on Feb 10, 2012 22:52:20 GMT
Dear folks,
I'm currently neck deep in non-imaging work, but I just got to share my enthusiasm about my desktop replacement.
My ancient desktop (Q6600, 4 GB RAM, XP, 512 MB GPU) can still crunch the RAW files from the 5D2 with ease, and can even play full HD video without hiccups. But when I edit 1080p video in Premiere, the anemic RAM and dated GPU just cannot do the job. I’ve done some costing and a new desktop (i7 + 12 GB RAM + GTX series DDR5 256-bit GPU + W7 64 bit) can be assembled at around PHP 60K.
My current activities dictate that I should be able to process photos and video away from my Paranaque home. This got me interested in looking at laptops with mobile i7 engine under the hood, hoping that these are already powerful enough to do complex full HDV editing.
And I found one in the grey market with a price low enough to approach the cost of a desktop with similar specs – an ASUS G53SX-XT1.
Price – PHP 63K, grey market, brand new, with 1 year international warranty
Features - Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz, 8GB DDR3, 640GB HDD, BD-ROM Combo, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M, 15.6in Full HD, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 4 SODIMM slots (2 used) and 2 HDD bays (1 used).
I was able to hook up my Philips 24” HIPS screen (1920x1200 res.) to the laptop via DVI+HDMI connector and my DTP94 colorimeter did a nice job in calibrating both screens. When processing, the 1920x1080 laptop screen hosts the program windows, while the photo or video is monitored on the 1920x1200 HIPS screen in a fully color calibrated environment.
Some quick hacking allowed me to force Premiere to recognize the GTX 560M and enable the use of the Mercury engine. This leverages the GPU (192 CUDA cores) to bear the brunt of video crunching and boost processing speeds.
Even with the stock 8 GB RAM and slowish 5400 rpm HDD, video editing with reasonable layers and effects can be done in real time! With multi-layers/multi-effects, the system does slow down a bit and one needs to render the effects first to see smooth results. Rendering is blazingly fast though, given the enabled Mercury engine. I can only imagine how much quicker this machine can go if I stick in 8 GB more RAM in the vacant slots (for a total of 16 GB RAM) and add an SSD as a system disk in the second HDD bay.
My verdict?
Well, it appears that mobile desktop replacements are now powerful enough to edit full HDV. Photo editing of course is several notches lower in processing requirement.
PROS – enough muscle to do full HDV editing, transportability, 1920x1080 resolution, reasonable cost
CONS – serious pro-grade photo editing requires the use of a second screen (preferably IPS-type), not really a laptop because of its weight and size (a transportable desktop replacement is the more appropriate description), the 1920x1080 native res crammed into a 15.6-inch screen might strain the unaided eyes of senior citizens like me, and limited internal data storage.
Overall, I’m happy with the new machine and I foresee myself not buying a desktop for my image processing needs in the future.
Romy
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Post by Romy Ocon on Dec 3, 2011 2:23:43 GMT
Welcome to PBPF, Neil!
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Post by Romy Ocon on Oct 18, 2011 3:20:05 GMT
I was inspecting a concreting project in the mountainous eastern part of San Fernando, La Union, this morning when I chanced upon this raptor perched not more than 15 m from the road. I felt naked and helpless without a DSLR in my car, so I just admired the majestic bird with my unaided eyes. Then I remembered I had my N97 with me, so I whipped it out and digitally zoomed to the max to take a snapshot. Light was heavenly, and the distant mountains would've provided a creamy, lovely background, if I had my birding gear with me. I reckon 400 mm would've been enough to fill the frame with the bird. The perch itself was very photogenic and the bird is a well-groomed adult. It stayed on its perch for many minutes too, looking at me as if taunting me for not having a long lens. Philippine Serpent-Eagle ( Spilornis holospilus, a Philippine endemic) Shooting info - Elev. 125 m ASL, Bacsil, San Fernando, La Union, October 18, 2011, Nokia N97 celfone camera at full digital zoom,1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 5.4 mm, hand held, uncropped full frame.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Aug 29, 2011 13:33:05 GMT
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Post by Romy Ocon on Aug 16, 2011 4:39:54 GMT
Thanks everyone for the nice words! Meantime, here's a video-lifer for me - a pair of subadult AG Starlings calling at a fruiting tree behind my mother's house here in La Union. I'm processing from a laptop with a crappy screen, so I look at the histograms rather than the video itself to do adjustments. _____________________________ Asian Glossy Starling ( Aplonis payanensis, sub-adults) Habitat - Lowlands from second growth to downtown in cities. Shooting info - filmed in habitat under natural light at Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines on August 7, 2011, Canon 7D + 500 f4 IS + Camon 1.4x II, 700 mm, 1/60 sec, f/11, ISO 800, manual exposure, 1080/29.97p capture, 475B/516 support.
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Post by Romy Ocon on Aug 15, 2011 4:47:49 GMT
Dear folks, My apologies for not being active on the boards of late. I'm currently neck-deep in a non-photo business project in La Union and I haven't touched my photo gear from late May to end of July. It was only in the last couple of weekends that I found some time to throw pixels at feathered creatures (and only at backyard birds). These preening dynamos were from my mother's backyard at Bacnotan town, located very near the surfing town of San Juan. I had to stack 2.8x worth of TCs on the 500 f4 to fill the 1920x1080 frame. Romy ___________________ Lowland White-eye ( Zosterops meyeni, near endemic to the Philippines) Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, August 14, 2011, Canon 7D + EF 500 f4 IS + stacked Canon 2x/1.4x TCs, 1400 mm, 475B/516 support, manual exposure in available light, f/11 (wide open), ISO 800, 1/60 sec, filmed in 1080/29.97p.
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