Create Every Day

Want to get the jump on next Spring’s hot new fashion? What? You think it’s too early? It’s never too early to plan your wardrobe.

So here it is, the hottest new thing for Spring:

Skin-tight, flesh colored T-shirts with hard-core tattoos emblazoned on them.

That’s right.  We’re going there.  Body suit meets gangsta.  It’s 90% the tough, with only 10% the regret.

I don’t need a new camera.

A new camera would be nice.

But I don’t really need a new camera.

But man, I sure could use a camera that can take shots in lower light.

No. My D80 is fine. I take plenty of good shots. It’s served me well and faithfully for three years now, and isn’t showing any signs of slowing.

But a new camera could take more good shots. And having video would be nice. And being able to meter with those really cool (and really nice old manual-focus lenses would be awesome)…

I don’t need a new camera.

But I really want one.

And gosh darn it, Nikon just made it really hard not to buy a new camera.

I’m talking, of course, about the new D7000, announced this past week in the run up to the semi-annual Photokina show in Germany. Take a look at the specs. If you aren’t drooling yet, you should be. This is one heck of a camera, for not a whole lot of dough (relatively speaking, of course :-)).

I’m not even sure what I like best about the specs. There is literally nothing not to like. Some personal highlights:

Fantastic ISO range: With a new Nikon-branded sensor that covers a whopping 100-6400 sensitivity range, this camera can cover a huge amount of lighting conditions. Oh, and it can also go two stops above the high end to 25600 ISO. (That’s “H2” in Nikon-speak, meaning “6400 ISO pushed two stops in software”. Think digital zoom for ISO.) I wouldn’t count on getting a lot of good shots in the extended range, but if it’s anything like the D80 then there’s a lot of potential for nice B&W shots there.

But there’s an interesting bit here that I expect a lot of people will overlook: The range starts at 100. So what, right? But talk to D700 owners (who have a base ISO of 200), and you’ll hear some grumbling about not being able to open up their fancy lenses all the way because the shutter speed starts to get too high. They have to pop on an ND grad filter to reduce the amount of light hitting the lens. One stop on the low end isn’t a huge deal-breaker by any means, but there are definitely cases where you want a low ISO to allow for longer exposure times.

Non-CPU lens metering: This one will definitely not affect everybody, but for me it’s an absolutely killer feature, and honestly the main thing that had me eyeballing an upgrade this season. Nikon’s been making fantastic lenses for fifty years now (give or take), and amazingly they’ve managed to keep the same basic lens mount the whole time. That’s right: a lens that sold with 1960’s Nikon F can still happily mount on today’s high-end digital cameras. Sure, optical glass and coatings have improved since then. But not that much. A professional lens of the 60’s or 70’s will still perform fantastically. And you can find them at garage sales for dirt cheap if you keep your eyes open. Seriously: I have an absolutely fantastic Nikkor 135 f/2 AI-S that I picked up with a battered F3 and another lens for $20.

Until now, though, I’ve had to settle for fully-manual operation on my D80 with guess-and-check metering, because the D80 can only figure out the aperture setting of lenses that contain a CPU that communicates with the camera. Higher-end Nikon cameras (like the D300s, D700, and D3x) have been able to meter with non-CPU lenses for a while, but were out of my price range and, frankly, are too big and heavy for me to comfortably lug around all the time.

Six frames per second continuous shooting: My D80 tops out at a measly 3 FPS, which just isn’t fast enough to really catch an action sequence. Getting shots twice as fast will be great.

Dual SD card slots: This is just a cool feature that Nikon have brought down from their top professional cameras. There are a bunch of different ways to configure the camera to use the two slots, but the most interesting to me is the ability to have the camera simultaneously write duplicate data to both cards. Boom… instant data backup. I’ve never had an SD card go bad on me in the field, but I’ve been lucky so far. I’d rather never have that happen.

Upgraded AF Sensor: A newer autofocus system that is more reminiscent of the D300s than the D90 should result in faster autofocus and a better overall focusing experience. The only thing I’ll miss from the bigger cameras is the three-segment manual focus meter (which helps in quickly getting perfect manual focus). I haven’t seen info either way, but I expect the D7000 will have the same single dot focus indicator from the D80/D90.

Full 1080/24p Video: I don’t currently do a lot of video work, but having top-of-the-line video features — including an input for an external stereo microphone — will definitely be nice if I do decide to get more involved in video.

Magnesium alloy body and weather sealing: More features brought down from the more expensive cameras that, while not terribly useful on a day-to-day basis will help keep the camera plugging along for a long time. Plus, with the tougher skeleton, the D7000 gets real strap lugs instead of those horrible metal tabs. Those have always bugged me on my D80 for some reason.

16 Million Pixels: More pixels doesn’t mean better quality unless you are making huge prints. But it does mean more cropping power, which can be quite useful. On the down side, however, more pixels means more storage space and longer processing. I’ll have to see how I feel about 8 MB JPEGs.

Priced to sell: Possibly the most attractive feature of the new D7000 is its price. It’s available for pre-order at several Internet vendors (Adorama, Amazon, etc.) for only $1199 (body only). Now, I’m sure that sounds like a lot for a camera, and it is. But with as many well thought out and best-of-its-class features as Nikon has packed into this camera, I’m very impressed that they’ve managed to introduce it for only $200 more than the D80 and D90 debuted at.  That’s pretty much on par with inflation over the same period.

There are probably a few other features I’ve missed, and probably a few features of the D300s that are decidedly better, but that’s always going to be the case. Overall I’m extremely impressed with what Nikon has brought to the table. For me, at least, this is almost exactly what I would put in a camera if I could have any (realistic) feature set, and the fact that it is at such a good price point make this a no brainer: I’ve already put in my pre-order. I can’t wait until the postman drops this baby into my hot little hands. I’m not sure what I’m going to do until then. Probably try to get as many last pictures through my D80 as possible. We’ve had a lot of good times together, but I doubt the little guy is going to be around long once its grand-child makes its way here.

So yeah, I don’t need a new camera. But sometimes it’s not what you need that really counts. Sometimes you get what you want.

Coming to a future near you:

Google Husbandâ„¢

From the Google Husband™ blog:

Google Husband™ is the all new way to make your significant other even more significant!  Google Husband is full features to help you and your husband get the most our of your relationship:

• Set up chore schedules for you and your husband, and Google Husband will email a list of things that your husband needs to do to him each morning!
• Enter important dates — like your birthday and anniversary — and your husband’s credit card numbers, and Google Husband will take care of the rest.  You’ll never have to worry about not getting flowers ever again!
• You can even configure Google Husband to surprise you with thoughtful emails, text messages, and gifts — just because it was thinking of you!

Google Husband also provides ads specifically targeted for couples.  For example:

• Got Diamonds?  Visit TomsDiamondPalace.com!
• Better Cuddling in Just 4 Weeks!  CuddleChallenge.com
• Getting In Touch With Your Feelings – Now online!

Google Husband will be in beta for the next few months while we work out some of the kinks, and then we’ll be rolling it out to all of our Google users to enjoy.

I, for one, can’t wait.

Dore loves cuddling kitties.  Mochi is decidedly against such frivolities.  Sometimes they find middle ground.  Or not.

Dore and I got a postcard from her mom and her boyfriend when they visited China. Looks like they had a XXXXX time!

Some portions redacted.

The video pretty much says it all.

My ultimate goal is to work up to “backflip.” Soon… soon…

I am happy to report that the soufflés last night were amazing. Perfectly light and fluffy and gooey inside.  And to go with them?  Two of the best possible sides: an amazingly smooth and velvety chocolate-Kahlua custard sauce, and our friends Ian and Kristi!  The latter we invited over at the very last minute when we realized that we were going to have way too much soufflé.  As it just happened to turn out, Kristi had been talking about how she wanted to make soufflé, so it worked out perfectly.  My phone conversation with Ian went something like this:

Me: Hey, Dore and I just made soufflés, but we realized that we have way too much.  Would you guys possibly want to come over and share?

Ian: Hold on, I’m going to get a “yes” answer…

[Talking with Kristi in the background.]

Ian:  Are they chocolate soufflés?

Me: Indeed they are.  Chocoloate soufflés with chocolate-Kahlua custard sauce.

Ian: Hold on… I’m going to put you on speaker phone. [pause] Okay, say that again…

Me [now on speaker]: We’ve got some chocoloate soufflés with chocolate-Kahlua custard sauce that we need help with.

Kristi [in background]: Eeeeee!!!

They were over in record time, and I actually got to use the classic line, “They’re just coming out of the oven.”  Everything was perfect. The soufflés were warm, moist, and light.  The chocolate sauce was creamy and rich.  And, best of all, hosting friends was completely hassle free since we’d already done all of the work. 🙂

After a while, Ian and Kristi headed back to Ian’s place (to eat dinner, actually — they were just returned from a trip to Uganda and still hadn’t quite adjusted to the time shift), and Dore and I hung out for the rest of the evening watching videos and laughing, a nice warm glow of deliciousness radiating from our tummies.

This morning we slept in nice and late, and got up feeling very refreshed and energetic.  So what did we do?  Make crêpes, of course.  Yes, crêpes.  Those half-pancake, half-tortilla plate-fulls of deliciousness that only the French could dream up.  I had heard that they were hard to make, but people say the same for soufflés, and we already knew how those turned out, so we figured, “what the heck… let’s give it a go.”

I’m glad we did.

The crêpes turned out fantastic, and were really easy to make!  Dore and I had two each — one savory with prosciutto, spinach, cheese and tomato, and one sweet with sliced strawberries and the chocolate sauce from last night.  Mmm….  I’m pretty sure I’ve never cooked myself a better breakfast.

Fully sated, yet surprisingly not weighed down, we headed out to the gym to work off some of the decadence of the last few days.

Tonight we had a big old steak we found at Ralphs in the “Manager’s Specials” section for half price.  I pan fried the steak with salt and pepper while Dore cooked up a heaping pile of asparagus under the broiler and sautéed some frozen mushroom fettuccine noodles. To compliment the meal, we popped open a half-sized bottle of Tolosa 2006 Pinot Noir that we found at the local market.  (We saw the bottle and had to buy it: The first bottle of wine we ever had together was a little mini bottle of Tolosa Pinot Noir at the local Italian restaurant in San Luis. :-))

So how did it turn out?  Very, very nice.  The steak came out as a very nice medium rare.  I don’t think I could have cooked it any better.  Unfortunately the meat had quite a bit of connective tissue that made it tough to chew.  I did have a couple of bites that were definitely melt-in-your-mouth, however, and those were pure heaven.

We tried something a bit wild with the asparagus by putting a bit of balsamic vinegar over them right at the end, but it mostly ended up adding a hint of sour to the veggies that, while not unpleasant, didn’t really do anything to enhance them.  So we’ll probably skip that in the future.  But that’s the fun of cooking: every meal is an experiment.

The pasta was, as always with Trader Joe’s frozen goods, as good as you can ask for in a pre-packaged food.  Surprisingly good, really.

But enough of that… now, on to desert.  Dore tells me she’s got a soufflé planned out.  Needless to say, I’m very, very excited.

I thought about calling the pet store today and asking them how much two pounds of iguana would cost. But then I realized that I don’t have anything to serve as an appetizer.

Oh well, some other day, I guess…