Greg In The Desert

I really like the image quality from my first generation Canon Digital Rebel but I quickly got tired of caring around a big SLR. I have a Canon G9 but it stopped working when it became out of warrantee. I’ve been looking at the 4:3 mini-SLR types cameras but they are expensive and still seem to have issues.

After my Canon G9 died, I vowed to never buy another Canon camera again. Then the G10 and G11 came out with positive reviews, I considered them but they were lacking enough features to reconsider my anti-Canon stance.

At CES last week, Sony annouced the DSC-HX5V camera loaded with nearly every feature I have been wishing for.

• First and foremost, It includes an SD slot. Being forced to use a Memory Stick was enough to keep me from even considering a Sony camera.
• It includes a GPS and Compass. I often carry around a GPS recorder so I can geotag photos later with the coordinates. It’s been a pain and sometimes the GPS doesn’t record. It’s yet to be seen if Sony uses some weird formatting of the GPS data.
• Auto HDR. I don’t have to annoy my friends by making them stay still for those multi shot pictures.
• It records full HD movies in the AVCHD format in 1080i. Why Canon didn’t include this in the G11 is beyond me but it’s something I will use often. It won’t do the 24fps mode of my dedicated HD camera, but i can live with it.

It’s not a SLR but I expect the image quality to be very good. The only missing feature I haven’t read about is if it will shoot in RAW file format. For $350 I will find out unfortunately I will have to wait until March.

Flickr user m505b took a really cool picture of a snow plow train engine.

SP rotery plow used to keep the Donner pass open in the winter

My Canon G9 died on me and I had to revert back to using my Canon Digital Rebel EOS (1st Generation). Last week images I started uploading into Aperture started showing as red boxes with the message “Unsupported Image Format”. This was occurring with both RAW files and JPEGs.

I checked the Apple Discussion Forums and found “Unsupported Image Format” is a common issue. There were several solutions such as restarting Aperture and rebuilding the library, none of which worked for me.

I tried other programs and found Graphic Converter would download the images with minimal problems and sometimes complain it can’t download some. Image Capture.app downloaded the images but there would be nothing in the download directory. It appeared to be a system level issue.

I realized that I added something new to my workflow a few weeks ago: a USB hub. When I connected the camera directly to the USB port of the computer the images would download just fine. It would seem that the image files were corrupt when Aperture tried to download them off the camera.

“Drive Through Fail (in Rio Rancho, NM)“. Saw this person ordering at the speaker box in the drive through at Burger King when I pulled up to the Namaste Cuisine of India and Nepal restaurant right across the street. That was a better picture and it looked like the manager had come to talk the person.

My friend James took an excellent picture of Lions at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, NM. I am jealous of his superior skills and equipment.

Have pictures of or in Rio Rancho, New Mexico? Join the Rio Rancho Flickr pool and post them. Here are some recently posted pictures.

Title: IMG_8573

By: rich_new_mexico

Title: IMG_0570 56 Chevy

Description: Park In The Park auto show event. April 26, 2008. Haynes Park, Rio Rancho, NM

By: rich_new_mexico

Title: colorful trees in fall

By: J-seth photography1

Title: Tiny visitor

Description: Very small in the backyard

By: Lady Rio

Title: Joan Marie at New Mexico Wildcat Football Game

Description: Joan Marie Yazze Gallegos “Miss New Mexico, 2008″…at the New Mexico Wildcat’s Indoor Football Team 1st Home Game. Here…she is with the Wildcat Dancers during the game.

By: “Miss New Mexico 2008″ ~ Joan Marie

I debated wheather or not to make this my Photo Friday entry. I’ve since decided that it is “iconic” of Rio Rancho, the town I live in. First the view of the Sandia Mountains are very iconic of the Albuquerque metro area. Second the houses represent the urban sprawl of the area, that has since been put to a halt.

A story on the local news says taking pictures of or in pueblos is prohibited. There’s several pueblos near Albuquerque and the Rail Runner goes through them. The train conductor attempts to stop passengers from taking pictures of the Pueblos while the train runs through their land.

What is their legal right to prohibit photography where it’s legal to photograph in every other public location in the US? Can they really do anything about it? What will the Rail Runner do if someone continues to take pictures?

Momento Live is a service that goes along with the wifi enabled Momento digital picture frames. It allows you to stream photos from your Momento Live account to other picture frames.

I purchased two of these frame partly for this feature. I wanted to buy frames for my family then be able to stream my pictures to them as without anyone having to do any configuring.

Today I get a email that the service is being terminated. Not only is their site not updated to reflect what the email says, they seem to provide no work around to provide the same kind of service that they currently offer or to remove it from the frame’s software.

I think someone needs to hack the frame to run linux.

Dear Member,

The Momento Live service will be terminated on February 25, 2009. After that date you will not have access to the Momento Live website or services. However, your Momento frame will be unaffected so you can continue to enjoy viewing your photos on your frame.

The closure of Momento Live web site means you can no longer store your photos on the Momento Live server and/or and share your photos with other Momento Live members.

Important note! Any pictures that you have stored on Momento Live server will be permanently lost after February 25, 2009. If you have any images stored on the Momento Live server, please ensure you have a copy of them stored on your PC. Any images that are hosted on Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug, or similar services will not be affected.

When currently visiting the Momento Live web site you may receive a website security warning as the SSL certificate has expired and will not be renewed. Please ignore this message. You are welcome to continue onto the website to retrieve your images.

To visit Momento Live please click here.

Any questions you have may be directed to momentosupport@imate.com

Thank you,

The Momento Support Team