Peugeot 508 Hybrid4 Review

In January of this year I learned that the taxation on lease cars would change in Juli of 2012 (taxation based on the car pollution / emission gasses). This could mean that certain types of cars would be (way) more expensive if you leased them. Since my current lease contract at the time would expire in May, I wanted to make sure that I could lease a new car under the 'old' tax rules for lease cars.

My old (lease)car was a Honda Civic 1.8 Executive (with all the bells and whistles) which I loved very much. The car was relatively small, and drove like a dream (compared to my earlier cars). Unfortunately, the Civic was no longer an option, so I was in the market for a new (and preferably) cheaper lease car.

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A (slightly biased) review of the Samsung Galaxy S2 Phone

Updated on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 14:58 by Willem

My employer decided to give its employees new smartphones. Mostly because we've been begging for them the last couple of years. Unfortunately, not the one(s) we (or perhaps I) have been asking for.

In my line of work I come across customers with wireless networks that need (some sort of) security in place. The only real question I get during those projects is; "Will it work with an iPhone or an iPad?" In my entire career, I haven't had a single question of that kind regarding Android or Windows Mobile phones.... There's no denying it; the iOS devices from Apple are huge. Even in the corporate market.

So, no corporate iOS device for me. Instead, they shipped the Samsung Galaxy S2 (listed as iPhone look-a-like) to me.

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Billingham Hadley Small Review

After I bought the Leica M9, I was in the market to get a new camera bag for the M9. The bag had to be small, versatile, and not scream '(expensive) PHOTO GEAR HERE!!!!'. Since I owned a Billingham bag before, my eye quickly fell on the smaller Billingham bags. Especially the Hadley Small looked very appealing. After checking the internal and external dimensions on the website I purchased the bag (Black FybreNite version) through Robert White in the UK. They had the bag in stock, and it was cheaper (with shipping included) than ordering it in the Netherlands. I also included the SP50 Shoulderpad, for additional comfort.

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Moving from Flickr to SmugMug

Over the last couple of years, I've been storing my photos online @ Flickr. But I fear that time has come to move forward. Forward to another service for the next couple of years. The main reason for moving is that Flickr doesn't seem to innovate. No innovation basically means going backwards, in these days.

Flickr is a WYSIWYG environment. What you see is what you get, and not in the way this term is usually used on the Interwebs. There's no way of changing the coloring or appearance (white only). No way of integrating into another website (e.g. changing the URL).

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Leica M9-P review by a dSLR User

A nice (impression) review of the M9 by someone (Darren Rowse) who uses a dSLR in real life.

(via digital-photography-school.com)

Install KatzEye Focusing Screen in Nikon D300

Focussing manually has it's advantages. First, the number of potential lenses for your body sky-rockets. There are numerous old and new extraordinary good MANUAL FOCUS lenses available for the modern DSLR. Examples are lenses by Voigtlander, Carl Zeiss, and the old Nikon (Ai-S) lenses. The problem is that most of the modern cameras lack a decent (visual) indicator for when your object is in focus. My Nikon D300 has a small indicator (a dot) in the viewfinder which notifies you when you've got focus. But when you shoot with large apertures (e.g. f/2, f/1.8, f/1.4 or f/1.2) on MF lenses you have to keep track of your composition (through the viewfinder), and watch the 'in-focus' indicator. Something I find very hard to do. I allways seem to miss at least one of them. Missing composition is easy to fix in post-processing, but fixing focus can't be done.

Thankfully, there's a solution to this problem; Katz Eye Optics. These guys offer old-skool focusing screens for the modern digital SLR's. All you have to do is replace the focusing screen with theirs. You can do this yourself, or your camera brand service-center should be able to do it for you (at additional cost). I did it myself though, and ran into a problem (of course). But more on that later...

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Jamiroquai @ Ahoy Rotterdam

This Wednesday, Jamiroquai played @ the sold out Ahoy in Rotterdam (Netherlands). At first it was uncertain if he could perform, since they had to cancel their german performance due to Jay Kay's flu the evening before.

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Skunk Anansie in the Heineken Music Hall (2011)

After being gone for at least a decade, Skunk Anansie is back with a new album. Last week thay gave a concert in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam (NL), and it felt like old times.

It wasn't a concert where they played mainly new songs from their new album Wonderlustre. They mainly played those great old songs like Hedonisme, Brazen, Every Day Hurts (Twisted), and many many more.

Skunk Anansie @ HMHThis was also the first time I could use my new Nikon P7000 at a concert. Photo's were pretty much out of the question, since we were sitting all the way at the back. That's to far. Even for the 200mm at the long end on the Nikon. So I shot several videos.

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Nikon P7000 Review

Nikon Coolpix P7000Some of the readers may know that I used the Panasonic Lumix LX3 as a backup/compact camera for the times a dSLR isn't welcome (or practical). One of the places where a dSLR isn't welcome is your average (pop)concert. The Lumix LX3 was (and still is) an excellent compact camera with astonishing low-light capabilities. The only problem I had with the camera was that the zoom function only went to 60mm (35mm equivalent), and 60mm is a bit short when you're not standing directly in front of the podium....

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Dell U2711 27" Monitor Review

Dell U2711 MonitorThanks to some fortunate circumstances I've been able to get a new 27 inch monitor; The Dell U2711 Ultrasharp PremiumColor.

I was in need of a new monitor, since my old 24" Dell 2407WFP has some problems generating proper colors. Something which is quite important when fooling around with photographs on a computer. Another reason is that my the screen wouldn't work 'properly' with my new 27" iMac.

The 27"-er has a whopping resolution of 2560 x 1440 (WQHD), which is 'slightly more' than your average monitor. This monitor has an IPS panel, which is much better in rendering true colors than the old TN display.

The desktop real-estate is enormous (the same as the 27" iMac). Only problem so far is that my mobile devices aren't capable of using the full capacity of this display. Both my MacBook and Windows 7 Dell E6500 (work laptop) only go as high as 1920 x 1200. So I either have have some black borders, or I have to settle for a stretched screen. In both cases; the image is still extremely good. The display will be used as a second display on my 27" iMac.

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