Nikon J1

Nikon J1:

I got a new toy.  It's white.  I've been told white is a girlie color... oh well I like how the white looks.
Now that I've had this camera for a little under 2 weeks I think I can start to talk about my likes and dislikes.

Likes:
Small, compact, easy to bring out and about in the city. 
Takes DSLR quality photos in good lighting.
HD 1080p video quality with really great focus and subject tracking
Ridiculous electronic burst mode and a continuous shutter mode.

Dislikes:
Still not pocketable.  This camera, as small as it is still isn't pocketable.  I would need to get the 10mm wideangle lens and then i could probably just put this camera in my pocket when I'm out and about.  Only con?  That lens would be $250 and I can't really justify it. 
For such a nice camera it lacks some features found on the Nikon CoolPix super zoom cameras.
There's no panorama stich mode.  There's not many effects.  I think Nikon whiffed a little with the camera options.

Overall:
Photos look sharp as you would expect from a Nikon.  Its really just a fancy point and shoot where you can zoom in and out on the lens barrel with a quality smaller nikkor lens form factor.  The sweet spot is use as a point and shoot that takes crisp photos.  I haven't really used the zoom lens that comes with it because realisticially who brings their camera gear back out with them?

If you're looking for a compact DSLR replacement and you actually want manual controls: this is NOT that camera.  Get a SONY NEX.  Really.  There is no manual focus on the Nikon J1.  Where this camera excels is HD video and snapping off photos that look great the the amateur photographer.  If you want to play with the apeture and shutter settings you can but its hidden in too many menus.  There are no dedicated controls which gets frustrating.  Lastly, you can't control both shutter or aperture.  This is clearly meant to be used as a fancy, slightly pricey toy, yet I actually really like this camera.  It will most likely be the camera i take out 80% of the time.  I love my Nikon D60 but its too bulky (it will be relegated to special occasions where the focus is going to be taking pictures).


Sample Photos:

tumblr vs blogger

Gonna try to get this blog going again as well I have opinions and we'll see who reads. I've been behind in my social media because well frankly, who's got time to have facebook google+ tumblr blogger twitter etc. I've realized that while google+ and facebook have become very good places for me to share photos ( i like taking random photos) its harder to get thoughts and ideas across. This will probably become a place of my musings.

checking in

Its' been a while since anyone has blogged on this site. We've been busy. This blog might slowly evolve into just a medium for me to air my thoughts on all sorts of random things. We shall see how it evolves.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Halo ODST?

Well with the end of September approaching two games are almost out that I'm looking forward to playing.  Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 will be based on the the Marvel Civil-War comic arc and will feature the time tested dungeon grind that we've become accustomed to from X-Men Legends and the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance.  Who doesn't love team ups of all sorts of Marvel Comic heros and/or villians?  I'm curious to see what the story line is and how the game plays.

The other game that the die hard Halo fan in me is looking forward to is non other than Halo ODST.  After playing various games on Xbox Live I've found myself always coming back to Halo 3.  The matchmaking system is still the best out there for Live and being able to party up easily with friends is a key feature that I wish other developers would learn from Bungie.  My only gripe with Halo 3 is that they essentially nerfed matchmaking a bit.  As the varience in ability was lessened it becomes much harder for one very good player to take on more than a few other players at once, something that was very possible in the first Halo.  Playing as non superhuman spartans wil change the game dynamic a fair amount and it should give the game a very different feel.  Hopefully I'll spend a good amount of time playing Halo ODST online with friends.  Updates and verdicts on the games to come soon.

Batman Arkham Asylum

In lieu of a long post on Batman Arkham Asylum I'll merely say if you enjoy Batman and/or action adventure games in general, get it. Simple. The game has a nice coherent story line, great animation/grahpics, fun gameplay and has the voice actors from Batman the Animated series. Batman is voiced by Kevin Conroy, Joker is voiced by Mark Hamil and whoever voiced Harlee Quin is the same. Brings back childhood memories of batman but the animation style is definitely darker and closer to the style of the comic books. I think it is a great blend of the two batman universes. No matter what system you play own I'd recommend it.

Thoughts on OS X

Well I've added a Macbook Pro to my collection. I've been on it for a while now and I've been switching back and forth from OS X and Windows XP. Recently I updated to Snow Leopoard but I don't think I've been using OS X long enough to really appreciate the Snow Leopard update. It definitely feels like an update as opposed to an overhaul. We shall see how Windows 7 comes along.

Hardwarewise I'm enjoying the Macbook Pro. The unibody laptop definitely has a great build quality and hasn't given me any issues thus far. For those of you who are new to the macbook lines, be careful of the edges. They are quite sharp, surprisingly.

For any of you keeping up with this blog (I know, I know its been a while) don't worry I have not become a Apple only fan boy. I still use Windows XP for some things and see the benefits and cons of each so no worries there. For desktops I support Windows as the price of a Mac Desktop is utterly ridciculous, when you can build your own OS X tower legally, things might get a bit more interesting. For all you Linux/UNIX users out there, I'm really not nerdy or hardcore enough to have any input on that issue and defer on the fanboyism.