I’m gradually seeing these more often — nice! Corner of Marine Dr. and Southridge Dr. in SE Burnaby, BC.
Category Archives: Technology
Evaluating Nikon D300 – Sell or Keep?
My first DSLR was a Nikon D300 that I bought on April 16, 2008. I haven’t used it much for many years.
It’s a tank of a camera, built to last. At just 12MP but with a great sensor it’s certainly good enough for web work and prints up to around 11 X 14″.
I have a couple of newer Nikons, so I was wondering what it may be worth if I were to sell it.
A bit of research on eBay Canada shows prices for D300 bodies average out to around C$250. Perhaps I’ll just keep it for the memories.
A key spec that buyers like to know is the shutter count, as these cameras are rated as being good for up to around 150,000 shots.
This one is at 55,000.
Updating Quake/Go Kits, Car Kit
Taking a lesson from the flooding and refreshed our quake/disaster Go bags today.
They are backpacks that we keep at the front door with changes of clothing, rain jackets, toques, heavy socks, mittens, emergency sleeping shelter (a reflective sleeping bag that weighs a few ounces), flashlights, extra batteries, granola bars, chocolate, water, Life Straw personal water filter, fixed-blade knife with a fire-steel in the handle, first aid kits, etc. . .
His and hers.
Oh, yeah, also a Zip bag full of cat food and a small carrier.
We also keep some gear in the car at all times, but I should probably upgrade that. . . So I just ordered some emergency gear to update the quake kits and pad the car kit from Mountain Equipment Company.
Upgraded Firmware on DSLR Cameras
I just updated the firmware on a couple of my Nikon DSLRs.
I should check for updates more often, for they often incorporate small fixes and feature enhancements like faster focusing, improved metering, better video features, enhanced compatibility with certain lenses, etc.
Sometimes I forget that aside from the mechanical bits, digital cameras are basically computers with imaging sensors.
Rust Never Sleeps, Gear Needs to be Used
I haven’t printed any of my wildlife/nature photos in a long time.
So today I literally dusted off the big Epson Photo R2880 only to find that it had been neglected for so long that it needed more than just dusting.
I had to clean the rollers, run the utility to clean the ink heads several times, replace all the cartridges. . .
Fortunately a couple of years ago I’d stocked up on cartridges so I had a bunch available.
It’s still a bit wonky, the feeding is hit and miss and sometimes needs some prodding, but I finally got good colors back. . .
A good reminder that as the Neil Young song goes, Rust Never Sleeps.
Equipment needs to be used to stay in good working order. . .
Reviving Nikon D300
After some 40 years of shooting with film cameras, my first DSLR was a Nikon D300. I still have it but hadn’t used it in years.
Today I ran across its battery charger as I was cleaning out some desk drawers, so I charged up the battery, put a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle zoom on it (15-30mm equivalent on this sensor), and tested it out on Sora the Cat.
Pretty good. . .
I see on my old blog that I got the D300 on April 16, 2008. 
D300s are built like tanks, and though just 12MP, that’s plenty for web and online work and prints of moderate size.
Grateful for Vaccinations in My Life
I just came across my childhood Immunization Record from the City of Saskatoon Department of Public Health.
At the bottom of the first page it clearly states:
“This record is necessary when child begins school. Please keep it carefully.”
It has dates and doses of my Smallpox and Polio vaccinations.
Apparently I had 5 doses of Polio Vaccine over the course of about six years from age 6 months to 6 years.
This was over 50 years ago.
Folks can draw their own conclusions, but I respect medicine and science, and am grateful to have been born into a world with vaccines.
When Your Product Sells Itself
Our consummately professional and constantly bantering Toyota saleswoman contacted us to wish us a happy new year and let us know that she’d love to discuss new-car-smell options with us .
We have a RAV4 Hybrid, and it’s been a solid vehicle with a combo of AWD, phenomenal pep, super gas mileage particularly in town where the electric drive gets the most use, and perfect reliability.
Just out of curiosity we asked about the RAV4 Prime, a plug-in hybrid version that can run on electricity only for about 70km before the hybrid gas/electric system kicks in.
She laughed and said, “you can give me a deposit on a RAV4 Prime today, and you can expect delivery in two to three years.” She wasn’t kidding. . .
Apparently they can’t get enough of them and have long waiting lists.
Taking My Own Advice About Photography
Back in 2014 I wrote six blog posts on what I called “Paul’s Photo Tips.” Today I took my own advice regarding “Tip 2 – Read the Manual.”
I hadn’t looked at the manual for my Nikon D7500 in years, and on this quiet, rainy day, with the cat on my lap, I read its over 300 pages. Much of that information will also apply to my D7200.
It was a valuable exercise, as I was reminded of features and functions that I rarely use, and many of which I’ve never even tried.
I also got refresher on setting up autofocus and metering optimized to the kind of nature and wildlife photography that I mostly do.
And something that I’ve never taken advantage of is setting up the programmable dedicated function buttons to suit the sorts of situations I often shoot in.
Here are links to the six tips:
Tip 3 – It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer
Tip 6 – Carry extra cards and batteries
Swapping Dell Notebook HD for SSD
Breathing new life into an old notebook.
I got this Dell G3 with an IPS full HD screen nearly two years ago, and despite its classification as a “gaming” machine with a dedicated video card with 4GB of VRAM, it always seemed sluggish.
I upgraded the stock 8GB of RAM to 16GB about a year ago, but that made little difference in boot time and app load time.
As I wrote the other day, the 1TB HD had been getting increasingly flaky, so I bought a 1TB SSD. Today I cloned the HD to the SSD, then opened up the machine and swapped the SSD for the HD.
Yowza. It seems to be booting up and loading programs in about half the time now.
Happy boy, eh?
