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The XTi finally came today. Opened it and played around with it a little. It's a little lighter than I expected, but still pretty solid feeling. The lens is a little strange because there's no separate manual focus ring. Instead, you actually turn the plastic housing of the lens itself. A little strange and cheap feeling in my opinion, but I haven't really handled many cameras.
I really enjoy the control over everything with the camera. It's very different from my old point and shoot SD300. The picture quality, expectedly, is much better. The flash fills better, there's less vignetting, virtually no chromatic aberration so far, and many times faster. It's nice that I can actually use sensitivities higher than 100 without massive noise too. Of course, I don't know how to properly use it yet, so I need to play around with the settings a few times before I can get a properly exposed shot. Nothing worth posting yet, but when I get some more shots in I'll start posting the ones that don't look like crap.
In the meantime, have some pictures of the camera itself:
Recently my PS3 controller decided to stop functioning fully. The left joystick takes about 5 minutes to "warm up," during which only the up and down directions register. It's very odd because it works fine afterwards, but still very irritating and totally disappointing. I've never had a controller stop working in 2 months of use with no abuse. Never dropped the thing, never slammed it into anything, never did anything more abusive than put it down like you might with any other object. I'll have to give Sony a call to see if they'll replace it.
In other news, I'll be interviewing for JET (an English teaching job in Japan) which is nice. Really need to start preparing because it'll be in two weeks - Feb 11-15 sometime. Everything in the application process took so long so I was expecting a little more time between finding out and actually having the interview. Should be interesting.
And in other news, the lady who bashed Mass Effect on Fox had her book hammered with bad reviews on Amazon and apologized for her baseless criticism.
I found it somewhat amusing. Sadistic, I know. Gotta love Fox News and their sensationalist stories.
Speaking of Amazon, my new 2GB CF card got here incredibly fast with their erratic free shipping. Can't wait to have a camera to use it with.
So my buddy has a Wii and recently bought Trauma Center for it, and while I never really thought about buying any of those doctor or lawyer games, it is fun as hell. The graphics are unimpressive, the gameplay is simplistic, and the dialog is absolute hell, but the game is incredibly addictive and fun. The simplistic gameplay is intense, requires a good amount of teamwork in co-op mode, and really keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Despite being so simple, the game throws so many different procedures at you that creates an incredible pace. There are also a lot of different instruments that need to be used and I often found myself fumbling with the nunchuck joystick to get the right one out. Instead of draining pooled blood, I'll suddenly be stitching a non existent wound. It's a little annoying, but I can't think of any better way to quickly select from your arsenal. The later operations are incredibly hard and can get somewhat frustrating.
I don't really think I'd enjoy playing the game alone either. It just seems like the kind of game that requires another person to enjoy, and also beat. These are the kinds of games that make me want a Wii though - casual games that are fun to play in groups. Really a big step away from the single player or competitive multiplayer games I have for PS3.
Still no word on the Canon XTi, though I have a little bit of buyer's remorse after the announcement of the new Canon XSi. The XSi will have the new DIGIC III chip in it, which was the one thing I really wish the XTi had...The lens has also been stepped up with image stabilization. I guess the XTi is all I'll need to start off and the XSi would cost me twice as much, but man I couldn't have bought this thing at a worse time - right before PMA '08 when manufacturers announce new models, and old models start dropping in price. Oh well, I'm getting a pretty good deal on the XTi as it is.
Still need to save up for a 24" LCD monitor with HDMI to play 1080p PS3 on too...
Since I told a friend (and my only reader I believe) I'd take some pictures of my PS3, here they are:
The setup.
A better view.
In case I forget what system I'm playing.
Slot loader and touch sensitive buttons. Pretty, but they don't inspire confidence.
It still advertises itself after you've bought it.
I recently turned 23, but I feel as though I am at least twice that age, physically. I signed up for a volleyball tournament at work thinking it would be a nice throwback to the days of high school gym class. I was wrong.
It seems like these people actually use strategy and set each other up for spikes. There aren't very many who can actually spike, but that's besides the point. The thing that really shocked me, however, was my own ability -- or lack thereof. I knew I'd be rusty because I haven't exercised in quite a while, but this was beyond rusty. I cramped up after 10 minutes of play, dehydrated after 20, had poor reaction speed, terrible aim, and just plain sucked. So I guess I will have to start hitting the gym and get back into shape before I embarrass myself more.
I guess this is what happens when you sit in front of a computer for 10 hours a day at work, go home, eat dinner, and rest.
In other news, I'm expecting a Canon XTi SLR sometime in the near future. You can expect to see photos as I attempt to step into the world of amateur photography.
