If you haven't tried it, DO put a CD (that you don't care about!) in a Microwave, turn off all the lights, and fire it up - quite the light (and sound) show for 10-15 seconds!;-)
This is a total troll (yea, there is Adsense on the clickable link - rest assured the cents/click-thru is tiny), but maybe some of them will want to watch grass growing.
I imagine this page would be about as exciting as anything else they are looking at.
alek
Just to ditto an earlier comment, another distributed computing project that folks should consider is Folding@HOME - you can run that standalone, or as part of the Google ToolBar Compute which is super-easy to setup if you are allready using the Google Toolbar.
Re:Focal length multiplier, DOF, and ISO/CCD issue
on
Beyond Megapixels
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
In my attempt to oversimplify things, I glossed over a few (well, actually a LOT) of things, but you are dead-on right with everything you wrote above.
Great examples BTW - yea, you are right, the marketing folks would be putting this on the packaging right now... along with even more "digital zoom" which obviousely is a loada crap - this is another thing that I just turn OFF.
I especially got a chuckle out of the wildlife pictures from the "next state over" - yep, you'd just end up with a buncha pixels all the same color, with some noise super-imposed over 'em.
Having said that, I've seen satellite images of my house that are pretty darn impressive where issue such as atmospheric distortion become significant. But obviousely these guys are spending just a little bit more on their camera equipment than we are!;-)
Focal length multiplier, DOF, and ISO/CCD issues
on
Beyond Megapixels
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I'm a BIG fan of digital photography - three issues I haven't seen (quite) mentioned in the Slashdot comments are:
1. Almost all DSLR's have what is called a focal length multiplier - tends to be 1.3 or 1.5/1.6. This means that your "normal" 28mm lens ends up being a 42mm lens (for 1.5x focal length multiplier) - this has to do with the fact that the CCD chip is not "full-size". This is great for tele shots - i.e. your 300mm lens becomes 450mm... but really sucks for wide-angle used - i.e. you need a 18mm lens to get a 28mm shot. All point-n-shoot digicams show the 35mm "equivelent", but in actual fact, that is NOT their focal length.
2. Related to the above is Depth of Field - especially with point-n-shoots, your DOF is much longer, so if you want to shoot a picture that is "tack-sharp" on the subject, but have a blurred foreground/background, that is more difficult - although on the other hand, you do have more DOF if you want that.
3. Another issue somewhat touched upon briefly is differences in the CCD size between point-n-shoot and DLSR's. With all else equal, the small the size of the imaging pixels, the more noise that can be present, and this tends to go up dramatically if ISO is turned up (first thing I do on a point-n-shoot is turn OFF the auto-ISO and force is to the lowest setting). I'm sure some will disagree, but I'd challange you to print, say a 10X15 print from one of the 8MP digicams compared to a DLSR, both shot in GOOD light (with lowest ISO). Yea, under photoshop, that DSLR shot is just super-silky smooth, but on the 10X15 print, I bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Having said that, crank up the ISO in your point-n-shoot to say, 800 (yes, even in the newest digicams), and it will look like CRAP - again, at outlined, because the sensor sizes are so darn small, whereas on the DSLR's, you can get away with this (and increase your shutter speed so you don't get motion blur) and the picture may be decent, especially with noise-reducting software/filters applied. From reading Part 1, THIS is the real emphasis of the article.
I've only scratched the surface here - the article talks about a lot of the above, but most of the Slashdotter's seem to have blown right by this stuff.
Hulkster
P.S. On those Mars pictures, YES, they were done with a 1MP digicam (with BIG sensors), but just about everything folks have seen is stiched togather, so you are (in some cases), seeing like an "effective" 50+MP shot - welll DUHHH it looks so good!
Hulk say hard drive story must be hosted on Puny Human Web Site.
Hulk try to look at pictures - site not respond.
Hulk get angry - Hulk SMASH Puny Human web site.
Check out these Christmas Lights - there is not only a Christmas Webcam, but you can also turn the lights ON & OFF... and pan/zoom the webcam.
This got Slashdotted last year, but the what's New for 2003 says a "beefed up web server and faster ISP connectivity" - if nothing else, maybe the neighbors need need to see the Blinkenlights courtesy of Slashdot again?!?;-)
Slashdot Mirror
If you haven't tried it, DO put a CD (that you don't care about!) in a Microwave, turn off all the lights, and fire it up - quite the light (and sound) show for 10-15 seconds! ;-)
I imagine this page would be about as exciting as anything else they are looking at. alek
HEY ... if you guys want to see a REAL invasion of privacy, check out what happens when Photo Radar snaps a picture of you pickin' ... ;-)
The Hulkster
Great examples BTW - yea, you are right, the marketing folks would be putting this on the packaging right now ... along with even more "digital zoom" which obviousely is a loada crap - this is another thing that I just turn OFF.
I especially got a chuckle out of the wildlife pictures from the "next state over" - yep, you'd just end up with a buncha pixels all the same color, with some noise super-imposed over 'em.
Having said that, I've seen satellite images of my house that are pretty darn impressive where issue such as atmospheric distortion become significant. But obviousely these guys are spending just a little bit more on their camera equipment than we are! ;-)
1. Almost all DSLR's have what is called a focal length multiplier - tends to be 1.3 or 1.5/1.6. This means that your "normal" 28mm lens ends up being a 42mm lens (for 1.5x focal length multiplier) - this has to do with the fact that the CCD chip is not "full-size". This is great for tele shots - i.e. your 300mm lens becomes 450mm ... but really sucks for wide-angle used - i.e. you need a 18mm lens to get a 28mm shot. All point-n-shoot digicams show the 35mm "equivelent", but in actual fact, that is NOT their focal length.
2. Related to the above is Depth of Field - especially with point-n-shoots, your DOF is much longer, so if you want to shoot a picture that is "tack-sharp" on the subject, but have a blurred foreground/background, that is more difficult - although on the other hand, you do have more DOF if you want that.
3. Another issue somewhat touched upon briefly is differences in the CCD size between point-n-shoot and DLSR's. With all else equal, the small the size of the imaging pixels, the more noise that can be present, and this tends to go up dramatically if ISO is turned up (first thing I do on a point-n-shoot is turn OFF the auto-ISO and force is to the lowest setting). I'm sure some will disagree, but I'd challange you to print, say a 10X15 print from one of the 8MP digicams compared to a DLSR, both shot in GOOD light (with lowest ISO). Yea, under photoshop, that DSLR shot is just super-silky smooth, but on the 10X15 print, I bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Having said that, crank up the ISO in your point-n-shoot to say, 800 (yes, even in the newest digicams), and it will look like CRAP - again, at outlined, because the sensor sizes are so darn small, whereas on the DSLR's, you can get away with this (and increase your shutter speed so you don't get motion blur) and the picture may be decent, especially with noise-reducting software/filters applied. From reading Part 1, THIS is the real emphasis of the article.
I've only scratched the surface here - the article talks about a lot of the above, but most of the Slashdotter's seem to have blown right by this stuff.
Hulkster
P.S. On those Mars pictures, YES, they were done with a 1MP digicam (with BIG sensors), but just about everything folks have seen is stiched togather, so you are (in some cases), seeing like an "effective" 50+MP shot - welll DUHHH it looks so good!
Hulk try to look at pictures - site not respond.
Hulk get angry - Hulk SMASH Puny Human web site.
Hulk say more fun is watching Hulk jump off a house.
Hulk use hulk'in web server.
FYI FWIW: A 2.4 GHz Xeon with 1 GByte of RAM was able to survive a recent Slashdot posting. Now the christmas webcam/webcontrol certainly took a pounding (what do you think the neighbors thought?!?), but the Christmas Lights continue to shine.
Check out these Christmas Lights - there is not only a Christmas Webcam, but you can also turn the lights ON & OFF ... and pan/zoom the webcam.
;-)
This got Slashdotted last year, but the what's New for 2003 says a "beefed up web server and faster ISP connectivity" - if nothing else, maybe the neighbors need need to see the Blinkenlights courtesy of Slashdot again?!?