EOS 80D

Finally I upgraded my photocamera, moving from the EOS 500D to a EOS 80D. A new lens has been added to my gear, a wide angle Sigma EX 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 HSM DC.

I am quite happy about the performance of both, the 80D feel very solid, it has a wider ISO range, better definition and more setting than my previous 500D.

It’s Heavy and more bulky, but I don’t mind at all. Furthermore is weather sealed.

The Sigma 8-16 is a 13 year old lens, without IS and with a f/4.5, that require a bit of effort when shooting. But after a bit of practice and confidence can provide good results, with a 121 degree angle of view, perfect for landscapes.

To old and carry my gear I had to upgrade my bag too, recycling an old tool case found on Facebook marketplace and adapted with protective foam and some dividers.

CampBestival Shropshire

Ozora Festival 2023

Ozora Village&Castle

Shrewsbury Battle

50 Minimal (Nextbeat Mix)

I discovered an old Wacom DJ device, Nextbeat X-1000. It’s a wired all in one hardware that is capable to read digital files from a Compact Flash card.

A single touch jog wheel is shared between two channels (A and B), with separated (touch) pitch and volume cursors.

Furthermore, a sampler/phraser, a loop and a FX control are included… and the jog wheel can be ejected to enable the DJ to walk around while mixing, a kind of fun and unexpected thing, but the lack of ergonomic make all even more hard to control.

Feel very solid (Wacom is a well know brand for graphic tablet devices) but not the best device for professional use, not very intuitive.

The main issue is the sync algorithm and the pitch scale, the sync is not reliable at all and the pitch does not have an high resolution, so you need to constantly adjust the pitch… and sharing ONE jog wheel between two tracks does not make it easy at all, but a good planned playlist can help.

Following a 50 minute of minimal techno mix.

Skomer Island

Iron Maiden

GPS Tracker #3

Some problems with the tracker has been solved, and I am now able to log time and coordinates in a database. Following the amended design:

Using CloudFront to redirect the non-SSL traffic didn’t work so I manually setup my server to accept non-SSL traffic on specific paths and redirect any other traffic to HTTPS.

A quick test with a API (written in PHP) has been successful, and the GPS data and timestamp has been recorded into the database (MySQL).

The GPRS connection still unstable and I am not 100% satisfied by the library (SFRobot_SIM808) and most likely I will create my own one using the AT commands.