The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Nice pics as always. What camera are you using? I had a DSLR Canon 30D which got stolen. I've been contemplating getting another one but they're so bulky. I'm using a small Canon Elf which takes decent pics but the shutter delay drives me nuts. My wifes Iphone takes quick decent pics. I'm trying to decide if I want to invest in another DSLR or ?.

 

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to go back in time and roam the earth with the dinosaurs. I'd want to be protected from them of course during my wandering. lol And yeah Megalodon was pretty huge.

For working on the truck I usually use my phone, I have an old Nexus 5. The camera is terrible, but it does do good macros. I hope to get a new phone later this year. For pictures during scheduled outings I use a Sony HX400 that I picked up last July. It's called a bridge camera, and fits the niche between a point and shoot, and a DSLR. It does not have interchangeable lenses, it has a zoom lens. It has it's own set of problems, but manageable for me..

The wold of photography is changing though. DSLR is on it's way out. They will likely be replaced by "mirrorless" cameras.

There also seems to be a trend for people to move away from 35mm full-frame sensor, to four thirds sensor, or APS-C, or other variants.

The Sony HX-400 that I have has a tiny 2/3" sensor (illustrated below in brown).



One of the things I do to my photos is post-process them with software. I don't spend a lot of time with each photo, maybe 20-30 seconds, and move on.

I adjust contrast, brightness, crop, border, boost colors, etc.

Post-processing is fundamental to making pics look good IMO.

So all that said, I'd recommend a bridge camera, or mirrorless if you want to get into serious quality photos with interchangeable lenses. Even the point-and-shoot cameras have come a long way...

 

@Crom it would definitely be fun to go back in time!

 

This^^^

And the next fundamental step is while shooting thinking ahead to what you can do in post processing. Having a camera that supports RAW capture will also give you more options in post processing which can help a lot for high contrast shots like sunsets. Fancy post processing used to be an extremely time consuming and technically challenging task. These days software like Lightroom and even some other free tools bring a lot of fairly advanced techniques to simple sliders. Then the issue is knowing why you might want to use a slider and how to do so. Obviously you can poke at random, but when you've got twenty or more sliders that's a lot of poking! So there is still a learning curve but now you can dedicate your learning to the creative processes rather than the arcane and mind-numbing multiple layers and steps needed to get some result.

Bridge cameras are an under-loved market segment. You can get amazing kit for under $300 with a 2/3" sensor bridge camera. Unfortunately most lack RAW capture.

There has recently been a renaissance in the 1" sensor market. Sony has an excellent 1" 20MP sensor that is in a lot of cameras from multiple manufacturers which all support RAW capture. The new Panasonic ZS100 is quite small but has a 10x zoom making it almost "bridge-like" as far as telephoto range goes. Nikon just announced two compact and one bridge camera based on these sensors - one is unique in going extremely wide angle. There are a bunch of true "bridge" cameras with 1" sensors as well and a slew of 1" sensor cameras with very fast (i.e. wide aperture) lenses too.

Probably the lowest pain price wise for entry into the mirrorless market right now is "micro 4/3" made by Panasonic and Olympus. The system has been around for awhile and has an extensive lens collection. Plenty of inexpensive but very capable m43 bodies in the used market or even new but very discounted if they are last year's models. Fuji has a really nice system but it is pricey and the lens selection is very targeted at certain kinds of users. The Sony E-mount which is APS-C mirrorless has always been a bit weird, still not enough lenses and unclear what its future is as Sony churns through multiple formats.

In the end though, what really matters is the experience of the person behind the camera. So usually if intending to "get serious" about photography emphasize spending more time shooting and reading about composition and post processing. Of course you can do that with the camera you have already, but sometimes a new "toy" is motivating in itself too.

 

Great write up as usual! I'll most likely use this as reference if/when I decide to sound deaden and insulate the truck. This seems to be the only way it'd be worth while vs just dynamat type deadening.

Question: did you experience any difficulty putting the panels/headliner back on with the reduced clearance behind them?

 

awesome gif!

 

any clue how to fix fiberglass cracks on a shell...

 

that front bumper scratch doh.......Demello should of given u that bumper lol.

 

what software do u guys use to edit your photos?

 

Brachiosaurus burgers, mmmmm.

 

Adobe Lightroom.

 

I might be the wrong person to ask - I've been doing a lot of post processing for over a decade and in the past did crazy complicated things in Photoshop. That said, these days I try to avoid complexity. I use Lightroom, which is not free but "reasonably" priced. It is all about processing photos and so does not come with all of the baggage that Photoshop or even Photoshop Elements has. It is, however, very much a professional grade tool and so at first contact is probably overwhelming still. One nice thing about Lightroom is since nearly every photographer in the world uses it at least a little bit there are endless books and tutorials on how to use it.

Do not, however, overlook the freeware market. If your camera is capturing JPEG only and you don't want to get knee deep in post processing right away than you'll find most of your photos are improved by cropping, minor rotating, contrast, saturation and a few other simple tools/sliders that are in almost every competent freeware tool. I just haven't followed the freeware market for awhile so I don't have a specific recommendation for you.

 

Some of the main benefits of Lightroom include:
- easy organization
- easy key wording
- nondestructive editing (original remains unchanged)
- lots of customizable macros
- ability to change multiple photos at once
- multiple versions of editing per photo (can try different variations)

 

Yes. Fiberglass repair. I have done extremely little fiber glass work, and not on anything I own. Total hack. But I imagine you are into stripping down quite an area, applying some sort of higher-strength bridging mesh over the crack/gap a few times, and then building back up flush to the existing, surrounding surface. Or if you are feeling lucky (or overwhelmed with the alternative), clean out the crack, drill a small hole at the leading point of the crack to try to halt progress, then inject some epoxy in the crack, heavily epoxy some sort of turnbuckle nut-and-bold affair laterally across the crack on the inside of your cap, add a little tension, and then bondo the crack, paint, and hope for the best. Or something like that in roughly that order.

Hard to tell what your option might be without seeing said crack, which I would very much like to see for the sake of learning about real-world stress patterns on caps.

 

Thanks man! I have to take the window frame off cus the crack seems to start from the edge, would you suggest fixing it as is or getting the crack more hollowed out? Live near San Diego lol?

 

I'm sold, I just hate the subscription plans and would rather just buy a license outright.

 

Caps are made of "fiberglass chop" that is shot into a mold out of a "chop gun" so it's not easy to repair. @scocar is right about drilling a small hole at the end of the crack to stop it from spreading. That should be your first step. Here's a link to West Systems (West Marine) fiberglass repair page:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/west-system-epoxy-for-fiberglass-repair/

 

Drilling a hole all the way through the shell?
I'll check the link out thanks man!

 

Thanks for commenting! I think I'll be able to break into the mirroless segment next year.

Thanks Nate!

No real difficulty once I figured out these things.

1. Absolutely nothing can interfere with the acorn shaped retention clips on the interior panel. I made little square cutouts in the Mass Loaded Vinyl for clearance.
2. The trimmed Mass Loaded Vinyl outside edge must fit completely inside the interior panel. If it hangs out, it's going to be a problem.
   
3. the Styrofoam blocks in the interior panel needs to be trimmed down about 1/4"

That's it!

Thanks @gordi. That was a fun contest. I am glad that @beertimecontinuum won. He needed a bumper a lot more than I did.

And Jason reached out to me afterwards, which was very appreciated. I would love to have one of his bumpers in the future when truck building budget is restored.

I use the soon to be extinct Google Picasa application. I'll probably migrate to Adobe Light room like others.

Not going to lie, love me some dinosaur burgers! lol!

Check out 3M fiberglass repair products. They make some great stuff! I used some to repair the fiberglass when I installed the vent into the roof. I even called them and spoke to one of their product specialists who can help you over the phone. Great company with great support.

 

Yeah, unfortunately you'll have to go all the way through. You should be able to find plenty of info on You-Tubes. If you decide to use fiberglass for the repair definitely buy all the stuff from West Marine it's quality material.