Sensor problems

October 18, 2012 • 10:51 am

I appreciate everyone writing in with camera recommendations, which I’ll read carefully before I buy another.  But for those of you who recommend that I stay with my Panasonic Lumix (currently a DMC-ZS8), let me show you how dirt on the sensor ruins the photos.  This happened within one year, and exactly the same thing happened to my previous model—also within a year.  I keep the camera in my backpack in a zippered nylon pouch that is clean.

Despite that, what you see below eventually happens, and someone of my low technical skills is unable to take the camera apart to clean the sensor. The blotches are annoying. And, as I said, the flash overexposes nearly every photo, despite the fact that the exposure is permanently set two stops down, as is my wont.

I don’t particularly want to pay $300 to buy a new camera each time this happens.  And it always happens just when the camera goes out of warranty (not that dirt constitutes a defect!)

Winner: BBC wildlife photograph of the year

October 18, 2012 • 9:56 am

BBC Nature has posted its selection of 10 winners for Wildlife Photograph of the Year.  Go to the link to see them.  The prize winner is, I think, head and shoulders above the rest, so I’ll post just that one and let you visit the site to see the rest.

Click to enlarge:

Flight paths (c) Owen Hearn Bubble-jetting emperors (c) Paul Nicklen The overall winner of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is Paul Nicklen (Canada) for his photo “Bubble-jetting emperors”. It was taken near the emperor penguin colony at the frozen edge of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Paul awaited the return of parent penguins, remaining motionless in the freezing water and using a snorkel to breathe.

h/t: Matthew Cobb

Readers’ cats: McCoy and Seve (and the violin)

October 18, 2012 • 5:27 am

If you know anything about molecular biology, you’ll have heard of Mark Ptashne, who also happens to be an accomplished violinist (see this 1998 “Scientist at Work” piece about him at the New York Times).  In fact, Ptashne’s own website emphasizes violin far more than biology.  Yet his biological accomplishments are formidable. While on the faculty at Harvard, he was the first person to find a protein that actually regulated gene expression: the fabled “repressor” postulated by Jacob and Monod that would turn genes off (we now know that proteins and other molecules can turn genes on, too).  That accomplishment earned Ptashne the Lasker Prize, often regarded as a precursor to a Nobel. He’s also written two accessible books on gene regulation. At present Ptashne holds the Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Besides being an accomplished violinist, he’s also a cat lover, and so, polymathically, he’s a man after my own heart.  (As you’ll see below, he sometimes plays violin to his cats.)

Out of nowhere, but because he sometimes reads this site, Mark sent me some pictures of his two cats McCoy and Seve. They are Abyssinians—the Stradivarius of the cat world (one of the guys he plays with uses a Strad, which you can see on Mark’s website). I’ve always thought that of all purebred cats, Abys are the most beautiful, for they most resemble wild cats in grace and color (in this case, a cougar).  If I could have any cat, it would be one of these, but if I were to get a cat, it would have to be from a shelter.

At any rate, here’s Mark’s account and photos of his felids:

Sorry the Seve picture is blurry – had to snap fast to get him in that reclining pose.

My first two Abs were (of course) Bob and Ray; they were followed by Nick and Nora (naturally) with Rocky (who was added on to make a threesome).  When all three were gone, deep grief led to my doing the unthinkable – I saw and bought, on the spot, at a nearby pet store, the young McCoy (never do that – ALWAYS go to a breeder as you might know).  He is The Real McCoy (do you know that joke about the sock-tuckers, etc)?  Then Seve came from a more proper source and probably was named while we were watching a golf tournament in honor of the great Ballesteros whose memory was widely invoked at this years Ryder Cup.

PS: Neither guy likes my violin practicing anymore. Seve will sit for long periods waiting for me to stop for a moment; he then rushes in for a little snorkeling (you know what I mean).

Mark and McCoy:

Mark serenading McCoy:

Seve, the other Aby:

I asked Mark whether his own violin was a Strad, and he responded:

No, it is actually a well-known violin called “the Plowden” (1735, made by Guarneri del gesu)—better than a Strad!

Here’s a photo of The Plowden graciously taken by “James”:

How can a biologist (even a famous one) afford such an instrument? Probably because Mark and other Cambridge (Mass.) faculty formed one of the first genetic-engineering companies, which proved pretty lucrative. And when I asked him, presumptuously, how good he was on the violin, he responded:

I wouldn’t quite know what to say about my “skills.” They [i.e., my readers] can get a hint from an old recording on my website (Bach Double Concerto), or on a private CD. The important thing is that I work hard at it and get better than is usually assumed possible for (aging) adults.

Upcoming peregrinations

October 18, 2012 • 5:16 am

I’m announcing two trips a bit in advance (I leave next week for Boston) because the people in Mexico asked me to, and also because the second meeting has a bearing on a certain autographed book.  Finally, it’s to let you know that the press of preparation is keeping me from any substantive postings, so for a few weeks you’ll have to live on travel photos, contributed posts, and kittens.

First, for any readers who live in Mexico City or thereabouts, I’ll be at the second annual meeting of the very young but enthusiastic Mexican atheist organization, which takes place November 2 and 3. Since it’s time that we all learned to speak Spanish, here’s their description:

Fundada legalmente el pasado 12 de Noviembre de 2010 Ateos y Librepensadores Mexicanos es la primera asociación civil en México constituida con el propósito esencial de dar voz a las opiniones e inquietudes de las personas que no comparten o se identifican con ninguna religión o creencia sobrenatural y que basan su visión de la realidad en el uso de la razón.

A tough job in a religious country (Mexico is nearly as religious as the U.S.)

All the information about the meeting is here.  The speakers are a diverse and interesting group from both the U.S. and Mexico; my talk, which is on Nov. 3 at 1 p.m., will be about the evidence for evolution and why people disregard it.  That’s followed by some Mexican speaker named “Comida” with whom I’m not familiar (ONLY KIDDING), and then by the awesome Annie Laurie Gaylor.  Registration information is at the site.

I hope to make a lot of new friends from Mexico, and consume some good nomz. The organizers have kindly prepared a list of authentic local restaurants for me, so expect some food posts.

Second, right before Mexico I’m participating in a small meeting in a B&B in Stockbridge, MA, “Moving naturalism forward.” It was organized by physicist Sean Carroll, who saw a lot of debate on atheist/science/skeptical websites about free will, consciousness, determinism, the role of philosophy in science, and the roots of morality.  He thought it would be nice—and most of us agreed—for some of the more vocal people to get together and hash matters out in a small place.

The meeting is from Nov. 25-29, and isn’t open to the public, but the proceedings will be taped and made public. A lot of cool people will be there, including some old friends and some big names. I’m honored to be invited, but am a bit nervous since I’m supposed to help introduce the discussion of free will.  I will be going up—in terms of my anti-compatibilism, against philosophers like Dennett, Churchland, and Pigliucci—and so must prepare feverishly!  But it should be fun, since there are no lectures (just some “talking points” I raise at the beginning) and everyone can participate in every discussion.  I hope to learn a lot for the book I’m writing.

What this means for you, my alert readers, is that the presence of all these Big Guns in one place allows me the chance to get a copy of WEIT signed by many luminaries (everyone at the meeting, I hope). And when that special book is signed, I will auction it off here, with all proceeds going to the Official Website Charity, Doctors without Borders. It goes without saying that I will sign it, too, and add a special cat drawing. The book already bears a official genuine pawprint in ink of Baihu, Ben Goren’s cat, as well as a message from Ben.

So get out the WD-40 and loosen up those checkbooks.  In the meantime, indulge me if I don’t post as often, or as substantively, as usual.  And those of you who haven’t gotten your cat-illustrated copies of WEIT, please hold on until the end of November, when I return from the UK.

Seeking camera advice

October 17, 2012 • 7:10 am

I know there are lots of photographers out there, and so I’m looking for a good camera.  I have used Panasonic Lumix DMCs (the latest a ZS8) for a while, but have gone through two (about one a year) because the sensor gets dirty and I have no ability to clean it (don’t ask me to do anything technical), so specks eventually appear on the photos.  Perhaps I could get it cleaned, but I don’t know where, and don’t want to send it anywhere because then I’ll be deprived of a camera.  In addition, the flash sucks, and makes everything overexposed at close distances.

What I liked about it was the 20X zoom, which was awesome. And on one setting (intelligent auto), the pictures were great, although under program AE (autoexposure) everything was grainy and useless.

My requirements:

1. Compact (even the 35mm digitals seem too large for me); ideally able to be put in a small pouch on the belt, as with the Panasonics

2. Good zoom lens capable of at least 12-15X

3. High quality photos (my Panasonics were 5 MB in full resolution)

4. Ability to make movies

Please don’t recommend the 35 mm digital equivalents with interchangeable lenses; I lugged around two Nikon bodies and five lenses for years but simply am not into that now.  Until they get as small as my Panasonic DMCZS8, I’m not interested.  My price range is about $500 though I could go higher for something really good, durable, and unlikely to get a dirty sensor!

kthxbye