Ben’s Blog

In my last post I mentioned that most professional photographers stick with either Canon or Nikon. Here are some cameras that might convince a pro to stray from the pack.

For just $2,500 you could have the Leica Digilux 3. If that won’t do, you can go with the Leica M8 for just $4,800; and that’s without a lense. That’ll cost you a few thousand more. Popular Photography recently reviewed the M8. I’d like to own a Leica one of these days. They make really nice cameras and lenses. Probably not anytime soon though.

Now, for a camera actually in my price range. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 is a collaboration between Panasonic, Olympus, and Leica. For just $1,650 you get live preview, 7.5 megapixels, and a quality Leica zoom lense. That might sound like a lot, but a Canon Rebel XTi with a similar lense will run you $1,690. It uses the four-thirds lense mount, meaning it can use lenses made by Olympus, Leica, Sigma, and others. PopPhoto recently reviewed the DMC-L1. Very tempting.

In addition to these, Samsung, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, and Fuji all make DSLRs that are very close in quality to Canon and Nikon.

Moving into the medium format realm, this Hasselblad will only run you $43,000. That’s only $1100 per megapixel. My birthday is coming up you know.

I’ve been bitten by the photography bug several times during my life. For about a year now I’ve been contemplating buying myself a digital SLR. With the little guy on the way, I now have a good excuse to get one. I’m in the process of selling off a good portion of my Boy Scout patch collection so I can afford one (and some decent lenses). I probably won’t buy it until sometime in April; about the same time I’m finishing up my thesis.

Right now the Canon Rebel XTi looks like my best bet. It’s got a 10.1 megapixel sensor and is compatible with all of Canon’s lenses and accessories. It’s also only $689 at Adorama. That might sound expensive, but it’s actually very cheap for a quality SLR. Philip Greenspun wrote a favorable review for the XTi last month.

While the Rebel XTi is a very good camera, it’s a little on the small side, and it’s not the most sturdy camera ever built. The next step up in Canon’s DSLR line is the 30D. Right now it’s only $1059, but unfortunately it doesn’t actually compare very well with the Rebel XTi. It has advantages in some areas, but not others. For instance, it only has an 8.2 megapixel sensor, but it’s built much better. This is because the 30D is an older camera (relatively speaking), while the XTi came out recently. Canon should be releasing an update to the 30D any day now. If they sell it for the current price of the 30D, I’ll be tempted to splurge and get one instead of the Rebel XTi. However, I assume they’ll sell it for around $1,300, the original price of the 30D, which means I’ll be getting the Rebel XTi.

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I was pulling for the Saints and the Colts tonight, but I guess I’ll have to take what I can get. I will definitely be pulling for the Colts in the Super Bowl. Peyton needs a ring to go with all those stats.

I was really hoping the Saints could make it to the Super Bowl, but it was not to be. Chicago made them look bad tonight. They’ve got a solid team, so hopefully we’ll see them in the playoffs again next year.

Governor Barbour disclosed on Wednesday that he has $3.54 million in the bank for his re-election campaign. That includes $1 million from the Republican Governors Association, $200,000 from Carl Lindner, former owner of the Cincinnati Reds and 133rd richest person in the United States according to Forbes, as well as Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape and benefactor of the University of Mississippi. Barbour spent $11 million in his campaign against incumbent Ronnie Musgrove four years ago. Musgrove spent another $8 million, making it the most expensive governor’s race in Mississippi history.

Unless something happens between now and the election, that record is probably safe. Barbour is as popular as ever, and the Democrats don’t have any big names. I have no doubt Barbour can raise as much as me needs, but I don’t think he’ll have to. Bill Renick is currently Barbour’s only opponent, and he has no name recognition or money.

In the Lieutenant Governor’s race, State Senator Charlie Ross has disclosed that he has $835,000 in the bank. He’ll be going up against State Auditor Phil Bryant in the Republican primary, who will formally declare his intentions next week. Ross will need that money to beat Bryant, who has better name recognition. Jamie Franks has declared on the Democrat side. No word on his campaign war chest yet.

I don’t think there’s anyone that reads my blog that hasn’t already heard about this, but…

Yesterday Apple introduced the iPhone. This long rumored device is a phone, MP3 player, video player, and PDA. It’s got a 3.5″ touchscreen, 4 or 8GB of storage, a 2 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth. It can connect to the Internet using EDGE or WiFi. The Unofficial Apple Weblog article mentions GPS capabilities as well, but I imagine that will be an add-on. It will run Apple’s OS X. The battery life will be up to 16 hours for audio only, or 5 hours for talk/video/other.

When I first saw it, I thought it was fairly large for a cell phone. However, the tech specs show that it’s just slightly wider and taller, but a good bit thinner than my Treo 650. I’m curious to find out what kind of processor it’s got in it: PowerPC or Intel-compatible?

The iPhone will be released in the US in June, but will only be offered through Cingular at first. It’ll be $499 for the 4GB version or $599 for the 8GB version. That’s with a 2 year contract. I want one of these things, but the price has a long way to fall before I’m shelling out for it.

Time and Fortune have interesting articles on how the iPhone came to be and how Apple keeps projects like this secret.

Cisco has already filed a lawsuit against Apple for using the iPhone name. Apparently they own the trademark to that name. Apple called the lawsuit “silly,” but it sounds like they have a pretty good case to me. The iPhone will be a success no matter what it’s called though.

Apple also announced their iTV device yesterday. It will allow TV shows and movies purchased from iTunes to be played on a TV. It will sell for just $299, but I’m disappointed that it doesn’t include a TV tuner and DVR. Maybe in the next iteration?

Steve Jobs also announced that the company was changing its name from Apple Computer, Inc. to just Apple, Inc. to reflect their move into consumer electronics.

The winner of the 27th Annual Lafayette County Bowl Pick was Will Lewis, who picked 26 games correctly. I’m assuming that’s the same Will Lewis that owns Neilson’s on the Square. Also picking 26 games correctly was Benny Shankle. Lewis won the tiebreaker. The funny thing is that both of them picked Ohio State to win the championship game. That means anyone crazy enough to think Florida had a shot at winning also made a bunch of bad picks. That’s how improbable Florida’s win was.

I picked 22 of the games correctly, putting me 4 games behind the winners. That’s as good as or better than 87% of the pool participants. Not too bad.

I was excited (and surprised) to see Florida win the national championship last night. I don’t think even their biggest fan expected them to blow Ohio State out like they did. Florida came into the championship game with a single loss to Auburn and wins by a single point over Tennessee and South Carolina, which just goes to show how tough the SEC is. This year the SEC had nine teams in bowl games. We won six of those. That beats every other conference out there.

The score wasn’t the only thing that was lopsided. Florida led in time of possession 40:48 to 19:12, first downs 21 to 8, and 370 to 82 in total yardage.

Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss told ESPN, “Honestly, we’ve played a lot better teams than them, I could name four or five teams in the SEC that could probably compete with them and play the same type of game we did against them.” While that’s not exactly fair to Ohio State, it is pretty amusing.

Was Florida that much better than Ohio State, or did they just catch them on a bad night? There’s no way you can attribute that kind of domination to a “bad night,” and you can’t claim Ohio State came out flat either. They returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown. As a lot of people will point out, it had been 51 days since Ohio State had played a game. I bet they won’t schedule their games like that again.

Troy Smith, Ohio State’s Heisman-winning quarterback, was 4-of-14 for 35 yards with one interception and no touchdowns. He also had -29 yards on 10 carries. That’s really not how you want to end your college career and go into the NFL draft.

Boise State managed to get a single first place vote in the last AP poll of the year. As I’ve said before, even though they are the only undefeated team left, they didn’t deserve a shot at the national title. Play some top 25 teams and we’ll talk next year. Yes, a playoff system would be nice, but it doesn’t look like it’s coming anytime soon.

We went to the doctor again on Thursday, and they confirmed we’re having a boy. We still don’t have a full name picked out, and I still haven’t scanned in the ultrasound images.

I just finished upgrading the blog to WordPress 2.0.6. Let me know if you experience any problems.

This bowl game picking business is harder than I had anticipated. With just 4 bowl games left, I have picked 19 of 28 games correctly, which is 68%. In the 27th Annual Lafayette County Bowl Pick there is currently a two-way tie for first place, and they have both picked 23 of the 28 games correctly, or 82%. There are also 5 people that have picked 22 of the 28 games correctly. There is no way I can win the pool now. In fact, I was officially out of contention for first place after the Emerald Bowl. Below are the games I have lost since my last update:

I had picked UCLA to beat Florida State in the Emerald Bowl, and UCLA was winning 20-13 at the half, but FSU outscored UCLA 31-7 in the second half to win. The win gave Florida State a 7-6 record for the year, and Bobby Bowden his 30th straight winning season. His last losing season was his first year at FSU when he went 5-6.

Kentucky upset Clemson 28-20 in the Music City Bowl. No one really expected that, but Clemson helped them out with four turnovers.

Virginia Tech was leading 21-3 at halftime of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, but Georgia turned it around and scored 28 unanswered points in the second half after a surprise onside kick. I knew this one would be a toss up, and VT had four turnovers to Georgia’s one, which pretty much doomed them.

Tennessee was the favorite over Penn State going into the Outback Bowl, but Penn State’s defense dominated, holding Tennessee to 83 yards rushing and forcing three turnovers.

Most of the stats show that Arkansas should have won the Capital One Bowl, but Wisconsin hung on 17-14 for the win. Arkansas had 368 total yards to Wisconsin’s 201 yards.

Everyone thought the Rose Bowl would be a close game. I don’t think anyone expected USC to win by 14 points. It looks like the BCS guys made the right decision. The right team is playing Ohio State for the national championship.

A lot of people expected Oklahoma to blow out Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. I was one of them. I was very impressed with Boise State, and it was an awesome game to watch. I’m a fan of trick plays, and Boise State executed their’s to perfection. That said, I think that if Oklahoma and Boise State were to play nine more times, Oklahoma wins all nine.

After the game people were asking the question, “Should Boise State have been in the national championship game?” My answer is “absolutely not.” They didn’t play a single ranked team in the regular season. We had no reason to believe they were this good. Yes, we should have a playoff system, but we don’t and Boise State knew the rules going in. They shouldn’t expect a shot at the national championship given the schedule they played. However, I’m right there with them in calling for a playoff system. I don’t know what it’ll take to get one, and I don’t look for it anytime soon.

There are two more decent bowl games left: the Sugar Bowl tonight, and the national championship game next Monday night. I expect LSU to win the Sugar Bowl without too much difficulty, but obviously I’ve been wrong before. I picked Ohio State to win the national championship, and I expect that’ll happen, but I’d love to see Florida upset them.