Oct 22 2011

iPhone 4S Camera Review…

My wish has come true …  I have always wanted a phone with a freaking good camera.  Is that too much to ask?

I love to take pictures of my day, as I can’t remember shit BUT if I see a picture of something I did on the day in question, I can recall everything.  You see, part of the index file which puts time stamps on the nightly daily events upload to my brain is crapped up…. hence the need for image stimulation to facilitate full recall.

I usually carry my trusty camera (when it is not being run over by a car) everywhere and snap at least a few pix per day.  For years, I have REALLY wanted a cell phone with a good camera so I could ditch my Casio EX-H5, 12.1 mp camera.  I tried the HTC EVO.  Supposed to have an 8 mp camera…. shit the 5 mp camera on the Apple iPhone took a slightly better picture.   In either case the photos were not up to my minimal standards.  Too much grain, color slightly off and lack of good focus.   Emergency phono only please.

The EVO I picked up lasted for less than a year, and Sprint gave me an EVO Slide when I was at Oshkosh this year.  I was desperate for any phone as I had to have something for the airshow.  I had to walk back and forth from the to town to get it. The first Slide lasted one day, and I had to get a replacement.   The HTC Slide is a 4G phone was supposed to be top of the line.   After 4 months of use it to started crapping out.   Crap, 4G…4 months.  It was jumpy and would sometimes lock up..  I need another new phone and Sprint.   I knew was now offering the iPhone.   The timing could be right.

When I was in Salt Lake City I watched a video on the Apple website with Ric Lee showing just how wonderful the iPhone 4S camera was.   It also had a bunch of other cool features such as iCloud and Siri which appealed to me.  I am trying to go Apple with all my equipment so an iPhone was the next step

The contract with Sprint was up for renew so the iPhone 4S was ordered.  It is supposed to have as much computing power as the iPad 2 (dual core processor) but running at a slightly lower clock rate to conserve the battery,  It also had the upgraded 8 mp camera in it.

While flying Tweedy, I took these pictures….  I was blown away.  Great color saturation, minimal grain, and the camera was QUICK.  You could shoot off a number of pictures almost as fast as you can compose and shoot.  Sweet.

The are untouched pictures.   I only used the software in the phone to crop and work with the pictures.  I haven’t figured out how to find the file size yet (dam Apple computer) but they are fairly big as WordPress takes a while to upload and crunch them.

Cooper River Bridges

 

I had WordPress insert  a higher resolution picture of Mount Pleasant and the USS Yorktown.  Cropping was done in the camera.  Click on the pictures for close up detail.

This picture of the end of Sullivan’s Island was cropped and I added the phone “Magic Enhancement” effect.  It added a little sharpness (and grain) and richened the colors some.  Darker greens and blues sort of thing.

FINALLY, after years of waiting, I have what I REALLY wanted.  Just ONE piece of electronics to carry around.  It is a phone, internet, gps, game station, educational device and a truly ACCEPTABLE camera to document my existence.  I’ll still use the Casio from time to time for special occasions where I really want a high rez pictures, but the Apple iPhone 4S takes really good pictures to use on a day to day basis..

Oh, went to Sprint to transfer my old numbers off the EVO Slide…. the Slide  wouldn’t talk to their equipment.  Bad Android…

The rep also said there may have been a bad software push that messed up the operating system since others have complained of erratic operating system behavior the last few weeks.   Bad Android….

He said they would or may have sent out new code.  He wasn’t really sure.    Bad Android…

Hum think about it my EVO didn’t seem to be acting so freaky on me since I made it back to Charleston.  I just thought it might be happy to be home too.  Maybe it was pushed and updated with some good stuff.     Maybe the EVO fully functional again?  Did I really need to buy the iPhone 4S at this time?

Well, after playing with it for the last few days, running memory intensive applications such as ForeFlight with no slowdown and now seeing the quality of the picture output, I can say the iPhone 4S rocks.   Apples makes VERY nice products with software that just works.  Now I can finally ditch my camera.  Good Apple ISO 5….

The bird back is the hangar in her favorite spot right next to the door in front of the spam cans, grazing on concrete….

Bon appetit  Tweedy.

 

Oct 22 2011

Reunited with Tweedy

The last few days have been remarkable for me.  I thoroughly enjoy being back.  The weather is good, my cat Cosm0 (for Cosmo Kramer) remembers and seems genuinely pleased to have me back again…..

AND I get to sleep in my own bed again.   I am happy.

After a busy week, with doctor visits, grocery shopping, washing, cleaning and visiting friends (who very pleased to see me again), I  made plans on Saturday to visit an old friend I have been ignoring as of late.

After an easy morning with breakfast, news paper and a visit from Jack Wilhelmson (eznoselift.com) ,  I finally headed out to the airport to see Tweedy.

She was sitting in the back of the hanger buried behind a number of Spam Cans looking totally out of place..  A thick coating of dust was on her. We hadn’t been together since September 21 st….  YIKES could how could I have ignored her this long?

Will I be able to warm her up?  Or, will she be pissed at me and require massive  maintenance on her for hours due to my lack of attention?  Something always seems to cranky and cause me issues IF I don’t work the old bird  out regularly.   Finicky she can be…

 

After installing the Trio Pilot Pro which has been upgrade by Chuck to the latest and greatest software upgrade, we headed out.

You know, I have flown N123LE for total 55.6 hrs and Tweedy for 2570 hours, and while the new gal who came life 2.5 years ago, I couldnt stop thinking of Tweedy.  N123LE is fun, racy, FAST, brilliantly intelligent and sweet bird as one could ever hope to fly……..bit yet, there is just a wonderful feeling when you’re reunited with a bird you spent 14 years with and just love to fly.  We have been though everything Mother Nature could throw at us.  She is as dependable an easy going as one could hope for.

Tweedy just started without a fuss, purred like a kitten, and off we went to fly down the Ashely river at 600 ft listening to wonderful music to  overfly the city.  Rusty said he would be somewhere on the Ashely River, I am going to be over the river looking down at….well everyone, and no one cares.

A south end of  Sullivan’s Island

 

and the Cooper River Bridges

The new code on the Trio Pro is fantastic.   I have been a beta tester for their equipment since the pre-deveopment of the EZ-1 altitude hold.  Beta testers have the fun of finding issues with pre-release software and making recommendations to the developers.   I’ll tell you what the Trio products are really good and you can ask for a better company to deal with.    Chuck developed the product and wrote the software code and was extremely supportive of my crazy suggestions and recommendations.  The new code he has in the A/P really works well and produces a much more stable ride than any I have used so far.

Thanks Trio for your fantastic support when I needed to get the A/P sent out to me overnight in Greeley, CO.

Back in the hangar, put the good old gal back to bed.  Off spend a nice quite night at home writing….