TechTalkUK Podcast 78 - Blown Retina

No change with Kev, still the iPhone 5S and the Moto G as backup. Took another look at a G3 in a store again this week, saw nothing that made him want one. Kev sold his 1020 this week, the RAW stuff was not as compelling as he'd thought it might be, and have come to the conclusion that if he is only going to use the 1020 as a camera, he really may as well use a camera.Nick has been using his MotoG 4G for everything apart from actual phone calls, for the last four weeks, and enjoying it. No need for a high end android? Also been using his 1020 as a camera.

So I had pre ordered the Panasonic FZ1000 with Wex Photographic in Norwich, this is the old Warehouse Express outfit, renamed. I asked them if they had enough stock in first batch to fill all current pre orders, and made it clear that I was very keen to get one of these as soon as possible and would rather not miss out on the first batch.

So, I was pretty pissed off come Thursday and Friday when I expected a call from them, (bearing in mind my 12 month interest free loan was already active for over a week) which never came. I asked on Twitter, which I think is harder to companies to ignore, only to be told that I would not be getting one and they would let me know when I might. Not impressed with their service at all, and will not be using them again.

Crazy thing was, Currys were showing as in stock, and I was at work without the credit card I needed for my 0% interest trick.

So I rushed home for an early lunch, ordered it Friday at 11am, and was delighted to get an email later that evening to say it would be delivered (to work, Wex would not do that anyway) on Saturday, and by DPD as a little bonus!

Not had it long enough to make many judgements, but first impressions are very good. The EVF is the best I have ever seen, it is almost as good as an optical viewfinder on a DLSR. In fact, in some ways, these things are better than a traditional viewfinder, as you can see the photo you have just taken in the EVF, not something you can do with a DLSR (although of course you have live view on the LCD on many newer DLSRs.

The FZ1000 is one big camera though, pretty much the same size as the 70D and it weighs in at 831g against the (body only) 70D’s 755g. Of course this is with a lens that goes from 25mm-400mm at F2.8-F4.0 and has 5 Axis stabilisation system. In video mode interestingly, the lens becomes 37-592mm equiv in 35mm terms, due to only using the central portion of the sensor. This camera also boasts 4k video recording up to 30 mins at a time, with the ability to pause playback and save an 8MP jpg like you can on the Note 3 and Galaxy S5 smartphones.

My early thoughts are though that I can not keep this and the 70D, so we will have to see how this one plays out.Finally signed up to the Adobe Photography plan, and am slowly getting to grips with Lightroom. Yet to have a go with Photoshop, but no reason not to now. 30 days to decide, then committed for one year (£106 cost for the year)

I finally took the plunge, and ordered a Macbook Pro Retina 13.3 on the day last week when they announced a small update. Seems like next big change is a few months away now, although we should still get a new Macbook Air soon. Sadly, on Tuesday, Apple will come and collect the rMBP. Why? I tried it again for most of today, but simply prefer my Macbook Air 11.6” I no longer even care about the so called Retina screen, as it seems to be a little bit of a con. Let me explain. PC screen resolutions vary quite a lot, and the most common are listed here now the current 11.6” MBA is 1366 * 768 and you would expect a Retina 13.3” to be way higher? If you read Apple’s website, it says “Native” Resolution is indeed much higher, in fact its 2560 * 1600. Only problem is, in reality it is not. The real resolution is actually lower than the MBA at 1280 * 800 meaning you actually see less than on the MBA albeit with larger text, and it is very clear. You can set it to go to 1440 * 900 or even higher, but with some loss of clarity, although it is still pretty much perfect to my old eyes.

What is not perfect to me is that actually the screen itself is not that great. I have “stage lights” at the bottom, and a 2 inch section near the middle that is annoyingly brighter than the rest of the screen. It could be that I have a faulty or sub standard one, or that I am just too fussy with screens, which I know I am anyway.The rMBP does not even go as bright as the old MBA. So I will wait for Apple to announce the new 12” MBA and see what that brings to the table.A few people suggested keeping the MBA and buying a Windows laptop, but I have decided to poke red hot needles into both my eyes, as I feel this is less painful than suffering Windows. All joking apart, my next Laptop has to be as quiet as my MBA, must have 256GB of SSD, and run the Mac OS. Kinda limiting I guess.

There is one thing I am taking from this, the mid 2011 11.6” Macbook Air I currently have is just a superb machine, and has probably been the best value bit of tech I have ever bought.

Changes all now complete, did away with the Wanted forum, now just put WANTED: in caps so people know. When marking stuff as sold (by commenting a new reply not in title) please say if it was as a result of PSC or external. If there is no mention, I might delete the sale as opposed to put it in the Done Deals section.

Also, the Feedback & ID section is now up and running, and I am waiting to put two positive comments in for things I sold this week, but the people have not yet made an entry in the forum.