Friday, October 11, 2013
Rode Muni L and 24 to the dermatologist for an appointment. Late breakfast at Sugar Bowl Bakery and Cafe: regular coffee with half and half, mixed vegetables wrap with side salad with by-default italian dressing. Walked to UCSF Mt. Zion. UCSF shuttle from Mt. Zion to Parnassus. Printed a phone number cheat sheet for Lucia. Calendar management. Staged web edits for Tina B: international experiences. Submitted a same-or-similar-name problem resolution to ITS for student JL. Followup with Karl about his new website request (Ahituv). Asked Rick to retake two student photos today. White Coat Ceremony lights prep. Quick lunch at the cafeteria: jasmine rice, white fish in black bean sauce, green beans, water. White Coat Ceremony followed by reception in Millberry Union followed by cleanup with the staff. Ate vegetables, hummus, baba ganoush, and other assorted appetizers at the reception. Chatted with student DT. Met Marc. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover vegetables, hummus, and baba ganoush from the reception. Stayed up very late researching a new camera purchase. I think I finally found the camera I had been seeking in the Panasonic Lumix G6 (aka DMC-G6). For a long time I had a hard time determining if I wanted a high-end or top-of-the-line compact or an entry- or mid-level mirrorless or dslr to replace the Canon PowerShot A650IS that Tina had purchased for me on March 20, 2008. I decided recently that it's time for me to stop using compacts and not be afraid of the weight and bulk of a larger camera in order to get better image quality. I read many reviews and could find nothing bad said about it that I cared about. (For example, it's not great at tracking moving objects.) It has a nice balance of automatic and manual features for my level of photography. It's slightly larger than my Canon PowerShot A650IS, which I was willing to accept. It has panorama, HDR, and time-lapse built-in—these are all features I would like to try but have never used before because they were unavailable in my hardware. (fyi: the time-lapse feature is referred to incorrectly in some reviews as stop-motion.) The requirements I have been working from lately are: must have a fully articulated screen (sometimes also known as swivel or vari-angle), a little larger than the A650IS (112 x 68 x 56 mm) but not too much, must have been released or announced within the past 12 months. I could find only two other cameras that fit these criteria: The Canon EOS 700D (EOS Rebel T5i) (133 x 100 x 79), released or announced on 2013.0430. And the Nikon Coolpix P7800 (119 x 78 x 50), released or announced on 2013.0930. The 700D is significantly more expensive and bulkier than the G6. The P7800 is perhaps too much like my existing camera in size and image quality than I'd like.