I am suddenly in an awesome mood. After hairdrying the crap out of my apparently water damaged Canon 40D (which decided to go for a swim in a creek) and leaving it in a bag full of rice for a week, I just remembered about it and figured it was worth a shot turning it on now to see what happens.
SUCCESS!!!
It turns on. It takes photos. Hell yeah!
I'll probably run into problems down the track, but hopefully when/if that happens I'll be ready to upgrade to the 5D anyway, so it will be a good excuse to do so.
I'm stoked. Feel like going crazy taking photos now. But I won't. I'm way too exhausted after the Big Day Out yesterday. Not to mention the fact that I'm sick...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
bush walk disaster :(
Yesterday morning I had a shocker. I had headed out to Binna Burra (Lamington National Park), where we did the 16.6km Illinbah circuit. It was pretty challenging (according to the visitor's guide it requires a high degree of fitness and experience, which kinda scared me a bit) and we managed to do it in about 5 and a half hours despite getting momentarily lost (the guide recommended we allowed 8 hours).
Anyway it would've been a good (and tiring) day, if it weren't for one little mishap during the trip.
I was crossing one of the many creeks along the way, when, as I jumped between some rocks to avoid getting my feet wet (which I didn't find out until a bit later would've been unavoidable anyway) when I heard a big splash beside me. Wondering how the hell a rock came out of nowhere and landed beside me, I looked down to see, in my horror, a familiar sight - the strap of my camera.
Yes, that's right. My freakin' Canon 40D SLR camera fell into a rocky creek, with water about half a metre or so deep.
Somehow it fell out of my zipped bag. I blame momentum - the (heavyish) camera was in the top of my bag, with the zippers both at the top. Jumping and then coming to an abrupt halt must've pushed the camera up with enough force to pull the zippers apart enough for the darned thing to escape.
Anyway, after overcoming the shock of it all and staring at the camera for a couple of seconds, I fished it out of the creek and got to the other side of the creek. In my stupidity, I turned it on to see if it was still working (a better move would've been to pull out the batteries and try to dry the thing out as much as possible). It did switch on, but did some weird stuff, like randomly taking a flurry of photos and turning on the flash. I quickly turned it off, wrapped it in my jacket and tried to forget about it. At this point, I couldn't help but laugh, it was just one of those things.
The reality soon set in when I got home and hit hard - my camera was ruined. Even if I did manage to "fix" it in the short term, I most probably will stumble across problems somewhere down the track...
So I did my best to dry it out last night (I am sick of the sound of hairdryer), and today I called around to some camera repair places. Unfortunately, they didn't want anything to do with water damage because of the probability of more issues occurring later on. Plus, with the costs involved I was better off getting a new one. One of the frustrating things is that I only got two months use out of it. Wouldn't have been so hard to take if I had gotten several year's usage out of it.
It looks like it is down to me trying to dry it out myself and seeing what happens, otherwise it is $2k down the drain (or down shit creek... c'mon, you gotta turn to humour at times like this). I think I'll give it a week to totally dry out before the battery goes back in and I give it another shot.
Will keep you posted - wish me luck. Looks like I'll need it...
Anyway it would've been a good (and tiring) day, if it weren't for one little mishap during the trip.
I was crossing one of the many creeks along the way, when, as I jumped between some rocks to avoid getting my feet wet (which I didn't find out until a bit later would've been unavoidable anyway) when I heard a big splash beside me. Wondering how the hell a rock came out of nowhere and landed beside me, I looked down to see, in my horror, a familiar sight - the strap of my camera.
Yes, that's right. My freakin' Canon 40D SLR camera fell into a rocky creek, with water about half a metre or so deep.
Somehow it fell out of my zipped bag. I blame momentum - the (heavyish) camera was in the top of my bag, with the zippers both at the top. Jumping and then coming to an abrupt halt must've pushed the camera up with enough force to pull the zippers apart enough for the darned thing to escape.
Anyway, after overcoming the shock of it all and staring at the camera for a couple of seconds, I fished it out of the creek and got to the other side of the creek. In my stupidity, I turned it on to see if it was still working (a better move would've been to pull out the batteries and try to dry the thing out as much as possible). It did switch on, but did some weird stuff, like randomly taking a flurry of photos and turning on the flash. I quickly turned it off, wrapped it in my jacket and tried to forget about it. At this point, I couldn't help but laugh, it was just one of those things.
The reality soon set in when I got home and hit hard - my camera was ruined. Even if I did manage to "fix" it in the short term, I most probably will stumble across problems somewhere down the track...
So I did my best to dry it out last night (I am sick of the sound of hairdryer), and today I called around to some camera repair places. Unfortunately, they didn't want anything to do with water damage because of the probability of more issues occurring later on. Plus, with the costs involved I was better off getting a new one. One of the frustrating things is that I only got two months use out of it. Wouldn't have been so hard to take if I had gotten several year's usage out of it.
It looks like it is down to me trying to dry it out myself and seeing what happens, otherwise it is $2k down the drain (or down shit creek... c'mon, you gotta turn to humour at times like this). I think I'll give it a week to totally dry out before the battery goes back in and I give it another shot.
Will keep you posted - wish me luck. Looks like I'll need it...
Friday, January 9, 2009
kiva
Ok, so I've been super lazy lately (Happy New Year by the way folks). However, I did something today that made me feel the need to post about.
I lent US$25 to José Dolores Urtecho, a convenience store owner in Chinandega, Nicaragua. He wants to borrow US$325 in order to buy the necessary products for his store, which he has owned for two years, to improve his and his family's quality of life.
I did it through kiva, a not-for-profit website which allows you to lend to an entrepreneur in the developing world, helping them to lift themselves out of poverty.
Brilliant idea.
Basically you pick an entrepreneur and lend them money, along with other lenders who contribute. They use it and eventually pay you back based on a repayment plan. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need. You could withdraw the money back if you felt the need to, but I don't see the point of that when you can pass it on to the next person.
Anyway just felt like sharing. For anyone interested, check out the website for more info.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
I lent US$25 to José Dolores Urtecho, a convenience store owner in Chinandega, Nicaragua. He wants to borrow US$325 in order to buy the necessary products for his store, which he has owned for two years, to improve his and his family's quality of life.
I did it through kiva, a not-for-profit website which allows you to lend to an entrepreneur in the developing world, helping them to lift themselves out of poverty.
Brilliant idea.
Basically you pick an entrepreneur and lend them money, along with other lenders who contribute. They use it and eventually pay you back based on a repayment plan. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need. You could withdraw the money back if you felt the need to, but I don't see the point of that when you can pass it on to the next person.
Anyway just felt like sharing. For anyone interested, check out the website for more info.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
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