| |
Watch a gay movie on your PC right now!
Choose from more than 3500 gay movies. Watch as much or as little as you want
from any of them. It costs just pennies per minute. 
Click here for a list of
Video On Demand themes including:
Bear,
BigDick,
GayAmateurs,
Raver,
StraightBoy,
Twink,
Euroboy,
Muscle,
Latino.
I also list all 3500 movies
alphabetically.
Straight movies also available here.
See details of all adult promotions in my adult
area
|
|
|
EXTERNAL LINKS
VIVICAM20
I'm getting a few people mailing me with questions about this camera, particularly
about the flash. Which is fine, however you can also find various information
at the following locations:
Vivitar products page
Vivitar customer service library
Vivicam20 camera
drivers
Vivicam20
camera manual
|
|
|
|
A couple of weeks ago I said I would write a short review of the digital camera
that I bought. So, now I've spent some time using it,
here are my comments...
Vivicam20: mini review
This is a small, stylish-looking camera that is light enough to carry around with
you everywhere. The camera stores up to 60 VGA images on the internal memory,
which can't be expanded. The images are stored uncompressed, which means no loss
of quality...
Colour is always excellent and the image quality is as good as you'll find on
any inexpensive VGA resolution camera. With none of the unpleasant artificial
sharpening that I've seen on some other 640x480 models. Skies and skin tones look
particularly good.
| Top tip for any camera: if
you're taking a pic like this, using flash and with the camera close (I'm holding
it at arms length here), you can reduce the power of the flash by temporarily
covering it with one layer of ordinary white tissue. Use sticky tape or a rubber
band to hold the tissue in place. One layer reduces the power of the flash by
around half. The exact effect depends on how your camera works... It may prevent
the foreground from appearing over bright and it will give a better balance between
the flash-lit foreground and background areas that are lit by room lighting. |
|
|
|
Low-light performance is a pleasant surprise (for a CMOS-based camera) with good
results in bright indoor lighting. The built-in flash also works well under these
conditions -- just filling in the shadows enough. Shadows start to 'block up'
when light-levels are lower (without flash), but even these shots have a certain
gritty charm.
The different settings for sunny, cloudy, indoor bright and indoor dark seem to
have no effect on the images whatsoever. If you don't use the flash much, the
batteries appear to last for ever. I've taken around 500 images so far (maybe
25 flash shots) and the two AA batteries that came with the camera are still going
strong.
There's a macro facility that focuses at about 12 inches from the subject and
the switch can be placed in an 'unofficial' midway position to focus better at
around 24 inches. Which is good for taking shots of yourself with the camera at
arms length.
The camera is too noisey. It bleeps when you take a shot. When selecting options,
it bleeps each time you click past a different setting. So, nine bleeps just to
select the self-timer.
Then, when you start the timer, it bleeps a countdown which increases in speed
-- about twenty more bleeps by the time it actually takes the picture. This is
an embarrassment and makes the camera unusable in many public places (though I
must admit the first time we were falling about with laughter by the time it took
the picture).
The auto-shut off is too fast (one minute). Particularly as this resets all the
settings back to their default. This is an annoyance if you are preparing to take
a self-timer shot or waiting for something to happen. The tripod socket is a welcome
extra. Transfer of images to your PC is simple and fast using a USB cable and
the supplied Twain software.
The pictures look brilliant if reduced down to about 450 pixels or less and sharpened
slightly. This is the ideal snapshot camera for anyone who puts together web pages.
Despite its few minor faults, and Vivitar's apparently dodgy quality control (the
first two cameras were faulty), you can't argue with
the tremendous value for money, the good looks and overall quality from this camera.
The build quality and reliability has been an issue for me. If you get a unit
that doesn't seem 'right' take it back to the shop and ask them to swap it...
SAMPLE IMAGES
It's a bonus having the images come from the camera uncompressed. There's always
a loss of quality each time an image is saved to JPG format and some cameras store
pics that way. Which means you're starting off with an image that's compromised.
It's far better to have the pic uncompressed while you work on it and then only
save a copy to JPG format for your website or to send by e-mail.
Click on any of these to see the full-size 640x480 image. These haven't been enhanced
in any way, but the uncompressed originals have been converted to JPG at 85% quality.
As you'll see, they appear a little 'soft'. But that isn't unusual and it's much
better to be able to sharpen images yourself, rather than have a camera do it
(possibly too much). If you're using Photoshop, the tool to use is Unsharp Mask.
I also use Thumbsplus for quick image editing while I'm making web pages.
The other way to make the pics look much better is by reducing the size a little.
I'd recommend down to 500 pixels wide/tall or less. My technique is: sharpen a
little, resize and then sharpen again. Some images don't need sharpening after
a resize, others do.
At 450 pixels wide and well-enhanced I think most people would be hard pressed
to spot the difference between one of these and a scan from 35mm film.
There will be lots more images from this camera in forthcoming Journal entries!
|
|
| As with any digital camera, high contrast subjects in sunny
conditions (left and above) can be tricky. |
|
|
|
| Colours aren't so bright in cloudy weather, but are still
very accurate and the camera finds these lower-contrast subjects easier to handle
(left and above). |
|
|
|
| Colour remains accurate, even when daylight begins to fade
(above left and above) and indoors under artificial lighting (left). Good shots
are possible without flash, providing the room lighting is reasonably bright. |
|
 |
|
 |
Above: skies are great and portraits always turn out well,
with good skin tones.
Right: macro mode. |
|
|
 |
Click here to visit the Badpuppy website
GETTING IN TOUCH
See the contact
page for full details of how you can reach me by e-mail or chat.
All content is
�copy; Copyright GarySevenUK.com 1999-2006.
Read more here
|
|
