Yearly Archives: 2018

The air cooled twin

Motorcycles, Photographs

BMW, of course.

BMW has been making motorcycles with air cooled twin motors since 1921. While the line was discontinued in 1995 in search of more power for children who think that 100hp is called for in a single track vehicle, the design layout continues in air and oil cooled twins to this day from the BMW factory. Sure the charm and light weight have been lost but the design is as right today as it was almost a century ago.

The 900cc motor at left is in a 1975 R90/6 which is now in my 29th year of ownership. The fully faired touring rig on the right is a tad larger at 1,000cc. Both develop around 60hp, perfectly adequate for touring at 70mph all day long. The beauty of these air cooled twins is that the cylinders are way out there in the air stream, so no oil or water cooling is called for. While the later machine sports a small oil cooler it’s quite unnecessary in practice. A related benefit is that the design means that the center of gravity is very low indeed, making maneuvering at low speeds child’s play. Try horsing that high mounted Japanese ‘across the frame’ four around at parking lot speeds and you will get my drift.

Each cylinder has its own carburetor, as is clear in the image. These share the same technology present in the 1921 version and are as reliable as a hammer. Periodic valve lash check-ups and adjustments are very easy as the valve covers are simply removed (two nuts and one bolt), giving full access to the valves and followers. Rapacious and unnecessary demands for ever more power doomed these machines, which remain firm favorites with touring riders for their quietness, freedom from vibration and comfort. 300,000 miles on one of these engines is no big deal.

The last time horizontally opposed, air cooled motors were used in cars was in the original four cylinder VW Beetle and four and six cylinder Porsches, before both went to water cooling. The modern Subaru uses the design in a water cooled variant and the motors are also famously long lived.

iPhone7 snap.

Panasonic S1R FF SLR

Panasonic

Aimed solidly at the pro.

Panasonic announced the 47mp FF S1R mirrorless camera today along with the 24mp S1. As the inventor of the mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera with the G1 a decade ago Panny knows what it’s doing and the long line of successors to that revolutionary body has captured both the video and stills markets with aplomb.

An early partnership with Leica saw to it that some of the finest MFT lenses came with Panny mounts and the S1R continues that tradition using the Leica ‘L’ bayonet, shared with the very costly S2/S3 Leica bodies. While Leica FF lenses run $5,000 a pop, it’s always good having Leica on your side when it comes to optics for no one does it better than the magicians in Wetzlar, Germany.

Those great designs invariably migrate to cheaper Panny versions and, indeed, Panny has announced that there will be some 20 lenses available 24 months hence, both Leica and Panny designs. I have used both the amateur and pro grade Panny optics on their MFT bodies and can testify to the quality of the optics. As for modern Panny MFT bodies – I use two GX7s – nothing comes closer to the Leica M2 experience of my film days when it comes to a compact street snapper, and the total silence of the electronic shutter option makes the modern Panny MFT body the stealthiest camera made.

As for the feature set of the new full frame S1R/S1, Panny appears to have nailed it, including:

  • In body IBIS (missing from Canon’s new FF offering)
  • In lens IBIS
  • Dual storage card slots (missing from both the new Canon and Nikons)
  • 4K/60fps video – a first (only a crippled cropped mode available in the new Canon)
  • Top plate LED display – like in every other FF SLR with ‘pro’ aspirations
  • Three axis touchscreen rear LCD
  • Extensive weather sealing

It’s interesting to compare the feature set with those from Canon and Nikon. Both those powerhouses have offered variously crippled iterations on their top end DSLRs, reluctant to lose the cash flow from their cash cows. Yet only the meanest observer would deny that the flapping mirror DSLR is done and dusted, the greater simplicity of the mirrorless body and greater optical design flexibility owing to the much shorter flange-to-sensor distance being the future. By contrast, while Canon and Nikon must pay fealty to owners of current costly optics by ensuring compatibility, Panny has no such oath of loyalty to maintain as they have never had an FF offering. So they can start afresh, and doing so with Leica’s ‘L’ mount is a perfect way of hitting the ground running.

In addition to pairing with Leica on the lens front, Sigma has also got its nose in the picture, promising to offer lenses. Take that with a bushel of salt for Sigma has no design chops worth mentioning, always taking the easy way out with their gargantuan designs which destroy the very idea of a small camera/large picture. As for quality control, Sigma’s corridors have yet to be darkened by that concept as my truly miserable experience with their 35mm f/1.4 ‘Art’ lens disclosed. Sigma’s optical quality reputation is well deserved. Sure, you can get crackerjack Sigma lenses, but what is your time worth while you sift through all those returns? In fact, so bad is Sigma’s QC that they remain the only lens maker that offers an aftermarket gadget to allow you to program optimal AF because, sure as heck, the factory seems incapable of doing that. That dongle should come free with every Sigma optic.

Pricing? Well, the Nikon Z6/Z7 are priced at $2,000 and $3,400 so I would expect the S1/S1R to come in a few dollars higher, given the enhanced feature set. Availability is set for early 2019. Meanwhile, I would imagine that the $6,000 mirrorless Leica SL ‘L’ mount body with its modest 24mp sensor will henceforth only sell to those who like paying up an additional $4,000 for a two cent red paper dot which states ‘Leica’ in the middle.

Bartlett Lake, AZ

iPhone, Motorcycles, Photographs

In the Tonto National Forest.

Bartlett Lake is 35 miles northeast of Scottsdale and is deserted on weekdays. The ride through the high desert is lovely, and while the 20 mile approach road through the Forest has seen better days the gentle sweepers and absence of traffic make for a fine opener for the 9 month motorcycling season here, now that daytime highs have dropped to the low 90s.



No traffic in sight.


The map view in Lightroom.


The Last Stop is the only dining place at the lake. Usual burger fare.
Note the matching 1975 historic registration plate on my 1975 BMW R90/6,
now in my 29th year of ownership and a delight to ride.

Boat and JetSki rentals are available.


This was the first occasion on which I aired out the camera in my ‘new’ iPhone7. In contrast to the 8mp files from the excellent camera in the iPhone6, iPhone7 files are 12mp and what little grain there was in iP6 images has disappeared, the crazy azure skies have been tamed a bit (if not quite enough) and resolution is everything you would need for the largest of prints. An incredible technical accomplishment.

The miserable CEO of Apple, Tm Cook, a man devoid of original ideas, claims that one of the justifications for the crazy pricing of the latest iPhones is that you get a great camera thrown in. Well, there’s no question the camera is fine (albeit with the world’s worst ergonomics) but I’ll stick with a separate SLR when conditions get challenging. But for a day-to-day snapper the camera in the iP7 is exceptionally good.

Prescott, AZ

Photographs

Cowboys!

Dating from the 1860s, Prescott is in the center of Arizona, two hours northwest of Phoenix and was once the capital before Arizona became a state.


At some 5,000 feet above sea level temperatures are 10-20F cooler than in Phoenix, and snow in the winter is usual. The town is home to 40,000 residents. Prescott has been somewhat discovered in the two decades since I last visited it, long stretches of ugly strip malls sorrounding the city center testifying to Americans’ spirit of place. But the town center, the square dominated by the turn of the century courthouse, remains special.


The Courthouse.

I was using film on this visit and entry to the Courthouse dictates that one passes himself, his gonads and his film through a variety of irradiation gear because, you know, terrorists will almost certainly target downtown Prescott in their next go around. I asked the goon manning these devices to check with his boss man and he assured me my film stock would survive (status: it did) but no feedback on my privates or future prospects of child creation (status: uncertain). Kodak says that high speed emulsions risk fogging, but 100 ASA Ektar seems to have done fine.


Unending war. America’s commitment to world peace ceased in 1945,
that to unending war starting at the same time. We have yet to win
a conflict since that change in philosophy.



The Palace Saloon on Whiskey Row dates from 1877.


“Come up and see me some time”.
Inside the Palace Saloon. Here’s where the insane flexibility of digital is really missed.
No cranking the ISO up to 1600, so it meant jamming the Nikon F100 against
the pillar and praying that something would come out after a 1/2 second exposure.


Ten pointers and associated dignitaries and desperadoes adorn the walls of the Palace Saloon.


Ektar struggles mightily with the dynamic range here.


Wild West architecture survives on Whiskey Row.


Unpronounceable maybe, but the Hassayampa Inn dates
from 1927 and includes many fine Art Deco touches of the era.


The Elks Theater.


And serving the world’s finest hamburger, too. American Hype never ceases to amaze.

Nikon F100, 24-120mm AFD Nikkor, Kodak Ektar 100.

The 2018 iPad

iPad

Same size but faster.

With consumer protection laws having been destroyed by the current Pig Administration – along with civility, discourse, integrity, diplomacy, science, education and the environment – it’s little wonder that Apple gets away with its multi-layered planned obsolescence strategy for its older devices. Leading the charge is iOS which magically makes all older phones and tablets from Cupertino suddenly behave as if they are slogging through frozen molasses.

That symptom had very much affected my 4 years old iPhone6 which I upgraded to a used 128 gB iPhone 7 for a modest $345 after selling the iPhone6. The speed gains from the A10 CPU in the iPhone7 are very significant indeed. Why, it now performs as fast as the iPhone6 did four years ago.

A like infection of molassesitis also affected my iPad Air which, believe it or not, is approaching its fifth anniversary and after daily hard use remains as good as new. Except for the speed, that is. It’s now awful.

So it’s off to the local Apple Hipster Store to be met by a 14 year old sporting colored hair and tattoos, passing as an Apple salesperson (gender unclear) to pick up a new 128gB 2018 iPad. The ‘Air’ moniker seems to have been dropped and the top priced models are, Apple assures us, ‘Pros’. Uh huh.

Here are the comparisons of the current models:

A glance at pricing is an eye opener. I’ll focus solely on wi-fi versions as anyone with an iPhone can simply tether the iPad to the phone’s cellular service and get cellular connectivity. No need to spend an additional $130 on cellular circuitry in your iPad, incurring additional monthly fees in the process.

The costliest iPad, the 12.9″ iPad Pro costs $1149, which strikes me as an awful lot of money. By contrast, the 9.7″ regular iPad, albeit with 128gB rather than 512gB of memory and a marginally slower A10 CPU (same as used in the iPhone7) is just $429. No prizes for guessing which one I chose. Buying used makes no sense here as few recent iPad models are available used. People hang on to these devices a long time. My old iPad Air will sell for $180, making the upgrade cost just $249. That works for me.

So if ever the word ‘bargain’ can be associated with Apple hardware, I do believe the 2018 iPad qualifies.

With a 9.7″ screen, the same size as in the original iPad Air, size is perfect for anything from book reading to stock analysis or movies. And it fits travel luggage just fine.

How do the CPUs compare? Geekbench data show the following:

The 163% CPU speed gain on single core operations (which dominate use) is comparable to the speed gain of the iPhone7 over the iPhone6.

One reason Apple’s iPad sales have been so weak is that the device is very long lived and very well made, retaining high resale value unlike your Android or Amazon Fire piece of junk. Further, Little Johnny in the classroom does not mind too much if he has to wait a few more seconds for his iPad schoolbook to open. His major upgrade reason is that he just dropped the device on the floor. The life expectancy is high even in LJ’s uncertain hands and his affluent folks are welcome to pony up an outrageous $99 for the Apple Pencil so that he can scribble away to his heart’s content. Until he loses it, that is.


Now that’s what you call a downward trend.

iPad sales have pretty much flat lined since 2014 when the original iPad Air hit the market. For far too long the device was overpriced and seriously lagging in hardware compared to its iPhone siblings. Now Apple seems to have woken up, slashed prices at the lower end (my iPad Air ran some $600 5 years ago – call it $700 in today’s money, and with just 64gB of memory) and brought the innards up to speed – a far better camera (though, really, only folks with plastic pocket protectors use an iPad for photography), a speedy CPU and lots more memory at non-gouge prices. Add the fingerprint sensor in the 2018 model I bought and you have iPhone-like speed and functionality.

Mercifully the 2018 iPad retains the coaxial headphone/earbud socket and dispenses with face recognition, the latter an idiotic technology and the ultimate solution looking for a problem. What on earth, pray Apple, is wrong with fingerprint recognition? How about redirecting some of those vast R&D monies wasted on face recognition on making Siri actually work? Or improving voice recognition?

Fingerprint recognition works fine on the 2018 iPad though the nice haptic feedback found in iPhone7 is sadly missing. The Home button on the iPad is still a mechanical micro switch, not a zero wear touch sensor. That said, after 5 years of daily use the Home button on my original iPad Air continues to work well. Also missing is ForceTouch, a nice iPhone7 feature Apple appears to be discontinuing (Hint: It’s called Margin Greed).

I’m looking forward to a happy 5 years with the new 2018 iPad, and to an Administration which will once more honor Consumer and Human rights. Meanwhile I console myself with the thought that the 2018 base iPad may actually be a bargain. And iOS 12, which I just installed, does not cripple performance. In fact, it works well.