Category Archives: Photography

Zojirushi NP-GBC05 Induction Heating System Rice Cooker

Cooking

Properly cooked rice. Finally.

This is one of an occasional series on cooking devices which make a difference. For an index of cooking articles on this blog click here.

Purchase considerations:

I haven’t been eating that much rice this past decade, a period which, not coincidentally, coincides with my outlay of $10 on a rice cooker from Walmart. Named the Aroma it did nothing so much as stink. The outside would get dangerously hot – I’m talking burns if you touch it – and it was criminally incompetent in discharging its appointed task, that of making fluffy, nutritious rice. Just the thing, in other words, for the Walmart shopper and boy, did I ever get what I deserved?

So after every use I would swear at it lustily, promising myself to never trouble it again. Our relationship finally came to an end when the last batch of rice this execrable excrescence ever produced was burned on the bottom and raw on the top. Accompanied by a healthy and most satisfying kick, it ended up in the recycle bin.

After much research one manufacturer’s name kept cropping up, accompanied by praise as often as not. Zojirushi. Now I’m too old and wise to believe anything I read in Amazon reviews, but I do like to scan the one star ones as it’s probably unlikely anyone is actually paid to write those. Only 4% of ‘reviewers’ (chaps with a third grade command of the English tongue, without an analytical thought in their make-up) trashed the Zojirushi and their reasons were either that the non-stick coating flaked (yes, this will happen if you place the container in the dishwasher with its extremely high drying temperatures – duh!) or that the device failed after a relatively short period of use. Goodness, how hard is it to give the non-stick surface a rinse and a swipe with a soft sponge?




Zojirushi NP-GBC05 Induction Heating System Rice Cooker and Warmer, 0.54 Litre capacity.
The bright chromed lid opening button is a fingerprint magnet. Yes, it’s Made in Japan.

Accordingly, when I bought mine from Amazon I splashed out an additional $40 on a 4 year warranty which includes shipping costs both ways. And while an additional $40 is a lot, the machine alone ran me $180 + tax and I see it is now up to $225. That’s an awful lot of money for a rice maker, but then $10 for the Walmart stinker was a lot considering it never worked properly. Plus I had all the proceeds left over after selling all my MFT gear and buying the iPhone 11 Pro. And it was Christmas.

Use:

How is it to use? The machine has a 24 hour clock and can be set so that the rice is ready at a stated time. A batch of rice – whether 1/2 cup for one person or 3 cups for six (not 2 as engraved on the container) – takes 50 minutes to cook. Owing to the use of induction coils which surround the removable, non-stick container, heating is even throughout the rice and even on a first try the result was near perfect. I use common or garden Mahatma long grain white rice (newly bought after the old lot moldered in a container for years) and made the mistake of washing the rice before cooking. I used the clear 6.1 oz. container provided. The result was too mushy. So on a second try I did not wash the rice (in fact the rice packet says not to wash before cooking) and slightly cut the water. I used the green 5.8 oz. container (a seemingly minor difference, but these Japanese chaps power down a lot of the stuff while cranking out Nikons, so I trust their instructions) and slightly under-filled the container with water, thus:




Zojirushi water level for two cups of rice, enough for four people.

I went for the ‘sweet rice’ level, which is just a tad below the regular rice one. The result has been perfect the last three times, which means we have already eaten more rice in a week than in the past year. Thank you, Walmart. Incidentally, a Zojirushi ‘cup’, measured using their provided containers, is about 3/4 of a standard American cup. The Japanese, sumo wrestlers apart, are a small people ….

There are also settings for porridge (yecch!) and brown rice, the latter with an optional three hour presoak to allegedly improve release of chemicals which will double your fertility and put 35 points on your IQ. Uh huh! The special offer on the Brooklyn Bridge arrives after you mail in the warranty card.

The use instructions are written in perfect English (they must have used a Japanese to do the translation) and are clear and unambiguous.

Safety? Except for the small area on top, marked with two ‘C’ characters’ denoting the steam vent, you can cradle the device in your hands all day long, for it is properly insulated. And speaking of Nikons, the quality is comparable to that of those (mostly) well made prosumer cameras. Meaning it’s really good. The parts fit properly and the seams are even, just like on a Toyota. Not a whole lot seems to be going on during the cooking cycle except for the release of a few wisps of steam towards conclusion. There’s a folding carrying handle and if the 3 cup capacity is too low, Zojirushi will be happy to take more of your money for a larger one. Their site is here. Rice readiness is indicated by a sweet little melody which can be changed to beeps or to silence. Amazingly some Amazon reviewers complain the default melody cannot be turned off – these are the ones with 3rd grade reading skills.

The device will keep your rice warm for over 12 hours, but you are instructed to fluff it up after the conclusion of the cooking cycle, using the provided spatula.

Stupid design error:

So all is sweetness and light, and your wallet is lighter, too. Great rice every time, after a lengthy cooking cycle, but you simply program the timer to be ready at mealtime and load up the rice and water well in advance. No big deal.

But it wouldn’t do to make a perfect product and Zojirushi well and truly soils the sheets with its battery installation. The machine includes a small battery whose purpose, best as I can tell, is to keep the 24 hour clock running when it’s unplugged and to retain programming instructions for the readiness time. Zojirushi has yet to discover the EPROM, patented almost a half century ago. That battery is soldered to the circuit board, which means that you have to ship it back should the battery fail and you cannot live without retained programming instructions. (If you want to avoid programming, simply load her up and press the big yellow ‘Cooking’ button and your rice is ready in 50 minutes). So if you want to avoid paying for the shipping and repair costs because some twit decided to solder the battery in place, buy the warranty, as I did. You can bet that the round shipping trip plus repair costs will exceed $200 so the risk/reward on the cost of the warranty probably solves.

I rather suspect that the battery issue goes away if you keep the machine connected to the mains at all times, but I prefer to store it in the pantry in the interest of maximizing available countertop space.

Conclusion:

I cannot speak to longevity, yet, but the induction model Zojirushi makes perfect rice every time and has one idiotic design error, a memory battery soldered to the circuit board. A determined user would drill the casing and install an external battery holder, soldered into that circuit board. I can see doing that when the warranty expires and the battery dies the day after. Is it worth over $250 with warranty cost? How much rice do you eat and how much do you have left over after selling your antediluvian photo gear and buying the iPhone 11 Pro?

Update November, 2025:

I have found that the Zojirushi is also excellent with beans (black eyed, lentils, etc.). I use the ‘White Rice’ setting and add water as if I was making rice. Best of all it does a great job of making risotto, where I add chopped onions and chicken stock in place of water. Anyone who has gone through the agony of making risotto in a pan – constant stirring for 60 minutes – or in a pressure cooker – lots of clean-up – will know what I am going on about. I use the Zojirushi 3-5 times a week and have had zero performance issues.

Fire sale

Cameras, Hardware, Photography

Bad omen

What do Porsches, iPhones and Leicas have in common? Luxury brands all, that’s certain. But what you will never find is these premier products selling at a 50% discount for a recently introduced and still current model.

So when I saw this yesterday, the message was clear:




Panny fire sale

Think this is a bargain? Think that parts will long be available for a camera from a maker which just sold its sensor division after years of struggle? Think the iPhone and computational photography does not rule the roost? Think that cell phone camera technology does not do 80% of what the big digital body with its clumsy lenses does? Plus another 100% which the whopper cannot do at all?

Think again.

It’s a new world for camera hardware. The Panny occupies the old world and will not be there much longer. My Panny MFT bodies and lenses? Sold the day after I bought the iPhone 11 Pro.

How to destroy a legacy

Cameras

Give your brand to the Russkies.




The unspeakable in pursuit of the unbeatable.

Great move, Leica. Have the sausage fingered Russkies cannibalize your brand, with your permission. I recall selling Zenit SLRs as a kid working holiday jobs in camera stores in the 1960s. Not only do they remain the worst made machine I have ever handled, like their makers the product literally stank, once you removed it from the box. At least, unlike this piece of detritus, they were cheap.

That Kraut Commie Mark was right. Capitalism will hang itself with its own rope. Heck, there may even be morons out there who will shell out $7,000 for this garbage. Leica, what are you thinking of? Maybe it’s time for a medical check up for the CEO?

Of current interest

Cameras, Photography

After the clearance.

I made mention, a while back, that my gear cabinet now looks like this:





The superb camera(s) in the iPhone 11 Pro had seen all my MFT and FF gear off to eBay before all that hardware became so many worthless door stops. In terms of dynamic range, versatility, image quality, night mode, Deep Fusion, tons of computational magic and compactness, nothing compares to this superb camera …. which also happens to do lots of other things when called for. Your DSLR is as sophisticated as a hammer in comparison.

I have no regrets about that decision as I am not a collector, a species which I have never understood. Why you would want a machine in the home which is never used for its intended purpose beats me, and always has. Further, all those unused shutters and gear trains will die almost as quickly as the electronic components in modern hardware, leaving you with useless junk.

So the other day I found myself thinking what of the hardware on the market holds any interest for this photographer after, that is, upcoming iPhone Pro releases.

Well, one obvious choice is the medium format Hasselblad which weds a decent sized sensor with large pixels (meaning low noise) in a compact package.




50mp and little change from $9k with the 45mm lens.

The camera is light. Weighing in at 2.6lbs with the 45mm (35mm FFE) lens – it’s a relative featherweight for this sensor format – it has no flapping mirror, a near silent shutter and auto-focus. Reviews suggest it’s not that fast to use so studio and landscape genres suggest themselves as prime subjects.

The other camera of interest is the Leica M10-D, a street snapper where Leitz has mercifully deleted the LCD screen every camera seems to come with, allowing the snapper to get on with the job of pressing the button. That’s totally in keeping with the original Leica M aesthetic and design intent back to the M3 in 1954 and earlier.




24mp and a whopping $11,290 + tax with the 35mm Summicron.

In all my years of using digital bodies I have never used the LCD screen for anything other than formatting the card. If you cannot visualize what you are photographing until after the event and need instant confirmation, well that’s fine, but not my working method. Viewfinder, focus, compose, click, move on. Check the technical details later. 2.1 lbs for the combination which is almost as much as the Hasselblad.

Think about that.

But the Leica has a disabling feature for these aging eyes. No auto focus. In this day and age paying $3k for an MF lens with a rangefinder of middling accuracy is simply not on.

As for all the rest of them, all those tedious DSLRs and mirrorless bodies with no computational intelligence and nothing to distinguish one from another …. yawn.

Butt ugly. $60k+.

Mac Pro

Had to get the wheels, too.

For an index of all my Mac Pro articles, click here.

There’s a new American Express card out named the AMEX Plutonium, and of course they sent me one. It’s a sweet deal and there’s no charge for the radioactivity, which decays quickly. There’s no credit limit and if you spend $1mm a year they waive the annual $50k fee. And the interest rate is only 10% a month, which beats the local Mob’s.

Well, says, I, better get with the action and earn that freebie, so I decided to splash out on the new Mac Pro. Yup, it’s butt ugly, but I have a mechanic who will gut one of my spare regular Mac Pros and install the hardware inside that elegant box. And he’s only charging $5k to do the work! Too bad he doesn’t take AMEX.

Anyway, to jolly things along I decided to max out the new MP’s specs, so here’s what I ended up with:


Had to get the Apple monitor – it’s only twice the price of the identical Dell. Loaded her up with 768GB of memory at only 3x the market rate, a snip at $10k.


The stand is only $1,000 more. Had to have it.


Ugly as sin, so I’m having it rehoused.


Forget the stock legs. I’m going with the rollers for a mere $400 more.

I hope it arrives soon as it should allow me to email and play Pong much faster. I also charged a new Rolls and a Bentley on the Plutonium – a man needs variety – so now I am well on the way to the free annual fee. I’m going to show the new Roller at local shows with the new Mac Pro in the passenger seat.