Waiting.
The 180mm Nikkor on the D700 excels at this sort of thing, picking out the lone figure in the urban landscape with ease.
One very handy tool is the Highlights slider in Lightroom 4 which is an easy way of taming bright highlights like those in the second snap. This is a significant upgrade over Lightroom 3 and worth the upgrade cost alone, given how digital sensors burn out highlights every chance they get.
A perfect day.
Visit San Francisco on days like yesterday and it’s impossible to go wrong for those of the street snapping persuasion. Late sun, partly cloudy, no wind, pullover weather. As the Nikon D700 and 180mm Nikkor f/2.8D is a heavy piece of gear, I usually refrain from lugging along the iPad, but the iPad Mini makes all the difference. It’s a featherweight and makes reading and catching up with the markets over a celebratory beer a pleasure. Much nicer than reading on the iPhone.
All snapped using the 180mm f/2.8D AF Nikkor lens.
An affordable, impulse purchase.
While ‘pick up in store’ ordering was not working on Apple’s web site yesterday, I swung by the local Apple Store today at what I thought was the 10am opening hour only to find they opened two hours early and that all the white models had been sold. We macho Hemingway fans have no use for white accoutrements in our lives, so I leave those to the feminine and effeminate set. I was happy to buy a black 16GB model. Judging from the number of tickets the clerk was holding for distribution to walk-in buyers, the store had maybe 50 black variants left. I was one of only five shoppers in the store and we were outnumbered by blue shirts four to one.
José lays on the sales pitch. I was obviously so thrilled that camera shake ensued.
Surprisingly I was subjected to a big sales pitch on covers (real men do not use covers) and on the AppleCare warranty. To read my take on warranties, click here and enjoy the math. I guess the falling margins at Apple Corp. have to be made up somehow.
Both subjectively and objectively I find the price to be too high. Subjectively it prices the Apple ecosystem at $129, as capable – if a tad smaller – competitors’ tablets come in at $199. Objectively I have yet to see a Bill of Materials analysis for the Mini, but given that it uses the A5X CPU from the iPad2 and like innards, with a smaller battery display, $329 is a stretch. Further Tim Cook stated in the fiscal Q4 AAPL earnings call that in the near term margins on the Mini will be below those usually commanded by Apple which rather mystified me. One cause, I am sure, is the costly Lightning connector. This seemingly simple, reversible device – and a vast improvement on the awful 30 pin one in use the past decade – includes a miniature DAC (Digital to Analog Converter). This DAC makes use of older analog accessories possible, though there is still some uncertainty over which ones will work. Any buyer of, say, external powered speakers would do well to wait until his chosen model comes with the new connector. Thus compatibility will be assured and clunky adapters avoided.
One reassuring part of the Apple ecosystem.
While non-Apple users may find it difficult to stomach the $129 premium for entry to the Apple ecosystem, emails like the one above, generated when I was setting the Mini up, are a mighty comfort. That and the knowledge that Apple is not selling your ID and tracking your activity the way the ethically challenged mob at Google does. I typed all the above while restoring my iPad Mini from the iPad 3 backup I had made to iCloud. It took some 12 minutes to setup the Mini to where I could start using it (10MBs broadband), whereupon I was asked whether I wanted to restore all my apps, as used on the iPad 3, to the iPad Mini. (They mean ‘copy’ not ‘restore’ but I let it go). The timing here is a function of app numbers and sizes as well as broadband speed, so there’s no point in reporting that here. The iPad Mini reported 95% charge once it came live. Nice.
The engineering of the backup/restore function would be hard to improve. The directions are clear, the process very simple, the results perfect. That alone is worth the $129 ecosystem entrance price in my book, but good luck convincing an Android user of that. He’s in the “What you never had you never missed” class. Even my home screen picture of Bert T. Border (currently running for the Presidency on a truth and honesty ticket) came over perfectly scaled.
Is 16GB enough? Depends on how many games you load, as these tend to be the biggest users of memory. Some of the more recent offerings (Infinity Blade, Nova) use over 1GB each – but you would have to confer with my ten year old son as to which ones should be on the Mini! I do not play games so cannot advise.
First impressions? A beautifully made device which feels far better in the hand than the chintzy and insubstantial iPhone 5. The iPhone 4/4S has the Leica feel; the 5 is a point-and-shoot by comparison. The Mini is very much in the Leica/pro-Nikon class of build. It’s easily held in a hand span when in portrait mode and the fit and finish are a delight. Weight is half that of iPad 3.
Screen definition is excellent – the same number of pixels as iPad 1/2 crammed into the smaller display, meaning excellent definition and allowing all existing apps to run unmodified. The font sizing in default apps like Mail is a tad small for these tired, old eyes (I’m 60, going on 20). Is the screen noticeably worse than the Retina Display in iPad3? Not to my eyes. Pixels are invisible on both.
Do you need to wait for the cellular model to reach stores? Depends. If you have an AT&T or Verizon (not sure about Sprint) iPhone you can use it as a cellular hotspot ($10/month AT&T, free on VZ with the base data plan, both support up to five devices simultaneously) to broadcast a cellular broadband signal, allowing any ‘tethered’ device like an iPad or MacBook to get on the web using the iPhone’s data plan. In that case a cellular version of the iPad is a waste of money. If, however, you have no hotspot access – and despite what you read wi-fi is still only sporadically available in civilization and not at all in the deep South – then a cellular model is the right choice. But you can wait for that as the acclaimed master of the Apple supply chain has made sure they are not available. Just like iPhone 5 and the new iMac. Nice work, Mr. Cook. The iPhone’s hotspot is turned on in Settings->General->Cellular->Personal Hotspot->On. You can choose your own password if the supplied one does not meet with your approval. On the iPad go to Settings->Wi-Fi and choose iPhone as your Wi-Fi source. For use on the road remember to turn Bluetooth on. When thus ‘tethered’ the usual Wi-Fi fan symbol will change to a pair of chain links in the status bar atop the display.
The iPhone’s hotspot in use on the iPad Mini.
In figuring how much memory you need in your iPad or iPad Mini, remember to allow 2.3GB for the operating system. The 16GB version has 13.7GB of storage available. If you buy a Microsoft Surface RT (that’s the crippled one, the full one remains unobtainable – Cook must be moonlighting) you will need some 14GB of space which is why the base model is 32GB. Nothing changes in Redmond, it seems, and code bloat remains the order of the day.
What this review cannot cover is any comparison with other makers’ tablets. I am tied into the Apple ecosystem with all my devices so have zero incentive to use Android, and know nothing about it. The value of the Apple ecosystem far exceeds any savings on cheaper Android devices. Further, it will be a cold day in hell before I use any tablet running a Microsoft operating system.
In Part II I cover cannibalization issues with the full sized iPads, performance and, of course, the cameras (like iPad2 and 3, there’s a front facing one for video calling and a rear facing one for taking pictures. It’s the latter that is of interest). I also address many of the things which are wrong with the iPad Mini. Suffice it to say that on a first acquaintance the iPad Mini fills a valid place in the product line from Apple and is a whole lot easier to carry than the already slim and slender full-sized device.
As hood ornament.
Spotted on Harrison Street in the Mission District the other day:
D2X, 16-35 AF-S lens.
One of the more unusual hood ornaments but irresistible given that a like device had found a home on my Leica M3 for some 35 years while I struggled with exposure before the days of automation. It never let me down, and as it used a selenium photovoltaic cell which needed no batteries, it never ran out of juice either.
Here’s mine just before I sold it in 2006, in rather better shape. These were made by Metrawatt under contract to Ernst Leitz.
I recall paying GBP 7.50 (ca. $18) for mine at the Wallace Heaton store on Old Bond Street in Mayfair in 1971, and sold it in 2006 for some $50. Mustn’t grumble. The store to the gentry, Wallace Heaton is long gone, but I’m sure my Leicameter is making a Leica M user happy to this day. Contrary to popular opinion, selenium cells do not die from too much light exposure. Their biggest killer is moisture seeping in past cracked rubber seals in the innards. A fine technology.
One lens only.
Because I tend to concentrate on a style I find it impossible to take a lens like a 180/200mm street snapping along with something wide. The style of seeing and thinking is so different it’s all long or all short for me. I am intellectually incapable of suddenly switching from long to wide, a process I have found results in mediocrity at both focal lengths. I don’t know, but would be prepared to bet that prime snappers have a far higher success rate than zoom users. For the former, economy of expression and intensity of focus come with the territory. For the avid zoomer everything is possible and all is mediocre.
Here are a few more from the outing the other day with the 180mm Nikkor which may explain what I’m rambling on about:
There’s this silly rocket at the old customs house on the
Embarcadero, aptly converted to good use by the lone gull.
This lovely oriental girl, dressed in high style, was there
for a moment. I looked down to check something and she was gone.
Mysterious shadows in the style of the great Saul Leiter.
The waiter was polishing glasses for the evening’s festivities.
In deep shadow, the f/2.8 aperture sings here.
From any angle in any light, impossible to resist.
The Portside building, framed by the Oakland Bay Bridge.
Two Art Deco masterpieces, built 50 years apart.