I'll protect you from the hooded claw,..

..keep the vampires from your door

So Frankie said, in the days before Holly became HIV positive. This evening I heard a posh version, sung in Italian by a male classical quartet. It was good enough, but synapses fired in my head. I knew the lyrics, the english lyrics, without having to look them up. Once upon a time this song reverberated near constantly in shared house and was played until the record (yes, a vinyl record) wore out. Gay or straight Frankie had a appeal beyond the manufactured gloss - disco (well strictly HiNRG) but with a trite message and expansive production values. Not much from that era has aged well, IMAO, but Frankie, well especially 'The Power of Love' - it still stirs.

And you thought I didn't have a soul.

I break Crumplers

Only as a consequence of being with me - not that I am deliberately setting out to break them - the contents are too valuable for that!
So what to do? Not another Crumpler - sorry, good, but not brilliant. Main gripe is lack of compression straps as closure backup coupled to too much stress on the main zipper. Overload? Who me? - well if it fitted in then it gets carried. Zippers were not up to it -I don't get surprised when a tab breaks off - do get annoyed when the top of the slider comes away. That is not acceptable - playing havoc with my nails! Now the stiffening panel is coming through the back padding; time to retire it.
Alternatives - well spent some time reading up on-line reviews. WTF is the point of writing a review the first day you own something - unless it arrived broken. Oooh, look a shiny thing! Tell me if it still works two years down the line when the shine has gone. I write fair reviews - I praise when praise is due and damn when damnation is deserved. I will not damn Crumpler - not a lifetime purchase, but put up with several years of my life and faired fairly well.
Problem - what to replace it with? Now, in depth reviews indicate that the obvious are not the necessarily the best. Doing what I do for a living I could pick up something SOF Spec with all the problems of getting GSA stuff into the UK. Except the only thing designed for my purposes would cost $500 (or over $600 if I added extra carry pouches and a hydration bladder). And it was not carry-on size even without the pouches and bladder. So I have just ordered something really cheap and reviewed well-$120 vs. $630!
I'll see how Tamrac fairs for now - if it does not work out there is always FPED - and I'll see if Diamondback Tactical will give me show discount on that $630.

3 legs are better than 2 ..or never happy

Someone said diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck at it. However, however persistent, even diamonds are NOT forever.

This week I replaced my travel tripod. Actually I sort of replaced it about 3 months ago - twice.

The skinny: a long time ago when I switched from Canon to Nikon pro gear a Nikon rep gave me a Nikon 'flying ducks' camera strap and a Nikon branded tripod. The tripod had a bog standard PT head, was a mix of plastic and metal and nothing outstanding - really the sort of thing you'd put a camcorder, not a pro SLR, on. But it was a) free b) a lot smaller and lighter than my Manfrotto 055 with Kirk ballhead. So it became my travel tripod riding in my suitcase everywhere I went. It was a lot, lot better than no tripod when a tripod was required. Until about 4 months ago when it finally gave up the ghost - it was old and all materials give out eventually.

I thought maybe it was time to get a proper travel tripod. Which means time to get a Gitzo, because everyone knows Gitzos are the very best travel tripods. However, Gitzos are very expensive - some would say priced appropriately - but IMVAO overpriced in comparison to the competition.

So I bought a Benro - which is a sort of Chinese clone of an older Gitzo range with some added features. It was good value for money BUT the one shipped did not have the features advertised on the website. It seems Benro update products without updating their names. Unfortunately the missing features were the clinchers - so it went back to the supplier. The same supplier who was unaware of the difference and not expecting any new stock for a while.

With a vacation looming I had to act quickly so I bid a ridiculously low price for a brand new and similar Giotto tripod on eBay. I won. The tripod arrived and had all the features I was looking for. It is light in comparison to the Manfrotto yet nearly as tall and can take the full weight of a pro digital SLR, flash and 18-200 zoom.. and the Kirk BH-1 ballhead. It folds smaller than the Nikon it replaced.

Wonderful! Except the night I attached my ballhead it tore the mounting thread right off the top plate. The problem was in order to accommodate both large (3/8) and small (1/4) whitworth tripod threads Giotto designed a cunning spring loaded scheme where the larger thread forms a sheath around the smaller. Not actually a clever thing to do. I managed to get the broken thread out of the ballhead (phew!) and attached to the tripod using a tripod bush adapter from my field fix kit. So everything okay ...ish.

I took the tripod on vacation and it performed flawlessly. At one point it was even stood in the foam on the edge of the sea as I took some shots of a distant town over the frothy ocean. It was everything I needed from a travel tripod and it had liberated the Kirk head from spending too long under the stairs.

Whilst I was away Giotto replied to my email complaining of the flaw in an otherwise near perfect tripod. They gave me the details of their UK distributor, Daymen. This week Daymen came through by replacing the centre column of the tripod with one that has a solid 3/8 thread. I am a very happy bunny. Top marks to Giotto for answering emails from half way round the world. Top marks for Daymen for standing by their products.

Yesterday my Crumpler photo/laptop finally reached its last legs after 3 years sterling service (it has gone everywhere I have been). Anyone got any recommendations for a replacement?

Old and venerable enemy

A black dog stalks the halls and passageways. He is here to see me. He is no threat to my life, though he once was. These days his visits are mercifully infrequent. I sense his approach for many days so that his arrival is not a tsunami of despair, but more gently lapping waves of apathy and neurotic uncertainty. If he were to trouble me greatly there are some tablets that could put him, not me, to sleep. However, I prefer to ride out his company, let him bide awhile at my side. He will stay, even in a room full of people, determined to make his presence felt. Then, in few hours or a few days, he will slip quietly away. The sun will shine just that bit brighter, the birds sing that bit louder. For however much I hate that dog, he belongs to me, he is my burden and as burdens go he is not that heavy. Many of you, some my friends, carry far heavier burdens. So when my dog and I sit quietly together in the inky stillness I will be thinking of you and wishing you well. My troubles are light in comparison.

Range Therapy

We all need something that absorbs us now and again. A diversion, an escape from the stresses of life . Okay you may surf or you may bake (and if you are one of my existing friends you probably have kink). Me, well apart from THAT I shoot. Well, I used to, quite frequently. Then the British Government lost the plot - and took all the guns away- and have not found that plot since, despite a huge RISE in gun crime. So opportunities to shoot are few and far between these days.

One of the stands at DSEi used to let you put a few rounds of training ammunition through a modern military firearm - the government have stopped that too - because they are mad as seven badgers. So now it is down to visits to friendly military bases or trips abroad. Like last week. So, the smell of cordite, the clunky mechanical feel, the ring of ejecting brass, the concentration of keeping shots on target. Therapeutic, range therapy. 100 rounds of 9mm through a rather dry and well worn MP5.

Sorry for the quality of the picture, phone, indoors, no flash, range owner with shakey hands. Taken to wind a mate up - we used to spend Sunday mornings scaring cardboard together - he is the guy who taught me practical pistol - and we have been some interesting scrapes around the world together. He saw his beloved collection of weapons taken away by the Police when the law went screwy. He always takes the piss I am off to Florida - accuses me of going soft in my old age. Sir is not soft - as someone once said of me 'beneath that warm exterior beats a heart of stone'.

Oh, and for those who have not seen me in a while, yeah I need to lose at least one and half stone. Someone give me a good reason and an extra day in the week.

Get a bloody move on

Some things governments choose to never adequately explain. In the Ordovician period of the Paleozoic era, the Earth was in an ice age with atmospheric CO2 estimated at 4400ppm (or 0.44% of the atmosphere). So why exactly is this government and others obsessed with carbon footprints? Why exactly? The temperature of the earth fluctuates quite alarmingly, but over fairly long cycles. The climate is changing at the moment. This may turn out to be a global warming. Now in some scientific circles Earth is viewed as being in an ice age when it has polar caps. Could be we are just leaving an ice age. Bad news for polar bears and penguins. Bad news for London, New York, Sydney and a host of low lying islands. If you think carbon taxes are the answer to this - well you probably believe in God and the tooth fairy as well.

I was never one for believing in global conspiracies. For one thing governments are just never that organized. So what the fuck is going on? Well, there is such a thing as collective stupidity. And there is such a thing as opportunistic expediency. HINT

So I am one of those denying global warming? Er, no, re-read what I wrote above. Be careful people, be very careful in what you allow yourselves to believe, or be told to believe.

So, the price of fish? Well actually I want to talk about 4x4s/SUVs. Now in the eyes of some of the more extreme environmental lobby these are the devil's wheels. Forget actually there are other cars on the roads which cause more pollution including emitting more CO2. Forget that the environmental impact of building, running and (crucially) disposing of an electric car is FAR worse.

Look up the Jeep Wrangler on the web. Specifically look up the report from a U.S. think-tank that uses it as an illustration of a GREEN car. Provocative? Tongue-in-cheek? I drive a Jeep Wrangler. I don't think it is very green. About the only good thing I can say about my current Jeep is that is more fuel efficient (by about 20%) than my last. But a tank of petrol (gas) still costs me over £60 ($120) and it does not go that far (typically ~240 miles).

Cars could have been made more efficient for a long time. But there has not been much impetus in the car industry - and some industries, like the petroleum industry, have been all too pleased about that.

In a couple of years I am going to replace this Wrangler. My requirements will not have changed. I need an optionally open topped vehicle at least as off-road capable as an unladen snatch Land Rover, but comfortable enough for motorway commutes and smart enough not to look out of place in Islington. It will need a hi/lo box, at least 31" tyres, full size self-recovery winch, excellent articulation including sway disconnects, and off-road final ratio (I'll live with a bigger bill on motorways if necessary).

So at the Detroit Motor Show I see some promise; about bloody time! Hummer HX Concept - nice, if a little of a style crib from the 2006 Jeep Hurricane Concept. At least it has four seats (or more cargo space). Looks like a proper drive set up, good ground clearance, proper articulation. Don't know about the multi-fuel engine though. Is biofuel (E85) really that beneficial to the environment? - a lot of people seem to suggest not. But it is a start and compared to earlier Hummers I would say at least G.M. are listening at last.

And then there is the Jeep Renegade Concept. True hybrid electric drive although only axle motors rather than General Dynamics Shadow's smarter (although I expect more expensive) hub motors. 120 mpg - and those are American gallons; this looks good, but chopping out two seats, the spare? you're gonna save weight anyway. I like the idea of greatly improved fuel economy. I wonder about the lithium battery life (and safe disposal) - NASA is looking at storage capacitance to replace rechargeable batteries - so should the car industry. And axle articulation? I see no mention or pictures of a raisable suspension - it will need one if it is to match a Wrangler Rubicon. Put that technology in a smoothed off Wrangler Rubicon - maybe even an Unlimited Rubicon - I'll buy it.

G.M., Jeep maybe even Land Rover - anyone listening?