New Equipment

I obtained new equipment. It came from mainland China.

As you can see on movies such as “Gremlins” or “Little Shop of Horrors”, strange things always come from China town. In the end, they cause big disaster that owners can’t handle. I ordered new equipment to real China, not China town in the States. You can imagine how much I was worried.

In the States or Japan, I feel pretty comfortable when I order things over the internet . But once it comes to China, it all of sudden stats sounding a little bit fishy. I know the fact that this is my stupid prejudice. It is, therefore, very difficult fix my idea.

Well, enough roundabout. I bought IR converted compact digital camera(Canon PowerShot S400).

At this time of the last year, I was shooting around with IR film in my Rolleicord Vb. This year, I wanted to convert a compact digital camera to IR dedicated camera.

I did a lot of researches. I found out Nikon Coolpix 995 is a very good material to convert. They are sold around $150.00 on eBay. You also need IR filter, which is about $100. Total of $250.00., if I did not ruin it. Of course some degree of dexterity is required.

During my research, I found IR converted PowerShot was on eBay. It is only $80.00. It was a very good deal, if it was not a scam. It was actually cheaper than the cost of materials.

$80.00. What ‘s the heck! Even if this was a scam, I would not have to commit suicide for only $80.00.I ordered it. To my big surprise, it came to me in 4 days from Beijing, China. Hey, good job, China!

The box contained only camera, battery, and battery charger. It did not come with operation manual. This really sounds Chinese.
I test shot around my house, at the entrance, and in my back yard.

Simple algebra. $250.00 - $80.00 = $170.00. What should I do with rest of $170.00?

Anyway, this is a great toy for this summer.

My new year's resolution. How far have I come?

( Farmer's Market, San Francisco, CA )





It has been both fast and slow. A half of the year 2009 has over.

I think it might be a very good time to look back my new year’s resolution to see how much I have accomplished so far.

Here are my new year’s resolution.
1) Organize my old films.
2) Master Photoshop.
3) Get rid of cameras that I don’t use very often.
4) Obtain DSR.
5) Decide some themes to shoot.

Well, let’s see how I have been doing.


1.Organize my old films.
Not done. To be precise, I haven’t even started yet. I deeply regret that I chose this as a part of my new year’s resolution. I am not going to do it next year and forever.

2.Master Photoshop.
In progress. I have not mastered it yet, however. Still long way to go.

3.Get rid of cameras that I don’t use very often.
Done! When I visited Japan in May, I sold some camera that I don’t use very much. These included Olympus PEN FT with two lenses, Bessa-R with two lenses, Nikon u with two lenses, Rolleicord Vb and accessories, A24 film back for Hasselblad.

4.Obtain DSR.
Done! Now I am a proud owner of Canon 30D.

5.Decide some themes to shoot.
Not done. It was very good of me to have thought this way. But I have not done anything like this. Shame on me.　


I got some money, obviously, by selling my old cameras. It was “not too much, but not too bad”. The money did not go to my saving account. As soon as I got money, it changed to new lenses for my 30D. In my religion, camera money has to go to cameras.

For my 30D, all I had was Tamron AF 18-270mm F3.5-6.3 Di-II VC. Of course it is not good enough for me. I bought Canon EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 ISUSM and CanonのEF-S 10-22mm F3.5-4.5 USM.

The other lenses in my wish list are good telephoto and macro lenses. It would be nice to have extender with telephoto lens.

Well, I have achieved two and a half of my new year’s resolution out of five. Not too bad, ah? I am kind of proud of myself.

Notice of uploading

My album "Alcatraz" has been uploaded.