Chippy's Hiblue Lab

I’m extremely happy with my Panasonic FZ150 – a 12MP bridge camera with 24x optical zoom and a compact sensor. Yes, a compact sensor. Although I get the advantage of a lightweight cam with up to 50X of non-degraded zoom (at 5mp) I don’t have the advantage of tiny F-Stops or sensors that are able to receive 10 times the light that a DSLR would. It would be a major issue if the FZ150 didn’t have such an amazing stabilization system…

The two pictures above were taken at full zoom….handheld.  That’s 50x non-degrading zoom at 5MP on a 12MP sensor. That moon is obviously a long way away. I’ve cropped the image but it still looks impressive. The helicopter was a long way away too. Here’s the 1:1 version….

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Tags: bridge camera, panasonic FZ150, photoblogging

I’m testing Beta 2 of the new WordPress 2.0 for Android application and I like what I see so far. The team have implemented windows (I assume fragments on 3.x – I’m testing on a Galaxy Tab 7 with 2.3.5) and completely re-designed the user interface with an icon-based dashboard and a new editor.

The content editor now allows images to be added anywhere in the post.



Here for example.

And. . .



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Tags: moblogging, Wordpress

You might have heard me having a moan about my Galaxy Tab 7 (original) recently. It’s been a bit stuttery and slow for the last 4 or 5 months and despite firmware upgrades and a recent factory reset, it still wasn’t performing. I was considering buying a Galaxy 7 Plus to replace it.

A reboot would smooth things out but after a few hours of use it would occasionally hang for a second or two, progressively getting worse. Turning off background sync and reducing the number of running programs helped but never totally fixed the issues which would progressively get worse over 48 hours and then result in total lock-up needing a hard reset.

I think I may have fixed the issue now though and if it remains as good as it is now, I won’t need to upgrade my Tab.

A few days ago I upgraded the firmware using the ODIN flash tool to a new generic ROM built on 2.3.5. I cleared and reset the internal flash too. After re-installing just the bare minimum of apps, the problem was back after a short while.
Yesterday I tested a Galaxy Note side-by-side with the Tab and was embarrassed to see my Tab coughing and sputtering its way through tests. Something was definitely wrong. I searched and searched for news of others with the same issue but found nothing concrete.

In the end I did two things and one of these has fixed my Tab and made it buttery smooth again.

1 – Data settings changed. I used to let the Wifi switch off when the screen was off in order to save power because at home, I always run in aircraft mode. You can do this under advanced settings in the Wifi setup screen. (press menu key.) I’ve changed that now. I leave the phone on, turn off background data and configure the Wifi to stay on all the time. This is likely to shorten my battery life. I’ll be keeping an eye on it. I want to go back to ‘phone off’ mode if possible as my Tab is not my primary phone.

2 – I unmounted my microSD card. I think this was the changed that fixed my issues.

Obviously I need to do more testing to find out which change was really responsible and I need to use the Tab for a few more days to be sure but I know my Tab so well that I can already sense it’s working way, way better now. I event seen any stuttering since I did the change 12 hours ago.

My theory is that my microSD card either has an error, is too slow or too fragmented. It’s an 8GB no-brand class 2 card. Maybe the media scanner was getting tripped up. Mabe some other process was getting tripped up? Right now I don’t care. Having cleaned my system for the firmware upgrade I have 12GB free for my media and that will be enough. The MicroSD card stays out of the system for the time being. It could be that the microSD card reduces performance even if it’s a good one.

Try unmounting your microSD card to see if it speeds up your Galaxy Tab.

I’ll keep you updated on progress here.

Tags: 2.3.5, firmware, galaxy Tab, issues, microSD

This low-light handheld test is important for me as it’s one of my most-used scenarios. I’m also interested in telephoto shots at on-stage press events and various types of video but for my first Panasonic Lumix Z150 test I wanted to see how much better it was than my old (5 year old) Canon S2IS 5MP bridge camera. Of course it’s a massive improvement. I’m estimating a total 8x quality improvement of sensitivity, stabiliser and definition through sensor pixel count and lens. That’s a massive 3 f-stops of usefulness.

All my Lumix FZ150 posts are shown together here.

In this test I took a large number of shots of a multimeter (showing a LUX reading of around 95 from a big 30W daylight-temperature CFL energy-saving bulb 2M away) and chose the best pictures to analyse.

The other two devices used were the Canon S2IS and my Nokia N8 which has a larger sensor than both of the bridge cameras. To help make the images easy to compare I set the ISO at 400 and took the images at about 15 cm, the distance at which the multimeter was full-frame in the non-zoom Nokia N8.

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Tags: camera, canon S2is, handheld, low-light, nokia n8, panasonic FZ150, test

Here’s the unboxing and walk-round of the Panasonic Lumix FZ150 that I’m starting to test for my online photo and video work. The unboxing was done a few days ago so I’m already well into testing. In terms of sensor performance it’s doing what I expected. It’s completely trashing my 5-yr old Canon S2IS bridge camera. Interestingly though, it’s getting better results than the Nokia N8 in a handheld low-low-light test. It’s an important test for me and an important result because the Nokia N8 is a quality camera and has a larger sensor. On top of that the FZ150 has an amazing image stabilization system. The N8 is still a camera I will use because it’s tiny and internet-connected but the FZ150 is opening up new photography possibilities. Once again, I haven’t bought a DSLR because I don’t believe I need that much focus on quality photography. What I do is not photography! I don’t really fancy the weight and cost of a DSLR either. Maybe the FZ150 is something for you too? Stay tuned for more posts.

Video below…

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Tags: bridge camera, moblogging, online photography, panasonic FZ150, photoblogging

I like photography but I don’t have the time for it. For my work, however, I need a camera. I don’t call that photography, I call it blogography and it needs a different type of device. I’ve just bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ150 which I’m hoping will fulfill an important role in my job as an online reporter.

DSLRs are wonderful bits of kit with amazing light sensitivity, fast processing, quick startup and quality lenses. They are great for photographers, but not for bloggers who need a different kind of media device. Here’s my list of requirements…

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Tags: bridge camera, canon S2is, hd video, nokia n8, panasonic FZ150

This is a demo video and demo blog.

Video recorded, produced, uploaded from the Nokia N8. Embed code grabbed by ‘share’ing the embed code from the YouTube app. to the WordPress app on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Photo sent from N8 to Tab via Bluetooth and then embedded in the post.It’s a simple, quick process.

Total tIme to record, edit, upload and write post is under 10 minutes [correction. Its was closer to 15 minutes] which is fast for a single-man setup of 570gms and about €650. All-day battery life too! Let me know what you think about the quality of the video. Is it good enough for a first hands-on demo?

Tags: galaxy Tab, journalism, mobile, moblogging, nokia n8, video

Finally, after some 8 months or more of speculation and rumors that the N8 would get a 2.0 firmware update, it happened. ‘Anna’ arrived.

For customers that spent 500 Euros on an N8 last year it’s a huge sigh of relief. For those thinking about a new cameraphone, I can tell you that there’s very little to moan about now. The software is mature, the price is right.

Portrait keyboard, simpler browsing, a re-worked icon set (that my wife says is cheap ‘like Linux’, I think it looks good!) and fixes all-round. For example, my OVI store now works again after being out of action for a month or more.

The N8 is still no high-end smartphone but as a media phone, the value for money here is amazing. Recent price drops have brought the device down to near €300.

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Tags: cameraphone, mobile video, N8

I honestly don’t know why we like our family camping trips. Our garden is bigger than the average local camping pitch area, our car is so small that the rest of the family has to take the train and there’s usually a three week ‘window’ in which we feverishly check weather and try and juggle our work schedules to suit any sign of extended sun.

Still, despite that, we seem to like it.

We’re of for a three day local camp with our 10-yr old daughter and her friend and our little 16-month old son tomorrow and there’s just one thing bothering me. No, I’ve already got a process for keeping beer cool and I have no worries about being able to get a decent Schnitzel. It’s something else.

Will there be coverage?

I have no intentions of going ‘off the grid’ on this short holiday. While I don’t mind that as a test scenario, if i’m honest, there’s rarely a place I’m going where I haven’t got a few minutes to check mail, update statuses and do the ‘here’s my awesome holiday photo while you work’ thing. I want to stay online if possible.

I’ve checked the provider coverage maps and even have a few different SIM cards with me but you never know. 64Kbps can cut-in at any time and you don’t want that to happen when you’re in the middle of a good Google Plus thread.

There’s no way of knowing until I get there.

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Tags: camping, handheld pc, mobile, viliv S7

Having covered Meego news from many countries and attended Meego and Maemo conferences in three countries I would argue that the biggest contributing country is Germany. If it’s not #1, its up there in the top 5.

So why have Nokia taken work done by these talented people, built a product on it and then decided not to selling to them? The same applies to the UK and US and many other countries.

If something is going to be built on open source software, shouldn’t it be available to everyone?
Meego, controlled by the Linux Foundation should write this into their terms. If you want to use the Meego brand in your marketing, you jolly-well make sure its available to the people that worked on it.

At the least, the Linux Foundation need to publicize the official line from Nokia. Why? Are there legal issues? Carriers complaining?

The best case scenario is that all those that contributed should get a reduced-cost product. 50% off retail sounds fair. If Intel, their customers and the Linux Foundation want to see more developer input, they can’t let this closed-distribution continue.

Nokia appear to have closed the lid on the Meego software, removed funding and put the N9 out there beyond the reach of many. No only in terms of location; Have you seen the price?

Play with the right spirit Nokia.

http://www.meegoexperts.com/2011/08/germany-confirmed-n9-nokia-meego-harmattan/