Swine Fever!

Today I must confess I crossed the line from interested to addicted. I mentioned the Bath pigs in an earlier post and the fear that, seized by collector urges, I might might find my self traipsing around the city trying to get a picture of each one.

The addiction started quite innocently, I would encounter Pigs on my way to places in Bath, and take a quick picture. No harm in that I thought. Then I found myself taking little detours, just to see if I might ‘happen’ across a pig or two. Then the chaps at work started to talk about ones they’d seen, and I’d find a vague excuse to walk that direction. Yesterday I crossed the line, yesterday I set out specifically to photograph pigs on the other side of the city. Its a slippery slope down from here.

I’m not alone though, flickr already has a support group for pig spotters, and perhaps, once we have all one hundred, we can get back to life and resume our normal lunch hours.

At least I’ve been able to indulge my geek urges by geotagging pig locations on flickr , using the tremendous trippermap . Using trippermap and google earth actually turned out to be far more fun than using the GPS on my phone.

Split screens, on the big screen

I don’t know how this has escaped my notice for so long, the IMCDB website provides a movie search facility for cars! You can use it to see glimpses of cars in all sorts of films, particularly interesting if they happen to be lurking in period street scenes.

As if that wasn’t enough a comment facility is provided to allow endless debate on fascinating topics, like whether or not the wheel nuts are the right vintage for the vehicle. Looking up T25’s (listed under Vanagon) I found a bunch of spotters discussing if a police bus, really was a police bus. Its all down to the shade of green don’t you know.

On the site the hardcore spotters can even take on the challenge of identifying unknown vehicles from movie scenes. Its also great to see that some of my other old vehicular obsessions/tragedies are represented, namely the wobbly but wonderful Commer van, and the under rated though rapidly rusting Austin 1300.

Chilly Pop Tops

Once I’d fitted seat belts, the missus immediately came up with a new bus threatening issue. The elevating roof in our T25 camper isn’t insulated and there was a danger of the nippers catching a chill up there. Presumably this was due to a sub-Antarctic microclimate which develops up there at night, which I had some how failed to notice thus far.

I could really only come up with one scheme, to extend the concept of thermal window screens to cover the whole roof.

I ordered a vast quantity of screen material and some attachments online from the excellent Olearys, and was rather impressed when the order arrived a couple of days later.

Working with the screen material is pretty easy, it can be cut with scissors and doesn’t fray. It isn’t cheap so I found it useful to make my mistakes with cloth patterns first.

Commercially made screens are typically edged with webbing like material. This looked easy enough to do but when I consulted a well-respected sewing guru on the difficultly of the job, they turned pale in horror and began gasping for breath. Interpreting this as a negative sign, I took the quick option and edged my screens with silver masking tape. Its looks ok at the moment, only time will tell if this is a durable solution.

In order to attach the screens I used screw in press-studs, or least tried to. The studs are provided in two parts, which are positioned on either side of the material and then hammered together to close. The problem I found is that the hammered over edges are not strong enough to survive the force needed to pull the stud off the socket, and they frequently separate. I still haven’t found a satisfactory solution to this.

The screens where tested for the first time last week, and I’m pleased to report that there was no sign of frost, snow or huskies in the roof, and that nippers didn’t get par boiled either.  A handy side effect of the screens is that they cut out light, which was always a bit of problem with the thin canvas roof.

Belt up in the back.

I’ve just taken on the challenge of fitting a three point seat belt into the rear of my trusty, if rather rusty, VW T25 camper. The lack of three point seat belts, in this case to accommodate a child seat, is the first of the potentially bus threatening issues I mentioned in an earlier post.

I started out by looking on the web to see how it should be done, in these safety conscious days I reasoned there must be a lot of demand, so it should be easy to find instruction, or people providing a fitting service. I was partly right, there is demand. Forums are full of people asking how it can be done, bits can be brought, but they come without fitting instructions. I would hazard that is because nobody wants to be held be responsible should the information they give prove to be incorrect.

I’m in the same position, but having benefited from other people’s posts on the matter I do want to give something back and add my experiences to the collective web wisdom.

I’m not mechanic or safety expert, and these aren’t intended to be instructions. I’ll describe what I found and did, the reader has to take responsibility for their own actions.

The basic procedure is:

1. Find rear seat belt mounting points
2. Drill holes and attach mounts.
3. Fit and test harness
4. Replace furniture
5. (Optional) Marvel at selection of left over screws and washers, wonder where they came from, and if they are important.

Seat Belt Mounts

Before a belt is fitted it needs a reinforced area to fit to. Don’t bother trying to use the VIN to figure what mounts you have, its not normally accurate enough and they may have been fitted after market.

If the bus has lap belt mounts there are typically three mount points, the middle one serving two belts.

The easiest mount to find is under the n/s/r wheel arch, leading edge. They are fairly weedy though, about 1in by 2in.

Not many bus’ have a shoulder height belt mounting at the rear. Exceptions are late production models (1990), Westys and caravelles.

Seat Belt Harness’

Before buying belts think carefully about what the belts and inertia reel will foul or tangle. Given the cunning construction of camper interiors its easy to overlook this given that cupboard doors open, hatches lift, beds rock, and often times roll, into positions you might not expect.

Some light commercials use a 3 point mount, where the inertia reel is mounted at shoulder height. This could save a lot of work when fitting seat belts because only 3 mounts are needed, and the one that isn’t need is the hardest to reach, at floor level. Unfortunately, in a T25 camper, with this type of belt, the reel typically fouls the engine bay cover.

Securon make most after market belts in the England, including the ones the converter of my bus, Bilbos, fitted in the eighties, and the ones JK sell. I called Securon, they don’t sell to the public, but you can ask your local motor factors to order from them. Their website http://www.securon.co.uk/ also includes detailed product information on belts and fitting schemes.

Fitting

Fitting the belts, that is bolting them into the bus, feels like the easy part of the job after all the research, and the epic job of removing the furniture and carpet hiding the seat belt mounts.

Fitting is basically a case of locating the holes VW provided for seat belts, or making new ones. The links at the end of this post show locations. Once the holes are found (or drilled) the mounting plate is located on one side and the anchor or webbing or the reel on the other.

The VW service sheet states that a torque of 30lb/ft Should be used, but this is pretty hefty.

There is considerable debate online as to whether or not mounting plates should be welded in place. Opinion varies, some folk say it is needed for strength, but others state it is only to keep the plates in place while fitting, and just a couple of spot welds is enough. I’ve also read about using a rivet for the same purpose. It is interesting to note that that the original mounts on my bus aren’t welded.

The rear, shoulder level, seat belt mounting point can be accessed by removing the rear air vent. Here’s a tip: When working in the rear air intake it’s a good idea to put something underneath where you are working to prevent bits falling down and getting lost between the interior an exterior panel work. A good old-fashioned wad of rag is perfect for this.

I found these links particularly helpful when I was doing my research:

• A chap who fitted OEM belts is here.
• Pictures of OEM seat belts in place.
• VW service bulletins describing fitting and mounting point locations.
• Notes on installation in a Caravelle, with good pictures.

Pigs in….Bath

A couple of weeks ago pigs started poping up all over the City Bath. At first I was somewhat puzzled, where they a student prank? a CCTV cameras hidden to catch felons? A race of slow moving alien beings who had skimped a bit on their preparatory research?

It may surprise you to learn that it was none of the above, as I found out reading the website of the people behind the project. The sculptures are collectively known as King Bladud’s Pigs. Legend has it King Bladud discovered the healing properties of the Bath springs, which lead to the foundation of Bath itself.

I was delighted to see that the aim of the stunt is to raise funds for the Two Tunnels project, a new sustrans cycle route, that could knock miles off journeys by cutting through a fairly substantial hill.

I was less delighted to learn that 100 different pigs are to be scattered about the city. Although I shall try to resist, I fear my spotter urges will take over and I’ll feel obliged to try to photograph them all.

Summer = bus

According to the calendar, if not the ambient temperature, summer is nearly here, and that means it’s time to dust off the trusty VW T25 (Vanagon to some) camper ready for another season of holidays.

We’ve had the T25 for years, and it has become a trusted travel companion. Our first trips started with it full of beer, then mountain bikes, then various tandems and more recently, children. The later however, are causing the greatest problems for the bus, in fact they threaten its very existence!

Our bus is a classic VW conversion, as offered by Devon, Westafallia, Holdsworth, and in our case Bilbos, it’s a fantastic spacious layout for two travelers, but its not really designed with families in mind. Each year, as the children grow, there is a new problem to figure out. Where do you sleep another toddler? How can they travel safely?, where do we put all their stuff?

As luck would have it, the solutions to the problems normally involve a couple of hours drinking tea and pondering, a frantic trip to screwfix, and a few hours using core bloke skills like hammering, drilling and swearing.

Last year the problem was beds. Where do you put an engergetic toddler when the roof is out of bounds and there is only a double bed? I looked around and there wasn’t an off the shelf solution. The closest thing was a cab bunk from bluebird, but it doesn’t work if you happen to have head rests. In the end I built a bespoke bed base which rested on the cab seats and laid in a giant hammock strung between the head rests and sunvisors. It worked rather well, and had had the handy advantage of stopping nimble fingers accessing the controls.

This year the problems are multipled; we have a bigger, more energetic, more destructive toddler, and a new, not even one year old, grabbing, chomping baby. I think a lot of tea and pondering will be called for……

Murphy’s (Revised) Law

The other day I wanted to go home on time, I wasn’t selfish, I didn’t want to leave work early, just on time. So, almost inevitably, an hour before close of play a software problem arose which I was obliged to stay and fix.

So why do these problems always occur last thing in the day, and why hasn’t anyone coined a law for it ? Murphy’s law is too general, this the more specific:

“If you have somewhere to go, something will break and prevent you going there, the severity of the problem will be proportional to the importance of your appointment, and inversely proportional to the complexity of the cause, and the time you have to fix it.”

To put it another way:
If you have somewhere really important to be, a really critical problem will occur, caused by a stupid thing, minutes before you have to leave.”

So, I call for a new law, or a revision to Murphy’s law, if anyone knows who I should contact, and which forms I should fill in, please get in touch; but don’t leave it until the end of the day!

Flashgun Overload Concerns

In a recent post about the Metz 36 AF-4 Flashgun on the Canon Powershot G7 I mentioned the alarming warning in the Metz manual stating that, when using fast recycling times, one should: ‘observe an interval of at least 10 minutes after 15 flashes, otherwise the flash unit will be overloaded’

I wrote to the British Metz distributor to find out more, and I was impressed to receive an answer the following day.

They explained that the warning is actually applied to all their flash units, even the top end models. I happened upon a Mecablitz 58 manual and this is indeed the case.

The danger is basically that repeated rapid firing will cause the unit to heat up, fry components, permanently damage the flash and spoil your day.

The rapid firing which can lead to the problem is said to be continuous shooting where recycling times are less than two seconds.

Considering this input from Metz I asked myself if there was anything to be concerned about?

I use 2100mAh NiMh batteries and these regularly charge the flash within two seconds, considering it’s continuous shooting speed is two frames per second, I expect that if pushed the G7 could take a shot, with external flash, every 2.5 seconds, fairly close to maximum Metz warned about.

So, the short answer to the question is yes, but not very often.

Powershot G7 & Metz 36 AF-4C Flashgun

Hmmmm, the title sounds rather like one of those dodgy industrial bands I used to listen to at college, but actually this post is about cameras.

I recently brought a Metz Mecablitz 36 AF4 flashgun for my Canon Powershot G7, I thought I’d scribble down my thoughts, for no other reason than during my research I couldn’t find any other posts from people using the same combination.

First and foremost, the flash works, talks to the camera without a problem and gets exposure close each time, I normally only need to underexpose by a third of a stop to get it right. It does introduce a slight lag, and is by no means as quick as the internal flash. That said, at Gn36 it has a plenty of pop.

As you might expect, the handling of the G7 is thrown by the attachment of a large chunk of plastic, roughly the same size as the camera itself. It takes some getting used to, although the addition of a lens adapter brings the balance back and makes it feel quite natural.

For a G7 or G9 I think the Mecablitz 36 AF4 is a good match, it’s one of the most compact flashes to offer a tilting head, although its a shame it doesn’t have a built in diffuser. The battery compartment id is very fiddly, but battery life is good, so its not a big problem. The other reservation I have is that the manual recommends a 10 minute break if you fire off 15 flashes in quick succession, especially when high powered batteries allow rapid recycling. This is to avoid thermal overload and permanent damage to the unit. The manual doesn’t specify what interval ‘quick succession’ is so it makes one rather cautious.

Is that a (D)SLR in your pocket ?

Earlier this month I was looking for a new camera. My 2001 vintage digital Pentax Optio 330GS has served me well, but I couldn’t help but feel it lacking compared to modern cameras. In particular it only had 3MP resolution, the auto-focus was slow and the shutter lag was so marked I mostly took pictures of places my daughter had just been.

I wanted a capable compact, most of my photography these days is incidental, I never go out to take photos, but I make sure I always have my camera should opportunity present itself. Unfortunately this is invariably when I’m trying stop one of my kids causing mischief, so one handed operation is a must, a built in child net wouldn’t go a miss either.

The need for ‘compact and capable’ lead me pretty quickly to the Canon Powershot G9. It boasts full manual, a raft of convenience settings, hot shoe, good resolution and fairly fast lens. The real clincher was the lens adapter, it allows any 58mm filter to be fitted the camera, genius!

I was ready to part with my cash until I realised; “I can get a DSLR for that!”

Now there’s another thing, where did I find the best price on a DSLR? The Internet? The camera specialist? Nope, Dixons. The much maligned high street retailer. They had the Olympus 410, the smallest DSLR on the market, with a decent kit lens for less than a powershot G9.

A lot folk don’t like the E-410, mostly due to the four thirds lens system. They say the E-410 doesn’t compare well to other DLSRs, especially if you consider the cost and choice of wider system components like flash, and lenses. That may be so, but compare it to a compact camera or a bridge/prosumer in the same price bracket an you have a very strong contender.

I pondered for a while. The Olympus offered good resolution, and all the creative potential a DSLR brings, especially the promise of more options around depth of field and the potential to add at least one more lens. A standard zoom is reasonably priced even if most other four thirds lenses are costly. Unusually it offers compact like live view in the back LCD.

It was a close run race. Until I handled the E-410. I just didn’t sit right, it’s compact because it doesn’t have hand grip, but what a difference that makes. The camera lacks balance compared to say the Canon 400d or Nikon 40. I could have easily put up with that, the G9 doesn’t handle all that well either, but that’s somewhat expected with a compact. Then I squinted through the view finder, I found it small and narrow, I knew that having been spoilt by the brightness and generous dimensions of my Canon 50e view finder I couldn’t down size.

Dejected I left the shop, I needed my gadget fix, but I wasn’t prepared to spend DSLR money on a compact, and I didn’t want a DLSR that handled like a compact.

Something had to give, and for once taking time to make a decision payed off, in the time it took me to research the alternatives, the predecessor to the G9, the G7, dropped in price. The gap, in terms of features I wanted, between the G7 and G9 was pretty small, and there wasn’t a decision to make anymore. I’ve ordered a G7 and I can finally get my head out of specification tables and back into taking pictures!