B+W XS-Pro MRC Nano 72mm and 58mm UV (010M) Filters
People often say that camera lenses are expensive and one should get UV filter to protect the front lens elements. These UV filters, as the name implies, filters out the ultraviolet spectrum of the light although newer digital cameras, nowadays, do not really need these as they have inbuilt UV filter in the camera body. So these UV filters (in front of the camera lenses) are there to prevent that little nephew of yours from poking his chocolate smudged fingers directly onto the lens.
UV filters typically cost between an affordable $10 to ridiculous prices in the range of hundreds but what are the differences between the few hundreds and the $10 piece? To list a few, they are:
- Light transmission quality – Depending on the manufacturing process and material, they have different light transmission quality, some cuts off quite a fair bit of light as it passes through the filter, some cuts off lesser. In general, the higher light transmission quality, the better.
- Surface coating - No coating, single-coat or multi-coat. These coating, in general, reduces the effect of light flare. Coating may also make the filter easier to clean. In general, multi-coated filters manage flares better
- Filter thickness – The thicker the filter, the higher the chances that you get vignetting effect on your shots which might be undesirable for most. In general, the filter should be as slim as possible with front thread for you to attach other filters on it (e.g. ND filter)
Therefore, the UV filter that you are choosing will affect your image/picture quality. I’ve bought cheap UV filters and slightly more expensive filters (from B+W). Honestly, I felt that the B+W XS-Pro MRC Nano UV Filters (010) are worth every penny. To understand why, read on until you get to the pictures test.
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This is the package that comes with the Yongnuo YN-468 II eTTL II Flash
I’ve been looking around for a speedlite flash gun ever since I saw one in action in a dim cafe. The outcome is unbeliveable, the subject is properly exposed at higher shutter speed. So one can be drunk and still take sharp images. Ok, probably not entirely drunk, I think tipsy would be better word.
The Canon Speedlites like the Canon Speedlite 580EX II and Canon Speedlite 430EX II are pretty expensive and you might not need all those expert features. If you are like me, just need a simple flash gun that automatically set the flash power base on my lens-to-subject distance (TTL) then you are reading the right post. The reason for the e-TTL/e-TTL II is because I am bad at manual flash power settings (at the moment) so I would prefer technology to handle all those while I concentrate on composing my shots.
So at the end of the day, the flash gun I am looking for should:
- be compatible with my Canon EOS 60D
- be able to correctly expose my subject depending on my lens-to-subject distance
- cost less than $300
- Support slave triggering
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For those that are not aware, CyanogenMod 9 nightlies for HP TouchPad just went live a few days ago. Yes, now you are able to update your HP TouchPad with the latest CyanogenMod as soon as patches are merged into the tenderloin build.
I just flashed the 30th March 2012 nightly and things are working fine. The boot animation changed to be similar to the one we had in CM7.
For those who are on CM9 and want to flash the nightly release, simply:
How to use ClockWorkMod to apply/install updates
- Reboot/Boot the TouchPad
- On the moboot screen, press the volume key to stop the countdown process
- Using the volume key, change the selection to “boot ClockworkMod”
- Confirm the selection by pressing on the “home” key
A bunch of text would appear while ClockworkMod boots. You will be greeted by a menu titled “CWM-based recovery”
- In the “CWM-based recovery” screen, use the volume key and change the selection to “install zio from sdcard”
- Confirm the selection by pressing on the “home” key
- In the “Apply update from .zip file on SD card” screen, select “choose zip from sd card”
- Navigate to the “cminstall” folder and select the package you like to update (e.g. nightly build)
- In the “Confirm install?” screen, select “Yes – Install ….”
A bunch of text will appear and when update is completed, it will state “Install from sdcard complete”
- You will be back at the “Apply update from .zip file on SD card” screen, you can follow steps 7 to 9 to update the rest of the packages. Once done, continue to Step 11
- In the “Apply update from .zip file on SD card” screen, select “+++++Go Back+++++”
- In the “CWM-based Recovery” screen, select “reboot system now” to reboot the system back into CyanogenMod
- Your HP TouchPad has been updated!
Have fun with the CM9 nightlies!
The ASUS RT-N66U is going for some basic speed test!
The ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight is a Dual-band Wireless-N900 Gigabit router. It supports dual-band 5GHz and 2.4GHz with speeds up to 450Mbps concurrently. Meaning to say, you can reach up to 450Mbps on each individual radio (5GHz, 2.4GHz), that explains the Wireless-N900 portion (450Mbps + 450Mbps). Get it?
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ASUS RT-N66U running TomatoUSB firmware!
TomatoUSB is an alternative open source firmware for Broadcom-based routers like the ASUS RT-N66U Black Knight. It is a modification of the famous Tomato Firmware but with built-in support for USB port, wireless-N support. Check out this entry for an overview of the ASUS RT-N66U Black Knight.
Some of the TomatoUSB features are:
- Very advanced QoS (Quality of Service) configuration
- Advanced wireless configurations (WDS, wireless client modes, etc)
- Graphical bandwidth usage monitor
- Printer server: access USB printer from LAN
- Media server DLNA
- Built-in support for USB – 3G, Storage
You can view more information about TomatoUSB here. You can always flash it back to the original firmware by following this guide and specifying the original firmware instead.
Not sure why are you flashing third party firmware?
I am flashing TomatoUSB into my ASUS RT-N66U due to the following:
- DHCP reservation in the original firmware do not work really well. For some reason, some clients just do not get their reserved IP correctly despite having the correct MAC address
- DHCP reservation in the original firmware does not give clues what you are reserving for. I felt that besides allowing you to enter the “MAC address” and “IP address”, it should allow you to enter “Hostname/Comments” so that I will know what that line is for
- Basic implementation of QoS in original firmware. This is subjective, to some, the QoS is just fine but the one in firmware 3.1.0.3.90 keeps assigning lowest priority to the first 3 custom rules. To be fair, this is fixed if you flash up to 3.0.0.3.108
- No option of defining range of DHCP client list in original firmware. For some reason, it just distributes ALL available IP addresses. For me, I prefer to cut my available IP addresses into 2 blocks – one for static machines/servers and the other for any clients
So are you ready to flash TomatoUSB onto the RT-N66U? If yes, just proceed on.
Warning: Flashing third party firmware will void your warranty! I will not be held responsible if anything goes wrong.
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RT-N66U - Sleek looking dual-band gigabit router!
Yes! I got the ASUS RT-N66U Dual-band Wireless-N900 Gigabit router! The previous release (ASUS RT-N56U) was a hit locally so I thought I might give this RT-N66U a try. And besides, the design looks really sleek and will definitely blend well with my furnitures. People who do not know what the RT-N66U is will just treat it as an ornament (I hope).
Technical Specifications
- Chipset: Broadcom BCM5300 chip rev 1 pkg 0
- CPU Freq: 600MHz
- NVRAM Size: 32KB
- Flash Size: 32MB
- RAM: 256MB
- Wireless LAN Standard: a/b/g/n. Support dual-band 5GHz and 2.4GHz with speed up to 450Mbps concurrently
- Ports: 4 x Gigabit LAN (with MDI-X), 1 x Gigabit WAN (with MDI-X)
- Power adaptor: 19V with max 1.58A current
- 3rd Party Firmware support: Yes. TomatoUSB works well. Check out the TomatoUSB Flashing Guide for ASUS RT-N66U.
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