29
Aug
NixieKits.eu IN-12 Review
I just finished a review of the NixieKits.eu IN-12 clock for TubeClockDB.com. You can read the full review here or you can just buy the clock here 
Jürgen Grau is the deigned behind this device and he sells this clock as both a kit and fully assembled. The kit costs €149 and the fully assembled costs €179 (Currently: $190/$230) Jürgen is very accessible and is fluent in German and English.
Now, on to the clock! Stylistically, I like it. The photos on NixieKits.eu do not do this device justice. The LED’s are much more vibrant than I expected and the colorful effect that they create manages to look nice without looking gaudy. There is a knob in the back which allows you to turn the brightness of the LED’s up and down (and completely off.) The colors slowly cross fade and and produce a pleasing effect on the front of the case. I didn’t think I use this feature much because I generally prefer simple designs – but the colors are mesmerizing. I actually leave the LED’s on all of the time, something I would not have expected.
Be sure to watch the video after the jump.
Read more
8
Jul
Time Lapse Experiment
This is a time lapse experiment that I have been tinkering with for the last month. I wanted to try a new work flow based around raw images instead of JPEG images. Every frame was captured as a raw image and imported in to an Aperture 3 library. From there, I batch processed the images to achieve the desired look and from there, exported the images as uncompressed TIFF images, scaled to a more manageable size. Finally, I exported the intermediate file as an insane bit-rate MP4 file and uploaded it to Vimeo. Read more
17
Jun
Old School Daft Punk
I have no idea who originally created this. If you do, please leave a note in the comments! Read more
19
May
Mechanical Computer Basics
YouTube user gwz40 uploaded a series of fascinating videos on mechanical computers and how they were used in in the US Navy for controlling projectiles fired from one moving ship to another moving target. The movies were produced as part of a US Navy training program and illustrate the basic components that are used inside a mechanical range fire control computer. Each mathematical operation is translated in to a mechanical component and the components are combined to provide a desired calculation based on (up to) 25 inputs. Basic geometric shapes are used for shockingly complex operations. Read more
3
May
Minneapolis Clouds
I’ve been experimenting with ways to take the best time lapse using the Canon 5d Mark II and I’ve come up with two distinct methods that are worth sharing. The first method involves shooting normal video and speeding it up while the second involves a more traditional approach of shooting frames and combining them to a final video. Each method has its benefits and I’ve tried to summarize them below. Read more
21
Apr
For you, not them!
It’s six feed of Bubble Tape.
If you grew up in the late 80′s or early 90′s, you will undoubtedly remember this classic campaign that rain continuously on Nickeloden and Nick at Night / Snick. So long as you weren’t one of them – this was for you. Gym teachers, lunch ladies, and school officials need not apply. They would probably be slimed later on You Can’t Say That on Television. Honestly, I don’t remember the gum being that good. It lost its flavor quickly and the chewy elasticity quickly died. A single container hardly lasted more than a day – which probably made the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company very happy. Read more
1
Apr
Numitron Tester
I found this great little RCA DR 2000 / DR 2010 tester on eBay. For $4.99, it was worth every cent. I cannot find much information on this device other than the markings on the markings on the device itself. ”RCA Numitron Digital Display Device Demonstrator 1g1308″
The controls are pretty simple – the knob controls the brightness and power. The switch has three positions. In the center position, the numitron counts through the digits. In the upper position it illuminates all of the segments of the display while in the bottom position, it only illuminates the decimal point on the display.
The power supply itself is odd. I cannot tell what type of cells it uses. The internal mechanism supports 5 cells that seem to be narrower and longer than a C sized cell. To make it work, I wired a 9V battery to the internal terminals. (Oddly, this thing draws so much current that a single 9V battery cannot actually power the device. As the display begins counting, it seems to reset at the 8 position. To get around this, I had to wire three batteries in parallel to support the load.)
Click to enlarge
8
Mar
Foggy night in Minneapolis (Video)
This is a video I made while out taking photos this evening. The original duration was about 14 minutes and was sped up by 3,000% to a final duration of just under 30 seconds. It was filmed with my canon 5D Mark II and Sigma 1.4 50mm and post processing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.
In this shot are the 10th Avenue Bridge, Interstate 35W (Blue) and the Stone Arch Bridge.
4
Mar
Minneapolis Moon Time Lapse
This video was shot between 10:30PM and 1:30AM starting on 3/3/2010 from the Minneapolis Grain Exchanging looking east. Shots were taken at 10 second intervals and the final playback speed is 30fps. A Sigma 50mm 1:1.4 was used at about f/2.8 allowing for 1/40th second exposures. The frames were rendered in to a high quality H264 video and uploaded to Vimeo.
3
Jan
Smoke Stacks at Night
I love taking photographs at night in the winter. I don’t the the process as much as the results. The cold dry air yields incredibly sharp results and when it is really cold out, the water vapor form building leaves a thick lingering streak in the sky. The video below was filmed on January 3rd using a Sigma 50mm 1.4 and a Canon 5D Mark II.
As far as the video capture goes, I opted to film a 30 FPS and speed up the video in Premiere. (The other method is to use an intervalometer and combine the photos in post.) This method works great when the source footage is short (less than 10 minutes long) and generally gives smoother results. The only downside is that you generate significantly more footage than you will use and it takes a long time to process in post. All of the source clips in this film are played at 5x to 50x their real time speed.
If you are interested in using the source footage, you may be able to find it on iStockPhoto or you may contact me directly.