Terence Chang Photography
You are here: Home / 2006 / Archives for May 2006

Garmin eTrex GPS + Google Maps

May 31, 2006 By Leave a Comment


I have thought about traveling with a GPS device. So I can map my trip with Google maps. I went to Target and bought the Garmin eTrex GPS. It costs me $99.99+tax. This is a basic model that do not have the base map, which I can’t really use it in Asia. I don’t want to spend $$$ to buy high end model and spend extra $$$ to buy the map that I will probably never use. My idea is to mark as many waypoints as I can and load it on to the Google maps. Once the waypoints are converted to XML data file, it will be loaded into the Google maps API and display the stops and path of my trip. This is currently under experiment. There is no easy way to create the XML data file from the GPS device. Aslo, there is imposible to mark every corners, so the line between two far-apart stops looks funny.

So far, the Garmin eTrex GPS with Google map idea works OK. I plan to use this method to display my trip to Asia later this year. The only problem is that Google map has no detail map for Asia countries like China, Taiwan, etc. The Hybrid mode does NOT work very well. There are too much information to load in one tiny map window. I will play with this more and see how userful this idea will be.

Filed Under: Technology

Clean Nikon D70S CCD

May 15, 2006 By Leave a Comment

First of all, I am so picky on making perfect picture. I could not stand a single dirty spot in my picture, so I have to clean it. I have been hesitate to clean the Nikon D70S CCD myself. I know many people sent the camera back to Nikon for service. However, as I am going to take a lot more photos for a long time. I don’t think I will spend $40 every time to have Nikon to do the work for me while many people are doing it themselves without any issues.

Two weeks ago, I ordered the Nikon D70S CCD cleaning kit from copperhillimages.com. I finally got it today. It come with a 100 sheets Pec-Pad, a bottle of Eclipse, a sensor brush and a 14mm SensorSwipe made for Nikon D70S. It’s packed in a well sealed plastic zipped bag. Nice work!

It’s really important to follow the instruction come with the package. It’s VERY VERY important and it’s much simpler than I thought when I got the camera cleaned. Before I start doing cleaning, I took a photo of the famous Arizona blue sky. there is no cloud. Perfect for checking dirty spot on the sensor.

After loading the picture into the photoshop CS2, I auto level the picture and see the dirty spots as they are circled. Well, you might say it’s not bad, but you will see on the 8×12 print. Now you know that I am so picky.

I first tried the sensor brush to clean the spot that attached to the sensor. It does clean most of the spot. I, then, tried the swapper with eclipse. It was cleaning very well the first time after I tried few times against the CD as practice. I keep doing the same thing until it’s all clean. In some of the try, I do use the corner of the swipper to clean some hard spot like the top right corner. It is finally removed. I now can take a new photo of the blue sky.

And autolevel it again. It is 99.99% spotless. I am happy with it. I totally feel comfortable to clean the sensor myself now. I totally recommend the Copper Hill Image method.

Now, my Nikon D70S CCD is cleaned. I don’t plan to change the lense on my trip to Asia. I don’t think I will need to clean it in a short period, but I don’t have problem to clean it myself again. It save me a lot of $$ to ship the camera to Nikon. What a wated. I guess they are doing the same thing as we all do. After all, it took me hours and 17 sheets of pec-pad to get used to the method. My hand was shaking and I have never opened my front-door these much in one day. I took a blue sky photo every time I clean the sensor. I do need some exercise anyway.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Photography