Cambridge Sciences G7: One week in

It's now almost a week since I took delivery of my (finally working) Cambridge Sciences G7-II 7inch Android tablet so I thought I'd jot down some notes on how I've found it so far.

Overall, ignoring the "screen goes mental when plugged into the mains" problem, I'm happy with the device. I've been using it at those times when I've wanted something bigger and easier to handle that my HTC Desire HD but, at the same time, haven't wanted to pull out the Chromebook. It feels right in the hand (albeit somewhat heavy -- I can't imagine me ever using this instead of the Kindle as a ebook, for example) and, despite the fact that there's no feedback like I get on my phone, the screen is fine for typing on.

Overall, for the money, I'm happy with the purchase.

That said, here's a few niggles and observations:

• The battery status seems to be way off. Even after a full charge it tends to only show 93% full. It then seems to fall very quickly then ease up a little. I often also find that when I turn it off and turn it on again the battery will come back as showing having a higher charge than when I turned it off. This then falls rapidly back to where it was when I turned it off. All that said, the battery status seems roughly right so I've yet to find myself caught out by a low battery I didn't expect.
• Out of the box the auto-complete that's part of the keyboard doesn't appear to have a British English dictionary. Because of this the only auto-complete options you get when you're typing are things it can complete from the device's local data (application names, contact names, etc...). This is a bit of a serious issue but not one without a solution. Although it's essentially the same keyboard I installed Gingerbread Keyboard+ (which does have a British English dictionary) and have made that my keyboard instead. This is the keyboard I use on my phone anyway so not only does it solve the problem, it makes me feel more at home.
• There seems to be a pre-installed copy of EF File Explorer that can't be updated from the Android market. Any time I try and update it I get an error saying it's incorrectly signed. Bit of a shame because I use EF File Explorer.
• While I do appear to have and be connected to the UK Android Market with the tablet some apps seem to be missing. For example, the UK Amazon app (the one that lets you shop from Android) isn't anywhere to be seen. Same goes for the Box.net app.
• While I haven't had any of the WiFi problems some have reported in the reviews on Amazon (I imagine those problems have more to do with their WiFi setup than a problem with the tablet) I have found that it can be a little temperamental at times. Now and again I've had to stop and start WiFi to coax it fully into life. I also note that, if the unit has fully turned off and I've then turned it on again, I have to manually start WiFi. Not a big deal.
• From time to time it seems to fully power off after some time in sleep mode. I've not worked out if there's a reason for this, or if it can be changed. Neither does there seem to be a set time between being put into sleep mode and it turning itself fully off. This, again, makes for a mild annoyance because, most of the time, it means you can't just pick it up and do stuff -- there's a boot time you have to wait around for. While it's not terribly long (I've not timed it but I'd say around 60 seconds) it does mean it can take longer to get the tablet up and running than it can to get the Chromebook going.

And, so far, that's pretty much it. No show-stopper. Nothing that makes me hate it and want to send it back. It's not perfect, but then again it's around 1/2 the price of tablets that try to be.

Cambridge Sciences G7-II 7inch Android

I've been a pretty avid fan of Android since the early(ish) days. My first experience of Android was 1.5 on my HTC Magic (later updated to 1.6). I've toyed with the idea, on and off, of getting a tablet running Android. The last time I gave this some serious thought I ended up buying a Chromebook (a fantastic decision, I hasten to add -- I should probably write up my experiences of that so far at some point).

A couple or so weeks back I got an email from Amazon in which they included a pointer to this tablet. The spec seemed good, multi-touch capacitive screen, Android 2.3, and proper market access too. The price seemed right so I finally cracked and ordered it. It turned up a couple of days later and ended up being a bit of a disaster.

The first thing I noticed was that the screen just wasn't working at all. I couldn't type a thing. It was like every time I touched the screen it was registering many different touches. Worse yet, after a short while of trying to get things going (I was initially trying to connect it to my WiFi -- pretty much impossible given that I couldn't type the password because of the screen problem), the home app force closed and didn't want to play ball. A subsequent restart of the tablet had it just sitting on the Android logo on startup and nothing more would happen.

I sent off a message, via Amazon, to the vendor and, all credit to them, I got a phone call from their support guy within about 10 minutes. Turns out that the screen problem is really a mains charger problem. With the charger in the screen has all sorts of touch-sensing problems, with the charger out it works fine (subsequent testing shows this to be the case).

Between us, over the phone, we were unable to revive the tablet to get it to boot again so it was decided that I'd send it back to be looked at or to be replaced. As it happened, it finally sprung back into life a little later but, once it did, it refused to connect to WiFi. In fact, it wasn't so much that it refused to connect to my WiFi APs, it didn't even know how to do WiFi. It was like it'd lost its drivers or something.

Anyway, as requested, I returned the unit.

The process of having it returned and seen to took a little longer than I'd have hoped. I sent it recorded/insured and with a guaranteeddelivery of before 13:00 the following day but it didn't get delivered. According to the Post Office website nobody was able to receive it. The same happened the following day. Finally, after the weekend (this was the Thursday and the Friday that delivery was attempted), it showed as having been delivered on the Monday.

A couple of messages back and forth with the vendor didn't really get me any clear answers as to what was going on but, finally, yesterday, I got a message to say that a brand new unit was being shipped to me and should be with me today.

Sure enough:

This time, so far, so good. It still has the "on the mains the screen doesn't sense touch correctly" problem, and I've sent the vendor a note about that, but other than that it's working well so far. It seems pretty snappy, and I've had no problem installing apps from the Google market (including those that I've previously purchased for my phone). I've not used it much so far, other than setting up WiFi, throwing on some apps, sorting the sync with my accounts and so on. Mostly I've left it to charge. I'll see how it goes this weekend now and possibly write a little more about it next week (or before if it all goes horribly wrong).

Fisheye and Flash

After having some fun with the 38mm super-wide lens for my Diana+ I decided, late on last year, to also get the fisheye lens. So far I've not had the chance to use it but I aim to correct that pretty soon.

I mention this because, earlier this week, I took delivery of yet another extra for the Diana+: a flash. Here's the Diana+ with the fisheye lens and the flash attached:

The flash is rather clever. As well as working on the Diana+ (with it's two-prong connector) it comes with an adaptor for the usual hot shoe connection you find on many cameras. This means it'll work with my Lubitel 166B and, I imagine, my Holga 120GN. I'm also wondering if it'll work with any of my digital cameras too (no, I can't think of a reason why I'd want it to either — but it would look funny).

I'm looking forward to the chance to get to use the flash now.

New Toy: 38mm Super-Wide Lens for the Diana+

Yesterday I took delivery of a new toy from Lomography. Actually, two new toys, both connected to my Diana+. One of them was the 38mm super-wide lens:

It's a nice little package. Not only do you get the lens, you get a viewfinder (the black gadget you see fixed to the top of the camera) and a bag to keep it all in. The viewfinder is very handy because, as well as still allowing you to compose via the usual viewfinder, the super-wide one has brightlines for the "standard" lens too. This means that you can swap lenses without needing to pop the viewfinder on and off. I think that's a rather nice touch.

The other thing I purchased, more on a whim than with an actual need, was the Canon EOS Diana+ lens adaptor. Now I can use either of the Diana+ lenses I've got on my Canon EOS 400D.

I had hoped to test both toys today but the weather was pretty foul and the light was no good for a bit of messing about. Hopefully I'll get to try them some time soon. Obviously I'll blog about the results when I do.

First Test of the Diana+

A couple or so weeks back I finally got the chance to put a roll of Fuji Provia 400X through my new Diana+. It's taken a while to get the images processed (strikes on the part of the Royal Mail partly got in the way, but I was also slow doing the processing at my end too) but I finally have the results up on my website:

Lomography Diana+ Test
I'm very please with the results. I've only published 11 images from the 12 shot, and the one that I've left out was my mistake. I'd attempted to use the Diana+ in its pinhole mode but took a wild guess at the exposure time and got it wrong. From what I could see the image looked from the point of view of how well the pinhole performed, but it was very over-exposed so I decided to leave it out. At some point soon I'll give the pinhole mode another try.

Vodafone push Android Donut to my HTC Magic

I first saw it was heading my way last week and, sure enough, last night, Vodafone pushed Android Donut onto my HTC Magic.

I knew pretty much what to expect in terms of headline features, thanks to this video:

but there's a couple of other things that have changed that I really like.

First off, it seems that screen orientation changes are now much faster. Before, when I changed the orientation of the phone from portrait to landscape (or back) it would take a couple of seconds to sort itself now, now it seems to be a fraction of a second — almost to the point of feeling like an instant change.

Another change, again a speed thing, is that the camera feels much more responsive, and quicker to start up too (although I think the startup time as something to do with the above change). This is a good thing from my point of view given that I use the phone as the camera that populates my photoblog.

The new search facility is really nice in that, now, I don't need to bother with the search gadget on the home screen any more. Until now I had it on the middle part of the home screen taking up a fair amount of space (see right) but, with 1.6, the search tool comes up when you press the hardware search button so there's no need to use the gadget any more. That means I get four "cells" back on home. That's come in very handy.

So far I've only run into one problem after the 1.6 install. It seems that Google Search by Voice is now broken. Any time I try and run it I get a "force close" dialog (I know I'm not the only one too because there are plenty of comments in the Android Market reporting the same problem). That's kind of a shame because the new search facility searches contacts, amongst other things, so it would seem like the two together will work as a voice dial (in fact the video above suggests this too). Doubtless a new version of Search by Voice will turn up in the Android Market real soon.

New Toy: Lomography Diana+

I tried to resist. Really, I did. But ever since I got my Holga 120GN there's been a part of me that's kept nagging the rest of me about looking at the Diana+. Just for kicks. Just for extra toy-camera fun.

Last week I cracked:

I just got a new delivery of Fuji Provia 400X so hopefully, in the next week or two, I'll get some time to take it out for a spin and shoot a test roll (sadly this generally means needing to wait for weekends now because weekdays are dark before I finish work).

I'll blog the results when I get them.

New site: www.seen-by.me.uk

Back in May this year I finally cracked and joined the ranks of people who use "smart phones". For a while I was seriously thinking about going for an Apple iPhone (especially after seeing Elizabeth Gordon's early shots with CameraBag) but, in the end, I was tempted by Android and got myself a HTC Magic.

One of the first things I did after I got it, following the lead of Elizabeth Gordon and James Beston, was to get a posterous account. At first I used it as a place to post ad-hoc photos but, pretty soon, I started to treat it as a more (insert hand-waving here) "serious" photoblog.

It's been running for a few months now and I'm rather happy with the content. So much so that I've decided to let it have its own domain: www.seen-by.me.uk.

Also, recently, I finally cracked and won an ongoing battle I've been having with Blurb's Booksmart (the battle is all my own making — I just don't "get" that software) and made a book of the blog: seen by davep v1.1:

seen by davep ...

A geek and his mob...

By Dave Pearson

Book Preview

The content of the book starts a couple or so months into the blog (hence v1.1 rather than v1.0, there's technical reasons why v1.0 didn't get created first) and ends a couple of weeks ago. At some point I imagine I'll make v1.2. I currently have a copy of the book on order (I only really made it for myself anyway) and will post about it here when it finally turns up.

All Set With the Zero Image 2000

The postie came today, carrying a parcel from 7DayShop:

The main thing being that I've now got some film to use with my Zero Image 2000 so I'm all set for when I've got the time (and the weather is playing ball).

And, as you can see, I found a dinky little case and a nice soft bag to keep it in when I'm wandering about, or when it's in storage waiting for its next outing.

Hopefully the first outing will be real soon.

New Toy: Zero Image 2000

Today I took delivery of a new photographic toy. A Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera:

I've been considering a pinhole camera for a while and I'd decided that, given that I already own a couple of medium-format film cameras anyway, a medium-format pinhole was the obvious choice.

I probably won't get to use it for at least a week as I've only just ordered some film for it. I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

First Roll From the Holga 120GN

I've just uploaded the results of the first roll of film put through my Holga 120GN. The shooting of the roll was a bit of a rush job, done in about ½ hour, just so I could test that the camera was working well. It appears that it is, and I'm really impressed with the results. I'm especially fond of these two:

There's no question that I'll be putting more film through this.

New Toy: Holga 120GN

Ever since I got my Lubitel 166B this has pretty much been inevitable. It's taken some time, I've managed to resist for quite some time but, last Monday, I cracked and finally placed an order.

I now own a Holga:

A Holga 120GN to be precise.

You can pretty much blame it all on Tom Gooding. Last Christmas he got a 120N and I happened to ask him where he'd got it from. He pointed me at Holga Magic. They looked pretty good, had good prices and, given that someone I knew had used them without bother, they also now had good "word of mouth" too.

So I bookmarked them and managed to hold off until last Monday when I finally cracked.

The service from Holga Magic was excellent. Shipped without 2 days of placing the order and arrived a week after I'd placed the order.

Now to find the time to go out and have a play...

Lensbaby Muse Test

Today I managed to get the Lensbaby Muse onto my EOS 400D and take a few test shots to try it out and try and get used to it.

It took a little bit of getting used to at first, and I was sort of surprised at how it puts a fair bit of strain on your fingers when you're trying to get, then hold, the focus (I'm sure I won't notice this once I really get into using it). But, overall, I had loads of fun with it and can't wait to play with it some more.

So, anyway, here's my Lensbaby Muse Test. All the shots were taken with the double glass optic and the f/4.0 aperture disk.

New Toy: Lensbaby Muse

I've been on and off the idea for some time now but, last week, using some Christmas money that turned up after Christmas, I decided to treat myself to a Lensbaby Muse. After a bit of looking around I decided to order from Bristol Cameras (I'm happy to report that the whole process of ordering to delivery was fast and without any fuss or bother — I'd use them again).

So, here it is, in its little box:

All being well, this weekend, I might even get the chance to get it out of the box and give it a try (that's one of the annoying things about winter in the UK, by the time I get home from work it's dark and I think this sort of lens is best first tested in daylight, less to worry about then).

Update: I managed to do a quick test the following day.

The one I got is the Canon fit (this will be used on my EOS 400D, obviously) with the double glass optic (see the optic comparison gallery for examples of the different optics and the effects they give).

Poladroid

A few weeks back I ran into Poladroid. The idea sounded like fun, and possibly even handy at times: take an image and make it look a little like (what most people think of as) a Polaroid. Sadly (for me), the software was only available for the Mac, but I did notice that a Windows version was coming soon (I run Windows and GNU/Linux here).

Checking today I noticed that the Windows version was finally available, so I had to have a quick play:

This might be fun for some images.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II: Quick Test Shoot

A little earlier on today I needed to pop to the shop. Despite the fact that it's a pretty dark and dank day I thought I'd quickly take the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II for a spin. I came back with the following shots:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Has Arrived

Last Saturday the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II that I ordered a few days back arrived.

I've not had the chance to give it a proper test shoot yet, just a handful of family shots around the house but, so far, I'm impressed. All being well I'll give it a go some time this week and publish the results.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens

I've finally done it.

Almost a year after I last went shopping for a lens I've gone shopping for another. That last time it was a choice between the Tamron AF 55-200mm f4.5-5.6 Di II LD and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II and, in the end, the Tamron won (mainly because it extended my focal length range rather than double it up as the 50mm would have when compared to the 400D's kit lens). This time I've decided that the 50mm is just too nice a lens, at too good a price, to ignore.

Hopefully it'll turn up in the next couple of days and I'll be able to have a play and post some results.

New Toy: Sunpak PF30X Flash

I've been after a flash for my EOS 400D and PowerShot G9 for a while now but I've never really had the spare cash. As much as I'd love to spend £250+ on a Speedlite it just wasn't going to happen.

And then, last weekend, while having a browse around Amazon, the Sunpak PF30X popped up as a related item to something I was looking at. The price (£49.88) looked too good to be true so I did a little more digging about. Pretty much everything I could find suggested it was a good flash for the price. What was even more encouraging was the fact that "the price" tended to be closer to £100. A quick search on eBay confirmed that this was a good price with most of the "Buy it Now" offers being around £75.00.

And so a purchase was made...

It turned up this lunchtime and I've just had a (very) quick play with it. It worked fine on the EOS 400D and, after some messing about, on the G9 too. For some reason, when I first attached it to the G9, it just wouldn't fire. After turning the flash and the G9 off and on again everything seemed to work just fine. I'm not sure what happened there.

I'm now looking forward to having some free time to have a proper play. I think I can also feel some on-the-cheap off-camera flash action coming on at some point soon. :-D

More Lubitel Photographs

I've just recently received the results of the latest film I put through my Lomo Lubitel 166B. Once again they've come out pretty good (and once again thanks go to Tim Haynes for processing and scanning the film).

The images from the film include:

• A star trail of the area around the constellation Taurus.
• A view of two trees in a park near me.
• A view from a bridge on the outskirts of Billingborough.
• Two views of a bridge on a public footpath in a field just outside Billingborough.
• Six views around the park in Billingborough.

Now that I've got the hang of the camera I think it's time to try some colour. I've ordered a couple of rolls of Fuji Provia 100F. I'll be interesting to see what I get out of that.