Today I picked up an Epson v500 scanner from umart, as I’m keen to get back into a bit of film photography and the Microtek sadly is just not up to par.

This is my first slide scanned through it – shot back at a Brisbane Meetup get-together at Fingal Head, back in 2008.

Shot using my Mamiya M645 1000S (procured from Cash Converters!) with a 45mm Mamiya Sekor lens, on Fujichrome Velvia 100. I believe it was shot at f/22 but I have no recollection of the exposure time.

Waterway to Orbit by James Vernacotola

Explanation: The 32nd shuttle mission to the International Space Station, STS-130, left planet Earth on February 8. Its early morning launch to orbit from Kennedy Space Center‘s pad 39A followed the long, graceful, eastward arc seen in this 2 minute time exposure. Well composed, the dramatic picture also shows the arc’s watery reflection from the Intracoastal Waterway Bridge, in Ponte Vedra, Florida, about 115 miles north of the launch site. In the celestial background a waning crescent Moon and stars left their own short trails against the still dark sky. The brightest star trail near the moon was made by red supergiant Antares, alpha star of the constellation Scorpius.

Source: NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

Image by DnaX88 via Flickr

Here’s something interesting – Quantum Film. Currently the imaging sensors in digital cameras are limited in resolution to dimension, by the physical limitations of the sensing diodes themselves. Another major factor in digital imaging is the cost of manufacturing sensors, which increases exponentially with sensor size, due to the increased likelihood of defects.

“Quantum Film” is promising to turn all this on its head by offering a supposedly cheap, high-density sensor solution.

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