Thursday, September 3, 2015

Day 2088

I know some of you think that when work is slow I do absolutely nothing. Au contraire. I'm usually quite busy tilting windmills. Lately, I've been doing a lot of research on Google, trying to see if it is possible to adapt some of my old equipment so I could still use it in today's digital world. It would be nice if I could speed up my old computers so they could run today's complex software. It would be even nicer if I could use some of my old analog camera lenses on the latest digital bodies.

So far my efforts have been fruitless. I have some really nice Canon ENG broadcast lenses that I'd love to use on my current digital video cameras. So far, it seems impossible. These lenses were made to work with the 2/3 sensors found in Beta SP cameras. The image these lenses produce isn't large enough to cover the much larger 4/3 sensor found in my cinema camera. When I gave up on the Canon broadcast lenses, I thought my Bronica lenses might work. These medium format film lenses would certainly completely cover the 4/3 sensor, but nobody makes an adapter to attach the lens to the video camera. There are plenty of adapters for old Nikon and Canon lenses, but Bronica went out of business a long time ago and nobody cares about it anymore. There isn't a large enough market for anybody to make a profit manufacturing Bronica adapters. I even have some old Sinar view camera lenses that would cover any size sensor, but apparently nobody has even thought about adapting view camera lenses to modern video cameras. I found absolutely nothing on Google about using these lenses with video cameras.

It's frustrating to have fully functioning professional equipment that was good enough to shoot network TV commercials in the 1980's, but is now shunned even by beginning wedding photographers. I haven't adapted well. I love the old Macintosh towers I used to use in the early 1990's. My old Nikon F-2 still seems like the most useful and versatile camera I've ever owned. I even like reel-to-reel tape. Maybe this is why I enjoy watching old Perry Mason and Alfred Hitchcock shows on late night TV.

Dot had a good day. Now, she seems strong enough again to enjoy her early morning exercise walk and still have enough energy to do her afternoon physical therapy session. Today, she did a full seventeen minutes in the underwater treadmill. She's gained weight though. I don't know what that's all about. Nothing has changed since last week. I asked Dot's vet about Dash's strange new eating habits and she seemed baffled. She said she'd never heard of a dog who refused to eat from his bowl, yet ate everything normally when the food was transferred to a dinner plate. He doesn't seem sick. He just seems weird. We'll give him a Pepsid AC tonight before he goes to bed, just to see if he might have heartburn or a reflux problem.

I started a new book today. This one's been sitting on a shelf in the office for months. It is a memoir written by a co-worker of mine when I was starting out in the ad business in Seattle. I've been reluctant to read the book, since this guy ended up being hugely successful, building an award winning multi-million dollar ad agency while I was sitting in a small room writing with two dogs under my desk. I shouldn't be envious though. The first few chapters of this book were hilariously funny and remarkably accurate about what it's like to work in the ad biz.

It's hard to believe that this week is almost over. I've already taken this week's trash to the curb and gotten Dot's bed prepared for the night. I've still got to brush my teeth and run my daily test print on the large format printer. Then it's time for Perry Mason and sweet dreams about tomorrow's breakfast.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day