Ski Europe Now

New Photo Album: Paris April 2012.

If you have really been paying attention to the blog, you would have noticed that in the last ten days or so a new photo album has popped up:  Paris April 2012.  You may wonder when did I find the time to visit Paris this trip, especially since I rant and rave about the inefficiency of Charles de Gaulle airport.  Well, the inefficiency of CDG and the appalling customer service of Air France gate agents are responsible (more on this titillating subject later this week).  Regardless of how it happened, I ended up with some time in Paris and took a bunch of photos and thought to post some in a seperate photo album.  Ergo, the new photo album.  Enjoy.

Paris was a nice city, but the weather wasn't fantatic.  I would like to return and spend about a week there to get a better feel for the place.  Someday.

Photo Quality.

It is amazing the quality of some of the photos I was taking with the three cameras I took over to Switzerland.

This is with the Nex-5 camera:

Beer break at the Crap Bar.  I am not making that name up; it really is the Crap Bar.

Here is the waterproof camera, the tx-10 at 16 megs.

See?  It really is a crap bar.

And one from the HX-100.

I have noticed that some dust and fibers have wormed their way into the lens of my nex-5, and a replacement lens is some $300, and an entire new nex-5 is $700 with a new lens.  Maybe.  I will probably buy the nex-7 with 24 megapixels instead for $1300.  Hopefully the larger megapixels works it's way down to lower cost models.

The tx-10 and hx-100 are virtually new so until (and unless) Sony comes out with models with over 20 megapixels, no buying from me.  It is only a matter of time before the 20 megapixel barrier is broken for smaller cameras.

Lots of Photos and Video.

OMG: 74.3 gigs of photos and video from Switzerland.  109 video files for a total of 47.8 gigs of video; 3841 photos for a total of 25.5 gigs of photos.  Holy cow, it's going to take a while to sort through this stuff.  Hell, my first trip six years ago only amounted to 15 gigs and I thought I was taking a lot of photos then.  Silly me.

Photo above Flims, looking SW.  It gives you an idea of the vastness of this ski area.

Sony HX100V Camera Review.

I have been playing around a lot with my new camera, a Sony HX100V and have been very happy with it thus far.  I really like the 30x zoom and the steady shot capabilities of the camera (especially when using the zoom); the video capabilities are great but I do wish you could record in 720 instead of 1080 only, plus the different settings in the 1080 catagory are a little confusing and Sony would do well to explain the differences a bit more; the camera has a lot of bells and whistles but the instruction manual is very limited on how to use them all (and I have been unsuccessful in finding the in-camera guide).  Using it as a video camera while skiing is difficult but may prove easier when using a gorilla tripod as a handle.  Sony improved the grip of the camera from the earlier HX10 with use of more tacky rubber for a better grip.  Overall a great camera for the price.  It does takes very good photos as you can see:

Top of the Kaiser looking north.

Grand Teton in clouds at 30x zoom from top of Snow King.

Moon photo taken while using car as a brace; no tripod.  Pretty impressive.

I did notice on the Sony website that a new model of this series is coming out: the HX200 with 18 megapixels.  I'll wait for 20 or 24 megapixels before I get another one.

And Still More Photos Uploaded.

Continuing to add to the photos in Picturepush of Monterosa Ski.

Photos Uploaded.

A lot of photos from my Monterosa ski trip have been uploaded to Picturepush, and not just the highlights I have in the Monterosa/Gressoney La Trinite photo album on the blog.  I have been uploading what I can (except my RAW images) so feel free to browse.  Go to fbskier.picturepush.com to see all the wonderful photos and albums.  Enjoy!

Time for Some Color.

Here's another photo from past Europe trips just to break up all the babbling in recent posts.  Enjoy.

Old tram at Diavolezza near St. Moritz.  It is being replaced this winter and was sceduled to reopen on the 11th.

Stitch photo from top of Diavolezza tram on backside at lunch.

This is a Test...

of the Emergency Beercasting Organization.  Actually, I am just testing a new photo editor feature from Typepad.

Cold beer and warm Italian sunshine.  All this and money too.

Me = Slacker.

I was poking around the site yesterday evening and I noted someone had been looking at my Chamonix photo album.  I did the same and to my chagrin found that I had posted almost four pages of photos, and not one damn caption.  Knowing what the heck you are looking at would probably help.  So, my work for the next few days is to put up captions to the Chamonix 2010 photo album.  Sorry about that.

Monterosa Ski Photo Album...

is done.  Finis.  El dono.  Stick a fork in it.  Captions done too so enjoy.