The 'New' iPad

So we have to learn a new, post Steve Jobs, language.   No longer are we in the world of the next great thing but rather an incremental iPad.  No longer 3rd generation but rather New.  To read many of the reviews of the new iPad it would seem that this means that the iPad is a bad product because there was no great '...and one final thing...' from the late master of presentation.   

What have we learnt from the all the guff out there on the internet?  Well that few people knew what they were taking about and that Apple could teach spy masters a thing or two about keeping a secret.  But mainly the thing we learnt is that the iPad is now a mature product with few great surprises - view the promo video and you see that they spend an awful lot of time talking technical stuff about the new display - and this is not a bad thing.   We now have a product that has set the standards and building on these standards for the '..post PC..' world in which the iPad, more than any other machine, has brought into existence.   To see how much the world has changed just watch an old episode of Star Trek Voyager, the most advanced of the modern Star Trek franchise.   Here we see a time, just 10 years ago, when the production staff having no idea how tablets will work, instead they have different reports on individual tablets.  Nowadays, in a Post PC world we know that all of these things, and so much more, can be contained on one tablet and at the moment that is called the iPad.

For me the killer features of the new iPad is the new chip-set.  I am sure the display is very nice but I have no problem with the display on the iPad circa 2010 nor 2011.  As for the inclusion of 4G mobile telephony I am sure that will be great but as it doesn't really arrive in the UK until 2013 not really much use - I suspect not that much use in the US either. 

This leaves us with a solid product that has been updated like most pieces of technology with the latest bits.  It is no longer earth shattering but mature.  It will deliver huge profits to Apple and become a little dull, much as Apple will become without the genius of Jobs.  Life goes on.   

Simon Marchini 

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted via email from SIMON's posterous

Some initial thoughts on long exposure

WARNING:- These are initial reflections and they may well not reflect what I finally feel about the subject (I suppose you could say that about most blogs - especially this one!)  plus This post does contain traces of Star Trek

That's the warning out of the way I thought I would now set down on the screen some initial thoughts about the experiments I did last night.  I suppose the main thought that comes to mind is that of controlling exposure.   I suspect that this is not as crucial as sub second exposure.  There is a world of difference between 1/1000th and 1/100th of a second but I suspect that is not the case in long exposures.  This does give you certain leeway.  Obviously there is a difference between 30 seconds and 90 seconds (one is 3 times as big as the other so you would assume that 3 times more light is exposed).  However, when you consider the difference between 390 and 420 seconds the orders of magnitude are tiny.  This does give you more leeway.

The 7 minute barrier also is an interesting concept to work with.   Is the photograph you are trying to make capable of being captured in the 7 minutes?   If it is not why not and what will the effect be?  These are all creative decisions that you, as the photographer, need to think about when considering what you are trying to make.

And what about the photographer in all this?   This might seem strange but what do you do with yourself in the seven minutes?  Now some times you may be trying to illuminate a certain area, however, other times you are just left there standing waiting for the time to elapse.   This can lead to a temptation to tamper, to try and rush matters - all things that could impact on the photograph.

In the end I suppose we are entering the strange world of electro magnetism and space/time.  These are subjects that my son would no doubt love to talk about, being a physicist and start trek fan, but they are not the usual topics of conversations between photographers.  I suppose it always comes back to e = mc2