Objects at their optimal use

I just stumbled upon this picture and in my opinion this is the best use for a nikon:
 http://bit.ly/cYkOF6 


It's superbly designed and beautifully functional. OK, lets be fair here, if someone was to give me a Nikon SLR for free I probably wouldn't do this with it but if I had the money and was buying it myself it would have to be Canon all the way!

Upcycle - is it really a new idea?

 

Although the term upcycling has only been recently coined for everyday use this shows a chopper designed and built that has combined an radial piston aircraft engine amalgamated into a motorcycle. for more information on the design etc have a look here.

Being green with style

Let me start off by saying I would count myself as a cyclist, whist I am here at uni I don't cycle but back in Brighton when I was working, twenty five plus miles was a comfortable commute. Now I should add that when cycling these distances wearing the right attire really makes a difference. Jeans are fine for cycling to the shop around the corner but on a long commute with variable weather they do not make for a comfortable ride in any way shape or form.
Now the problem with cycle gear is that although some of it is supremely over engineered to allow for maximum everything there are only a select number of people who want to be seen in a lycra onesie cycling in any public place, and I am not one of them. Where is the happy medium of style and functionality. This is a question we see more and more in the cycling community and slowly more is being done, especially for the female market. Here is a short list of a few items of stylish women's cycle wear for the autumn as compiled by the Telegraphs fashion supplement.
I think these are great and we should definitely see more trendy cycle wear for all genders, ages and seasons out on the market.

Has Christmas come too early?

I will keep this short. Christmas, every year without fail, comes stupidly early. Now I know this isn't a new thing and spoken about so much every year so I'm not going to bore you with it, but this year it has dawned on me it is here already. I bought my first mince pies yesterday (and I know they've been out ages already), I mean I love this fact, mince pies are ace. I would happily eat them all year round but by buying products such as these and making them perennial favourite are we ruining the festive season, are we in danger of making Christmas nothing but a time for presents and eliminating those little nostalgic festivities which make it all that it more special.

On the other hand Easter appears to be a more regulated time of year for businesses. However with companies only being allowed to promote Easter eggs around that time of the year Cadbury's found another way to promote the great taste of the creme egg back in 2006 with the limited edition dairy milk bar with creme egg filling and two years after that in 2008 launching the evil twin of the creme egg the twisted bar. Having been promoted in the same sort of way and appealing to those who jus love the taste without so much of the Easter connotations this has become a remarkably successful product.

Having said all this you can buy a turkey and all the trimmings all year round but we don't do a christmas meal all year round do we...

Is Harvey the new Aleksandr

This is Harvey, and right now I am loving Harvey for so many reasons. Not only is this dog just plain awesome but he makes a great focal character for an advert which has the potential to be just as successful as those cute little meerkats. 'Every home needs a Harvey' is a new advert (ok its new to me despite being released in September of this year) from 'The Red Brick Road' on behalf of Thinkbox. 


Thinkbox are the main marketing body for some of the UK's biggest TV channels. On their website they say the advert is "designed to show, in an engaging way, the power of TV advertising to affect people's decisions... this is essentially about TV driving instant success in a competitive market."


I think this advert is just great. It effectively works on several levels to show just how effective TV advertising is. Firstly by the depiction of Harvey using the his own advert to try and entice potential adopters (and despite not seeing whether it was successful we kind of presume it was on the basis that we all now want a Harvey). The other level being that by agreeing that we would like a Harvey we are interacting with the ad so admitting that its core message about TV advertising being effective must be true, and we know this is more than just us thinking this by the amount of chat going on about it on the web, including multiple Facebook groups about the ad. 

The Cost of Style

Firstly welcome to my blog. This is my first entry and I have decided to draw upon my own recent experience.

The Background:
For nearly a year now I have been contemplating upgrading to a new camera. Until three days ago I had a nine year old Panasonic compact camera, which despite its impressive colour processing it still lacked on quality by modern standards with its five megapixels. This I used for everything I ever wanted in colour. For the creativity in my photography I had my fully manual 35mm SLR. A basic but reliable and very flexible piece of kit it came up trumps on many photos. However weighing in at only a smidging under the weight of a tank and costing nine pounds for every thirty-six images I wanted to see I just don’t get the use out of it that I’d want. I had been looking at full sized DSLR’s (digital SLR’s) though recently small versions of similar cameras have been seeping their way onto the market. Starting with the Olypmus PEN EP-1. Styled on the origional film taking PEN of the late 50’s the new one was a looker with superb quality.

So what happened then. Well on a trip back home I got ‘dragged’ into visitng a specialist camera shop, lets just get this clear, we are not talking about Jessop’s or any high street chain. This is an all singing all dancing warehouse of a camera store where all staff and trained professional photographers in various fields who know exactly what they are talking about. So having had a play on all full sized and compact SLR’s I had made a rough decision, compact would be the way to go, and the Olympus in my opinion was a hands down winner. So after chatting to the guy on the stand I soon discovered he was actually one of the main Olympus reps in the country.

The Choice:
At this point I knew what  the two cameras I was going to have to decide between. Both in the new Olympus PEN series there was the EP-2, an upgrade of the stylish original or the EPL-1, exactly the same on the inside just missing the finesse that the EP-2 had with its looks. This brings me nicely onto my question. Should I go for something with style and substance, or just the substance? An easy one you think. Not when the difference in price is just over three hundred pounds.  Lets break it down but first here is the difference we are talking about:

Here's option 1 - Olympus EP-2

Differences:

- Partial metal body

- Shorter but longer body

- Different button arrangement

- Different shape buttons

- Sunken mode dial

- Heavier

- Comes with leather strap

And option 2 - Olympus EPL-1

Differences:

- Full plastic body

- Taller but narrower body

- Different button arrangement

- Different shape buttons

-  Mode dial not sunken

- Lighter

- Comes with nylon strap

Apart from the design differences these cameras have the exact same LCD viewing screen, optional extras, processor and sensors, and even the lenses are the same, nothing changes but the looks.

My Decision:

At heart I am still a student so I am now the proud owner of the EPL-1 which takes some superb photo's. I bought this camera as a camera and not a fashion accessory so it is only logical to sacrifice some style for cash, especially when it enables me to buy the top lens they sell for it at the moment rather then the smaller one. This is just me though. What have others done?

Well according to the Olympus rep, he has sold 159 of these combined since they have both been out (on the market at the same time). With a staggering 156 choosing the cheaper EPL-1 and a mere 3 purchasing the stylish EP-2 I think that says it all. Don't get me wrong though, if i had that sort of disposable money I would get it all and not compromise on style and I would more than happily make his total 4. But not everyone chose the cheaper option for the same reason as only a third of those buying the camera acquired the larger lens for it, others were just happy to keep the cash in their pockets. 

So do we always sacrifice quality for money? 

What is the real cost of style? 

Any thoughts or experiences of your own? Please feel free to leave a comment.