Wildlife Photography across the Water: Nearly got bitten

Sunday, 3 July 2011

Nearly got bitten - but I survived the ordeal

One of the problems that I soon discovered after changing jobs twelve month ago was the proximity of so many shopping temptations outside the front door of my office. When I am in the office I am right in the centre of Birmingham, next to all the shops of the Bullring.. Now while it can be very handy when there are things that you have to get, there are many traps for the faint of heart and weak of brain.

It was during one of these moments that I found myself reading, rather ironically, Dave's blog of Thursday just gone on a Mac Pro at the Apple Store in the Bullring. A coincidence given the content that Dave was talking about. The Apple rep was very impressed with Dave's spec which again added to the irony.

But why was I there in the first place? When it comes to Apple specs and particularly their prices on any of their products, I have never fallen for it.......so far.

My phone contract is coming to the end and I am looking at renewal options and one such consideration is whether to get a tablet as well. My thought process was if I got a decent phone that has the capability of acting as a 3G router in its own right, I could get a wireless only tablet to save on getting tied in to two 3G contracts.

And I could stay with using an Android phone for the next contract period as I wasn't too inclined to get an iPhone for all my previous reasons. However, with my own mobile 3G router capability I started looking at the iPad2. What? I hear you cry, after the things I have said before.? Well yes. I went to the Apple store and had a look and a play. I went back the next day (Thursday) and had a long chat to the rep. I was getting more and more convinced. All of these things it could do that I NEED. I went through the justification that it would help my work, even though they are not contributing anything, I could do all these wonderful sexy things with my fingers on this great tab. I could add a keyboard, I could upload from my camera, even though I could do very little in the way of RAW processing to any decent degree, I could write this blog from it. I was getting convinced and thought one would be finding its way into the Dyer household very soon. Just how was going to explain to everyone though?

Then I got home and started to do some more research. Read a few reviews and comparisons with Netbooks and started think about capabilities and capacities. My head was starting to get back control of my heart....thank goodness.

How would it be any good for weekends away, for photographic use, for image storage, for processing, for blogging and my browsing requirements. Well the last two would have been fine but nothing any better than I currently can do with my thirty months old Samsung Netbook NC10 - long superseded and improved.

But could it store decent amounts of images and process them for blogging or other purposes? Well no quite frankly.

So how does my old Netbook fare by comparison. Well I can do everything that Breezebrowser cn do, including RAW conversion, I can colour profile my screen, I could use Canon DPP if I wanted to, I have all of the Open Office suite on it. I can store over 100GB of images on a shoot if I needed to. I have three USB2.0 ports, that I use my Western Digital 250gb pocket drive on and I can plug into a big monitor if I want. All for less than £300 then and the replacements are now even better as you would expect in all senses. Better processors, better hard drive, better screen, and better battery life. Now up to at least 10 hours, although the seven hours use I get is fine.

So it is thicker and heavier than an iPad2, but you get a proper keyboard which makes typing this article, very easy and quick, which I am doing laying on the sofa, and I can add a mouse if I wish.

So at £599 for a wireless only 64GB iPad2, whose spec and capacity just doesnt get even close to this old Netbook, I am pleased to have just saved myself over £600, taking into account the extras you would need, for something that just looks nice.

One of the myths that the Apple man tried to convnce me of was the old one about Apples not getting viruses. Well having run Kaspersky permanenetly on this netbook and my desktop, neither do I.

So it was a close escape, the iPad nearly bit me, it is enigmatic, beguiling, its charms suck you and makes you think you must have it and I can understand why people fall for its charms. But at twice the price of a good current Netbook , it doesn't cut it for me. Maybe I dont want to be controlled by the locked down Apple environment, maybe I dont like the prices, maybe I am not a follower of fashion. Maybe I have just let my head rule my heart.

But I have to say it was a close run thing and I have escaped its clutches.

Now when is that Samsung Galaxy Tab10.1 being launched in the UK? :-)

Hope you had a great weekend.

PS if you have a killer use that an iPad2 can do but a Netbook can't, that I just can't do without let me know please ;-)

Martin

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.