The Cauldron in Coal Harbour

more photos after the break.

Its a shame that such a prominent symbol of the Olympics had to be behind a fence, but I also belive that this is one of the few, if not only times that the Cauldron has been at street level.

I wasn’t able to go into any of the pavilions as the lines were many hours long (I didn’t have enough time to wait). Pictured above is the lineup for the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion, where you can hold one of the Vancouver 2010 Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. This particular line was just over a 6 hour wait.

Granville Street was opened exclusivly to foot traffic, and became home to many different public art installations. Pictured above is one of many “trees” with lanterns decorated by children hanging from it.

Another view of the cauldron, which will become a permanent fixture on the Vancouver water front. Thanks to a joint deal between Terasen Gas, and the BC Provincial government, the cauldron will burn on indefinitely after the Paralympics concludes. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a good angle with a long lens to get a shot of the cauldron from the north shore, or even stanley park.

In fact, it leads the number 2 lens by more than double the images. That’s an overwhelming win for this lens, and despite what dpreview recently said, this lens produces some of the most pleasing images, even wide open. I imaging my results are quite a bit different than theirs since I don’t photograph resolution charts

This post is my attempt at a real world impression, not a review. Reviews photographing test charts, and other scientific measurements do nothing to show weather a lens will be considered good, or useful.

More after the jump…

Since I got the Pentax FA 50mm/1.4 it has been on my camera more than any other lens. I used it a lot when I shot film, and it was the first lens that I mounted on my K100DSuper when I got it home. On a Pentax dSLR, it has an equivelent feild of view of a 75mm lens on a 35mm film body. If I had been asked 5 years ago if I would ever use a 75mm for anything other than portraits the answer would have been no.

I use my 50mm so much it leads the number 2 lens by more than twice the exposures. That’s an overwhelming win for this lens, and despite what dpreview recently said, this lens produces some of the most pleasing images, even wide open. I imaging my results are quite a bit different than theirs since I don’t photograph resolution test charts

Despite the 50mm focal length being duplicated in three of my zoom lenses(DA*16-50/2.8, DA*50-135/2.8, DA18-55/3.8-5.6), there is something about working with a prime lens that seems to force me to think differently with my camera, the extra speed helps too!

I’ve started to organize my photos on flickr into sets based on the lens that took them, you can see more of my shots from the FA50/1.4 here

Whats your most used lens?

He was a crowd hit at the Winter 2008 convocation ceremony. He even wore his “Holmes on Homes” brand cover alls, and steel toed boots undeneth his robe, which is pretty funny.

Using the set of Alkaline batteries included with the camera I was able to take approximately 90 shots with about 60-75% flash usage.

I also picked up two sets of 4 Energizer Lithium Ion single use batteries. I plan to keep these as the emergency set in my camera bag. I expect this set to perform close to, or exceed the anticipated number of shots in the manual. If I were to take a long trip, I would also consider picking up a set or two of CRV-3 Lithium batteries as these are supposed to yield 1000 – 1100 shots.

Since they were readily available, I picked up some Energizer 2500mAh NiHM Batteries and a charger. So far, these batteries have worked well for my needs. Typical charge time is about 8.5 hours with the supplied charger. The first two charges were yielded very few pictures, but it looks like the third charge is the sweet spot. I have four sets of the Energizer NiHM’s and all three have taken about three charges to achieve normal usage. Some sets have not been charged beyond the third charge as I am still working my way through them (There have not been too many sunny weekends where I live so far).

To sum things up, the Energizer sets appear to be working quite well. These batteries are affordable, and easily available. The average cost for a set of these batteries ranges from $14 – $20 Canadian, which is comparable to a set of single use Energizer Lithium AA’s. Time will ultimately tell how reliable these batteries are, but so far, I don’t have too much to loose. It should be noted that re-chargeable Lithium ION batteries are not recommended for use in the Pentax K100D Super, the manual claims that this is due to the voltage characteristics of these batteries. In normal use, I don’t find the limitations of NiHM AA battery technology to be a problem, so far I have not needed to break out my emergency set of single use lithium’s, and I don’t expect to any time soon.

If you have been disappointed with the Energizer, Duracell, or other readily available batteries, I would look at trying a set of Sanyo Eneloops, which are available at Costco (last time I checked). These batteries come highly recommended from many forums and photography groups around the Internet. I plan to try a set of these batteries sometime soon.