Experimental Multimedia Artist: 3D, Video, Photography, Motion Graphics and Beyond..
General things
Frickin Lasers.. Spyder III – Arctic
Nov 9th
Back in May I saw that the company Wicked Lasers were taking payments for a new laser pen that was soon to be released. They said it was the worlds most powerful consumer laser. Usually for a laser pen of equivalent power would cost around $1000 mark. They were selling these for a mere $197! I couldn’t resist. £130 for a laser pen I hear you say.. well you have to understand that I’ve been obsessed and fascinated by lasers since I got a little red one on January the 1st 2000! I’ve had many different types included a couple of Green ones since. I got a 100mw green laser about 3 years ago (that was capable of burning certain things) and loved it. So when I found out that I could get the most powerful laser available (and its blue!) for a relatively low cost I ordered straight away :p.
It took nearly 5 months for the device to arrive! Apparently they got flooded with orders (Goes to show there are other losers just like me :p). Also they decided to add an extra safety switch that delayed the shipment further.
I put this little video together demonstrating the ridiculous power of this thing. I’m using a magnifying glass to focus the beam. Even without the magnifying glass it’s very capable of burning things. The reason it doesn’t light the match heads instantly was because they were damp from being out in the conservatory over night. At the end where I put a dense piece of card in front of the beam you can see that it burns a hole through in a matter of seconds 
Below is a shot of it in action out into the sky and what was included in the box. It even come with a pair of protective glasses. Its pretty important to wear these when using it indoors. The refection of the dot is enough to cause eye damage :s.. Any way that’s enough geeking out for one day..
For more Photos head to my flickr..
iPhone 4 mini review…
Jul 20th
So its been a couple of weeks since I got my hands on the shiny new iPhone 4 and here’s what I’ve found…
My first impression of the phone is that it’s very good indeed. My old 3G was getting so slow nearly to the point it wasn’t useable, Certainly wasn’t enjoyable any more but with this new model the speed difference amazing! apps now load instantly and there’s no delay on the keyboard when entering text which makes a huge difference.
From the above Images you can see that I have got a new Gelaskin. I decided to get the same one as I had before because I liked the design so much . The cover now has bits for the front and more importantly the sides which helps out with the signal issues! The skin lines up very nicely with the wallpaper which also looks pretty cool. If you have a iPhone and don’t want to compromise the look and feel I would highly recommend you get one of these skins. I had the previous skin on my 3G for nearly a year and it didn’t scratch, fade or peal off which isn’t too bad for a sticker.
I’ve been playing around with the camera quite a bit to see what its capable of and the following photos show this..
I’ve tried to select range of different environments to show how the camera deals with different lighting conditions. One thing I have noticed is the strange lens flare that occurs in very low light. You can see this in picture two below.
The video on the iPhone 4 isn’t to bad either. At 720p good frame rate and fairly good picture quality there’s not a lot more you can ask from a phone camera. I noticed that when in video mode the image is cropped more than picture mode which mean your subject has to be quite far away to get it all in shot.. any who check this short video I put together in Premier earlier…
iPhone 4 video testing from Rob Antill on Vimeo.
The battery life on this new model is also greatly improved. I’ve been using it pretty heavily and haven’t needed to charge it that much at all. The multitasking feature is also super useful, This is something I’ve been waiting for since I got the original iPhone.
I’m not sure what else to say about it that hasn’t already been covered in greater detail on other blogs but my personal opinion is that this is a great piece of kit it works very well and is more sexier than ever. If you have the chance to get one go for it …
If you have any specific questions feel free to post them in the comments section
BUSC – Alpe d’Huez
Apr 6th
I spent last week at BUSC (British Universities Snowsports Council) which was held in the French Ski resort Alpe d’Huez. Needless to say I had an amazing week. Loads of fresh snow which was totally unexpected for this time of year.. some of the best power riding I’ve done so far.
I took quite a lot of pics over the week (2101) but not so much video. I couldn’t be bothered to carry my camera around with me the entire week. I will be putting a short video together some time soon.
For more photos please head to my Flickr Photostream
I also tracked a run from the very top of the resort to the very bottom. I used an App called GPS Motionx on the iPhone. This is pretty cool because you can see exactly where I went. I managed to get a top speed of 42mph and a total distance of 7.24 miles.
Use the Google maps embed below to have a look around..
Note: These satellite shots must have been taken in the summer hence no snow.
Below: Screen shot from Google earth with the tracking data overlaid on the 3D terrain. You get a sense of the distance covered.
