ozanzac

Picked the S5500 up yesterday afternoon (to give me extra time to muck around with it). The guy knocked down the price $30 to $450 to match the competition. I bought a 1 gig XD card, and today when I went back to enquire about an XD card reader vs a power adaptor for data transfer, they basically, and very unexpectantly gave me an XD card reader worth $40 for free! (Probably because of the confusion between the three different sales clerks that served me. The free card reader was only advertised for the 256 mb and 512 mb cards. Not the 1 gig card I bought......I had the evil within saying 'Oooo..... hello.....free shit.....just accept it....BEFORE THEY NOTICE THE MISTAKE!.....and exit! For which I did, with a big cheesy grin! ) Very happy with it! Already flattened the set of batteries that came with it. (Pics weren't that great though..... Poor lighting conditions, and I was mainly playing with the functions for the sake of playing with the functions) Now to charge up my Rechargeable batteries for the weekend!

Well, I'm not looking for a full SLR camera, nor am I willing to go three times over the price limit, I've set myself.... both those Cannon SLR's still have a recommended price of $1799 Aussie dollars! For $479 AU, the S5500 Zoom represents reasonable bang for buck. However, the Kodak Easyshare Z740 digital camera, which is 5 MP, is at the same price, and also shortlisted as a possible selction, but the downside is that it's video capture capabilities are limited to below 30 FPS. Besides, this will pretty much be my own first non-disposable camera, and I'm not going to be using it other than for capuring images and short movie clips for storage on my computer/imageshack e.t.c.; wasting the 150 odd free prints I'll get from the store, and possibly printing some special shots of the family with my printer. And for those tasks, I've read, that a 4 MP camera will suffice for up to 11" x 14" prints.

I'm leaning towards purchasing the Fuji Finepix S-5500. The S-7000 is a little out of my league price wise, and I was considering the S-3500, which is also a 4 MP camera, but that camera has less manual functions, which I will tend to use once I'm proficient, and doesn't have a microphone or sufficient framerate / resolution for flowing film clips, which is an extra functionality I'll certainly use. It's on special at the camera shop at the momment too, but I'll see what the guy at the camera shop might also reccomend as an alternative to the S-5500. Not sure what I'm most eager about?! Playing around with the camera, or the spots I've chosen to shoot from!

hehe, good advise. Cheers guys. I'll be continually reading this thread whilist researching camera's further (and mucking around with GT4 photo mode), right up until a couple of minutes before the purchase on friday.... Bummer part is I'll probably have just enough time to charge the batteries, and sought of pre-set the camera before heading out on saturday and sunday to shoot stuff..... Heck, I'm actually doing a recce run on the bike as a detour on the way home from uni tommorrow to look for decent positions to shoot from!

This could very well be a stupid, idiotic, console gamer question, but, could Gran Turismo 4's 'Photo Mode', be useful in firstly, to find out what minimal specifications (Lens, Zoom, Digital Zoom, Aperture, Shutter speed e.t.c.) would be necessary for quality high speed pictures, and secondly, does anyone know if the stats presented in GT4's professional photo mode is true to life enough for setting up a camera for that, almost identical purpose?

Really.....bugger.....now I'm really feeling out of my depths! Well, $500 au is the limit I've set myself. (Which I figure is reasonable amount to spend for a digital still camera) But it'd be handy not needing to spend that much, but still get a camera capable of capturing with clarity, for instance: cars travelling at high speed flying through the air!

Cool pix everyone! I barely ever have the oppurtunity to go photographing, but this weekend I'm intent on heading out to the ARC Rally of South Australia, and wouldn't mind shooting some of the cars whilist in action, and sharing some of the shots on here. (once I get a photobucket account) I know some of the roads like the back of my hand, as they're some of my favourite tracks to go trail biking on. So expect some good ones. What I'm after, is a little help in what I should be looking out for in a digital camera. Specifications, particular models / manufacturers worth looking at e.t.c. Nothing too fancy, but something that won't be outdone by a damn camera phone in a few years time. I'm assuming that an average digital camera nowadays would be around 3 - 5 megapixels, but that's an uneducated guess I'll be hoping to make my purchase by this Friday morning. (Edit) Apologies if such a noob discussion has taken place prior to this, but I don't particularly have the time to search through 150 pages of discussion, let alone potentially 150 pages of images on a 56k connection!

Agreed, but would lethal force be required to take him down? Would it be absolutely necessary to kill the nut waving the gun? Was it absolutly neccessary to kill the suspected bomber, because he was wearing a big jacket, and failed to respond to the call to stop? I mean, the guy tripped up! He wasn't really going anywhere at the time he was shot!........but was shot fatally anyway!?!

I recognise the severity of the situation, but the suspect..... Any suspect, is far more useful alive than dead. They had the opportunity to capture him when he was down on the ground, and if they'd arrested him alive, then they'd be able to interrogate him for more information. Heck, you can't be a suicide bomber if either you're not the one who pulls the trigger, or you don't have explosives..... Now quite obviously, he never got the opportunity to pull any trigger.......but, was there even a trigger to pull? Did the officer who fired the shots have without a doubt, reason to shoot him fatally? That's what I'm picking at. It's that this was probably an avoidable fatal shooting, and a possible intelligence goldmine. For the sake of the officer who shot the suspect, I dearly hope there were explosives found on the suspect.....because in that case, the suspects death was not in vane, and the actions of the officer probably did save the lives of many people aboard that train. But if the suspect didn't have the explosive, and was merely gunned down on a suspicion......well.....you be the judge...... Is that okay to do? Does not that contradict the basics of law, innocent until proven otherwise?

From the early reports I've heard, the suspect shot by London police first tripped, then fell, and was shot whilst down. Now, shooting the suspect may very well have been justified in the circumstances to disable the suspect, be it from running away, or detonating an explosive device, but five times, at what would presumably be, very close range......... seems overkill, to say the least. To be honest, I picture the event more like a vengeful mob hit, rather than an attempt by police to apprehend a suspect. Clever police work isn't shoot first, ask questions later.....After all, dead people can't talk. I'll be very interested to see the outcome of the investigation into this incident.

I could catch the first flight to Miami, London, New York, or Athens, rock up with nothing but the clothes on my back, and be welcomed with open arms, with no more notice than a quick phone call before I arrive..... Then there's my German, and Irish geneaology that I'd dearly love to explore, first hand. Point being, I have relatives located all around the world.... The same goes for most of my friends too, and those that don't, would probably go abroad for the hell of it anyway....such excuses as a major sporting event, grand concert, or visiting one of the great wonders of the world would suit just fine. Thus, is there any wonder why you'll find an Aussie just about anywhere, anytime?!.....And there's only supposed to be 20 million of us!

My tip to a nice landing......listen to what Air Traffic Control has to say after making a request to land. Doing that once or twice will get you into the groove, and once you know what you're doing, to cut the landing pattern things short, simply declare an emergency, then ask for clearance to land on final approach, and land! If I recall correctly, k, is the landing gear brake, and b, is the air brake. Aim to land at around 220 knots (that's my usual target.....probably a bit too fast, but when you're in a tight turn with zero approach, speed is of the essence ) and don't forget to flare for a smooth landing. I'd create an ACMI file for you, but my PC is barebones at the momment, awaiting an upgrade.

Cool! I've been tied up with work (and partying too hard on weekends) and have hardly had the time to keep up with OFP news, let alone the Falcon scene! This is very pleasant news..... Looks like I might just have something to do during our cold, and miserable winter!

Pardon me if it's already been spotted, BUT....... I just downloaded the AA press release.zip from BIS, and noticed within the PDF file, noticed something which I thought was was quite cheaky! At the end of the PDF, the phrase 'If you've seen the flash, it's already too late' is scrawled over the top of one of the pictures. What I'd like to know, is whether the phrase is trademarked to anyone, because if I were at BIS.....I'd make sure to have trademarked (if possible).....and then have it as the slogan for whatever the OFP sequel will be called. Both as a memory jog to previous OFP players unaware of the name change, and as a big flip of the bird at Codies.

Do you mean that those specific words, cannot, under any circumstance, be incorporated into the title of the game? Need clarification before I begin brainstorming.

hmm...intressting...really? What is your source? One. Two. Publisher changes are not uncommon for BIS....... Yes but the fact the CM is still promoting it on their site shows otherwise. Both CM's and BIS' legal departments would make sure the CM remove such pages from their site in a flash if the marketing agreement has been terminated. How can you compare BIS as a startup, eating up money and no prior product, to a now established and highly successful developer, that's proved itself in the market? Don't mind me, I'm just stirring the pot, in the same way that the removal of the codemasters logo from the flashpoint2.com website has done so. I remember reading discussions, quite literally years ago, for which the same thing happened to the previous publisher on the old official OFP website.......The planned publisher, (whose name I can't recall off the top of my head) had its logo removed, and the OFP site was revamped once a new one had been found. One can still compare BIS of today to the BIS of yesteryear, because the people at the helm are still one and the same. If for whatever reason, they find Codemasters to be an innappropriate publisher......(IE, too restrictive, or intrusive, or unwilling for whatever reason). They may choose, for whatever reason, not to publish their product through Codemasters, and go find someone else who is either, willing to meet BIS's demands, less intrusive e.t.c. I've seen other games have the carpet pulled from under their feet due to publisher problems, and the strong products, managed to find (or pull) another publisher in reasonable time. Remembering, Codemasters is a large corporation, it may take time for the publishing giant to turn full circle, and update it's site, or, there could still be negotiations going on in the background for publishing rights..... The removal of the codemasters logo may merely be a bluff, for all we know.......or a signal, designed to gain attention.......who knows! I'm just calling it as I see it!

hmm...intressting...really? What is your source? One. Two. Publisher changes are not uncommon for BIS....... Can anyone recall pre-OFP demo days?

Cool technology, however, it's merely anything more than a production line that builds a production line......... I'll start to get interested, when a robot will be able to reproduce itself and perform other tasks, as well produce modified versions of itself (for tasks other than the sole purpose of making copies of itself), and learn to adapt and update the design of itself and its offspring over time.

This thread was a bit of a suprise for me! I didn't realise that so many of you aren't native speakers of english, much due to the clarity, and easy to read nature of your posts! I must congratulate you all then!...because I've never bothered studying a secondary language to the extent where I can communicate clearly with native speakers of it. Sure, there were the mandatory Language Other Than English classes throughout school. (I studied Indonesian and Italian)..But with no opportunity to use them regularly, I'm left with just basic greetings, farewells, and numbers....."Tourist basics", as I call it.

Classic tale!

Voted not sure, but, I'm of the opinion that nobody won.

If you think you're prepared for such a change in lifestyle, why not give it a go, and good luck to ya.

Finally had a bash of GT4 over a LAN last night with a mate. What can I say! Fun, fun, FUN!!!! Beats the absolute hell out of racing retarded, AI robots. However, there are many 'features' of the LAN mode that I certainly do not like, and one would really have to sympathise with a pair of console only gamers trying to link up with each other, with no experience in Networking. There are far too many knacks required to get the game working (for a console especially!)…For instance, one must have compiled a list of ‘Favourite Cars’ in arcade single player mode before trying to connect… a pre-requisite that I certainly did not find anywhere in the game booklet. Also, the ‘Favourite Cars’ list is restricted to 30 cars only, and cannot be selected from ones personal collection on a memory card…why? I don’t f***ing know! I can’t possibly see why it’s necessary to limit the choice of cars available…you can choose your own cars in two player split screen mode, but can’t in LAN mode! Then there’s the tracks… which also have a cap on how many one can choose for LAN mode… but I won’t get into that… because it was that damn frustrating. Then one has to make sure the connection settings are OK. Auto connection is a farce! We couldn’t get it working, thus we had to enter in our own IP addresses and subnet mask… then and only then could a successful connection be possibly made… I say possibly because to get the ball rolling, we both had to press connect at exactly the same time… then and only then could one proceed to race. And for just one more added annoyance, there’s no option to exit LAN mode… one must reset the console to change any option! I suspect that a fully polished GT4 would have taken at least another 6 months work....or a year and a half of patches had this been a PC release! Nonetheless, the racing was worth it, and now that I know all the knacks needed to get it working, I’m trying to convince some other petrol-head mates to buy network adaptors for their older PS2’s as well… It really was a ball of fun…but just a bit of a pain in the arse to get the ball moving!

Has anyone been able to use the LAN multiplayer feature yet? A mate and I have been waiting until we'd 'opened' up the game a little before we start racing each other. (That, and he needs to get a Network Adaptor for his PS2.....hopefully it'll be coming in on Wednesday) Just want to see if there's any tips to get it up and running smoothly before we might have to encounter unexpected difficulties and unnecessary inconveniences......such as will a crossover cable suffice, or is a LAN hub necessary.....

GT4 has been taking up pretty much all my 'gaming' spare time....That includes forum browsing! The Driving Force Pro Wheel really makes the game much more enjoyable......I encourage anyone who loves there driving sims to try one out! At the momment, I'm at around 26% completion. Photo mode is nice, but I would have much prefered non-retarded AI over it.......sure, the AI can be fun to drive with, but that's only when one drives to their style of racing........otherwise they're frustratingly retarded, and when I'm recovering from a spin, it's all too often that they shunt me up the rear, sending me into another spin. Otherwise, it's great for hotlapping, and that keeps me quite content.