As I Xi It

I was hoping to catch one of Cici’s friends with a bowl of dry cat food I left out but all I got was either the same greedy magpie pop up time and time again or several different ones. I’m not sure if the wood pidgeon got anything though.

The stones are there to stop the bowl moving about.

This is the same video as the last one, except this time I’ve fiddled around with the export settings. It’s smoother, the frames are in the right place and its in glorious HD!

What jolly good fun in the snow today.

Building a Snow Jac from Xi on Vimeo.

Now why didn’t I think of this while I was up in northern Sweden? I guess its something else to add to my list of things to do.

Aurora Borealis timelapse HD – Tromsø 2010 from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

Here’s a timelapse I did while having breakfast with Xiao up in Roast at Borough Market. Fairly busy, even if it was post Christmas.

A View from Roast from Xi on Vimeo.

I had a look in the glass vial I have where I keep the stick insect eggs and noticed one died while in the process of emerging and another was still moving mostly, but its legs were trapped in in the egg still. So, I made a little time-lapse but it just never managed to get out.

Here’s an homage to King of the Hill featuring Cici!

Cici’s Window from Xi on Vimeo.

For automated time lapse photography and ultra long exposures out in the field, I ordered a third party timer remote for my 40D. The Canon TC80N3 was far too pricey (around £100) so I got this Yongnuo MC-C3 instead for around £30.

Having never seen or used the Canon one, I can’t compare this to it. But what I will tell you is that this remote doesn’t feel cheap at all. It seems pretty robust, give it a shake and nothing rattles. Setting it up is pretty straight forward. You can use it as an uber long self-timer (from 0 seconds to 99 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds in 1 second intervals), automate bulb exposures and interval timing (up to 99 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds in 1 second intervals in between shots). There’s also a feature where you can either take a set number of time lapse photos as defined by yourself or you can let it go on till the batteries die. In addition to all the fancy automated stuff, you can use it as a bog standard remote release complete with a running lock for bulb exposures.

The only thing I don’t like about it is the lack of an on/off switch!! What’s the deal with that!? No doubt at some point I’ll fit my own switch. I might even mod the connection so that I interchange between the 350D and 40D. Speaking of mods, I wonder if I can reduce the size of the whole thing.

I upgraded the RAM on my Dell laptop from 512 MB (2x 256MB) to 2 GB (2x 1GB). It was a fairly straightforward and easy job. I didn’t think it needed a full tutorial and since I’m in a movie making kinda mood these day, I time lapsed it.

One thing to remember is to ground yourself before starting. Also, it makes the job a lot easier if you have the correct sized Phillips head screwdriver and flathead to lift off the plastic plate by the keyboard.

Performance wise, my computer definately starts up and shuts down faster. It doesn’t seem to have any problems running the usual gamut of software. Photoshop is fine and everything’s just dandy.