Meeting up @ Pasar Road

Today was a good day to me as the service calls were not that heavy and I get chauffered about, thanks to my assistant. And so, I got a call from Nex who arrived from Kota Kinabalu the day before and already, he is asking me to meet up. Unfortunately, since I was not driving today, I have to depend on my driver and therefore, we agreed to meet up at Pasar Road in the afternoon.

So, how to convince my assistant to follow my plan? Simple!

He also likes to take pictures and so, *ahem* I decided to introduce him to the World of DSLRs! And so at Pasar Road, I took both Nex and my assistant to the second-hand SLR shop for them to decide if they are ready for it. Since my 30 minutes was up, I had no choice but to leave Nex there as both of us had another appointment to keep. The last I saw of him was they (another avid Nikon D200 photographer) were chatting outside and Nex was asking which is the best camera.

In the beginning, my assistant was interested at the Nikon D80 (RM1450 body) which would have cost him RM2100 (Body + Kit lens + 2% tax). The D200 was way out of budget. Then we went to Amcorp Mall (our customer was there, really.) where a new Nikon D60 was about Rm2400 or thereabouts. So, on the way back to office, we discussed the merits of getting a D70 versus the D60. Since he loves taking architectural buildings but with no plans of getting a "proper" lens for the next two years (Ha ha ha. I doubt it) the argument went in favour of the D60 because:
1) D60 uses SD card (OK, lame excuse)
2) He is not bothered about manual focusing. This is important if he wants to get a second-hand wide-angle lens later which the D60 cannot use it 100%
3) Since he has no lens collection, the D60 is a good beginner camera for him

Since by the time we got out, it was raining and I could not get the three LED torch for Will. But I'll be back there soon!

While we were there, my favourite shop was testing
a 30x 1Watt Luxeon array. It was so bright, its like
using those spotlights outside buildings. However,
the price tag of RM2xx kept me from buying it. It
would have made a very good camera flash or a
very bright Phaser fire!

(Close up is about 1 inch long) This little monster eats up 25 volts
and 750mA. While he was using PWM to power it, the huge chunk
of heatsink was worryingly warm. Very very warm.

Anyway, since I had a bit extra cash, I decided to buy
two more prototype boards and also another 4-channel
RF remote control.

And why do I need so many boards? I am having a bit
of free time now and I am re-doing my Star Trek
Phaser Rifle circuit again. Everything is ready and
now I will concentrate on lighting up the scope