AK 77

This is all very interesting to hear.... I resisted facebook for a few months, but gave in and joined and found it pretty good - if you move around and have different circle of friends in different time zones it can be a good way of keeping in touch, and also for rounding up friends for events. I think it changes the way we see friends a little - by removing time from the equation slightly - friends from high school sit alongside current friends. You can turn off the email notifications for all those random 'fun' applications. I think it is also a big waste of time too! (ah

I think his point was, everything has limitations - PAS cameras being that they are all POS - so don't waste your life chosing which one to buy. Instead, spend the time learning how to work with it's limitations to take decent photos - and then you can enjoy the good points of them, like that you can put them in your pocket. There is a place for compact cameras - always in your pocket.

Originally Posted By: Kumapix so AK where are all those skate photos that you've taken with that sunpak 555???? Well, I've just bought a scanner (only a flatbed: Epson GT-X750 for 19,000) on the way home today, so you can see them soon. Flatbed is good enough for viewing on the web / emailing to people. I don't have the cash for a dedicated negative scanner yet, but I have met someone who said I can use his if I am Nagano city! Might be worth it if I want to print any really big. I got my first role of night skate shots back (well half the roll was at Omachi in the daytime) yesterday

oh, you guys read Fall Line? Is it any good? Is it out then? What page should I look at first? BP I know you were taking the piss for sure, so I thought I'd join in. Nobody seemed to notice though.

The courses at Aokiko are very much technical freeride (in the harder places) rather than fast downhill. There is an are of 'features' - log rides, bridges high and low - half way down that you can stop and play in. Best of all, it costs about 200yen per uplift - so great value for a summer or autumn weekend - you can camp by the lake (campsite) and swim in the lake. As FT and Stemik say, there are forest tracks and paths for beginners in Hakuba too, and more steep downhill too.

Oh, sounds good. Is it out?

Is it any good? I mostly just get the same old snowboard mags.

Does anyone here read Fall Line?

Hey - no worries, I haven't taken offence! I'm just defending my reputation among those who might not realise you were not 100 percent serious! Thanks for putting up the report and pics... are there really this few mtb riders, serious or casual, on these pages? Anyway, it was good event - and diving into the lake for a swim at the end of each day was perfect! It is colder now, but still refreshing!

FT - the Aokiko staff had a pair of silver Smiths, in their registration forms box at the end of the day (this greedy bugger spent 2 hours helping pack up the event) so they should still have them - when i saw them I asked around, but none of the remaining people knew whose they were. Maybe you can pass by on your way from work... I think there will be people there today.

FT - nice pics! Everyone was flying down, and Chris is a seriously ripping rider.(I removed the tag on the facebook pic - it wasn't me!) Sunrise - The drummers are really good - they are called Sabunyuma and they play quite often at events in Hakuba, and one them does a workshop in Matsumoto sometimes too. FT - I won one prize in the janken (a hoody, yay! - a girls one, but on me, no problem!)...and I only jankened again, cos sometimes they said "Ok these prizes are for those who haven't won anywthing yet" - meaning other times some of the other things were up for everyone to janken

BP: Well, I reckon my previous offer of some conkers, comics and a piggyback was pretty good then. Might still throw in the used chewing gum. Kuma... I MIGHT be interested in the D200 too..... any word on it (the 1/250th flash sync is same as an FM2 so might be good to get to grips with rather that rather than using the super high flash sync on the D70 and then not being able to replicate those techinques on Velvia!)

suffering from being a right wing idiot.

When I asked, they looked up quite a few D70 at 40,000 to 48,000 for A/B and A condition respectively, on their used list with a 6 month garuntee. D70s were a bit more.

Smartarse? well hello Mr Pot I am a big fan of Tohoku. London might afford a nice view... if you were on ten times my current salary! But mountains always win. >Thursday; well, why not just put them in this thread, they are more photographic than most of the things on this thread (despite Kuma's SNOW pics / info despairing requests!)

Winter one looks nice... but a bit flat. Is that Niseko? Summer one... hmmm, I think the view from my window is nicer... maybe a 'views from my window' compilation (FT not allowed to enter!)

Originally Posted By: Fattwins How much are you going to sell the d70 for? Oi! I asked first, about a month ago! I'll give you some chocolate almonds, some conkers, a copy of the beano and a piggy-back up the stairs for it. And maybe some chewing gum. When I've finished with it, obviously. PS> People should read what Ken Rockwell says in his reviews - the D40 and D50 are both better cameras than the D70! So why am i interested - I want one of these already out of date cameras because it has a peculiar feature of being able to flash sync at high speeds - for daylight fill

Hey, BP wanna make that d200 cost only 9 man by selling me your D70??? hmmmm?

Originally Posted By: Kumapix if you rip it doesn't matter what you wear Hell yeah. Most snowboarder, especially in Japan, should be ashamed of the flair they rock without the ripping to back it up. If I could really rip, I'd ride naked. Thank god I'm rubbish! ha ha.

I gotta get Googles & Gloves as well.. Hi there, Nothing wrong with old gear, last year I met a Hakuba Tsugaike local who was stoked with his recent 4000 yen purchase of a Sims Aaron Vincent snowboard - in really good condition from about 1998! It didn't seem to stop him floating fs 5s. Rule 1) For total bargains: friends leaving the country, and recycle/second hand stores - the further away from ski resorts, the better. Rule 2) For semi-bargains: search online (but know what you are looking for), and haggle more discount of stock that's older than last year's in shops

Originally Posted By: spook Originally Posted By: AK 77 I like freestyle and baggy outerwear, so I'm waiting for this season's new twin-tip tapered boards, for float regular and switch. that sounds good (the twin-tip tapered boards), not your saggy pants are these boards for real, or just on your wish list? Oh, come on! Think about it for a moment? All these people offering advise about Malolo, Fish, etc tapered boards - with a small tail and relatively wider, or even massive, nose! in a twin tip?!!? sigh. (and no smart arse comments from you, Oyuki, about M

Originally Posted By: Oyuki kigan Originally Posted By: spook was it tricky? without wanting to drag this off topic, i've never understood how riders with a forward stance (like terje) ride switch - it would be hell weird with both feet pointing backwards yeah, it was super hard. thats why it was fun. And i don't understand riders like Terje either. I need aeither a centered, duck stance, or to set the board up completely switch. Maybe it's cos he's a f'in genius - like breaking the highest air world record on that monster QP last year when he only rides 10-15 days a seaso

Originally Posted By: Kumapix Originally Posted By: AK 77 3) I like the lack of extra controls - I am using a dial for shutter speed, the aparture ring and the focus ring, all manually and immediately hands-on, and intuitive. Nothing else. No need for a histogram or whatever to tell you if you got the right balance of RGB, or how much to under-expose off the meter 'cos the background is all black - use your brain! yeah, but you only find that out 2 weeks later when you get the film back from the lab! You've got to make sure you write down your settings for every single shot so you can

Originally Posted By: soubriquet >roll of film Man, what century are you living in? Only Canon's full frame, 20 megapixel DSLR can beat a roll of Velvia slide film for quality, although I use it more because: 1) It's what I have. Photography is about taking pictures, which is done mostly in your mind, not by shopping for the latest equipment. I don't have anything against digital, (if someone wants to buy it for me!) but I want to master what I have before spending money on cameras that are more like consumer electronics that will be outdated in 2 years time, or less. 2) I l

That's still a good price now! BP - If you want to upgrade to a D200, I might be interested in your D70 body (due to it's cost-cutting design it has the quirk of being able to flash sync at any shutter speed). Damn, I wish I bought the mint condition FM2 that I saw in spring. Time to switch from Pentax to Nikon, I think. In the UK Ebay is flooded with so many dirt cheap Pentax prime lenses - like less than 20,000 for F2.8 smc lenses, which are good lenses, but in Japan there are so many amateur film photo buffs that Pentax lenses are actually hard to get hold of. Nikon lenses se