Cleaned up the house this morning and waited till 11AM to venture out my road. Only one swampy spot still - which had already been driven through as usual. Met up with Chk&Kthy at the corner and picked up my returned G9. Made a run down to Study Butte while the gettin' was good to gas up, do laundry, and purchase refrigerant. While the laundry was on the line, I decided it was time to deal with the high summer sun. Last year when my panels at the house started getting shaded - I pulled them off the frames and laid them on the ground for 3 months. Solar panels are not very fond of any shading. By the time I got around to thinking about dealing with the situation, the sun was low enough again to just mount them back on the rack - giving me 9 months to not worry about it. Well now it's time to just deal with it.Another good chance for an afternoon thunderstorm tomorrow so may shoot up to Alpine for a quickie first thing in the morning - need range feed, bird seed, more refrigerant, parts for the enhanced panel rack, and some grub. A big ol' storm just missed me this afternoon with more in the forecast coming up.
Fired up the newly returned G9 to check it out. Good news is it works just fine again and they got rid of the 2 big spots that were inside the lens. Bad news is - now there are 5 new little spots inside the lens and the battery slot was filthy...hmmmm. Don't these guys have a can of DustOff in their tool kit? At least the electronics work - If the dust becomes a major problem, I will crack that sucker open and clean it myself. Canon did the work for free (as a courtesy - their wording) but pretty much threatened that there is absolutely no warranty on the work performed and subsequent repairs will be non-gratis. My kingdom for a dust free digital camera! I am quite aware that I live in a very dusty environment, but this is a recurring problem for a large number of Canon users. I wonder if the cameras on the Mars rovers ever have dust problems inside the lens elements?
A very good day at the Field Lab....because unlike Canon, I met all my own expectations.
If you ever make it to san antonio havels camera is an authorized canon repair facility and they give free estimates while you wait on any out of warranty repair. I have used them for years and they are very good I have a canon eos 1 v , a eos 1 n , and a eos rs , and they are the only ones that I would let work on them. I have also used them for Fuji professional roll film cameras and various medium format and large format cameras in the past. hope you have good luck with your repaired canon g 9 bob
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ReplyDeletethanks for the tip.
I'm glad you finally got your camera back. Too bad about those spots. I did not know you could just open them up and clean them out. Can you shoot some canned air up in there to dislodge those dust motes? Maybe a waterproof housing would prevent future dust entry. It would probably be expensive, and cumbersome to use, though.
ReplyDeleteI guess it would be impractical to mount those solar panels up on your roof. Good luck with all.
Allen....I don't think opening the G9 and cleaning it out will be easy. I have requested the service manual for the camera from Canon and have found a couple of links online that describe part of the surgery. In the meantime - I did just order some canned air. Also thinking about glueing a cylinder to the removable lens ring on the camera to isolate the barrel lens from dust as in extends and retracts - using a standard glass filter over the open end.
ReplyDeletealright! good days at the field lab! rain, your camera's back, and good cow company. be careful not to cover the area around the lens too much or it will create a bit of a vacuum as it extends in/out. dust in cameras are a problem for any brand. the pro cameras and lenses are weather sealed, but unfortunately we all can't afford them. maybe an underwater type housing for it? haha....
ReplyDeleteHey John, dump the Cannon and take a serious look at the USA model Nikon D-80 SLR with the DX 24 X 135lens. I have NEVER had any dust problems and have shot over 7000 plus jpeg's in your part of the high desert over the last few years.also the electronics are bullet proof !you also know all lens made by Nikon/Nikor will accept the camera base , all Nikon/Nikor lens AF , DX , and manual focus all years since day 1.
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John, don't know bout the G-9 but my old Olympus C-700 has never been cleaned, I'm sure it's full of crud just like my lap top, and it is still good as new. But....taking out the front lens to remove the spots is very easy. All I have to do is drop it on the floor and "walla", lens is out.
ReplyDeleteDon't attempt to filter and drink that creek water....like I said before....beer is cheap.
Hope to make it back down that way in a few months, with my doctors approval. Will be good to see "progress in motion" with my own two eyes.
Well I almost agree with billy bob, but coffee made with beer just doesn't quite get the job done. you may know about a company called Katadyn that makes water filters for back packers and campers. They claim that they can filter any , that's right ANY, water and make it drinkable. During my days with the boy scouts we would take the biggest pot we had and fill it up at night and the next morning carefully pump off the clear water on top and we never had any stomach problems.
ReplyDeleteUse a pre-filter with any good water filter. A coffee filter works to get the actual dirt out. Sawyer also makes a good filter. The hollow filament technology is supposed to be really good as long as you back flush it on a regular basis. I have the parts to make a gravity flow filter using a dry sack with a top from a bottle of dishwashing detergent mounted in the bottom, a prefilter, and a Sawyer all hooked together with plastic tubing. You might consider putting one together on the incase you run out of store bought water for coffee.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I'm sure with your skills you could knock a large-scale solar still together in a couple of hours. With the sunlight you enjoy and the long days of summer, I bet you could scale up one that would distill several liters of potable water each day.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the G9 is back...gotta hate that dust, though!