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During Mid-Autumn Festival I planned to ride to Jiuhuashan in southern Anhui, but due to weather predictions I called an audible on departure day and decided on a shorter ride down to Shaoxing and surrounding areas instead. After Shaoxing, I stopped in Xitang for the night and then headed back to Shanghai before the rains came. This marks my first solo-ride in China.
Here is the Viddler video link of highlights from the ride:
Great video and music! :clap:
The "Wonderful" cases look good, can we see a couple more pictures? :popcorn:
Ridding solo this weekend myself and although it has benefits, sometimes nice having a partner along. Wish there were some other riders down here in the deep south.
Cheers!
ChinaV
Envy, envy, envy! Riding solo in China is priceless.
Some really excellent images in there, Motokai.
thanks
Amazing, purple skies! I liked the little riverside town, or was it a canal?
Thanks guys. Still want to figure out why I get distortion when uploading the video to Viddler (particularly the large black pixels on the video segments).
Jape - Shaoxing is an ancient canal city. Check out this link for more: http://vintageshaoxing.com/pages/en/...ons/canal.html
euphonius is in CA now and hopes to be back in China and in the saddle again next month, so looking forward to some more rides together soon.
As for the Wonderful boxes - thanks for your earlier postings on these ChinaV. I'm happy with them but still in search of a workable detachable system. For the racks, I contacted Jialing Chongqing and ordered the stock JH600 racks which didn't need any refitting or customization....the 3-piece set was RMB 700.
For the box attachment system I am using the "hockey pucks" (courtesy of euphonius), but couldn't get them to attach firmly to the racks so they are secured on with bolts for now. Also, I went with the different sizes to offset for the muffler but I later found out it is not necessary with the JH600 configuration. I think after the October holiday ride, I'll swap-out the smaller right-side with the same size as left.
Anyway, here are a couple of more photos showing the rack + boxes.
INSPIRING! =)
Your bike with those boxes look like something out of a James Bond movie.
Great video! When it started I thought I was watching a Japanese animation. Nice use of photos mixed with short vid clips and suspensful music.
How long did it take you to put it together?
CC
Thanks for sharing, looks like a nice ride!
What camera do you use to take all those nice shots?
I was wondering when someone would put those boxes on the JH600, they make a lot of sense to me. Stronger and better looking than the Jialing ones, but cheaper and narrower than the franki ones. Seems like a good choice!
Agree with you on the Wandefu boxes (thanks again to ChinaV for the inspiration). I'm just back from a 5 day/1400km ride thru Anhui and Southwest Zhejiang and they are working out great. Before departing I installed a camera mount on the right box, but the vibration is way too high for any quality images - so I've forgone that and instead will look to a helmet cam or RAM mount.
The camera I'm using is a Nikon P6000. I prefer "high-end compact" cameras because they are just easier to carry while often delivering similar quality photos of a SLR. Also at times I like to hang it around my neck while riding which makes for an easy goto for quick shots. Of course downside is it doesn't have the lens of a SLR and in general photo quality is typically lower. But on the latter, Nikon just released the P7000 which seems to deliver better imaging. http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikonp7000/ (Price in Shanghai is about RMB 3800)
For the video I used Windows Movie Maker which can be downloaded for free if you don't have it already installed. The compilation didn't take too long - about an 60mins which included transitions and tweaking the photo/video lengths to vibe with the music better.
And where are the pictures for that, sir? :deal:Quote:
Originally Posted by MotoKai
Camera wise, my ricoh gx100 just crapped its pants recently and seems irrecuperable, so i'm in the market for a replacement. Portability, image quality and manual control are paramount. The P7000 looks like a good one, but for that price you can have an entry level micro 4/3, which are making so much noise. Then there's the Panasonic LX3 which seems so good and is now pretty cheap. What to do...
Felix, I'm finding huge value in the Canon G11, Canon's top rangefinder camera (although I see they may be releasing the G12). It's got tons of automation, but you can fully override everything and run any or all core functions manually. And the manual controls are not deep in some menu somewhere. Some are physical dials, like the exposure compensation ring. It's got fantastic glass, and a lot of it. The lens is no pinhole but big and fast, almost as big as you'd find in an SLR lens, so it's relative easy to do things that SLRs are good at, like shallowing the depth of field so you get blurred backgrounds and/or foregrounds, though this is not as easy as with an SLR. You either use aperture priority or manual and make sure you are using a large aperture.
In terms of motorcycling, I find it's a perfect size -- not too big or too small. It's boxy -- 11.2 x 7.6 x 4.8 cm -- but its bulk and heft make it easier to hold and manage in a gloved hand.
http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0908/...11-FSL_001.jpg
I sling it over my neck on a strap, and can quickly grab it with my left hand, clutch it with my fingers across the top, hit the power switch with my index finger, then fire away in program mode with the same index finger. I've made hundreds of images while riding, even doing 110kph on the expressway, though the inherent stupidity of this technique should be apparent to all. The G10 represented a major technological rethink from the G10, as Canon bailed out from the more-pixels-is-better ratrace and backed the G11 back to 10 megapixels, down from 14 in the G10. I'm only now starting to use RAW format, but the color, detail and overall image quality really benefited from this decision. I'm far less of a photographer than you, ChinaV, Pfaelzer or Motokai, but I'm pretty happy with the results. All of the images you see me posting in this forum were made with the G11, typically in program mode and with the camera selecting the appropriate DIN.
I'm certain I'd be making far, far fewer pictures if I were using my D70 or even the newer, smaller SLRs. Though my brother in southern California recently showed me his new Sony Alpha NEX-3, which seems to further narrow the gap between pocket camera and SLR. I've not seen any of his images yet, but he said he was really happy with it.
http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/So...18_200-001.jpg
I remember reading that Lao Jia Huo recently bought the G11, and presumably used it for all the images of his rider-to-rider communication experimentation. Perhaps he can weigh in as well.
The G11 MSRP is $500, and is selling here in the US for as little as $425. I paid about that in Shanghai when it first came out less than a year ago.
cheers
Hi Felix,
about cameras: Nothing can beat an SLR like my D200 or so. But for most of us its just a lot of stuff to carry around and unless you are out for serious picture qualities then a high-end bridge camera can do a good job as well, with no need to carry loads of gear with you. To be flexible I like cameras with a wide zoom range like the models below. A good zoom just helps you to take these nice pictures of people without disturbing them...
My favorite (but it comes at a price tag) - nice feature - you can zoom manually like on an SLR lens:
http://pfaelzer.smugmug.com/Motorcyc...76_xFvNW-M.jpg
Similar and cheaper:
http://pfaelzer.smugmug.com/Motorcyc...59_RNbKc-M.jpg
Very good price value:
http://pfaelzer.smugmug.com/Motorcyc...37_TuLgX-M.jpg
Those cameras can also take HD, some even full HD movies - including the zoom feather. OK, this is just to add my bits to that topic.
Main reason why I post:
:riding::riding::riding:When do we see pictures and a report of your trip? :riding::riding::riding:
After having seen the glorious adventure of ChinaV I can't wait any longer to read your part of the story.
Cheers,
AW.
Thank you for the replies and advice guys. Though i'm temped by a lot of cameras for many reasons, price and size are pretty important factors. I reckon i have narrowed my search down to either the Panasonic LX3 or LX5, because they have a great lens with a big aperture and a 24mm wide angle which i absolutely loved on my old ricoh. The amount of freedom you get from a wide angle lens cannot be overstated, and to me is more useful than a long zoom. Now if only the LX3 could have the G11's interface and dials...
I promise i'l get to ride report soon, though unfortunately my camera woes happened on the trip so pictures will be few...
Motokai, sorry your nice thread got hijacked, it seems to happen a lot here!
No problem. Nothing a beer won't fix - so are you in Shanghai yet?Quote:
Originally Posted by felix
End of this month!
Great pics.
http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/at...4&d=1305121991
mmmm... i miss zhejiang and also having a supermoto....
these are amazing pics