First Sigma 150mm F2.8 shots

Well, testing the Sigma 150mm F2.8 AF IF EX DG APO MACRO HSM lens. Sigma marketing must have a poll on who can invent the longest acronym list!

Anyway, here are some samples. I already noticed a few things:
- Macro photography is HARD .. but since the lens will be used mainly for portrait stuff, I can get around that ;-)
- AF is, even though it is an HSM lens, quite slow. AF tracking is hit or miss, even if you use the focus limiter.
- The damn thing is heavy. My D700+MB10+8xAA is already pretty weighty.. adding the 150mm doesn't make it easier. The whole kit weighs 2.6kg .. 
- Sharpness and field flatness is excellent.. I wonder if I could use this lens for piggyback astrophotography.

Any vignetting you see is added in post-processing :-)
Post processed with Bibble 5 PV2.1 available from Bibble Labs

SimplyTweet + Posterous = WOW!

Look out Tweetie, Twitterific, Twitpic and TweetPhoto. There are new guys around that can make your life just a little tougher.
 
I started tweeting on my iPhone using Twitterific 1, which was nice, but once Tweetie came out, I was quick to jump ship. The new Twitterific has improved a lot, so Tweetie and Twitterific are now almost equal.
 
Twitpic is a long standing twitter picture hosting service, and a lot of alternatives (like TweetPhoto) are popping up because their service and uptime is kind of flaky.
 
Not too long ago, Posterous introduced an API for clients to use for sending pictures to Posterous instead of twitpic. Most twitter clients (Tweetie (Mac, iPhone version not yet), DestroyTwitter (AIR), Twitterific (iPhone)) have implemented the API in some way or the other.
 
However, there's a smart developer around called Hwee-Boon Yar who develops SimplyTweet, the other iPhone twitter client. Yes, it may not (yet) look as slick as the big ones, but looks can deceive. His new version, to be released in the AppStore soon, has extensive support for Posterous.
 
It's not just posting pictures to Posterous, it can post multiple pictures to a Posterous gallery post. It also puts the twitter hashtags in proper Posterous tags. And last but certainly not least, you can write more than 140 char tweets. Longer tweets will be posted at Posterous and your tweet will get a nice post.ly link to the post. Amazing isn't it?
 
Just try it, Posterous is dead simple to start (just send an email to post@posterous.com ) and simplytweet can be freely downloaded from the Apple Appstore. Simplytweet lite has no ads as well. A more extensive version can be purchased for a small fee, giving you some extra functionality. Maybe the developer can comment below what the differences between the lite and paid version are?

(Can you tell I'm a fan? :-))

Posterous FTW!

More and more people are using Posterous currently. And it is not difficult to imagine why.
 
Posterous is, quite literally, dead-simple. Just email your stuff, be it text, movies, images, documents, sounds, and it'll be published in a great way for everybody, or only the people you want to, to read. And the user support from Sachin and Gary is also excellent!
 
My whole web "life" is now centered around Posterous; I've set up 4 Posterous sites:
http://post.marcof.net - my main posterous where I keep my blog
http://pix.marcof.net - my photography portfolio
http://bibble-expert.com - the site where I want to post tips about Bibble 5
 
And last, but not least:
http://tweets.marcof.net - my tweesterous site where I put all my tweetpics.
 
The Posterous API enables twitter clients to post images to Posterous.

I've been using Tweetie on my iPhone for a long time, but that one still doesn't support Posterous.

However, an excellent alternative (with some quirks, but that's being worked on) is SimplyTweet (to be found here: http://motionobj.com/simplytweet ). SimplyTweet not only supports the Posterous API, but it is (I think) the only one that fully supports the multi-image posting in a correct way, namely not a post per image, but a post with all images for that post/tweet included.

Now all that needs to be implemented to make it even cooler for tweeting is:

  • API search possibilities
  • a way to have tweet text inside the body instead of post header
  • an alternative to "twitlonger". Use posterous for longer than 140 character tweets.

And possibly more neato stuff....

In any case, the future looks bright for Posterous, it's about time to conquer the world!

Oh, I'm still waiting for Posterous merchandise ;-)