[Photo] B&W Type 90 photo bag

Two days ago I finished my search for a photo bag which I could use for storing my Ikelite underwater housing, the ikelite strobe, my DSLR camera, the Canon strobe, adapters, my noise-cancelling headphones, my netbook and some of the necessary adapters. So I ordered it and yesterday it got delivered.

I needed a bag which I could take as handluggage in the plane which could store all my mentioned stuff safely. I found the B&W Type 90 photo bag, it consists of a sturdy nylon bag with a ABS plastic casing inside which is watertight up till 5 meters. It can be used to stand on but when necessary it can also be used to sit on. In the top of the case there is an air pressure compensation valve which can be used to equalise the pressure after a flight so that the case can be easily opened.

Next to the bag, the case and the padded insert one receives a shoulderstrap and a special strap which can be used to carry the bag as a backpack. There is no instruction book how to use it, so I will tell you. At the end of the strap there are 2 pairs of quick-connects and they are placed around the handle on top of the bag. The other 2 ends are fastened to 2 metal round at the bottom of the bag.

The nice thing is that it also comes with a fully configurable padded insert which can fit in the nylon case but also in the bag itself.

According to the specification of B&W the bag, the ABS plastic casing, the configurable padded insert, the shoulder strap and the backpack straps had a net weight of 4 kgs. That is totally not true, so beware !!!

The total weight is 5.5 kgs which is quite heavy when considering the allowed cabin baggage weight is about 10 kgs ... I will sum up the weights of the individual components:

• The nylon bag itself [3.3 kgs]
• The ABS plastic casing [1.1 kgs]
• The configurable padded insert [1.0 kgs]
• The backpack strap [0.15 kgs]
• The shoulder strap [0.1 kgs]

I will probably combine the nylon bag, the ABS plastic casing and the shoulder strap which adds up to 4.5 kgs. That leaves me a total of 6 kgs for all the stuff I want to take with me as handluggage when going on a holiday ...

[Fun] Oldest battlefield 2 player, Dutch and 66 years old

I just ran into this movie of Jaap, a Dutch man 66 years of age, which loves to play Battlefield 2 !

[Photo] Canon 60D or 600D

Recently I deciced I wanted to make FullHD movies when diving. I had the combination of the Canon S70 and the matching underwater housing. However the problem was that this camera can only take movies of 640*480 which was nice up to a few years ago.

The Canon 500D I had was able to take FullHD movies but only at 20 frames per second. That was not enough for me and so I had to replace it with another camera.

I started to do some research and finally ended up at either the Canon 600D or the Canon 60D. There are quite some differences and I am not only talking about the price. They can however both make FullHD movies at 24, 25 and 30 frames per second. Both of them also have a display which can swivel and that is also one thing I wanted to have in my next camera.

This link on snapsort shows a nice comparison of the 600D and the 60D and based on this I made my choice for the 60D. The following differences made me choose for the 60D:

• Pentaprism instead of a pentamirror
• 9 cross-type focus points instead of 1
• Longer battery life 1100 shoots instead of only 440 shots. Especially important when diving, hard to change the battery.
• Faster continuous shooting, 5.3 fps instead of 3.7 fps
• Body somewhat bigger and heavier, for large hands this is also a plus

So what leaves me now is searching for a new underwater housing for my Canon 60D. I probably end up with the Ikelite housing together with the DS161 strobe. But that's something for a next post !

A review site regarding the Canon 60D

[Travel] Roundtrip Indonesia - Bandung

The first thing we did today in Bandung was to go to the centre and look at the train station.

We also took a walk and looked at some of the shops that sold fresh fruits.

We also saw the next shop which sold chickens, these are not the ones you sometimes see in a episode of Magnum PI. The one that Magnum owns is a plastic one, while these are the real deal.

After our trip to the centre we took off to the Tangkuban Perahu which is a large volcano which last erupted in 1959. It was quite busy over there and some of the locals wanted to take a picture with us, we almost felt like we were celebrities.

On our way to the next stop, the hotwater springs in Ciater, we saw a tea plantation and I had to take some pictures.

A bit further when we were already near the hot springs we saw several big spiders hanging in the trees. No idea of the type, so if you know please let me know so I can add a link.

The hot sulfur springs were totally different from what we expected, we expected a hole in the ground with hot water but what we saw was a pool. They also had showers so one could wash of the sulfur. We had our lunch here, it was the regular lunch with rice, gado gado, sate, etc. and a Bintang for me.



A nice view over a valley which showed a lot of different floors which they used to grow the rice.

At the end of the day we ended up in Padasuka where we watched a long performance of the traditional Anklung instrument.

In the end we ended up in the hotel in Bandung at around 18:00. We did not feel like Indonesian food and so we ended up in the mall under the hotel where we ate some fastfood at Wendy's.

[Tech] Building a #Klout clock

I just ran into this link. It shows how Fabien Royer builds a clock which shows the time, but the nice thing is that it also shows the Klout scores. Check how to build a Klout clock to track your influence and time. It seems that he is using a Netduino board, check this link.

If you do not know what Klout is, just check this link.

[Gadget] The iWallet, a gadget I would not buy

I am quite a gadget freak and most of the time I really like them. However I just ran into the iWallet and that looks like a gadget which does not make too much sense.

It is supposed to be a wallet with a biometric protection via a fingerprint scanner. It also has a bluetooth connection with your phone, which will trigger an alarm when they are separated.

When it would have been a gadget with a price of something like 50 euros then maybe I would have been tempted. But it currently varies from $299 to $599 ...

Check the iWallet site

[Travel] Our roundtrip on Java, Indonesia

We recently did a roundtrip on Java and went from the west coast to the east coast with a private van with both a driver and a guide. It took ten days and we did a lot of sightseeing. In the next posts I want to cover some of the things we did by showing some pictures.

On the 1st of June we left off from Amsterdam and we landed on the 2nd of June in Jakarta. It was warm and already dark. The traffic was quite a mess but luckily we did not have to drive. That is something that a tourist should not do ! There are a lot of scooters who pass you on all sides and as a driver you should know when to honk, when to use the big light and what it means when others use them. So after a while we were dropped of at Hotel Alila in Jakarta to get a good nightrest and to prepare for the roundtrip. The hotel was very nice, the room very spacious and clean, the breakfast was good and the coffee was great !

The view from the hotel in Jakarta

From the hotel we first went to the national monument which is a tower of 132 meters which symbolises the fight for Indonesia's independence.

After that we went to the old center of Batavia, getting there took some time since it was quite busy. A lot of scooters and other traffic.

Finally we got to the old center and we saw the old gouverners office which was still present on the building in Dutch.

It says "Gouverners office"

After that we went to Sunda Kelapa, which is the old harbour in which wooden sailing ships (they call them pinisi) are docked and were the cargo is retrieved or stored by manpower.

The harbour was not very impressive to me ... But after that we went to Taman Mini which is a kind of park in which all 26 provinces of Indonesia are represented with their specific building, clothing and culture.

Zoomed in on the woodwork on the previous building

A typical hut for the Sulawesi people

After the park it was time for lunch and a Bintang, the local beer from Indonesia with Dutch roots.

After that we left for Bandung, which is the country's third largest city. We saw a lot of guys controlling the traffic, people give them a small tip. However during the trip to Bandung we saw at least 100 of them and most of them do not contribute to the flow, they just wave their hands in the hope they will get a few hundred rupiahs.

We encountered a lot of rice fields next to the road.

Before reaching Bandung we also stopped on the top of a large hill with a nice view on the tea fields where we had a nice and fresh cup of tea.

In the evening we reached Bandung where we were dropped of at the hotel. More on that in the next post.