No House Week!
Comments: 7
This week was supposed to be House Week on Antipixel, wherein I was going to present a series of photographs of houses in my neighbourhood so we could take a look at the current state of Japanese residential architecture.
It’s not going to happen: my Nikon Coolpix 990 started wigging out on me the other night after a routine battery change. The controls no longer work as they should and there’s no way to get the camera into a specific shooting or play mode. The manual does not suggest a way to reset the camera (if you know one, please let me know!). In fact, above a certain dumb level of troubleshotting, the advice is invariably to contact your Nikon service centre.
I downloaded a firmware update and booted into OS 9 to administer it (after downloading the Nikon View software, which is required) but this failed. The Nikon View software either crashes or the firmware update tells me there’s no camera attached. The reviews for the OS X version of Nikon View on versiontracker.com are so bad that I’m not even going to try it. I’ve contacted a friend with the same camera and will try to use his installation of Nikon View in combination with the firmware update to reset the bloody thing.
And I had big plans for that camera this week…
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Posted to Architecture • 2002.09.09 (Mon) • 16:35
Comments
Posted by Eric 2002.09.09, 21:26
Hmm… I can’t help, but I can direct you to someone who might - Michael Angeles -> http://www.studioid.com/weblog/archives/000314.php his Coolpix 880 had a similar problem, and he solved it.
Posted by jh 2002.09.09, 21:42
Eric — great of you to look that up for me and send it along. Thanks very much.
Unfortunately, I tried it and it didn’t work. I hadn’t read anything about leaving the batteries out overnight, just did it because I didn’t want power running to a faulty system. Tried it again earlier this evening but it’s still haywire.
The next thing I’m going to try is to hit it with this hammer and see what that does…
Posted by Kurt 2002.09.10, 11:39
What a shame! I have been inspired by your recent postings to pay closer attention to my surroundings, and I was thinking this weekend as I walked the dog in the neighborhood that I should document more of my immediate surroundings, and give one a picture of the suburban landscape that I live in. So it would be neat to sort of piggy-back on your House Week idea….
Posted by resonance 2002.09.10, 13:26
My 990 died on me after dropping it. The upshot is that Nikon service in CA had it back to me within 5 days. It cost $200, but if it wasn’t for the serial number matching my records, I would have sworn they sent me a new camera. They even cleaned the dust out from under the LCD display on top of the camera and also from within the optical viewfinder.
I’ve since upgraded to a CP5700 which I’m extremely happy with, but my fiancee’s family is overwhelmingly happy with the 990.
Posted by jh 2002.09.10, 16:33
Kurt — the great thing about digital cameras of course is that you can shoot with the wild profligacy that the cost of film inhibits. With film, I’m always making little calculations in my head and editing shots out of the camera before they’ve even been taken. There’s simply a higher threshold that a shot has to clear before you really notice it.
Having used the Coolpix for about 18 months, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it’s changed the way I look at things. I don’t pass over things so easily now that it’s virtually free to take a closer look and see if there’s a photograph there.
Which is all by way of saying that, yes, by all means you should be documenting your surroundings more. Hell, this is Tokyo; everything’s going to change before you know it.
Maybe, when I get my camera fixed, we can come up with a list of shots and each shoot the corresponding answer in our neighbourhoods. This might be a good group project - anyone could join in. I’m thinking of things like -
House you’d most like to live in
Oldest house, newest house
Ugliest house or location
Incongruities (cement garden gnomes in a Japanese garden - don’t laugh, I’ve seen it)
A vacant lot (great for glimpses of the sides and backs of houses that you never usually get to see)
&c…
Posted by jh 2002.09.10, 16:38
Resonance — I managed to get the 990 to display its firmware version. The bad news is that I’m up to date. I tried the tip that Eric passed along again today, with the same results. The thing is just spazzing out.
Looks like Nikon service centre, here I come.
A few months ago I had to have my Contax T2 35mm camera repaired at the Kyocera centre and I had a similar experience to you. The thing came dback looking immaculate and they even replaced the screws in the bottom of the camera which had become a little rusty.
Posted by Kurt 2002.09.11, 02:44
Jeremy—
You’re so right about digital changing one’s approach to photography….in the last 5 months I’ve shot around 5000 photos (many deleted and never to see the light of day, of course), which is probably double what I’ve shot on 35mm and what-not in the last 15 years (and I tend to go through a lot of rolls when I shoot). It’s absolutely true, that things I would never have stopped for previously for not wanting to waste precious film, I now shoot….it’s been incredibly liberating.
Re: house shooting (or perhaps we should call it neighborhood shooting), I see you’ve managed to resurrect your camera so let the shooting commence! You’ve got a great task list going….one might add:
Best ornamental or decorative touch. Unlike my past home San Francisco, which had more ornamental than you can shake a stick at, these nice touches are pretty few and far between (even the oni-gawara’s you’ve turned me on to seem fairly standardized).
House most likely to meet the wrecking ball within the next 6 months.
Along the lines of incongruities, given the lack of zoning, how about the best juxtaposition of a light industry building and a home.
We could of course add “mansions” to the list…hmmn, perhaps the best mansion without “Lion” in its name?
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