Darth Dino

Hi no, it was not the intention to let him do it alone or by himself. I will do "managing" the building process, aks him for parts, let him count them and show him where to put them (with help). Dino

Hi thank you all for your replys. Any recommenations for sturdy sets that young kids do notbreak easily? Dino

Hi if you stick with you camera in the 6x6 hole there is no wondering why you hardly get light into that. Try to use a higher focal length, zoom in. Then you have to get away with you camera from the object, and light could go in. Many macro photos are taken by higher distance. E.g. i shoot fireflys 1-1,2m far away because they fly away if you come closer. My 150mm macro is exactly made for that. Dino

Hi *yawn* Yet another Excavator topic? Yes, sure! Just another review of the well known features? No thanks! Some you you will go like me out of the dark ages because of their kids. I believe Lego, especially technic, is very good for education and to exite the kids intelligence. Because i would like to have fun too, i started the experiment and confronted my 3yo son with the 8043 Excavator. Although this set is really for teens or Afols from the building point of view, but not from the playing point of view! My son rapidely learned to drive the excavator via the remote and we both having great fun! Just the swtich between driving and digging functions is sometimes hard to understand. But most surprized me that even the building process was fun for us both! It tooks us two weeks of a one hour building step per day, mostly at the evening wlhen its getting dark. 80% of all! joints and connectors have been assembled by him with my instructions "put this into there". Sometimesi showed him the instructions and tried to explain "why we are doing so and not different". I told him many times that he we really have to follow instructions to get the excavator work. He understood that alhough many steps are not clear for him. I think he also learned to pay attention on a single work - that is hard for young kids! But he has seen that there is a big reward at the end - the working excavator! I hardly could describe how happy i am that my experiment went better than expected. And i really would recommend you to do the same with your kids or young family members! I would like to hear from you similarities and! recommendations for technic sets that also working great with young kids. Dino

@ supersympa: i will be there this week too. Obletter had 35% discount on Lego? Just for single sets or for a lot of different stuff (mostly excluding SW). I am actually loking for larger technic sets, 500-1000 pieces. Dino

Hi i really do not care where something is made, especially not if we are talking about plastic. It is all about quality regarding the raw material and the machines. The last ones could be made worldwide and the material quality is easy to hold. It always depends on the manufacturers/developers specifications and requirements. And as we all know Lego cares a lot about that. If Lego e.g. would mix DK plastic with China plastic and both are so different - because it is a different material - they would never work together. This would cause different clutch and different colors - and both will not have their acceptance by the buyers. So all the plastics are the same - but if they are not all made in DK, it does not matter if it is the same material plus high quality Lego designed moldibg machines. There is no bad "China plastic" there are only bad designers and or engeneers. But Lego do not have these... Dino

Hi @CP5670: For dark areas you will need straylight. If you have a build in flash you can put an unfolded kleenex or similar in front of it. The flash will go into the paper and will produce a LOT of straylight that goes in the darkest corners. Butit took some work to place the camera and the kleenex - the closer the flash to the lens is, the more diffficult. Second most important possibility a a REFRECTOR! Use a white pieace of paper (letter) and place it against the flash but on the oposite of the object. So you will get direct light from the flash and indirect light from the reflector. 45 degrees down will be good. @ searchfunction: Maybe the manual focus will just be available in the manual mode!? If you choose M can you steer the shuttertime plus the f value with the arrow buttons top buttom left right? Unfortunately i do not have for any camera the menu in my mind - but i am working on that :) Dino

Hi it is so obviously that you are comming from Germany and where have seen many old G-models. The shape of the lighthouse is perfect and highly important for easy recognition. Sadly those technic angles are not available in orange too. I am loking forward to the rest when it is done. Dino

Hi What characters or symbols you have next to the flower? Is there no A, T and M? But the "macromode" should close the aperature also. But it is always better if you do that by yourself because you will learn to understand your camera and photography. In the early 2000er i took professional (= for money!) macro photos with a Olympus C3030. That piece of camera would make everybody laught today :) It was just 3x zoom and 3 mp. Beside your equipment discussion: Keep in mind that amateurs worry about equipment (i have a too bad camera), profesionals worry about money (i got too less money for that) and masters worry about light (i really need good light for that photo). Do not worry about your camera, worry about the light, and that you can steer it and you can play with it while changing your aperature and shutter time ;) Dino

Hi i will try to do so: I checked dpreview for you cameras features, so everythink i will ask you to do should work. - do you light setup without using the flash but use lamps/lightbulbs - do manual/custom WB first - zoom out - place your closest subject not closer than ~5 cm, because that is the closest focus your camera can do. In telephoto the closest focus should be much more far away. - focus manually to the closest focus point, your camera can do this via menu! - if you have an A or M mode use this and set f to 8 - iso should be at smallest level - for A the exposuretime will be calculated - for M set the time as long as neccessary, look at the exposure control level! - use the time lapsed automated shooting, this will prevent shaking if you press the button - upload te result here ;) Dino

Hi yes, you are right. Only dedicated macro lenses will still benefit from higher then f11. I have two, 50 and 150 mm both are still ok ip to f13. But the f36 image will show easily what closing the aperature means for the image. Keep in mind dof also changes massively with different focals lengths. Long focal length (telephoto) will have a very short dof even you close the aperature. A very good example shows that from the other side: The single eye of a fly has a soooo short focal lengths, that no aperature ( eye iris) and no focussing is needed but everything is everytime in FULL focus. Dino

Hi noone told he needs a DSLR. F-value: The fs written on your lens tellen you the widest position for the different zoom stages. 2.8 is for wide angle, the other one for telephoto. In both cases that is "wide open". But you can close it manually. In my first post i mentioned the A (aperature) or M (manual) modes, because both modes will steer the aperature. Every camera can do so, i am sure yours too! If you close the aperature in that modes, it will also reduce light - that i why most automodes uses wide open aperatures. 2.8 - 4.0 - 5.6 - 8.0 those f values will reduce the light for each step by the HALF! But you will increase also you depth of field. On the other hand, as mentioned in the post before mine, you will need a tripod, because of long exposure times, e.g. 2-3 seconds. See what the closing, higher values, of the aperature does! Parts in the back getting sharp, unline to searchfunctions post it has NOTHING to do with the focus, its all aperature! Your lens probable do not have a f36 step but f8 is much better for that instead of wide open. Sorry for big image, Ipad sucks for c&p. Dino Dino

Hi if you have a manual zoom on you camera, you should move that DURING the acquisition. This gives you a nice warp effect. Dino

Hi "your sharpness issue" is no thing to worry about, it is a physical effect. But you can change that by closibg the aperature, using a higher f-value. Dino

Hi two things: At first you should really close your aperature (higher value) to get more depth of field. See, the front of the helmet is sharp, but even to torso is unsharp. And it ia NOT unsharp bedause you have the wrong camera, it is because you did not have choosen the "correct" settings for that. I can not actually read EXIFs here on my Ipad but i would bet you have taken the photo with wide open aperature (small value). Sexondly, try to whitebalnc first, if no raw mode is available. Take a photo with the same settings as for the fig but take it from a white piece of paper. Then choose manual WB and go back to the paperphoto. Then the camera calculates how yellowish or whatever you color tone is. Every photo taken from then is fine whitebalanced. Nearly every camera can do so. Dino

Hi thank you, i will buy the Offroader then. I am going to purchase it for the parts, therefor everything should still work fine. Is there another/additional source for the metalic green technic parts? Dino

Hi let me add some information why some of you think the tire quality had changed. I am working for a microscope manufacturer and we use rubber cap in front of the eyepieces. But it is nerverneverever just rubber, it is always also plastic, just like Lego tires. Plastic needs softener to be rubberlike, and some softeners are now not in use anymore for parts where you get in close contact, just like rubbercaps and Lego tires. If you leave the softener it feels harder and more plsstic like, BUT it might be much healthier for you and your kids. Dino

Hi I would like to purchase a 8466 Offroader from 2001. It is a used Model that probably never has been disassembeled. What about the flex technic parts, will thye keep their angles and curves as they had the last ten years, or are they still flexible? I am a bit afraid of buying something that never could be used as source for parts. What about the tires, ten years old tires are still ok and "soft"? Rubber and plastic parts will lose their softener over the years - that is why i am asking. Dino

Hi he ordered the two clones ;) Dino

Hi i had to found out that some people on ebay obviously trying to make money with "rebuild" MFs. Some of them are fair and post that in the headlight, some are not that fair a pretend to have a "brandnewnerverusedbestcondition-original" MF but without box and without instructions. Can you tell me why everything should be so new and never used but it is not in sealed bags anymore? Additional to that all parts are sorted as you would do if you had placed a big bricklink purchase. A had forgot to mention that the fair one ebay sellers auction is around 400€, just a couple of hours left. The other one would like to have around 1300, but no bids at the moment... I do not post the original ebay links because i do not want to hurt anybody. Dino

Hi i am not an native english speaker, i meant it a bit different: If you planning to go there, you will have a reason for this, maybe high interest in tan tiles. Then you could ask on the phone for them and if they are willing to sell them in boxes. Sure no employee will tell you the whole story of pab wall, but if you are focussed on a couple of parts it might work ;) Dino

Hi i started with the excavator 8043 to get off my dark ages. Also my 3yo son profit from that because he could look for parts during the build and because it is remote controled. Maybe you have also children. Anyway the 8043 is great and gives you a lot of PF parts including remote. That might be good for later remote upgrades of you other verhicles. Dino

Hi very nice work, i like it a lot. Especially the usage of the browns, that makes it more rusty, more used-looking and probably bloody. Question: Why is this a T600 instead of the well known T800? The 600 just have been shown in T4 and have been mentioned by Reese in T1: "Easy to identify with rubber skin". I do not know if there are any differences in the endosceleton. Dino

Hi i had to estimate the volume of the large ones: ~700ml. I bought 4 of the large ones and got this: and As you see my focus is on SW stuff and or achitecture where both, the grays and the trans clears, fits well. Dino

Hi thank you. Powerpuller and 8466 Offroader had the same tires except the printing right? I really like those black rims that have been used here. Dino