Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Blurred Vision

Between Christmas and New Year we went on the Saturday morning on the spur of the moment to visit my parents who live out in the country about a 5 hour drive from Sydney. A quick phone call to them and we decided to meet up for lunch in bathurst, roughly half way for each of us to travel. So we quickly bundled the kids in the car and got going at about 10:30am.

We got there by about 1:00pm and then met at one of the local pubs for lunch. At the pub we saw several bikes up from Sydney for a counter lunch, and what a fantastic day it was to be out for a ride. After saying our goodbyes I decided that we should go for a drive up to Mount Panorama. For those non down under readers Mount Panorama is Australia's premier car racing street circuit(they used to race bikes here but was discontinued due to it being to dangerous - coincidentally Micheal Doohan won superbike races at this circuit before he became 5 times 500cc World Champ).


Mt Panorama
Bikes lapping the circuit

When there are no racing events on, the circuit is actually a public road with a 60kph speed limit which is enforced, we saw a highway patrol car on the circuit during our 2 lap stint. The circuit is 6.213 km long and has an elevation change of 174m with grades as steep as 1:6. The track is run in an anti clockwise direction during races but during non race days traffic can go in both directions so we did a lap in each direction.



Mountain Straight looking back at Pits
Mountain Straight


The drive to the top of the mountain is always fun and there are spectacular views from the top. I was wishing that I had my bike today and not the car.



View from the top of the mountain


We stopped at the top of the mountain for a few pictures before continuing around the circuit. It was here that the blurry vision started. What the heck is going on, this hasn't happened to me before. Oh and no it wasn't me that had the blurry vision as you can see in the next 2 pictures.....




To many beers perhaps....
Yup it looks like after 5 and bit years my faithful point and shoot camera had finally given up the ghost. It was no longer refocusing after taking the previous photo. So I came home with a bunch of blurred photos which were pretty useless. My old Canon IXUS 7.1mp camera was no more. At least I would be able to now upgrade to a newer camera with better image and video quality as they are all HD video quality now. A new camera has been ordered and I eagerly await its arrival.

11 comments:

  1. Steve:

    Have you ruled out "operator" error ? what if the new one comes, and it's still blurry ?

    Maybe you had it set to manual focus.

    anyway, congrats on your new camera. can't wait to find out what you chose. I hope it doesn't have buttons like your GoPro

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast
    My Flickr // My YouTube

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    1. No Bob, It's just a simple point and shoot camera with not much you can adjust and it has never taken blurred photos before even in manual mode(which is auto focus - huh hows that work then)

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  2. Steve - magic post mate! Bet you were frothing at the mouth, wanting to have a good hammer on a bike. No-one in our household moves all day when THE RACE is on!

    Incidentally, I have intermittent problems with my IXUS too. Great little camera but I'll probably need to upgrade soon too. Look forward to hearing about your purchase!

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    1. Geoff
      I always love driving or riding around the Mount, its a lot like the winding roads that we seek out for a good bike ride. I'd have liked to hammer the car around inleu of not having the bike.

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  3. Steve some good shots despite the camera woes. I didn't know it was 2 way - I tried to shoot a little footage and ride one handed on my VFR there a few years ago. A few seconds of fooage at
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPlfSP8Q4Y&list=UUNpKI7oqEdljAHpNUWdGCLg&index=6
    What have you ordered?

    Cheers Jules.

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    1. Jules
      Haha thats before the gopro era I see, it was only a short video wasn't it. Not bad though.

      I've just ordered another IXUS camera to replace the one I have as it has been a great little camera, is small enough to put in my jacket pocket so I can whip it out quickly to take snaps whilst on the move.

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  4. The views from the top were very nice. Ooooh sunshine.......

    Too bad your camera crapped out on you but at least you have a replacement ordered.

    Size matters when it comes to cameras and riding. So much easier to put a little point and shoot in your pocket. I find that if I have my little Canon in my pocket I will take a lot more pictures than I do when the larger one is in saddlebags.

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    1. Yep i'm right with you there. If I bought one of those big bas ass SLR cameras I doubt I'd get the thing out very often plus it would get shaken about on my R1 with it rough suspension and our poor roads. When it's in my pocket its nice and handy.

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  5. Great post Steve, I'm about due to try out the mountain again one day soon, see if I can take Forest's Elbow at more than 20km an hour now :)

    Awsome that you get a new camera, I've dropped mine a couple of times and it's doing some funny things but still works OK (it's a canon too but not sure of the model), shame cause I;d love an excuse to get a DSLR. Like you tho, I think I'd end up not pulling it out as much tho.

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  6. Damn cops, they take the fun out of everything. I'm sure you would have loved to have your bike on that circuit. Is that were they do the Bathurst 24 hours?

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    1. I've riden around here on every bike i've owned. Its a nice ride too, I bet a bit like the isle of Mann only shorter. They have a 12 hour production car race there every year but there isn't a 24hr race. They did hsve a 24 hr race back in 2002-2003

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