Over the past couple of weeks I've been doing a ton of research about camcorders. Unfortunately there doesn't exist the equivalent of a dpreview.com or fredmiranda.com for camcorders and I've had to rely on a hodge-podge of reviews from different review sites with varying creditability and also reading the reviews off amazon.com.

While I love amazon.com and think it is a great site with often times great reviews, the lack of a "creditability" rating for the reviews leads me to sometimes be skeptical about the actual review quality - you never really know who is reviewing a product - is it a category pro or is it some kid that has no clue about the product but just happens to think that a product is rad because it has a metallic purple color?!?

From everything I've read though - and skepticism aside, the Canon HF100 seems to be one bad mama-jama of a camcorder. Despite the reported immature recording codec (that's geek speak for recording and compression format) - yes, this camcorder uses compression for the video stream, unlike HDV, this camcorders small size and reported video quality is making me have serious tech-lust.

Other camcorders that I've been considering are:

• Canon FS100 - Non-HD - I strongly considered this, but ultimately I am leaning against it since despite recording in a format that is easier and less time and computer intensive to edit, I just worry that I'll regret getting it 6 months down the line when I am aching for HD video quality. And besides, in the big scheme of things, the $250 price differential is really nothing.
• Canon HF10 - This is an HD cam, but I didn't seriously consider it since it is basically the same cam as the HF100, but it has some built in memory, but costs a ton more
• Panasonic HDC-SD9 - Another HD cam that records in AVCHD format. While being about $70 cheaper than the Canon HF100 and having a comparable feature set, many of the reviews I read, mention about the poor low light performance of this cam. I guess the noisy images that Panasonic is known for in their still cams carries over into their video cams too. While I happen to love Panasonic still cams and believe that their strong feature sets and lens quality outweighs the negatives, I'm not sure I could live with the noisiness in my video.

While I shoot a lot of still photography, I don't really know nor do video, so my demands for this video cam are actually quite basic. Needed, in priority order, are:

1. great video and sound quality
2. small size
3. the ability to record to SD cards - I don't trust hard disk based camcorders and I hate the idea of having all the clutter of tapes

More info and video clip samples:

• Review from camcorderinfo.com
• Clips at Vimeo.com

Lomantic, originally uploaded by 4L4N M4K.

I wanna go back.

It's funny how you get reacquainted with music that you used to love but forgot about until that one day you find it again.

The other day, while watching the season finale of How I Met Your Mother - OK, I admit it, I love the show How I Met Your Mother - the show opened up with a song that I was sure was older Radiohead, but it had been so long that I have listened to older Radiohead that I forgot the song and what record it was on. I got back home to search for it and of course discovered it was Nice Dream from The Bends.

Ever since that day, I've been rediscovering just how amazing The Bends is and find it still so fresh despite the record being 13 years old...Just goes to show that great music is timeless.

Check out the video embed for Nice Dream - These guys are so brilliant:



And more:

Fake Plastic Trees



Karma Police

Came across this site today while browsing my server logs. This site is über cute. What a fresh take on travel photos!

Check it out: http://minikae.blogspot.com

Something about this wok just doesn't seem right...

Is it the non-stick coating, is it the advertised asymmetrical shape, is it the flat bottom, is it Ergonomic stay-cool handle? Actually, it is all of the above. While I actually think Sur La Table is a pretty cool store and has tons of neat gadgets, this bastardization of the primary Chinese pan is rather disappointing.

If you are truly serious about Chinese cooking, you really can only go one way - with the traditional carbon steel wok with the rounded bottom. This tried and true shape has been used for years and years by just about every Chinese family.

The rounded bottom and carbon steel make it ideally suited for steaming, stir frying and pan frying.

When you steam, the rounded bottom allows a large pool of water to sit beneath your steam rack, thereby creating a large source for continuous and hot steam that doesn't instantly cool when you lift your wok lid.

When you stir fry, the rounded bottom allows you to flip or "pow" your food correctly as with a quick flick of your wrist, you can completely flip all the food in your wok without using your spatula. The rounded bottom in this case creates a semi-circular shape within your pan so that your food has a spherical path to travel rather than in a western style saute which has a hard 90 degree angle which prevents the smooth flipping of your food. This flip is what gives great stir fried food that light and crisp texture. Otherwise, if you don't flip, your stir fry will inevitably end up soggy and gross as if you had used a western saute pan. This flip allows some of the moisture that has pooled at the bottom of the wok to escape as steam, rather than condensing back into water and ruining your food.

When you pan fry, the carbon steel acts as a highly efficient conductor of heat that stays hot when you place your raw food into it, allowing your food to form that perfectly seared seal which locks in its moisture. Also, the rounded bottom prevents your food from swimming in oil and actually makes your pan fried food less greasy.

Ultimately though if you are truly passionate about cooking, the one part that you must master, is your control of heat. Back in January, the New York Times ran an article titled The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen that discussed the importance of mastering heat as a prerequisite to great cooking. It is a great read, so check it out.

Oh, a PS - just like a perfectly seasoned cast iron pan, a carbon steel wok will naturally become non-stick once it too becomes seasoned.