Bicycles tour to “Talc Stone”

Road between villages Kosoy Brod and Mramorskoe
Road between villages Kosoy Brod and Mramorskoe

At this Saturday there was bicycles tour to “Talc Stone” lake. Main group, that consisted from 7 persons, headed to it from Yekaterinburg and rode via Aramil highway. I rode from Polevskoy and moved through Kosoy Brod village, according to Google Maps there should be good road to Sisert after it, but it is just painted and there is need to move through the fields from one road to other. So, I missed it and moved to Mramorskoe village; from there I headed to Sisert through wild lands and roads full of dirt and water. After 30 km forest ride I came to asphalt road to Sisert and moved to city on it. There I learned a way to “Talc Stone” lake and navigated to it. There I met rest of group, they came to lake 1 hour before me and already prepared to go home. We talked for a while and drank some tea and said goodbye to each other. I stayed there for one hour, looked at the nature and made some photos and videos.

Pond near Mramorskoe village
Pond near Mramorskoe village

I decided to move back on asphalt road. To Asbest village and around 4 km after it road is very good; then there are 3 – 4 km of sandy and stony road; then there are 4 – 6 km of dirt to Kosoy Brod village. When I approached it, it was already dark, but prints of protectors of cars and bicycles was still visible on the road. Ahead there were sounds of : train, dogs barking and motors of different machines. After small downhill I came into village and reached asphalt highway. There was full Moon on the East and on the high speed on the good road bicycle freed itself from the mud. After 6 – 8 km from village I came to home, ate dinner and went to sleep. There are new adventures ahead!

Stony hills between Mramorskoe village and Sisert
Stony hills between Mramorskoe village and Sisert
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Talc Stone
Park near Sisert
Park near Sisert
Park near Sisert
Park near Sisert
Butterfly, on the road between Sisert and Polevskoy
Butterfly, on the road between Sisert and Polevskoy

You can see rest of photos here.

Philips SHE9100 in-ears headphones review with 7 Hz – 25 kHz and 108 dB sensitivity for 17 USD

Philips SHE9100 headphones
Philips SHE9100 headphones

Philips released new dynamic in ears headphones Philips SHE9100 with semi-open acoustic architecture. Their drivers have 8.6 mm diameter and are powered by neodymium magnets, tuned for clear reproduction of high frequencies; they have only 1 driver in each cup. Housing is manufactured from aluminum, which makes sounds reproduction more clear; their diaphragms are made from maylar – form of polyester resin. They can reproduce sounds in 7 – 25000 Hz frequencies range, have 108 dBa / 1 mW sensitivity, their impedance is 16 Ohms and maximal power input is 30 mW. Their cable has 1.2 m length, is mounted to both cups, not detachable and connects to sound source via 3.5 mm gold-plated mini-jack connector, it has slider, which allows to keep cable parts together during movement, and in place of entrance into caps it is additionally reinforced with plastic tubes.

Weight of headphones is 12.5 g, they are supplied in 5 color variants : silver, black, red, blue and orange. They have no active noise cancellation, as some large monitor headphones have. Philips SHE9100 are shipped with eartips of 3 different sizes for comfortable wearing by people with different ears sizes and form of caps is oval, which is more convenient, than circle form. Package contains : Philips SHE9100 headphones themselves, 3 eartips of different sizes for each cap, and user’s guide.

Headphones are produced in accordance to ecological standards and have according passport. All in all Philips SHE9100 are oriented on use in trainings, sportive exercises and everyday use in home and outside, however there is need to be cautious with them on the streets to not bump into somebody, listening to the music; their price is around 17 USD. There is also need to note, that for the close price there is ability to buy other in-ears headphones of Philips and other companies production, including ones with microphones and smartphones control buttons. Wherein, if higher quality of all sounds frequencies reproduction is needed, especially in basses area, instead of compactness and lightness, then there is ability to look on 40 and 50 mm monitor headphones, among which there are very interesting models, with comparable price with this model.

Philips – is a company, which were founded in Dutch in 1891 year; now it has 3 large subdivisions, which develop and produce : consumer electronics, medical equipment and lighting devices. At current moment this is one of the largest companies – producers of electronics, in which around 105000 people work in 60 countries of the world. In electronics area it produces wide range of devices : from kitchen appliances to headphones and smartphones. Philips is notable for producing quality devices, providing proper technical information about them without using of large amounts of psychological marketing and for setting of optimal prices for its goods.

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II – entry level camera with interchangeable lenses

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II camera
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II camera

Olympus announced new entry-level professional camera Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with interchangeable objective lens. They are attached to it via Micro Four Thirds mount; its 4/3 Live MOS sensor has 17.3 x 13 mm sizes and 16.1 MP of effective resolution. it supports 5 axis image stabilization via sensor shift; manual focus and exposure settings ( which is very useful for astro photo and other purposes ); Time Lapse mode for shooting of very slow processes; and HDR ( High Dynamic Range ) functions, which improve color and lightness capturing for scenes, which contain simultaneously dim and high lit objects. It can shoot photos with 4608 x 3456 pixels maximal resolution and save them in JPEG, RAW ( with 12 bits per channel color depth and lossless compression ), RAW+JPEG and MPO formats. It can record videos in Full HD 1920 x 1080 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p and HD 1280 x 720 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p modes and save them in MOV ( with MPEG-4AVC or H.264 image encoding ) and AVI ( with Motion JPEG image encoding ) formats. Its main display has 3-inch size and 1040K dots resolution; its OLED viewfinder has 2.36M dots resolution. Camera saves photos and videos on SDHC, SDXC and UHS-I/II flash memory cards and supports Wi-Fi connections for data transmitting to mobile devices and for remote control of camera from smartphone. It has following connectors : USB/audio-video/remote control and Micro HDMI type-D for photos and videos viewing on screens of TV and monitor. One charge of Li-ion battery of Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II is enough for making of 320 photos. Its sizes are : 119.5 x 83.1 x 46.7 mm ( width x height x depth ), and weight is : 390 g. Camera can work in 0 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range and in 30 – 90 % relative air humidity levels. Package contains : Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II camera itself, Li-ion battery, recharger, USB cable for data transmitting and battery recharging, CD-ROM disk with software, strap on hand, user’s guide and warranty card. It will be available in shops from 5th September of this year.

Sony DSC-RX10 II – new professional camera, which is able to record 4K video

Sony DSC-RX10 II camera
Sony DSC-RX10 II camera

Sony released new professional camera Sony DSC-RX10 II. It is equipped with Exmor RS CMOS sensor with 13.2 x 8.8 mm sizes and 20.2 MP resolution and with Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* optics with 8.3x maximal zoom. Camera can shoot photos with 5472 × 3648 pixels maximal resolution and save them in JPEG and RAW formats with sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces. It can record videos in following modes : 4K 3840 x 2160 25p, Full HD1920 x 1080 100p/50p/25p and HD 1280 x 720 25p and save them in XAVC S, AVCHD and MP4 formats with LPCM 2ch, Dolby Digital ( AC-3 ) 2ch and MPEG-4 AAC-LC 2ch sound formats. Main TFT LCD display of camera has 3-inch size and 1228800 dots resolution; its XGA OLED viewfinder has 0.39-inch size and 2359296 dots resolution. Sony DSC-RX10 II supports HDR ( High Dynamic Range ) functions, which improve color and brightness reproduction for scenes with dim and high lit objects. It has following connectors : Micro USB for photos and videos transfers and battery recharging and HDMI for images viewing on screens of TV and monitor; and supports Wi-Fi connections for data transmitting to mobile devices and remote control of camera from smartphone. One charge of Li-ion battery is enough for making of 400 photos. Camera sizes are 50 x 22 x 54 mm ( width x depth x height ), and weight is 813 g. Package contains : Sony DSC-RX10 II camera itself, battery, recharger, Micro USB cable, strap on hand, user’s guide and different caps and coverings for camera.

Review of new professional camera PENTAX K-3 II

Camera PENTAX K-3 II
Camera PENTAX K-3 II

PENTAX released new professional DSLR camera PENTAX K-3 II. It has CMOS sensor with 24.35 MP resolution and 23.5 x 15.6 mm sizes. Camera can shoot photos with 6016 x 4000 pixels maximal resolution and save them in JPEG ( with 8 bits per channel color depth ) and RAW ( with 14 bits per channel color depth ) formats. It records videos in Full HD 1920 x 1080 60i/50i/30p/25p/24p and HD 1280 x 720, 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p modes and saves them in MOV ( with MPEG-4 AVC or H.264 image encoding ) or AVI ( with JPEG image encoding ) formats. Swappable objective lenses are attached to camera via PENTAX KAF2 mount. Image stabilization is performed via sensor shifting. Camera supports HDR ( High Dynamic Range ) functions, which improve color and lightness capture quality for scenes with dim and high lit objects. It is worth to note, that camera supports ISO levels in 100 – 51200 range. Main TFT LCD display has 3.2-inch size and 1037K dots resolution. Type of viewfinder is : Pentaprism. Camera supports flash memory cards of following formats : SD, SDHC, SDXC, EyeFi and Flucard; and have following connectors : USB 3.0 for data transmitting, HDMI for images and videos viewing on screens of TV or monitor, audio-video output, 3.5 mm input for external microphone, X-sync socket and electric line power input. It supports GPS navigation for determination of place of shooting coordinates, digital compass, and ASTROTRACER function, which helps to capture deep sky objects. Camera is powered by Li-ion battery or from 6 AA batteries; one charge of battery is enough for making of 720 photos. It can work in -10 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range and is protected from water splashes and dust. Package contains : PENTAX K-3 II camera itself, Li-ion battery, recharger, strap on hand, CD-ROM disk with software, user’s guide and different caps and coverings for camera.

Bicycles tour to “Old Lens” quarry

Old Lens quarry near Yekaterinburg
“Old Lens” quarry near Yekaterinburg

At this Sunday there was bicycles tour to Old Lens quarry, which is located near Yekaterinburg. I rode to it from Polevskoy and met with rest of group at Sisert train station. 8 persons participated in it. Quarry is located near Shabrovskiy village and road to it from Polevskoy highway takes around 20 minutes. While moving inside and outside of quarry there is need to carry bicycle on hands and move on on wooden stairs cases. Quarry is often visited by tourists on weekend days.

Old Lens quarry near Yekaterinburg
“Old Lens” quarry near Yekaterinburg

On Old Lens quarry previously talcum was extracted; first mining started in XIX century and industrial mining started in 1931 year. This quarry was one of the biggest in Soviet Union. It was closed in 1974 year due to new mining techniques, which were adopted, and now only water is pumped out from quarry. Its depth is 100 m and width and length are 250 and 400 m, accordingly. After quarry we moved back to Polevskoy highway; I separated there from group and moved to my home.

Old Lens quarry near Yekaterinburg
“Old Lens” quarry near Yekaterinburg
Old Lens quarry near Yekaterinburg
“Old Lens” quarry near Yekaterinburg
Old Lens quarry near Yekaterinburg
“Old Lens” quarry near Yekaterinburg
Old Lens quarry near Yekaterinburg
“Old Lens” quarry near Yekaterinburg

You can see other photos here.

DJI Phantom 3 Standard 2.7K – quadrocopter, which is able to record UHD video

Quadrocopter DJI Phantom 3 Standard 2.7K
Quadrocopter DJI Phantom 3 Standard 2.7K

DJI announced new quadrocopter DJI Phantom 3 Standard 2.7K, which is able to record UHD video. Its flight characteristics are similar to DJI Phantom 3 Advanced/Professional drones; main difference is in 2.7K camera, which is installed on new quadrocopter. Its sensor has 1/2.3-inch size and 12 MP resolution. Camera can shoot photos in 4000 x 3000 pixels maximal resolution ( at ISO 100 – 1600 levels ) and save them in JPEG and DNG formats. And it can record videos ( at ISO 100 – 3200 levels ) in following modes : UHD 2.7K 2704 x 1520p 30, Full HD 1920 x 1080p 24/25/30 and HD 1280 x 720p 24/25/30/48/50/60 ( in this area new quadrocopter even better, than DJI Phantom 3 Advanced ), and save them in MP4 and MOV formats with MPEG-4 AVC image encoding. Camera saves photos and videos on Micro SD flash memory cards ( 8 GB card is included in package ) and can work in 0 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range. Other characteristics of DJI Phantom 3 Standard 2.7K are almost the same, as DJI Phantom 3 Advanced/Professional have. It will be available in shops from 27th August of this year.

FUJIFILM X-T10 – new compact professional camera

FUJIFILM X-T10 camera
FUJIFILM X-T10 camera

FUJIFILM released new compact professional camera FUJIFILM X-T10. It supports swappable objective lenses with FUJIFILM X mount format; its APS-C X-Trans CMOS II sensor has 23.6 x 15.6 mm size and 16.3 MP resolution; camera is equipped with EXR Processor II for images and videos processing; and supports optical image stabilization with use of objective lenses, that are compatible with OIS standard. Camera can shoot photos with 4896 x 3264 pixels maximal resolution and save them in : JPEG, RAW and RAW+JPEG formats. Camera can record videos in following modes : Full HD 1920 x 1080 60p / 50p / 30p / 25p / 24p and HD 1280 x 720 60p / 50p / 30p / 25p / 24p, and can save video files in MOV format with H.264 image encoding and Linear PCM stereo sound format. Its main LCD display has 3 -inch size and 920K dots resolution and can rotate under different angles; its OLED viewfinder has 0.39-inch size and 2360K dots resolution. Camera can save photos and videos on SD, SDHC and SDXC ( UHS-I ) flash memory cards and supports Wi-Fi connections for data transmitting to mobile devices and remote control of camera from smartphone. It has following connectors : USB 2.0 for photos and videos transmitting and battery charging, HDMI Micro Type D for their viewing on TV or monitor screen and 2.5 mm input for external microphone connection and remote control of camera. One charge of Li-ion battery is enough for making of 350 photos. Camera sizes are : 118.4 x 82.8 x 40.8 mm ( width x height x depth ), and its weight is : 381 g. It can work in 0 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range and in 10 – 80 % relative air humidity range. Package contains : FUJIFILM X-T10 camera itself, Li-ion battery, recharger, strap on hand, user’s guide and different caps and coverings for camera.

Panasonic LUMIX G7 camera review

Panasonic LUMIX G7 camera
Panasonic LUMIX G7 camera

Panasonic released new professional DSLM ( Digital Single Lens Mirrorless ) camera Panasonic LUMIX G7. It supports interchangeable objective lens with Micro Four Thirds mount format. Its Live MOS sensor has 17.3 x 13 mm size and 16 MP resolution. Camera can save images in JPEG, RAW and MPO formats with 4592 x 3448 pixels maximal resolution and in sRGB and AdobeRGB color spaces. It supports following video recording modes : 4K 3840 x 2160 30p/24p, Full HD 1920 x 1080 60p/30p, HD 1280 x 720 30p and VGA 640 x 480 30p, and saves it in : AVCHD ( with Dolby Digital 2ch sound format ) and MP4 ( AAC 2ch sound format ) formats. Its main TFT LCD display has 3-inch size and 1040K dots resolution and can be rotated under different angles; its OLED viewfinder has 2360K dots resolution. Camera saves photos and videos on SD, SDHC and SDXC flash memory cards and supports Wi-Fi connections for their transmitting to mobile devices and for remote control of camera. It has following connectors : USB 2.0 ( for data transmitting and battery charging ), micro HDMI TypeD ( for images and videos viewing on screen of TV or monitor ), audio-video output, 2.5 mm input for remote control and 3.5 mm input for external stereo microphone. One charge of Li-ion battery is enough for making of 360 photos. Camera sizes are : 124.9 x 86.2 x 77.4 mm ( width x height x depth ), weight is : 520 – 720 g, depending on the attached objective lens. It can work in 0 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range and in 10 – 80 % relative air humidity range. Package contains : Panasonic LUMIX G7 camera itself, Li-ion battery, recharger, USB cable, DVD disk with software, strap on hand and different caps and coverings for camera. Additionally there is ability to buy following accessories : interchangeable lens, optical filters, external flashes and microphones, external batteries and additional chargers.

Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage

Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage
Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage

At this Saturday in Yekaterinburg in Day of the City there were VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage bicycle competitions held. 19 men in MTB category; 4 women in MTB category and 11 men in Road category participated in them. They were held in 3 phases : warming up, in which participants familiarized themselves with track and planned use of strength and transmission on it; qualification, in which they distributed into pairs by time of riding through the track; and competitions themselves, in which winner went into next round for each of 3 categories. In each ride sportsmen rode 1 / 4 of mile : 402 m.

Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage
Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage

Competitions were hard and one participant fell from bicycle, happily he received only light injuries. There were some delays between pairs and categories starts, organizers of event promised to account this and make next stage better. In MTB men category there were following winners : Antonov Sergey ( 3rd place ), Petrov Evgeniy ( 2nd place ) and Abramov Stepan ( 1st place ) with following times : 33.1, 32.3 and 30.8 s, accordingly. In MTB women category there were following winners : Soboleva Natalya ( 3rd place ), Koreshkova Elena ( 2nd place ) and Lakosnikova Svetlana ( 1st place ) with following times : 43.9, 41.8 and 40.8 s, accordingly. In Road men category there were following winners : Laev Konstantine ( 3rd place ), Rassadnikov Aleksandr ( 2nd place ) and Toropov Arseniy ( 1st place ) with following times : 34.2, 33.5 and 32.5 s, accordingly. Next stage will be held at 19th September and will be interesting, weather will be still warm and summer competitions season will be still open.

Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage
Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage
Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage
Bicycles competitions VeloDRAG 2015 3rd stage

You can see other photos here and other videos on my channel on YouTube.