Joe Stevens’ Vans and the Places Where they Were is a fascinating typology, despite the windowless vans’ inherent creepiness.

Nearly ten years ago I got a Fuji MX-2700 as a birthday present. Despite its 2.3 megapixels and its fixed zoom lens it was as expensive back then as a decent laptop computer or a lower-midrange DSLR are now, not even accounting for inflation. Basically it was the most expensive present someone ever gave me, so I really made the most of it - the lackluster electrical appliance was my camera of choice for the next five years, despite my affairs with analog Yashicas and Nikons bought on eBay. Late 2005 I finally decided to give the Fuji a rest from being utterly crap, as in the meantime I was starting to get fed up with getting beter results from a BenQ toy camera that didn’t even have a viewfinder. So I got a somewhat better BenQ (how I love thy cheap electronics) for about 100 euros, and a couple years later, while at Fnac browsing a crate of items that have previously been on display at the store (therefore likely to have been abused by overeager button-pushers), got one of the worst and ugliest cameras Canon ever made for 50 euros, so I could go and hack it.

So anyway, last week I finally decided I should buy a proper digital camera. I can’t afford a good DSLR (say, a 5D Mark II?), and if I’m buying a DSLR nothing less than a fullframe sensor makes sense - anything less is a camera for wearing on weekends, impressing the clueless hipsters in the downtown cafés while making a fool of yourself in front of anyone who actually knows his optics (the people you really intended to impress). But I digress: If I can’t buy a fullframe sensor, at least I should do myself a favor and buy a lighter, smaller camera, so I thank my friend Ivo for pointing me the kind of small point-and-shoot camera a real photographer would buy: the Panasonic LX-3. Nevermind this camera is the Leica D-Lux 4 minus the logo and 300 euros. He had me sold with the f2.0 lens.

An in fact the camera feels like Quality. It has the size it should have for its abilities, unlike the junk SLRs you can get for the same price. And the way the lens is so well thought out sets it apart, a symptom of why the LX-3 is great: it can’t zoom past 60mm (35mm equiv.), but in a camera this small and (relatively) cheap, why would you want a tele (and the inherent loss of aperture, bigger body)? Are you a chromatic aberration nut? Good thinking by the Panasonic engineers there.

In a nutshell, the Panasonic is a good solid photographers’ camera. And I only wonder why are there so many crappy point-and-shoots being sold by the same 330 or so euros. Oh, because those come in pink. But nevermind those: the LX-3 is definitely highly recommended.

Not long ago I wrote about my first computer, which my father got me for my seventh birthday. But I had never seen an advertisment for it before. (via Pedro Quintas)

Rodney Ascher’s The S From Hell. A docu-horror short film about… a corporate design Manifestation of Evil?

Stuff I’ve been sharing on Facebook lately:

SnapSort, a photo camera comparison service. The Panasonic LX3 seems to win against every pocketable camera in its price range, but it’s a shame the site’s criteria isn’t more transparent. And I’d love to be able to do a reverse lookup, for instance, to list cameras sorted by low light performance.

360 degree views of airplane cockpits. That’s a lotta buttons.

In B-flat, a YouTube video orchestra.

The Sixty One, an alternative music internet radio. It seems many users are unhappy with a recent redesign, but having discovered this last week, I just love it. And the idea of completing ‘listening quests’ so your music recommendations have higher reputation may sound ridiculous - and it probably is - but I just can’t resist literally playing along.

Next time people ask me about my pay as teacher, I’ll send them a link to this video.

Andrew of The Null Device wrote about the intelligent dogs of Moscow that have learned to use the city’s subway system, as apparently London’s pigeons do too. Apropos of that, a blog dedicated to interspecies friendship (‘friendship’ meaning: not in the process of killing each other while photographed/videotaped).

Another great blog discovery is Unhappy Hipsters. It’s just cynical captions appended to images from some interior design magazine, but still.

A trailer for Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2. I was shocked to find out about this, but soundtrack notwithstanding, the trailer got me interested. I can’t think of a sequel, by the same director and with the same lead, done this many years after the first movie.

Again via The Null Device, a news report on news reporting. Priceless. By professional defect, I sometimes catch myself looking at the utter dullness of TV news reports. Here in Portugal, newsmen love their shots of buildings’ signage - no piece about the economy is complete without three or four ugly shots of some sliding door with the words “Ministry of Finance” in it. And loads of shots of people’s lower bodies walking a busy street. An international classic.

The Oatmeal’s How to suck at Facebook. I think I’ve met every single type of user described in the comic.

Alex Gaiodouk’s deadpan photography. (via lightgreen)

More here.

A Kodachrome photo of Picadilly Circus, London, in 1949. More here.

360 degree video for next-to-nothing

Something to try.

Boing Boing posted this little gem from There, I Fixed It. Are those letters red electrical tape?

Married To The Sea is one great webcomic. I would post a lot more here if it wasn’t such bad form, because I was really undecided about which illustration I should pick. So I settled for the seagulls. Living in a city where seagulls are a health hazard, I really believe that’s what they mean while they chatter overhead. (via Drive-by Blogging)