ZombieRunner Blog

We did the first roast over the weekend with our new Behmor 1600 home roaster — 8 ounces of Sumatra Mandheling. We took it just beyond second crack and it turned out nicely (said a quick test cup made in an Aeropress). Time to test it in a cappuccino…

Canon’s just released a new camera in its PoweShot line, the SD800. Looks like a great compact camera to carry along on a run: image stabilizer, wide-angle (28-105) lens - finally they’re getting this right, high ISO.

The specs:

• 7.1 Megapixels and 3.8x zoom
• Wide angle 28mm lens with Optical Image Stabilizer
• DIGIC III with Advanced Noise Reduction and Face Detection
• AF/AE Safety Zoom for extra telephoto reach
• ISO 1600
• High resolution 2.5″ LCD17 shooting modes including VGA movies
• (30 fps) with sound
• Range of optional accessories including Underwater Case

Panasonic just introduced the DMC-FZ7 a replacement for the camera I’ve been using to shoot during my runs.

The most important new feature is the addition of manual focus (controlled by a joystick - remains to be seen how easy it it to use, say, compared to a manual focus ring).

I was hoping for RAW support, but alas. Also, with 12x zoom, it’d be nice to have a wider range, maybe 28-336mm instead of the 36-432mm that it has.

The FZ5 is a terrific running camera (it’s not tiny, but for its capabilities, it quite small). The FZ7 looks like an improvement — probably not enough to trade in an FZ5, but if I were shopping for a new camera (or if I still owned an FZ3) I’d probably get the FZ7.

Ideally I’d do all my shooting with an SLR - the photos are much better. But when I’m out there running for many hours, especially in a 50 or 100 miler, carrying that much weight is out of the question — not if I want to make the cutoffs

- dc

This looks pretty great - out in March.

CNET writes:

Memory goliath SanDisk continues its assault on the flash-based MP3 player market with the launch of the flagship e200 series and the budget-class c100 series. The sharp-looking e200 measures 3.5 by 1.7 by 0.5 inches and has a maximum capacity of 6GB ($300). It boasts a photo- and video-friendly 1.8-inch color screen, as well as a durable titanium back cover and a user-removable rechargeable battery. The e200 also comes in $250 4GB and $200 2GB varieties, while the 6GB version is notable, as it’s the highest-capacity flash-based player in the world. Other cool features include a MicroSD expansion slot, slide-show functionality, an FM tuner with FM recording, and compatibility with WMA subscription services. The players, which are physically much more finished than SanDisk players of the past but, with price tags to match, will be available in March.

Read CNET’s preview

- dc