Things Digital. Mostly Photographic

In 1977 I built a custom bike. At its core was a 65cm Eisentraut Touring Frame. I was 26, and 6′ 2″. Earlier this week I sold the frame to Jay.

While I didn’t ask, the Eisentraut frame was likely older than Jay. I also did not ask why Jay wanted to ride this relic – I didn’t have to. Jay gets it.

As a bike the ‘Traut was my principle transportation for roughly ten years. I chose every component. It was me with wheels. When the bike and I were in our prime we were a human powered kinetic sculpture. We were more agile than traffic and more clever in our route finding than any satellite navigation system.

The bike was idiosyncratic in a good way. It was built while I lived in Arcata, California and I lived there for the next two or so years. As transportation in a place known for its rain and fog I choose Phil Wood bearings (bottom bracket and wheel.) I had Ray Glover, an artist in chrome molly the equal of Albert, build two brackets that converted the bike from side pull to center pull brakes. I prefer center pull brakes on an every day bike and Ray indulged me. A bike ridden for everyday transportation needs fenders and so fenders were added. Things need to be transported so on went front and rear Blackburn racks. The shifters on the down tube as God intended. Most everything else was Campy. Except for the generator and light. I had the folks at Eisentraut do some braze on’s and among them was a friction generator mount.

Mid-1970's Eisentraut Frame Detail

Arcata is occasionally flat but, thanks to the Coast Range, more often hilly. The gearing on the bike, built 32 years ago, was of the stump pulling variety long before Mountain Biking made small front chain rings all the rage. When the bike and I rode up Fickle Hill the front wheel would barely stay on the pavement and had just enough forward speed to keep it upright. But I could stay seated even as real bike riders had to stand.

I left Arcata for San Diego in 1979 and I spent the next five years with the worlds best commute. I lived in Pacific Beach and worked in a building on the beach in La Jolla. With 7 miles to ride each way and only occasional weather the car stayed parked and the bike and I made the daily round trip.

The route to work was uneventul. The route home was through downtown La Jolla. First came the tranquil climb from the beach up the hill above the village. From there the ride was back to sea level through a maze of traffic. Automobiles were driven by folks who could not see bicycles and every parked car had a door that could fly open with uncanny timing. However, perched high on the 65cm Eisentraut frame, I made safe, quick passage through all this hundreds of times.

Except for the occasional flat tire, the Eisentraut was beyond reliable. As a big, chrome molly frame, it was just soft enough for daily riding. It went exactly where it was pointed. Although I never abused it, the ‘Traut had no problems with the standard insults of a daily commute.

And then, thanks to a virus that settled into the wiring between my brain and middle ear, my balance became compromised and the Eisentraut with the careful chosen components was parked. And it set, well hung, for 20 years.

My balance has mostly returned but not so much that I could use the bike in the way that I intended it. So, after much stalling, years of stalling, I sold it to Jay. I don’t really know Jay. But in the several emails and the ten minutes that it took to exchange the now ancient bike for some small amount of money and a jar of homemade jam, I met someone who values the work of a craftsman and values it as the tool that it was intended to be. The bike will be used – not collected as art but bought for transport.

Good luck Jay. Watch for knuckleheads – they’re everywhere.

The title says it all. Steven Frisching, who really likes flying on commercial airlines¹ , has posted a very handy table that gives the dimensions and weight limits for economy class carry-on baggage for 68 of the worlds Airlines.

There is no standard size or weight for in cabin luggage. As a result the allowed weight varies from a low of 11lbs (5kg) on Alitalia to “none” (perhaps better stated as “none specified…”) on several domestic carriers. Adding to the chaos… some Airlines ignore their own regulations while others are know sticklers.

Icelandair is missing. So here, as of this date, are the specs:

IcelandAir: Size: total of the 3 dimensions (L+W+H) does not exceed 115cm (45in) – Weight 13lbs (5.9kg.)

As always, these may change so check with your airline before you head to the airport…

¹ And I don’t.

I have rented lens’ from Lens Rentals.com and nothing but good things to say about them.

As I wondered through all the exotic glass, I apparently missed a series of well written and wide ranging articles that date back to September of last year.

With topics ranging from the mundane, “Purchasing a Ballhead”, to the sublime, “Canon’s Error 99: the Man the Myth”, and the important “Lens Repair Data 3.0″ this is a growing collection of well written information that stands out from the opinionated but mostly fact-free crowd. These folks actually buy, test and have folks like me abuse rent a huge number and collection of lenses by all the major manufacturers.

Highly reccommended.

Iceland has found itself in the news for all the wrong reasons this past few months.

Iceland’s economic miracle turned out, like so many others of late, to be little more than hyper-leveraged fiction. While the boom times are over, Iceland remains a place of uncommon beauty and uncommon people.

So, as an antidote to the endless stream of cliched images of Icelanders waiting outside for the (pick one of three) failed Bank to open I offer a collection of (mostly) coastal Iceland landscapes.

There are many folks, some more reasonable than others, who have faulted Canon for using the same 9-point autofocus layout in the new/real-soon-now 5D Mark II as the current/previous 5D.

This superb image set of Our New President, Our New Vice President and their Families, before and during the Chicago Victory Speech were taken with the original 5D by David Katz/Obama for America. As I write this, over 1.25 million folks have viewed some or all of these 82 images. I will wager that not one of them thought, “boy, if there were more autofocus points and they were more widely dispersed, these would have been even better.” Not one.

But there is always the next toy. The original 5D’s LCD, now nearly three years old, can makes it sometimes seem more like a film camera with histograms. It is not water tight. The frame rate is pitifully slow…

…and it has a sensor that is (still) as good as any and better than most. Despite all the nattering, in the right hands the 5D shines. The Canon EOS 5D is, still, an excellent general purpose tool. It will remain, for some time to come, a better camera than most of us are photographers.