PhotoBlaster Worship Page News & Diary

Price hike for Xtreme Pix

2012-02-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

The good ol' GoPhoto Xtreme Pix has gone up significantly in price!

Latest price through GoPhoto direct is $49.95, and on Amazon, it's listed as $89.95.

Previously they were listed as $19.95 through Amazon and $17.95 direct through GoPhoto. That was as of my last major update (August 2010).

Wow! I wonder if they are short on inventory, or maybe it is going out of production again. In any case, it may be a good time to buy one (or another one if you're a collector).

I'll be taking a cross-country road trip soon, and I may bring my PB (or XtremePix) on the road just for fun. Of course, I will be taking my Canon PowerShot digital camera as well as my newly acquired iPhone 4S, which takes remarkably good photos for a phone!

Old news page; old film

2010-08-17T17:41:00.001-07:00

Today I migrated the "Old News" page to this Old Posts thread in the PhotoBlaster Diary...just to keep things simpler. All news should be located in one place, right?

Was looking at my PhotoBlaster, and realized that I still had some film in there! Who knows how old it is...

Gonna have to get it developed real soon now.

Old posts migrated

2010-08-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

All of the old posts from the original Diary page have now been migrated to the blog.

The PhotoBlaster blog begins...

2010-08-16T21:13:00.001-07:00

Since the redesigned PhotoBlaster Worship Page went live, I think I've received more comments and feedback than I have in many years, which is great news!

I figured I would just migrate a lot of my content for the diary to a blog format, mostly because it's easier to post news & photos.

So here we are!

New site launched today!

2010-08-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

08.13.2010 - Wow, big facelift for the site launched today! Been working on it for a few days now. Funny, this facelift has been in the works since January 2009, just getting around to it now. In any case, it's the first major change in the look of the site in over 10 years! I can't believe it's been that long. Why not? Added a contact form, new templates, more semantic HTML, etc.

Remember this old PhotoBlaster Worship Page? RIP...

Dreaming of the PhotoBlaster again...

2010-08-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Dreaming of the PhotoBlaster again...I've been shooting digital for so long (it's very convenient) that my PB has been gathering dust. Maybe I can take it on another outing soon...especially now that the site's been updated.

Old news posts

2007-10-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

(Editor's note 2010-08-17: This is just to archive the former "Old News" page on the old version of the PhotoBlaster Worship Page. There were a number of old entries; in this case, they're probably better served as blog posts).

2007.10.25 Went through and updated a few links today, also cleaned up some page code (this page now validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional). This site is old! It's nice that this page still turns up at the top of Google searches for "photoblaster". In the near future, I should include some better product photos of the 'Blaster.

My PhotoBlaster hasn't seen much travel use lately. I can see it from here, sitting on a shelf, all lonely. It's been supplanted by ease of digital (Canon S230, "old reliable"). My Canon makes me want to take my camera with me everywhere and snap photos. By comparison the Photoblaster, however lovable, is klunky. I checked eBay again today, and no P-Blasters for sale right now. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled to see how much they're running.

2006.07.30 What's new in the world of Photoblaster? Not much. Funny, this page hasn't changed very much at all since June 2000. It's nice that this page still turns up at the top of Google searches for "photoblaster".

04.28.2005 Is it possible that I haven't updated the PhotoBlaster Worship Page in two years? Yikes! Haven't checked in in a really long time, and I noticed the poor bulletin board was overrun with spam/p0rn baloney, so bye-bye bulletin board, until I get something better set up for it, perhaps phpBB? It wasn't really being actively used anyway.

So what else is new? I've been using my digital canon (Canon Powershot S230) a lot more than my Photoblaster lately, simply because I love the Canon's portability. Even so, I'd love to find a digital camera that can do the same kind of "thing" as the PhotoBlaster, that is, combine 4 shots onto a single frame. If you fine one, let me know at: Email Your PhotoBlaster Stories, Photos, Links, Tips, etc.

09.04.2003 Got tired of all the spam on the bulletin board and the guestbook, so permanently removing the guestbook and changed the bulletin board, hopefully it will clean things up a little. I hate spam and/or spammers, they're a waste of everyone's time and resources.

06.10.2003 Been a while since the last update. Time to do some housekeeping, and in keeping with improving things, site is being converted to using CSS for future ease of manipulation.

01.02.2003 Happy New Year! Holidays went by fast this year, now back to work. In other news, the guestbook and bulletin board are back up and running. Thanks for all the visits, we've had over 11,000 hits now. Wow, very humbling...thanks for your support!

08.30.2002 Wow, another summer come and gone, fall and school is starting. No big site update, but did finally take care of the bulletin board and guestbook problems caused by the switch of my ISP. We're all good now and back in business. The poll is not running still, so I'll have to tweak that again. Hard to believe this site is approaching 10,000 unique visitors, very humbling for such a quirky little camera.

03.28.2002 More time passing, not too many PB photos taken over the last few very work-related, very busy months. I have some B&W rolls that I'm waiting to develop. Anyway, Kim Tran passed along some nice info on the Kalimar Action Shot 16 (the PB's wealthy uncle), see below for more info. Whoah, just realized the guestbook and bulletin board aren't working...need to fix it again.

01.07.2002 Happy New Year again! Another year gone by, another year of great 'Blasting. This site needs a new look. I'll hopefully start working on that in the next few weeks. The updates have been so scattered lately. If anyone has a new PB source they wish to divulge, please email me and I'll do my best to post it rapidly. In other news, the Guestbook and Bulletin Board are both up and running again, after a frustratingly long delay.

11.07.2001 PB Site hasn't been updated in a while, figured why not do it now? Never time like the present. The past few months have been crazy indeed, last update was at end of August, who knew that things would change so much in such a short time. Enough ranting though. If anyone has any new PB purchase sources, please email me. The SeeDeals source has dried up, so it looks like PB's are going to become increasingly hard to find.

08.30.2001 OK, sorry for the Photoblaster site being down for almost three weeks!! (down from August 9 - 30) My service provider, Invite, is the absolute WORST. I contacted them at least 10 times over 3 weeks and only got things resolved today. I even had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They are a bunch of complete idiots. My most sincere apologies for the inconveniece. Invite used to have good service, now that they "migrated" to new servers they are absolutely horrible. I could not in good conscience recommend them to anyone, and if anyone knows a good web hosting provider, please email me.

07.18.2001 Sorry that the site was down for a few days...something about domain name renewals or something...oh well. That's just my lazy bones. Well, these lazy bones also FINALLY fixed the film speed poll, which is now working correctly. It only took me 6 months! More work to be done, I've promised to post some new PB photos for the gallery. Well here they are. A new diary entry too.

06.19.2001 Ahh, the PB Worship page is being neglected once again...or perhaps as usual? Oh well, for me these things work in phases.
Some minor corrections here & there, etc. What's new? Check out the new Lomo SuperSampler. A cool camera similar to the ActionSampler but it takes photos vertically! For other Lomo stuff, visit the Lomo site.

04.16.2001 After a nice Easter holiday weekend in the desert, I decided to add some info to the PB Diary (cause I bought another 'Blaster) and to post a discussion about "To Cut or Not to Cut" PB photos on the discussion board. Feel free to join in.

In other news, I'd like to gather some info about mail-order PhotoBlaster processing. Please post a message to the Bulletin Board if you've ever send your PB film away for processing and what the results were like.

04.01.2001 Happy New Year?!? Yes, I haven't updated this page since October of last year. New job, so verrrry busy. But thanks to all the PhotoBlaster Phanatics for all of your feedback. Funkycool New York ezine Daily Candy listed us in a camera article here, check it out. These pages need some work, including the voting script :(. The PhotoBlaster makes a great gift too! Give one to your loved ones & let the fun begin (no, I don't work for Long Hall and have nothing but the best intentions with that corny statement).

10.27.2000 No new PhotoBlaster news, except that the page was listed in funkycool New York ezine Daily Candy. I'll hunt down the exact URL. In other news, my little Perl voting script is coming along: now with a View Results capability as well as IP loggin. It's not on the PBW page yet, though. Check out: http://www.bakon.org/simplevote/

10.11.2000 Thanks again to H

assel Weems for coming through with some great new PhotoBlaster info:
"HPhoto Blaster. It is a bit overpriced, but http://www.qvc.com has them for $29.97 plus $4.97 shipping. The item number is E57424. Happy Blasting, Hassel". Click this link to go there directly:
http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=%2Fasp%2FIsItemNumberRedirect.asp&search=SQ&frames=y&referrer=QVC&txtDesc=E57424&x=9&y=5i Again, I accidently found another source for the Photo Blaster. It is a bit overpriced, but http://www.qvc.com has them for $29.97 plus $4.97 shipping. The item number is E57424. Happy Blasting, Hassel". Click this link to go there directly:
http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=%2Fasp%2FIsItemNumberRedirect.asp&search=SQ&frames=y&referrer=QVC&txtDesc=E57424&x=9&y=5In other news, sorry I haven't added the "view results" feature on the film speed poll. Actually, the poor little script needs some serious work. Check out: http://www.bakon.org/simplevote/

10.09.2000 The Film Speed Poll is now operational. Thanks for all the traffic, getting 6-7 hits per day, which I find amazing for such a little thing as the PhotoBlaster. Special thanks to The Sub Club (an excellent site about subminiature cameras) for listing the PB Worship Page as the "Submini Site of the Week" this week and the excellent write up. Still need to scan the new PB trip photos for the gallery, I'm still swamped with grad school and work!

09.01.2000 Finally have been indexed by Yahoo! Whoohoo! Now what about Excite and Lycos? As of today (according to extreme-tracking--a nice free service), I have had 184 unique visitors since July 17. Still need to scan the new PB trip photos for the gallery, I'm swamped right now (started grad school and work has been crazy!)

08.18.2000 Just added the bulletin board. Thanks for visiting this site! As of today (according to extreme-tracking--a nice free service), I have had 76 unique visitors...whoohoo! Still too much to do to scan the new PB trip photos for the gallery, it'll be there soon enough.

08.11.2000 Well well well...I checked EBay today and there are several PhotoBlasters are being auctioned new for $50!!...grab 'em while you can, I'm sure the price will only go up...meanwhile, AltaVista and Netscape now have me indexed, but what about Yahoo & Excite? I don't know why my page isn't even ranked, I've submitted my listing at least 5 times, I've got meta-tags on my pages...! Anyone have any suggestions? Email me!

08.10.2000 Back from a nice vacation. Took the PB along with me, of course. I'll have select photos posted in the gallery within the next few days. Things I want to add to the site: a troubleshooting section (for PhotoBlaster problems); a modifications section (anyone daring enough to modify their PB?); also a section on good places to get PhotoBlaster film developed. I'm still having problems getting indexed by the major search engines...only AltaVista is indexing the Worship page thus far. Anyone have any suggestions? Email me!

07.16.2000 Having problems getting on the major search engines...only AltaVista is indexing the Worship page thus far. Was listed on Yahoo for a few days, unfortunately no longer for some odd reason. Feel free to add this page as a link on your site. Aside from that, minor cosmetic changes here and there. Check out the PhotoBlaster gallery...feel free to email a few of your best photos, etc. and I'll post them in the gallery. If you can, specify what brand of film and film speed you were using.

07.10.2000 The PhotoBlaster gallery is up...feel free to email a few of your best photos, etc. and I'll post them in the gallery. If you can, specify what brand of film and film speed you were using. I'm still looking for a good page counter, any recommendations? Click here for old news

07.07.2000 The wonders of the web...I hadn't checked the page in a couple of weeks and people have signed the guestbook! Simply amazing. Thank you all for your words of support, it's great to have you all visit.

The PhotoBlaster gallery is currently being established and should be up soon (I'm scanning some Blaster photos as we speak). Meanwhile, feel free to email a few of your best photos, etc. and I'll post them in the gallery. If you can, specify what brand of film and film speed you were using. You might also have noticed a slight page redesign; just wanted to make room for the new What's New section (also installed today). Things to come: I think we'll have a poll on the most preferred film speed to use in the PB.

Chicago trip

2003-06-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Went to Chicago for a long weekend and my buddy's wedding, took lots of PB photos of the Windy City! Will post 'em soon!

San Francisco

2001-07-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

Got back last night from a 5-day trip to San Francisco. What a beautiful city. Even more do I like the drive up Interstate 5 from LA. Once you hit Kettleman City these golden hills roll up against this clear blue sky that's breathtaking. Took a bunch of photos with the PB. I love that camera, I enjoy snapping indiscriminately. Finally posted some new photos to the gallery. I was taking photos while driving back home of the hills. I did notice that the winder seemed much harder to turn. Perhaps sweaty hands, or the one handed turn. It seems that at the end of my 24 exposure roll of Fuji film it was not turning as easily. I wonder if the camera is getting old. Or maybe it's the film?? I usually use Kodak. That's OK. My film counter is cracked, has been since my trip to Taos, New Mexico. Camera still works fine though, still the first set of batteries!

Desert Hot Springs, CA

2001-04-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

04.16.2001 Happy New Year?! Yes, it's been awhile. Went to Desert Hot Springs, CA for Easter weekend. Weather was nice, ate good food, did some hiking, saw some California quails and took some PB photos. I happened to go into town in DHS and saw a Big K-Mart...well, what the heck, I figured, I'll check to see if they have any PhotoBlasters for sale. Sure enough, they had one left...discounted to $14.40!! Snatched it right up. So the moral of this story: check K-Mart as a PhotoBlaster source. It's where' I've purchased all of my 'Blasters! Amazingly, I'm still on the first set of batteries.

Portugal

2000-08-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

08.11.2000 First day back from vacation from a 10-day trip to Portugal--Lisbon, the Algarve, and Porto. PB came along everywhere, including the well-known camera hell-on-earth called "the beach". I think the PB survived with minimum salt/sand damage. I found another PB and gave one to my girlfriend as a present before she left to Europe as well. Hers had beer spilled on its back by a clumsy waiter in Portugal. We'll see how that roll develops; it will be a testament to PB durability if the film comes back undamaged. Let's hope so. Still on that first set of batteries, despite my flash modification. Still working like a charm. I've noticed a couple of minute details. First, sometimes I have to slide the lens cover back a tiny bit more to get the camera to activate; almost like it clicks into place. This is a bit annoying, b/c it results in missed shots (have to check if the film is wound, then check the shutter, letting precious moments slip by.) I also noticed that for some reason my girlfriend's PB seems to wind a bit easier than mine...hmmm...anyway, selected photos from the trip to come in the gallery shortly.

Pool party

2000-07-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

07.17.2000 Went to a pool party this last Sunday. Trying to finish another roll of 24-exp 100 speed. Another shadowy situation, hopefully these shots will be better. I went ahead and customized my PB this morning, covering the light sensor with two small pieces of black tape (the sensor is located in the little rectangular hole right under the viewfinder on the front of the camera). I figure it's better that the flash goes off all the time than not, even though it will probably eat through my batteries. I may have to just bite the bullet and get this roll developed before it's finished, but I hate wasting film.

BBQ and lessons learned

2000-07-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

07.7.2000 Had a BBQ this weekend for the 4th, and finally got to finish my first PhotoBlaster roll (it was a roll of 24 exp. Kodak Gold 100). Took it to my local drugstore to get developed, and had to instruct the technician on what to expect with the Photoblaster shots. As I was walking out, he ran after me, after talking to someone else there about it, and informed me that their equipment couldn't handle it! I guess it's somehow automated to detect the edges of the photo by the black bands separating frames, and the PhotoBlaster confuses it too much. Oh well. So I took it to a different 1-hour place nearby, they did a reasonable job. You can see the results here. A few lessons I learned with this roll:

Your subject should really be at least 4 feet away.
In low light, your subect shouldn't be more than about 10 feet away. The flash just won't sync sufficiently.
Very bright sunlight seemed to overexpose. But taking pictures in shadows seemed to underexpose. Possible solution: cover flash sensor when taking pictures in shadows? Or maybe just faster film?

Of course, all this will change soon; the next roll I plan to shoot is 400 speed. The camera will also be going to Portugal with me in a few weeks, so that will be a good opportunity to test its results. Currently I have another roll of 24 exp. 100 film. Hopefully I can go on a PhotoFrenzy in the next few weeks so I can try out that 400.

Party at A&T's place

2000-06-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

06.26.2000 Went to a party at my friend T. & A.'s apt. Great food, great company, great times. Took a bunch of photos with the PB. Also took shots this weekend at my band's show at Rusty's Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier on 6/23. First shots with PB at night, in low light. Hopefully they turn out well! And still not through the first roll...unbelievable. I love that feature of the PB more and more.

Apartment photos

2000-06-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

06.20.2000 Took some shots with the PhotoBlaster on 6/19. It's going to be impossible to fill up a roll of film. Lots of shots around my apartment. Got the photos from the Palm Springs trip developed. You can see the results. Obviously lomography is going to take a little getting used to. I'll have to try slower film next time (400 is too grainy and not enough color saturation).

First PhotoBlaster purchased!

2000-06-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

06.19.2000 Well, just got my first PhotoBlaster today from the local K-Mart for $24.99. Wow. Inspired me to create the PhotoBlaster Worship Page, which I also did today. I've never been so excited about photography as today. Actually got two of them. Going to keep one in the closet in case my working version breaks. Can't wait to try it out. Probably try to shoot a roll of 400 speed first to get a feel for the exposure. Spent last weekend partying with friends in Palm Springs and took a bunch of photos with a Lomo Action Sampler I bought from Freestyle Camera (Hollywood, CA) last week. It's a cheap little thing, it seems so fragile. No flash either; getting the shots developed today, so we'll see how they turn out tomorrow. Maybe I'll even post some scans.