kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by Myka

I totally forgot all about the camera discussion, so I just read it all now! I'm still trying to decide which camera I want to buy. I'm still quite lost. All I really know is that it will be a Canon for sure (I always knew that!). For me, I use my camera about 95% for reef photos. I have a G9 that I can use for light-weight options. Interestingly, I just got a scenery photo printed on canvas that I took with my G9 that's blown up to 48 x 12" and it looks quite good! I'm not impressed with the reef photos I take with this camera though. I still don't understand the difference between a 6D and a 60D - I see there are differences in specs, but I don't know what it means! Which specs matter to me????

Nice photo dump though Kien! Lookin good!

Biggest difference is the 6D is a full frame camera and the 60D is an APS-C sensor camera. Full frame means the sensor is about the same size as a film camera giving you larger pixels and no magnification factor on the lenses. A 200mm lens is a 200mm lens. Larger pixels pick up more color and detail and this is where the difference is between a 20MP full frame pro camera vs. a 20MP phone camera. The 60D has a smaller sensor so smaller pixel size. It also gives you a magnification factor so a 200mm lens will give you around the equivalent field of view of a 320mm lens. Which type of camera also determines the type of lenses to buy. You can use full frame lenses on APS-C cameras but not the other way around. Full frame lenses usually cost more. Basically a full frame camera will give you better pictures but you probably wouldn't notice the difference unless you are tightly cropping or blowing up your images to a fairly large size. If your imaging for a book or art gallery full frame is the way to go.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Myka

I totally forgot all about the camera discussion, so I just read it all now! I'm still trying to decide which camera I want to buy. I'm still quite lost. All I really know is that it will be a Canon for sure (I always knew that!). For me, I use my camera about 95% for reef photos. I have a G9 that I can use for light-weight options. Interestingly, I just got a scenery photo printed on canvas that I took with my G9 that's blown up to 48 x 12" and it looks quite good! I'm not impressed with the reef photos I take with this camera though. I still don't understand the difference between a 6D and a 60D - I see there are differences in specs, but I don't know what it means! Which specs matter to me????

Nice photo dump though Kien! Lookin good!

The G series is actually quote a good compact camera. In fact, I plan to buy the new G17 when it comes out. Honestly I wouldn't get bogged down by specs. People (consumers) get way too hung up on specs. Full frame vs cropped, etc. At the end of the day they will both take similar pictures. Granted the 6D will give you more pixels but most consumers really don't need all that many pixels. As I mentioned before, I have a 6d which has tonnes of pixels because it's full frame (something like 24 mega pixels I think?), but by the time I'm done processing the photo I reduce the final image down to about 10 mega pixels virtually throwing away half the available pixels. You probably can't tell that in any of the photos that I've posted. Most of my former clients couldn't tell either. :-) If you really want a full frame camera, I recommend knowing exactly why you want it and what you intend to use all those pixels for. If you don't need all the pixels a full frame camera provides, then get a cropped camera (eg 60D) and use the money you saved to get a nicer lens.

[kien]

Originally Posted by smokinreefer

Wow, great thread!
Awesomely documented.

thanks for sharing your tank& experiences with us!

Thanks ! :-)

Originally Posted by brotherd

Kien,might that be your tank featured in Reef hobbyist mag?

what she said ----v

Originally Posted by Myka

It is! I made a congrats thread for him in the Lounge I think I put it.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

Biggest difference is the 6D is a full frame camera and the 60D is an APS-C sensor camera.

Originally Posted by kien

If you really want a full frame camera, I recommend knowing exactly why you want it and what you intend to use all those pixels for. If you don't need all the pixels a full frame camera provides, then get a cropped camera (eg 60D) and use the money you saved to get a nicer lens.

Thanks guys! I think I made up my mind. I'm going to get a cropper camera, and buy full frame lenses. Then if I decide I want to upgrade to a full frame I can do it. I found a local company that will let you try out a camera or lens or multiple cameras and lenses for 30 days and decide which one you want. I think I'm going to take advantage of this.

Sorry for cluttering up your thread Kien.

[kien]

Finally! This weekend marks the official completion of our kitchen. YAY!

So to recap, back in May/June our kitchen flooded due to the water line in the fridge. For a couple of weeks while the clean up crew were in, my kitchen looked something like this.



It was pretty dicey for the tank the first couple of weeks because the clean up crew would shut off the breakers while they were checking the electrical in various places and they would forget to turn it back on. This included the tank.

We ended up having to gut the kitchen and pretty much start from scratch. I'll tell you, that wasn't fun. We ended up having to camp out in various rooms in our house while our kitchen got ripped out.





I know this is a First World problem, but man it really sucks not having a kitchen. Thankfully it was summer so we made good use of our BBQ and ate outside a lot. Still, it was a royal pain to prepare kids lunches, breakfast, etc.

After the kitchen was gutted and everything cleaned up, we were faced with the decision of how to put it all back together again. I spent a good three weeks just talking to various contractors and kitchen renovation specialty companies. The experience ranged from getting insane quotes of over $70,000 to redo my kitchen to not even receiving a quote from half the contractors that I contacted. One of the contractors even took some money as a retention fee to go off and work on my kitchen plans. 3 weeks and that guy never even produced anything for me. Thankfully he gave me a refund.

Kitchen and part of the house sitting in the garage:


Well that whole experience sucked so I ultimately decided to just take matters into my own hands and be my own contractor. This saved me a lot of money but was ultimately a massive time suck. Lots of running around sourcing materials, labourers, doing some of the labour myself, etc. And of course, with any renovation there was a bit of scope creep. We ended up ripping up all the flooring in our house and replacing it all. With a massive 150g tank sitting in the middle of the house that proved to be quite a challenge as well!



In the end we are pretty happy with the results but I never want to go through that again, ever.









And to keep this reef related here's a Full Tank Shot of the tank during the floor install.





A couple of days ago the finishing touches were put on. Mainly the kitchen back splash. That marks the official completion of our kitchen and a return to normalcy for us. Just in time to host a Thanksgiving dinner this evening.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Myka]

Holy crap Kien! I'm glad you made it through your summer - and your tank too! I was wondering what was keeping you so busy. I love the color of your kitchen walls - very nice!

[kien]

Ya, never mind the tank, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through summer Then school started (for the rugrats) in sept and we were in a mad dash to the finish line for completing our renos. A whole bunch of things were coming together all at once. It was epic. But yes, the tank miraculously came out unscathed!! Hooray! And all of that is behind us now so more time for hobbies and such, again.

[hillegom]

That sure was a lot of hair pulling! Glad for you its finally over.
Kitchen looks good.
So you were the main contractor? Helping out and co-ordinating the trades.
Good work, I'm sure you saved some money doing it that way.

[Delphinus]

The end result looks fantastic! I don't doubt that was a long and arduous process.

What exactly happened with the water line? Was it kinked or something, or just rotten luck that it sprung a leak?

[kien]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

The end result looks fantastic! I don't doubt that was a long and arduous process.

What exactly happened with the water line? Was it kinked or something, or just rotten luck that it sprung a leak?

It wasn't kinked. Just rotten luck I guess. The water line developed a pin prick rupture that fizzed water into the kitchen all day long while we were away. Floor was soaked right through down to the room in the basement below (which also had to be gutted). Some of our lower cabinets were ruined as well.

This actually wasn't the first time this exact failure happened. It failed in this manner a couple of years ago but that last time we were home and were able to shut off the water. We had an authorized service centre come in and replace that line. So it wasn't user (DIY) error either (I don't think). Needless to say, I won't be fooled a third time. The water line won't be hooked up again unless we buy a new fridge. Even then I'm leary.. Although, a few weeks ago I ordered some water sensors with a remote monitoring kit so at least if it happens again I'll have 10-15m to drive home and shut off the supply. Ya, I'm paranoid now. I've done a lot of renos before but by far, a kitchen Reno is the worst. Especially when you have a full on family in tow.