text:
Use your browser's "Back" button to return to the previous page, or the links at the top and bottom of this page to navigate to related information. If you have difficulty fitting the text on this page onto your printer output, simply resize your browser window to a narrower width and print again.
Remember us when it's time to buy!
Dave here: Have our reviews been helpful to you? (Is this article you're reading right now useful?) Preparing this level of information on as many products as we do is incredibly hard work, not to mention expensive. Things on the Internet may look like they're free, but they're not. (As a lot of big dot.com companies are finding out these days.) Somewhere, somebody has to pay to produce worthwhile content. YOU can help us though, by remembering us when it comes time to make your purchase. Would you consider coming back to our site and clicking-through to one of our advertisers to make your purchase? Every dollar you spend with one of our advertisers helps us directly (in affiliate fees) or indirectly (the advertiser will keep renewing their ad contract with us). To make it easy for you to support us, here's a URL you can visit, to see all our current advertisers, with links to click on that will register your visit to them as having come from our site. It's up to you where you buy, but Mike, Mike, Kim, Yazmin, Marti and I would be really grateful if you'd help us out by choosing one of our advertisers to purchase from.
Thank you for your support!
Dave Etchells, Founder & Publisher
Visit our "Buy Now" Page:
to Full Fuji FinePix 4900 Zoom Review
Go to Fuji FinePix 4900 Zoom Data Sheet
Go to Fuji FinePix 4900 Zoom Pictures Page
Up to Imaging Resource Cameras Page
Fuji FinePix 4900 ZoomFujifilm extends its consumer digicam, with a 6x optical zoom lens and extensive exposure controls.
Review First Posted: 10/7/2000
|2.4 megapixel SuperCCD sensor delivers up to 2400x1800 pixel images
|6x optical zoom lens
|Extensive exposure control
|Numerous nice user-interface touches
|Internal and external flash support
Executive Overview
Compared to the rest of Fuji's extensive line of FinePix digicams, the FinePix 4900 Zoom immediately stands out, both for its larger size and for the rich assortment of controls it offers. Still, the camera is surprisingly compact, given the necessarily large barrel of its 6x, f/2.8 optical zoom lens. In the 4900 Zoom, Fujifilm has managed to make unusually effective use of the camera body's real estate, providing one-button access to most camera functions, somewhat offsetting its heavy reliance on its LCD displays for camera operation. While clearly not a shirt-pocket digicam, the 4900 Zoom is still quite portable, assisted by the neck strap that ships with it.
Another departure for Fujifilm is the use of an eyelevel LCD viewfinder on the 4900, rather than a purely optical viewfinder. This approach has the strong advantage of providing a lot of exposure and camera-status information in the eyelevel finder. Since the electronic viewfinder is essentially a miniaturized version of the larger LCD monitor, all menu screens and information displays remain available (although somewhat small when looking through the eyepiece). This isn't an entirely unmixed blessing, in that it limits the camera's usability in low-light shooting conditions: The 4900 can capture images in settings a good bit darker than those in which the LCD viewfinder is usable.
A 6x, 7.8 to 46.8 mm lens (equivalent to a 35 to 210 mm lens on a 35mm camera) is built into the 4900 Zoom, automatically telescoping outward when the camera is powered on. Focus can be automatically or manually controlled, with an effective range from 1.6 feet (50 cm) to infinity in normal mode, and from 0.3 to 2.6 feet (10 to 80 cm) in macro mode. We found the manual focus operation on the 4900 far more usable than similar options on competing cameras, thanks to a unique "magnifying glass" option that enlarges your view of the very center of the frame on the LCD display. This is one of the few digicams we've found that you can actually focus accurately using the LCD! A digital telephoto function increases the zoom range by up to 3.75x, depending on the image size setting, but also decreases the image quality proportionately with increased image noise and reduced resolution.
The 4900 Zoom offers a great deal of exposure control, with several exposure modes to choose from. The full Automatic exposure mode puts the camera in control of everything except the flash and image size and quality settings. Scene Program mode offers four preset shooting modes for specific situations (Portrait, Landscape, Sports and Night Scene). In Program mode, you can select from a range of equivalent exposure settings, and you also have control over features like white balance, metering, ISO, etc. In Aperture Priority mode, you can set the lens aperture from f/2.8 to f/11.0 while the camera sets the shutter speed, and in Shutter Priority mode, you set the shutter speed from three to 1/1,000 seconds while the camera sets the aperture. (Shutter speeds can go as fast as 1/2,000 of a second in the Sports Scene Program and Automatic modes.) Finally, a full Manual exposure mode allows you to select the shutter speed and aperture settings independently.
In the Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes, all of the 4900 Zoom's exposure features are available. In Manual mode though, the exposure compensation control switches the command dial's control between aperture and shutter settings, instead of its usual function of setting exposure adjustment between -2 and +2 EV in 1/3 EV units. White balance can be set to Automatic, Custom (manual), Outdoors-Sunny, Outdoors-Cloudy, Daylight Fluorescent, Warm White Fluorescent, Cool White Fluorescent and Incandescent, to match just about any light source you're likely to encounter. An ISO setting option adjusts the camera's sensitivity to 125, 200, 400, or 800 equivalents, increasing the camera's shooting ability in low light situations, or reducing image noise in bright conditions. An AE Lock button lets you base the exposure reading on a specific area of the subject, and three metering modes (averaging, multi-segment, spot) let you choose how the camera judges the exposure. There's also a two or 10 second self-timer, and an adjustable image sharpness setting. The built-in, pop-up flash offers Automatic, Red-Eye Reduction, Forced, Slow-Synchro, and Red-Eye Reduction with Slow-Synchro modes, with an adjustable intensity setting from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV increments. An external flash hot shoe on top of the camera accommodates a more powerful external flash, but disables the internal flash when in use.
The Auto-Bracketing feature captures a series of images, at three different exposure settings, to find the optimum exposure value for the current subject. The Continuous Shooting mode captures up to five consecutive images at intervals as short as 0.2 seconds, depending on the SmartMedia space and amount of image information to record. Additionally, a Movie mode allows you to capture up to 90 seconds of moving images at approximately 10 frames per second. (The actual amount of recording time depends on the capacity and available space on the SmartMedia card, and can go as high as 364 seconds on a 64 megabyte memory card.)
The 4900 Zoom stores images on a SmartMedia memory card, and a 16 megabyte card comes with the camera. Still images can be saved at 2400 x 1800, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, or 640 x 480 resolution sizes, with Hi (uncompressed TIFF), Fine, Normal, and Basic quality settings available. TIFF format is only available for the largest image size. (Note that the largest image size is interpolated up from the roughly 2.4 megapixel SuperCCD sensor size.) Movies are saved at the 320 x 240 pixel resolution size, with no quality choices. A USB cable and software CD also accompany the camera, for downloading images to a Macintosh or PC. US and Japanese versions of the camera include an NTSC video cable, for viewing and capturing images using a television monitor (European models are set up for PAL timing). For power, the 4900 Zoom utilizes an NP-80 rechargeable, lithium-ion battery, and comes with an AC adapter that doubles as a battery charger.
The 4900 is a significant extension to Fujifilm's FinePix camera lineup, its full exposure control and a 6x optical zoom lens expanding the line into true "enthusiast" territory. We expect it will find many happy homes: You can put it into full auto or Scene-Program mode and hand it to a complete novice photographer, or use it in full manual mode (including manual focus) to control absolutely every aspect of your shooting. - This is one camera that can span a full range of photographic abilities, and produce great photos in the process.
The Fujifilm FinePix 4900 Zoom combines the brand's trademark compact size with a larger lens, achieving a mini-version of a traditional 35 mm camera. In fact, the camera appears to mainly be all lens, with the exception of the rather compact hand grip on the side. Measuring 4.3 x 3.1 x 3.7 inches (110 x 78.5 x 98.5 mm), and weighing 14.5 ounces (410 g), the 4900 Zoom is a bit of a breakaway from previous FinePix digicam designs. While the camera itself is larger than previous versions, it still maintains a slightly compact appearance, especially considering the size of many current digicam models. Fujifilm has used nearly every inch of space on the camera body, with dozens of controls covering the camera's surface. This bounty of controls appears somewhat complicated at first glance, but quickly becomes second-nature after a quick read through the manual.
The camera front features mainly the lens barrel and the slightly thin hand grip. As we mentioned before, the 6x optical zoom lens takes up a good portion of the camera's size. The lens is encased in a sturdy metal barrel, and features a ridged focus ring at the very end of the lens for manual focusing. When the camera is turned on, the lens telescopes outward into its operating position, and likewise returns to the lens barrel when the camera is shut off. A plastic lens cap protects the front of the lens, and attaches to the camera with a small strap. The slim hand grip features a soft, rubbery coating on the front that secures your fingers to the camera body, and is echoed on the back panel with a rubbery thumb grip.
On the hand grip side of the camera is the SmartMedia slot, with side access. The slot is covered by a hinged, plastic door that snaps into place securely. Another soft, rubbery grip area covers the outside of the compartment door, with a small lip that comfortably holds your thumb to the back panel. Also on this side of the camera is an eyelet for attaching the neck strap.
The opposite side of the camera, which is mainly taken up by the side of the lens barrel, features several controls, the connector compartment, and the other eyelet for attaching the neck strap. Control-wise, the manual / auto focus switch, zoom control, exposure compensation, white balance, flash release, and Info button adorn the side of the lens. Just beyond the control buttons is the connector compartment, covered by another hinged plastic door that opens downward. The USB, A/V out, and DC In connection jacks can all be found in this compartment.
The camera's top panel features the pop-up flash, external flash hot shoe, shutter button, mode dial, power switch, and a handful of other control buttons.
A few more control buttons can be found on the camera's back panel, including a rocker toggle button that aids in navigating through settings menus. The LCD display is present in the center of the circular pattern that equates as the back of the lens barrel, and the optical viewfinder rests just above, surrounded by a soft, rubber eyepiece.
Finally, the camera features a reasonably flat bottom, holding the metal tripod mount and the battery compartment. Unfortunately, the two are much too close together to allow quick battery changes while working with a tripod. This is just a minor complaint, but something we always pay attention to with the amount of studio work we do. The battery compartment, which makes up the hand grip, features a sliding door that slides outwards and then opens to reveal the battery.
The 4900 Zoom offers an LCD monitor and an electronic optical viewfinder for image composition. This basically means that the image display in the optical viewfinder is simply a smaller version of the LCD screen, complete with the same information readouts and menu screens. A soft, rubbery eyepiece surrounds the optical viewfinder, and also serves to block out excess light for a clearer view of the 0.55 inch display.
A larger, two inch LCD monitor on the back panel features a low temperature, polysilicon, TFT design with 130,000 pixels. A button to the right of the optical viewfinder eyepiece (labeled "EVF / LCD") toggles back and forth between the optical viewfinder display and the LCD monitor display, so that either one is in use at all times. The Display button at the top right corner of the LCD monitor controls the information display and framing guidelines that appear over the image. Pressed once, the button pulls up the text information display, which reports the mode setting, number of captured images, exposure settings, and a central autofocus target mark. Pressing the Display button a second time activates a framing guideline, which divides the image into thirds horizontally and vertically, to help line up shots. The third press of the Display button cancels both displays. We were glad to see that the camera reports the aperture and shutter speed settings, even in Program mode, since we always like to know what the exposure variables are. Another helpful feature on the 4900 Zoom is the Info button, which is on the side of the lens. Pressing this button displays a quick reference screen that reports all of the exposure settings, such as white balance, exposure compensation, etc., for as long as the button is held down. This is extremely helpful, especially when you can't remember which settings you've already set.
In Playback mode, the LCD monitor offers a playback zoom, for inspecting captured images up close. Once enlarged, the arrow keys on the rocker toggle button scroll around within the image. Many cameras these days offer a playback zoom option, but the FinePix 4900's goes way beyond most we've seen: It appears to zoom all the way in to a 1:1 ratio between image pixels and LCD display pixels. Particularly in the highest-resolution capture mode, this is an incredible magnification factor, letting you discern the finest details and subtle nuances of focus. Very handy! At the other end of scale, a Multi-Frame Playback option displays up to nine thumbnail images on the screen at a time, great for selecting images for single-frame erasing, protecting, or resizing.
A 6x, aspherical glass, 7.8 to 46.8 mm lens (equivalent to a 35 to 210 mm lens on a 35mm camera) is built into the 4900 Zoom. As we mentioned earlier, the lens seems to take up a large part of the camera body, and is much larger than the lenses typically used on FinePix digicams. This is doubtless partly due to the longer than normal zoom ratio as well as the lens' fairly large maximum aperture at full telephoto (f/3.1 at 210mm equivalent). The lens telescopes out from the barrel when the camera is powered on, and returns when the camera is shut down. Focus ranges from 1.6 feet (50 cm) to infinity in normal shooting mode, and from 3.9 to 32 inches (10 to 80 cm) in macro mode. In addition to the contrast-detect autofocus system, focus can also be manually controlled by the notched focus ring at the end of the lens barrel. A switch on the side of the lens controls whether the camera is in auto or manual focus mode..
In the past, we haven't been too impressed with the manual focus options on most digicams we've tested, unless they included an explicit distance readout. This is because the LCD resolution is typically so low compared to that of the CCD that it's almost impossible to tell whether the subject is in focus, based on how it appears in the LCD: There just aren't enough pixels on the LCD to tell if the image is sharp or not. Thanks in part ot their SuperCCD technology, Fuji has come up with an excellent solution to this problem for the F4900: A focus check button on the back panel (just below the power button) enlarges the center of the image to about twice normal size. Surprisingly, this seems to be enough to make accurate judgments about image focus, and worked quite well in our own testing. Besides this focus-assist "magnifier" function, there's also a focus indicator that appears in the LCD, next to the "MF" icon. This indicator takes the form of two arrow icons, with a solid circle between them. It only appears as you adjust the focus in manual focus mode, and indicates by the arrow direction which way you need to turn the focus ring. In practice, we found this focus indicator a little unreliable, particularly in the case of low-contrast subjects, where we felt visual inspection of the magnified LCD view actually worked better.
Don't get us wrong though, as much as we liked the manual focus option on the F4900, it can't remotely be compared with manually focusing a 35mm SLR: The response time of the manual focus adjustment itself is rather slow, and it takes a bit of scrutiny to decide when you've really achieved optimum focus. (The manual focus ring on the F4900 is actually a "fly by wire" control, since its motion doesn't control the lens directly, but instead just instructs the camera's processor to move the lens elements appropriately. This gives very fine control when you're zeroing in on a focus setting, but is rather slow when making major focus changes.)
Aperture can be manually or automatically adjusted, depending on the exposure mode, from f/2.8-f/3.1 to f/11.0 with 13 steps in 1/3 "f" increments. The f/2.8-f/3.1 specification refers to the fact that the maximum effective aperture varies as the lens is zoomed from wide angle to telephoto. This variation is documented in Fuji's specs for the lens. It's likely that a similar variation occurs for smaller apertures as well (meaning that the minimum aperture at the telephoto end of the lens' range is likely some number higher than f/11.0, but Fuji doesn't provide this specification, nor does the camera report it in its JPEG file headers.
A zoom toggle button is located on the side of the lens, but you can also control the zoom with the up and down arrows of the rocker toggle button on the rear panel. The 4900 Zoom also offers a digital telephoto function that works with all file sizes except for the 2400 x 1800 setting. The amount of digital zoom allowed depends on the actual image size, with the largest amount of zoom equalling 3.75x for the 640 x 480 image size. Because the digital telephoto option just crops-out the center of the image, quality is compromised in the form of higher noise levels and/or lower resolution. Fuji's implementation of it is really done the way we like to see though: It never interpolates the image beyond what the sensor would normally deliver. Thus, no digital telephoto is available at maximum image size, and the amount of digital telephoto available at any chosen image size always corresponds to a simple cropping of the selected image size out of the maximum-resolution file. Digital telephoto will thus be slightly less sharp than the pure optical telephoto image at any image size, but won't degrade to the extent seen in some cameras.
Digital telephoto is activated by zooming past the optical zoom range. A zoom status bar appears on the LCD display, showing the amount of digital and optical zoom available with the current camera settings. There's no provision to disable the digital telephoto function, but you don't have to worry about inadvertently zooming too far and triggering digital telephoto when you don't want to: The zoom stops at the end of the optical range, and doesn't proceed into digital telephoto territory unless you release the zoom toggle and press it towards the telephoto setting again.
A set of threads on the inside lip of the lens barrel accommodate a wide angle lens conversion kit, available as an accessory from Fujifilm. We'd like to see the thread adapter part of this kit sold separately from the wide angle lens itself, so you could use it to attach filters or macro lenses to the camera, without having to purchase the whole kit. (Perhaps Fuji will read this review, and decide to package the adapter accordingly...)
The 4900 Zoom offers a lot of exposure control, with Full Automatic, Program, Scene Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual exposure modes available. The camera's exposure mode is controlled by a mode dial on the top panel, and an icon in the top left corner of the LCD display reports the current mode setting.
Automatic exposure mode places the camera in complete control over the exposure, choosing both the shutter speed and aperture settings depending on the current light level. No options are provided for exposure compensation, ISO adjustment, or any choice of aperture. This is a pure point & shoot mode. Program mode leaves the camera in control of both shutter speed and aperture, but allows you to select from a range of equivalent exposure setting combinations. When you rotate the command dial in this mode, the camera will adjust the aperture up or down, varying the shutter speed to match and maintain the same exposure level. (We find this mode very useful when we want to gain some control over depth of field or motion blur in the subject, but don't want to have to deal with the separate aperture or shutter priority options.) Program mode also lets you control other camera settings, such as white balance and exposure compensation. Scene Program mode offers four special shooting modes: Portrait, Landscape, Sports, and Night Scene. Portrait mode blurs the background by using a larger aperture setting, keeping the subject as the primary focus. Landscape mode sets up the camera for daytime shots of scenery, using a smaller aperture setting for greater depth of field. Sports mode uses faster shutter speeds (up to 1/2,000 of a second) to capture fast moving action. Finally, Night Scene mode does just the opposite of Sports mode, using slower shutter speeds to allow more ambient light into the image. For night portraits, the Night Scene mode can be combined with the Red-Eye Reduction Plus Slow Synchronization flash mode, for natural-looking indoor photos. The other options on the mode dial offer more user control over the exposure. Shutter Priority mode allows you to control the shutter speed while the camera selects the best aperture setting. Shutter speeds in this mode can range from three to 1/1,000 seconds, with the slowest available shutter speed determined by the ISO setting (the slowest shutter speed ranges from three to 1/1.3 seconds, as the ISO is adjusted from 125 to 800). Aperture Priority works along the same lines as Shutter Priority, except that you control the aperture setting (from f/2.8 to f/11.0) while the camera selects the shutter speed. In Manual mode, you have full control over both settings, with the same range of shutter speeds available.
In all of the camera's capture modes, the LCD monitor reports the shutter speed and aperture settings on the LCD screen, if the information display has been enabled. In all three of the manually adjustable exposure modes, if the setting you select is out of the correct exposure range, that value turns red in the display. (For example, a shutter speed too fast for the available lighting, even with the lens aperture all the way open.) There's also an exposure bar that shows you the acceptable range of exposure settings for the current subject.
In all of the exposure modes except Manual, the AE Lock button on the back panel allows you to base the exposure on a specific area of the subject. You do this by framing the area of the subject you want to base the exposure on in the center of the autofocus target marks, and then pressing and holding the AE Lock button until you snap the picture. Notably, you can not only reframe the image, but zoom the lens and change the focus, as long as you continue to hold down the AE Lock button. - Think of this as a "super spot metering" mode: Suppose you have a backlit subject, such as a person with their face in shadow. With the FinePix 4900's AE Lock feature, you could actually walk up to them, get an exposure reading off their face, and then walk back to where you want to take the shot from. Alternately, you could use this in conjunction with the center-weighted metering option and the 6x zoom lens to zoom way in on the part of the picture you want to use as your exposure reference, lock the exposure, and then zoom back out to compose the shot. Overall, an incredibly useful feature! Autofocus lock works along the same lines, you just halfway press the shutter button to set focus and hold it down while you recompose the shot. Normally, autofocus and autoexposure lock are both set simultaneously, by half-pressing the shutter button. The 4900's separation of these two functions is an advanced option we've only seen on professional SLRs previously.
In any capture mode, a Preview option can be enabled through the record menu, which displays the captured image on the screen, allowing you to confirm the recording or opt to delete it.
Exposure compensation can be adjusted in the Program, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority exposure modes, from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV increments. (This is an offset relative to whatever exposure setting the camera has chosen, to compensate for overly bright or backlit subjects.) We liked Fuji's implementation of the exposure compensation function: As long as the viewfinder is set to show the exposure-information overlay, pressing the +/- button on the side of the lens barrel displays an exposure indicator bar showing the current exposure compensation setting. Rotating the command dial while holding down the +/- button adjusts the compensation setting, and the display updates to show the new value selected.
White balance is adjustable in all exposure modes except Scene Program and Automatic, with eight options available: Automatic, Custom (manual), Outdoors -Sunny, Outdoors-Cloudy, Daylight Fluorescent, Warm White Fluorescent, Cool White Fluorescent and Incandescent. We like the variety of fluorescent settings available, as well as the manually adjustable Custom mode, which makes the camera extremely flexible with color balance. Under the Custom setting, you simply hold a white card in front of the camera and press the Custom White Balance button on the left side of the camera to set the value. If the white card was too bright or dark, the LCD will indicate "Over" or "Under", prompting you to reset the value again.
The 4900 Zoom offers three metering modes, available in all exposure modes except for Automatic and Scene Program. The Average setting takes several readings from across the entire image and averages them to determine the proper exposure. Spot metering mode bases the exposure on the very center of the image, and Multi metering independently evaluates multiple points within the image and selects the optimum exposure based on a sophisticated algorithm. (Multi will be the best choice for most shooting conditions.)
ISO can also be manually adjusted, with options for 125, 200, 400, and 800 sensitivity equivalents. As with the metering option, ISO can be adjusted in all exposure modes except for Automatic and Scene Program. As is always the case with digicams, the higher ISO settings give increased light sensitivity, but at the cost of higher image noise, visible as "grain" in your images.
Three sharpness levels are available as well: Hard, Normal, and Soft. Hard emphasizes the edges of objects in the picture, while soft turns off all in-camera sharpening, for images you intend to manipulate post-exposure in a program such as Photoshop(tm).
The 4900 Zoom features a two and 10 second self-timer function, activated by pressing the Self-Timer button on top of the camera. The self-timer is displayed in the LCD monitor when the mode is entered, with a "2" next to the self-timer symbol to indicate the two second timer (the traditional symbol alone indicates a 10 second timer). The countdown is triggered by fully pressing the shutter button, and a red LED on the front of the camera blinks during the countdown.
A pop-up flash is built into the 4900 Zoom, with an effective range estimated by Fujifilm as 0.9 to 14.7 feet (0.3 to 4.5 m) or 2.9 to 13.1 feet (0.9 to 4.0m) with the zoom set to telephoto. In our own testing of the evaluation unit Fuji sent, we found that the flash intensity fell off significantly beyond 8-9 feet. One explanation for this might be that the official Fuji specification for flash range is for Auto mode, in which the camera apparently automatically increases its ISO rating under dim lighting. We performed our testing with the ISO set to 100, which could easily explain the shorter range we measured.
Five operating modes include Automatic, Red-Eye Reduction, Forced, Slow-Synchro, and Red-Eye Reduction with Slow-Synchro. The Automatic flash mode puts the camera in charge of when to fire the flash, based on the exposure information and light level. Red-Eye Reduction also fires automatically, but flashes a quick pre-flash before firing the full flash to reduce the occurrence of the Red-Eye Effect. Forced flash simply means that the flash fires with every exposure, regardless of the light level. Slow-Synchro combines the flash with a slow shutter speed to allow more ambient light into night and twilight images. Red-Eye Reduction with Slow-Synchro simply combines the two flash modes for night portraits. To completely disable the flash, simply push it back down into its compartment. A small button on the side of the flash compartment serves as the release mechanism. The internal flash is not available in Landscape, Movie, Continuous Shooting, or Auto Bracketing shooting modes. Flash intensity can be adjusted through the record menu, from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV increments.
A standard external flash hot shoe on top of the camera accommodates a more powerful flash unit. When an external flash is connected, the 4900 Zoom's internal flash is automatically disabled. The camera can synchronize with the external flash at any shutter speed up to 1/1,000 of a second. Additionally, the External Flash setting in the record menu must be enabled, and the camera should be in Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, or Manual exposure mode. The camera manual recommends shooting with either Aperture Priority or Manual exposure modes when an external flash is being used, in order to keep the lens aperture at the fixed setting required for correct exposure with the flash in use. The F4900's hot shoe is of the "plain vanilla" variety, meaning it will be compatible with the majority of shoe-mount auto flash units on the market: No fancy options such as lens-coupled zoom flash heads or through the lens metering, but the upside is that any automatic flash unit should work as well as any other.
Movie Mode
Accessed through the mode dial (by turning it to the movie camera symbol), the 4900 Zoom's Movie mode captures up to 90 seconds of moving images without sound on the included 16 meg SmartMedia card, at approximately 10 frames per second. Movies are shot at a 320 x 240 pixel image size and files are saved in the Motion JPEG format. Actual recording time varies, depending on the amount of SmartMedia space available and the memory card capacity. (Fujifilm estimates that a four megabyte card can hold about 22 seconds, and a 64 megabyte card can hold up to 364 seconds.) Once in Movie mode, the lens is locked at the wide angle setting, focus is fixed at infinity, and only digital telephoto is available (up to approximately 1.88x). Shooting begins by fully pressing the shutter button, and continues until the shutter button is pressed a second time. The digital telephoto zoom can be changed during recording. Since the 4900 doesn't include a microphone though, movie files are video-only. (No sound.) Movie quality looks pretty good, with good resolution and not too many JPEG artifacts.
Continuous Shooting
A Continuous Shooting mode is available in all exposure modes except for Movie mode, and shoots up to five consecutive frames with intervals as short as 0.2 seconds. (We clocked the FinePix 4900 at 4 frames in one second, a frame rate of 4 frames per second, or 0.25 seconds per frame.) Actual shot-to-shot cycle times will vary with the amount of image information to be recorded, as well as with the image size and quality settings. If the Preview display mode is enabled, the series of images is displayed in the LCD monitor, in chronological order (pressing the Menu button records them to the memory card).
Auto Bracketing
In all of the exposure modes other than Automatic and Scene Program, an auto bracketing feature lets you take a series of exposures of the same image with different exposure settings. You can set the amount of exposure variation in the Record menu, with options of plus or minus 1/3 EV, 2/3 EV, or 1 EV. Once the exposure variable is set, the auto bracketing feature takes three exposures of the same image, one at normal exposure, one overexposed and one underexposed by the designated EV amount. If the Preview function is enabled, all three shots are displayed on the LCD monitor at once for confirmation.
Shutter Lag / Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is almost never reported on, and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, we now routinely measure it using a custom electronic test system.
|Power On -> First shot
Time from power on to first shot captured
Time for lens to retract
|Play to Record, first shot
Time until first shot is captured
|Record to play (max/min res)
Maximum resolution (TIFF) images take quite a while to display.
|Shutter lag, full autofocus
|A bit slower than normal
|Shutter lag, manual focus
|About average
|Shutter lag, prefocus
A bit better than average
|Cycle Time, max/min resolution
|A bit faster than average
|Cycle time, continuous mode
|Very fast: Captures up to 4 shots, then you have to wait for the memory buffer to clear.
The FinePix 4900 starts up surprisingly quickly for a camera with a telescoping lens, and its cycle time is pretty fast as well. Our only complaint about its speed is the somewhat longer than average shutter lag time in full autofocus mode. In continuous mode, the 4 frame per second performance for four frames is impressive, great for capturing exactly the right moment in fast-paced action photography.
Operation and User Interface
Despite a somewhat daunting first appearance, thanks to the myriad of buttons and controls, we actually found the F4900's user interface quite straightforward after working with it for a short while. The camera body is liberally sprinkled with control buttons, which may initially seem a more complicated than scrolling through menu screens, but we actually prefer less reliance on an LCD menu system. Having camera controls directly accessible via external buttons makes for much faster access to the functions and settings. A fair number of the exposure variables are controlled through the LCD menu system, but the basic controls, such as shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation, are operated via the external controls. The only control we found a little awkward is the mode dial, which required two fingers to turn. We're more accustomed to being able to turn mode dials with our thumb as we grip the camera, but the 4900's mode dial rotates a bit too stiffly for our thumb to manage on its own. The camera's many controls are spread out on the top, back and side of the camera body, meaning you'll need both hands to operate it. Overall, however, the compact shape fit our hands nicely, and the finger grips are comfortable and natural.
Control Enumeration
Shutter Button: Located on the very top of the hand grip, this chrome button trips the shutter when fully pressed, and sets focus when halfway pressed in autofocus mode. When the Self-Timer mode is activated, fully pressing the shutter button triggers the two or 10 second countdown.
Macro Button: Also located on the top panel of the camera, this button enables the camera's macro shooting mode. Once pressed, the traditional flower symbol appears in the LCD monitor and the focus range changes to 3.9 to 32 inches (10 to 80 cm). A second press of the button cancels the mode.
Flash Mode: Directly to the right of the Macro button, this button controls the internal flash mode and cycles through Automatic, Red-Eye Reduction, Forced, Slow-Synchro, and Red-Eye Reduction with Slow-Synchro operating modes.
Continuous Shooting Button: Marked with the Continuous Shooting symbol, this button also resides on the camera's top panel, to the lower left of the Macro button. Once pressed, this button places the camera in Continuous Shooting mode, allowing you to capture up to five consecutive images with one press of the shutter button, at intervals as short as 0.2 seconds. Pressing the button a second time cancels the mode.
Self-Timer Button: To the left of the Continuous Shooting button, the Self-Timer button activates the two or 10 second Self-Timer mode. Pressing the button repeatedly cycles through the two self-timer delay settings and normal shooting mode. Once either self-timer mode is enabled, a full press of the shutter button activates the timer countdown.
Power Button: Just below the Self-Timer and Continuous Shooting buttons, the Power button is located in the center of the camera mode switch. Pressing the Power button turns on the camera and triggers the lens to slide outwards into its operating position (if the camera is set to capture mode). Another press of the button shuts the camera down and retracts the lens into the camera body.
Mode Switch: Surrounding the Power button, this switch places the camera in either Capture or Playback mode.
Exposure Mode Dial: Situated on the very right side of the camera's top panel, and on top of the command wheel, this dial puts the camera into one of seven exposure modes, or into the Setup mode. Available mode settings are:
Command Wheel: Positioned directly beneath the exposure mode dial (and concentric with it), this notched wheel sets the shutter speed and aperture setting. In Shutter Priority mode, it controls the shutter speed. In Aperture Priority mode, it controls the aperture. In Manual mode, it by default controls the shutter speed, but pressing and holding down the Exposure Compensation Button (+/- button) switches its control to the lens aperture.
EVF / LCD Button: Located directly to the right of the optical viewfinder eyepiece on the back panel, this button toggles between the eyelevel viewfinder display and the rear-panel LCD monitor, alternately enabling one and disabling the other.
Focus Check Button: To the right of the EVF/LCD button, this button allows you to check the focus when shooting in manual focus mode. Pressing the button enlarges the very center of the subject by 2x, so that you can check the fine details for focus.
AE Lock Button: Situated to the right of the Focus Check button, this button locks the exposure setting based on whatever is currently centered in the frame. This setting is preserved as long as you hold the button down, letting you recompose (even changing the lens zoom) and refocus before taking the picture. (A very nice feature!)
Display Button: Also on the back panel, at the top right corner of the LCD monitor, this button cycles between three LCD display modes. The first press shows a camera settings information display, with information about the memory card, exposure settings, and exposure mode. A second press displays a set of framing guidelines, which divide the frame into thirds, horizontally and vertically. The third press of the button cancels both displays.
Menu / OK Button: In the center of the back panel, on the right side of the LCD monitor, this button pulls up the settings menu in both Capture and Playback modes. It also serves as the "OK" to confirm menu selections and changes.
Rocker Toggle Button: Just below the Menu / OK button, this control features four arrows, one in each cardinal direction. In both capture and Playback menus, these arrow buttons navigate through menu options and selections. In any capture mode, the up and down arrows control the optical and digital zoom. In Playback mode, the right and left arrows scroll through captured images. Also in Playback mode, when playback zoom is enabled, the four arrow buttons allow you to move around within the enlarged image to check fine details.
Back Button: Positioned below the rocker toggle button, this button cancels menu options and backs out of menu screens, returning you to the main image display.
Shift Button: Located on the left side of the LCD monitor, pressing this button, followed by the Display button lets you adjust the display brightness, in both capture and playback modes. In all capture modes except Movie mode, pressing this button, followed by the Flash button takes you to a screen for adjusting image size and quality settings. (This last in particular is a very handy shortcut, as it avoids having to rotate the mode dial to the setup position and make the size/quality changes there, a somewhat time-consuming process.
Popup Flash Release Button: Resting on the lens side of the popup flash compartment, this button releases the flash head into its operating position.
AF / MF Switch: Also on the lens side of the camera, this sliding switch selects auto or manual focus modes. In manual focus mode, focus is controlled by turning the knurled ring on the front of the lens barrel.
Zoom Toggle: Just beneath the AF / MF switch is the zoom toggle button, which controls the optical and digital zoom setting.
Exposure Compensation Button: To the right of the AF / MF switch, this button calls up the exposure compensation adjustment bar, allowing you to adjust the exposure compensation from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV increments, in all exposure modes except for Automatic, Scene Program, and Manual. In Manual exposure mode, pressing this button while turning the command wheel adjusts the lens aperture.
Custom White Balance Button: Situated to the right of the Exposure Compensation button, this button sets the manual white balance value when working in the Custom white balance mode. Pressing this button while a white card is held up in front of the lens manually adjusts the camera's white balance to match the current light source.
Info Button: Located at the bottom of the lens side of the camera, this button displays a quick reference screen of the currently set exposure variables in all exposure modes except for Automatic, Scene Program, and Movie. Likewise, in Playback mode, the Info button displays the exposure information for the currently displayed image.
Focus Ring: Encircling the lens barrel, at the very tip, this notched ring adjusts the manual focus when working in manual focus mode.
Camera Modes and Menus
Capture Mode: Controlled by the camera mode switch on the top panel, Capture mode sets up the camera for recording images in one of the following seven exposure modes:
Record Menu: Pressing the Menu button while in Capture mode (in Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes) displays the following on-screen menu options:
Playback Mode: Also accessed through the camera mode switch, Playback mode allows you to scroll through captured images, as well as delete, protect, resize, and set up images for subsequent printing on a DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) compatible device. Movies can also be played back in an index display mode, which allows you to edit out individual frames.
Playback Menu: Pressing the menu button in this mode calls up the Playback menu, with these offerings:
Setup Mode: The camera's Setup mode is accessed through the exposure mode dial, when the camera is in Capture mode only. Activating the mode instantly displays the following settings menu:
Storage and Interface
The FinePix 4900 Zoom uses SmartMedia (3.3v) for image storage, and a 16 megabyte card comes with the camera. Upgrades to 32 and 64 megabyte sizes are available as accessories. The entire SmartMedia card can be write-protected by placing a small sticker on the indicated area of the card. Write-protection stickers can only be used once, and they must be clean to be effective. Individual images can be protected through the Playback menu, which prevents them from being accidentally deleted (except through card formatting).
The 4900 Zoom offers four image sizes for stills: 2400 x 1800, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, or 640 x 480. There are also three JPEG image quality settings to choose from: Fine, Normal and Basic. An uncompressed TIFF option is also available (the Hi setting) at the 2400 x 1800 image size only. All still images are saved as JPEG compliant Exif. ver.2.1 or TIFF-RGB, and movie files are saved as AVI format motion JPEGs. Movie images are always recorded at 320 x 240 pixels, with no quality settings available. A 16 megabyte card can hold up to approximately 90 seconds of movies. Interface software and a USB cable come with the camera for speedy connection to a Macintosh or PC.
Following are the approximate number of storable images and compression ratios for a 16 megabyte card:
|2400 x 1800
|1600 x 1200
One of the first things any new digicam owner will need is a larger memory card for their camera: The cards shipped with the units by the manufacturers should really be considered only "starter" cards, you'll definitely want a higher capacity card immediately. - Probably at least a 32 megabyte card for a 1.3 or 2 megapixel camera, 64 megabytes or more for a 3, 4, or 5 megapixel one. (The nice thing about memory cards is you'll be able to use whatever you buy now with your next camera too, whenever you upgrade.) To help you shop for a good deal on memory cards that fit the FinePix 4900, we've put together a little memory locater, with links to our price-comparison engine: Just click on the "Memory Wizard" button above to go to the FujiFilm memory finder, select your camera model , and click the shopping cart icon next to the card size you're interested in. You'll see a list of matching entries from the price-comparison database. Pick a vendor & order away! (Pretty cool, huh?)
Video Out
US and Japanese versions of the 4900 Zoom come with an NTSC video cable for connection to a television set. (We assume that European models come set up for the PAL video standard.) Images can be reviewed on the television screen or recorded to video tape. You can also use the television as an enlarged version of the LCD display for composing and capturing images.
The 4900 Zoom uses an NP-80 rechargeable (lithium-ion) battery for power, and comes with an AC adapter that doubles as a battery charger. Fujifilm estimates that a fully charged battery should provide approximately 100 minutes of recording or playback time when using the LCD monitor, and approximately 120 minutes of time when using the LCD viewfinder. Because much of the 4900 Zoom's operation depends on the LCD display, we suggest purchasing an additional battery and keeping it charged and on-hand at all times. Through the Setup menu, you can activate the Auto Power Save option, which sets the camera to turn itself off after two or five minutes of inactivity.
|Capture Mode, w/LCD
|Capture Mode, eyelevel LCD
|Half-pressed shutter w/LCD
|Half-pressed, eyelevel LCD
|Memory Write (transient)
|Flash Recharge (transient)
|Image Playback
Overall, power consumption is about typical of the two to three megapixel digicams we've tested. We were surprised to see the relatively small difference in power consumption between the large rear-panel LCD screen and the tiny eyelevel viewfinder LCD. There's a savings, but still a significant power drain. (Another argument in favor of conventional optical viewfinders, in our humble opinion.) Based on the approximately 4 watt-hour capacity of the NP-80 battery, we think Fuji's run time numbers should be pretty accurate.
Included Software
A software CD packaged with the 4900 Zoom contains the Utilities for Fujifilm Digital Camera software package, compliant with Windows and Macintosh operating systems. This utility package includes a USB driver, the Exif Viewer, and DP Editor, which allow you to download images and perform minor corrections. Windows users have a slightly better deal than Mac users, as additional software is included on the CD for PCs. Adobe PhotoDeluxe and Adobe ActiveShare provide even more image editing tools for Windows users, as well as some creative filters for digitally enhancing your images. Mac users will unfortunately need to purchase these programs separately, or choose a more comprehensive application, such as Adobe PhotoShop LE (Limited Edition).
Test Results
(Coming soon)
Overall, the 4900 Zoom is a fine digicam, combining a great deal of exposure control with an excellent 6x optical zoom lens and the first manual white balance adjustment we've seen in a consumer-level camera from Fuji. It also offers a host of innovative features, ranging from the excellent focus-assist magnifier function to its highly useful autoexposure lock function, and high-magnification playback zoom option. Overall, a very interesting camera for the true "enthusiast", yet one that can also be used in a fully automatic mode for the technology-challenged. A great package of features that significantly extends Fujifilm's consumer digicam line into the higher end of the product spectrum.
<<FinePix 4900 Zoom Sample Images | Additional Resources and Other Links>>
Reader Comments!
Questions, comments or controversy on this product? Click this link to see what other Imaging Resource readers have had to say about the Fuji FinePix 4900 Zoom, or add comments of your own!


text:
April 15 ~ Watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 1 Episode 18 - Providence Online -S1E18 HD FREE
Clark Gregg repeats his part of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel's characteristic movies, as he collects a little, exceptionally select gathering of Agents from the overall law-implementation association known as S.h.i.e.l.d. Together they examine the new, the bizarre, and the obscure over the globe, securing the normal from the exceptional. Coulson's group comprises of Agent Grant Ward, profoundly prepared in battle and reconnaissance; Agent Melinda May, master pilot and military craftsman; Agent Leo Fitz, splendid architect; and Agent Jemma Simmons, virtuoso bio-scientific expert. Going along with them on their trip into secret is newcomer and machine programmer, Skye.
With Colonel Glenn Talbot now on their trail, Coulson and his group look for asylum in the last place anybody might look, where they start to uncover S.h.i.e.l.d.'s most risky mysteries - insider facts that could decimate every one of them.
Col. Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) seeks after Coulson's group as they start to reveal S.h.i.e.l.d's. darkest mysteries.
Operator Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) heads an aggregation of S.h.i.e.l.d. operators: Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), and newcomer Skye (Chloe Bennet) to examine and ensure the world from the obscure. The primary real to life arrangement set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe hails from The Avengers executive Joss Whedon, alongside Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.
watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D :
providence S 1 E 18 online, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D : providence Season 1 Episode
18 vureel, watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D :
providence Season 1 Episode 18 online, Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D : providence S 1 E 18 online, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D : providence
Season 1 Episode 18 watch online free.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
About a month ago I attended an acupuncture symposium, at which the keynote speaker talked about treating musculoskeletal injuries and pain. Early on in his presentation he made the remark that the bodies he treated thirty years ago are very different from those he treats today.
It took a minute for me to understand . . . → Read More: Upper Back and Shoulder Pain and Our Evolving Bodies


text:
The Stand Hillsong
Verse 1:
[A]You stood before creation
[D]eternity in Your hand
[A/C#]You spoke the earth into [F#m]motion
My soul now [D]to stand
Verse 2:
[A]You stood before my failure
And [D]carried the cross for my shame
My [A/C#]sin weighed upon Your shou[F#m]lders
My soul now [D]to stand
So what can I say[D]
[Bm]And what could I do[F#m]
But offer this heart[D] O God[E]
Complete[F#m]ly to You[A] [E] [F#m] [D] [A] [E] [F#m]
Verse 3:
So [A]I'll walk upon salvation
Your [D]Spirit alive in me
This [A/C#]life to declare Your p[F#m]romise
My soul now [D]to stand
[D]So I'll st[A]and
With [E]arms high and [F#m]heart abandoned[D]
In [A]awe of the [E]One who [F#m]gave it all[D]
I'll st[A]and
My s[E]oul Lord to [F#m]You surrendered
[D]All I am[A] is Yours[E] [F#m]
So what can I say[D]
[Bm]And what could I do[F#m]
[A]But offer this hear[Bm7]t O God[E]
Complete[F#m]ly to You
| This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation |
| of the song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, |
| or research. |
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2005
Important: The song above is NOT stored on the Chordie server. The original song is hosted at www.ultimate-guitar.com. Chordie works as a search engine and provides on-the-fly formatting. Chordie does not index songs against artists'/composers' will. To remove this song please click here.
|Text color:
|Chord color:
|Chord grids:
|Font size:
|Page size:


text:
VMC's Some Might Say: The Rags First Home Derby
London and The Home Counties are said to be experiencing Manchester derby fever for the first time whilst Manchester City prepare to realise a Capital City...
Roberto Mancini:
'We have improved a lot in the last year and every time we have met United we have played at the same level. Maybe they have won a lot of trophies and have done that for a long time...But I feel we are very close and maybe next year we will be on the same level with United, Chelsea and Arsenal.
'I am happy for the supporters as they deserve to go to Wembley for an important semi-final and we hope they can go to the final as well...for them, and for the club, this is good because we work hard and deserve a big satisfaction...we played a good game at Old Trafford last time and we have a chance to win...
'..but we also want to beat Kiev - and reach the Champions League - so we have other targets.'
Shaun Wright-Phillips:
'I have been down this road so many times and we always get United, so to me it was inevitable..! A few of the lads felt it would have been nice to get them in the final, but we have them in the semi so now we have to cross that bridge when we come to it.'
Micah Richards:
'Revenge? You could say that. After Rooney's overhead kick, definitely. We are all looking forward to it. It's going to be a great game.'
Blue Dub:
'...beating them could be the beginning for City. Our losing streak against them has to end at some stage, let's hope this time will be our time.'
Fifth Column Blue:
'Trust the rags to get a home tie in the semis...'
NZ Blue:
'...our home game against Spurs that weekend will need to be postponed ....here we go again.'
'Great achievement to get to Wembley. Glad we got the rags in the semi's and not the final - I dont think my heart could take it and I'm only 25.'
Nobby Allcock (and every rag on planet earth):
'..our blip is out of the road and we are going to teach you another lesson in how to GO FOR GLORY. like I told all the bitters on the m.e.n THE MIGHTY REDS are about to hit form at the perfect time.
'...when you take the field brciking it in london WE WILL UNLEASH HELL.'
Head for the VMC Match Day Experience Forum for the build up and beyond to City's last chance saloon clash with Dynamo Kiev. Can The Blues defy the odds and maintain an offensive on three fronts?
VMC is now available on both Facebook and Twitter, so if you are that way inclined and more importantly understand all this new fangled dangled stuff, feel free to watch us, poke us or whatever else you are meant to do there!
VMC on:
VMC on:
It's easy to REGISTER HERE, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved!


text:
There is a type of dog collar called an E Collar, Elizabethan Collar or Cone collar is used when a veterinarian needs to keep dogs & cats from licking or biting places on their body where there might be a skin condition or stitches from surgery. These collars are made of translucent plastic, go around the dog's neck and spread out in a cone shape from the neck covering the head. This configuration keeps the dog from being able to access its body with its mouth or teeth. These collars work well except for the fact that they are a semi-hard plastic, the dog will knock things over with this and if it hits you in the legs while you have shorts on you will know it. In addition an eighty pound dog with one of these on is worse than a tank.
There are several makes that are a good substitutes for Elizabethan collar for dogs, the BiteNot collar, the inflatable protective collar, or the Comfy Collar. All of these substitutes for Elizabethan collar look like they will work but at varying degrees of protection for your pet. [Read more…]


text: On Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:47:43 +0200 (SAST), Alan Barrett wrote: > If we are thinking of new syscalls, then I think that > open_if_stat_matches() would be more useful than open_as(). It > would be used like this: stat(path, statbuf); check attributes in > statbuf; open_if_stat_matches(path, statbuf, flags, mode). There > is no race vulnerability between stat() and open_if_stat_matches() > because the kernel would refuse to open the file if the results from > fstat() after the open would be different from the results of stat() > before the open. There should probably be a way of saying that > certain fields in the stat structure (such as access time) are not > important. > > Note that an open_as() library function could be implemented using > an open_if_stat_matches() syscall. > > --apb (Alan Barrett) I fully agree with you - indeed, I had the same idea, and had gone from the stage of using an md function on the contents of a file and passing that to the open(2), to the stage of expanding that idea to use a stat struct to capture the info. I suspect the st_atime field would have to be ignored by the open_if_stat_matches(2) call (:-)), and you could also zero out parts of the stat struct that you didn't want compared, or use a separate stat structre as a bit mask for relevant fields to check. Regards, Alistair -- Alistair Crooks (email@example.com) _______________________________________________________ Tired of slow Internet? Get @Home Broadband Internet http://www.home.com/xinbox/signup.html


text:
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – Comedian Jim Norton stopped by The Hampton Roads Show Friday.
You won't want to miss your chance to see Jim! See him Friday through Sunday at the Virginia Beach Funny Bone. For tickets and information, call 213-5555 or log on to FunnyBoneCentral.com.
This segment of The Hampton Roads Show is sponsored by the Virginia Beach Funny Bone.


text:
- Title
- Genre
- Country
- Director
- Awards & Festivals
- DVDs Now on Sale
- Certified Fresh Titles New
- On Blu-Ray New
- Staff Favorites New
All Access Pass
Directed by Jean-Stéphane Bron
Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
"Russian veteran Andrei Konchalovsky is on robust form in this richly monochrome, perspective-rotating Holocaust drama."
- Guy Lodge, Variety
"... persuasively acted, elegantly shot in black and white and altogether a handsome prestige period production..."
- Jonathan Romney, Screen International
"...the great Russian DoP Alexander Simonov...works chiaroscuro wonders with what the end credits identify as a combination of 35mm and 16mm stock, his 4:3 black-and-white images and complex lighting set-ups often harking back to golden-age monochrome cinematography. "
- Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter
Directed by Jan Hrebejk
"[An] intelligent and universally resonant crowd-pleaser..."
- Alissa Simon, Variety
"**** Hrebejk and Jarchovsy deftly employ humour as a way of mocking and undercutting their anti-heroine while preventing their overall point about power and corruption from becoming preachy. "
- Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film
"Effectively transposing ൔ Angry Men" into the most intense PTA meeting of all time, Jan Hrebejk's "The Teacher" is a sardonic, richly seriocomic morality play..."
- David Ehrlich, Indiewire
Directed by Samir Oliveros
"An unexpected surprise, Bad Lucky Goat is lively and spry, funny and thoughtful. "
- Peter Martin, Screen Anarchy
"There?s a whiff of The Gods Must Be Crazy whimsy wafting through Bad Lucky Goat, an affably quirky debut feature by Bogota, Colombia-based Samir Oliveros."
- Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
"The playful narrative careens from a series of exotic locales, from rastafari drum makers to a climactic cock fight, with a blend of naturalistic dialogue and magic realism that?s both charming and unpredictable. The vivid backdrop creates an infectious atmosphere to this lighthearted romp, which stands toe-to-toe with Ozu in its depiction of angsty kids at odds with their surroundings. Yet Oliveros manages to use the rich environment to imbue the proceedings with an otherworldly quality that tips into fantasy and creates the sense that anything could happen. It?s a genuine crowdpleaser.... "
- Eric Kohn, Indiewire
Directed by Koji Fukada
"[M]asterful performances. [T]his tale approaches a family?s flawed construct with the critical seriousness of Robert Bresson or Fukada?s compatriot Nagisa Oshima."
- Maggie Lee, Variety
"[C]ommands attention from start to finish. The film?s insights into the isolation evident in the relationships most take for granted ? marriages, parent-child connections and long-term friendships ? don?t merely hit their targets; they smash them with a sledgehammer."
- Sarah Ward, Screen Dailly
"...deeply involving and uncannily affecting..."
- Jessica Kiang, The Playlist
Directed by Frédéric Mermoud
"The reliably interesting Emmanuelle Devos brings complexity to this sleek, Chabrol-like story of a mother's revenge mission."
- Guy Lodge, Variety
"A mother's haunting grief propels her on an obsessive quest for answers and possible revenge in Moka, a mournful, slow-burning psychological thriller adapted from the 2006 novel by Tatiana de Rosnay. Frederic Mermoud's return to feature films...has a strong affinity with the writing of Patricia Highsmith and the films of Claude Chabrol and should appeal to an audience seeking moral complexity in their thrillers..."
- Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
"A classy and classical psychological thriller."
- Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
Directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov
"Sometimes a simple premise leads to deep results. Such is the case with "Glory" ("Slava"), Buglarian directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov's stirring third feature, which plays like a parable that keeps expanding its themes. "
- Eric Kohn, Indiewire
"Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov have a rare ability to make gripping, politically charged drama that is entirely accessible. "
- Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
"Shot with flexible naturalism . . . the film quietly builds to a feeling of inexorable disaster, guided by terrific performances as well as spot-on editing. "
- Jay Weissberg, Variety
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
"[A] classic Japanese family drama of gentle persuasion and staggering simplicity.... [T]he filmmaking is so exquisite and the acting so calibrated it sticks with you."
- Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter
"**** [E]ven long-standing fans of the Japanese filmmaker might be taken aback by the supreme subtlety of his latest, achingly beautiful ode to the quiet complexities of family life."
- Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph
"**** The performances are brilliant throughout the ensemble and the script is full of great one-liners. After the Storm is undoubtedly one of Kore-eda's best."
- John Bleasdale, Cine-vue.com
Directed by Yang Zhang
"This panoramic film...is visually stunning. It share a high elevation and the spirit of revenge with The Revenant..."
- David D'Arcy, Screen Daily
"A slow-simmering, Western-style action drama of blood feud, misfired machismo, and spiritual quest spread across Tibet's rolling steppes and scorching deserts... "
- Maggie Lee, Variety
"In this panoramic masterpiece, Director Zhang Yang weaves a tale of revenge and destiny across the diverse lands of Tibet, creating a Buddhist Western of epic proportions..."
- Walker MacMurdo, Willamette Week
Directed by Elmo Nüganen
"Ranking as Estonia's biggest domestic box office success, Elmo Nuganen's gritty war epic " provides a harsh perspective on the country's painful 20th-century history. "
- Alissa Simon, Variety
"Breaking box office records back home, Estonia's official Academy Awards entry in the Best Foreign Language Film race is a handsome World War II drama. . . . Director Elmo Nuganen . . . shows a flair for grand-scale spectacle in his polished second feature."
- Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter
Directed by Boo Junfeng
"Apprentice is an extremely well researched, very detailed, absorbing trip into a very bleak, untrodden world that impresses all of the way through with its clever story structure, and if you pardon the pun, excellent execution. Highly recommended."
- Paul Heath, The Hollywood News
"[T]here's no question that this Un Certain Regard premiere's directorial flair and thematic complexity...should help further consolidate Boo's own reputation as one of the region's names to watch."
- Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
"Tightly focused and ambitious in its multiple themes..."
- Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
"A simple yet poignant drama with sharp historical undertones."
- Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
"Shot on the idyllic Spanish eastern coast this film examines profound subjects in a dramatically coherent intelligent way. Bravo Barbet!"
- Peter Belsito, Indiewire
"A thoughtful, sensitive character..."
- Scott Foundas, Variety


text:
GORDON, Ga.- Mrs. Ursula Marie Smith, of Sugarcreek Dr., Grovetown, Ga., beloved wife of Mr. Willard C. Smith and beloved mother of the late Ullrich Wolfgang Smith and the late Paul W. Smith, entered into rest on Tuesday, June 15, 2004. A memorial service will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 17, 2004 at Platt's Belair Rd. Chapel with the Chaplain Julie Rowan officiating. A native of Riesenburgh, Germany, Mrs. Smith was a member of the German Friendship Club and League of Women Voters. Survivors include a daughter and son-in-law, Kirsten N. and Robert R. Davis of Grovetown, Ga.; three grandchildren, SPC Harley Weston Smith, US Army, Kelsey Marie Davis and Mitchell Carisle Davis, all of Grovetown, Ga. If so desired, memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, 2623 Washington Rd., Augusta, Ga. 30904 or the Disabled American Veteran's, 1 Freedom Way, Augusta, Ga. 30904. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Thursday, June 17, 2004 from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m. Platt's Funeral Home, 337 N. Belair Rd., Evans, Ga. 706-860-6166. Sign the guestbook at AugustaChronicle.com
The Augusta Chronicle June 16, 2004
© 2018. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


text:
Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/15/game_theory_playstation_4_aliens_colonial_marines_tomb_raider/
Trip the fight fantastic
Tomb Raider, Aliens Colonial Marines, Crysis 3, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and more…
Posted in Personal Tech, 15th March 2013 10:04 GMT
Game Theory After a gap of five weeks or so since my last column the games industry has suddenly become a whole new animal. The next generation - well, Sony's at least - has been revealed, and games publishers are finally able to talk about developing for a new breed of consoles without resorting to coded, barely voiced communications.
It's here where we start then, before plumbing the depths of recent releases that read like a who's who of major franchises, even if one or two are starting to grow a little whiffy.
Killzone: Shadow Fall
If you've been living in a lead lined cave for the last few weeks you might just have escaped news that Sony has unveiled the PS3's successor.
The PS4 certainly looks a step up in terms of horsepower - though, from the footage shown, its capabilities are perhaps not beyond the remit of a generously crafted PC. It also looks to offer the equivalent of a Swiss army knife as a controller, the slightly heavy-looking DualShock 4 pad coming equipped with seemingly everything but a power glove.
Despite the inevitable hooting and hollering for the likes of Killzone: Shadow Fall, Infamous: Second Son, Drive Club, Destiny and Watch Dogs, it was the Media Molecule and Jonathan Blow sections of the presentation that really held my attention.
DualShock 4: the Swiss army knife of controllers?
Media Molecule's Alex Evans appeared on stage to push his vision of a "creative console". The PS4 is apparently powerful enough to allow users to "create our dreams" in a similar way to his studio's LittleBigPlanet franchise. He illustrated the point with a demonstration of players carving sculptures, before conducting a puppet show of sorts with a shake of the PS Move. A little far-fetched perhaps, but an idea that moves us beyond what we currently think of as a videogame.
Jonathan Blow, he of Braid fame, also graced the stage to showcase his next project, ironically enough after the explosions of Killzone had barely finished shaking the room. The Witness, a whimsical study of the 'a-ha' moment as he put it, shows that even in this next generation of gaming the enterprising small games studio might still stand shoulder to shoulder with the big boys.
That Sony would show off graphically impressive first-person shooters, driving games and sandbox action games at its PS4 announcement was inevitable. The fact that said games looked to be peddling the exact same gamplay as we're currently used to seeing, however, was a tad disappointing. Credit to the likes of Evans and Blow then for daring to show us something different.
Aliens: Colonial Marines: the wrong kind of bug hunt
How can it be that Gearbox got Aliens so wrong? James Cameron had all but made the videogame himself by portraying Ridley Scott's creature as but one of a hive of intelligent and relentless nightmares, from which instant death was the most merciful escape.
He was even generous enough to throw in "ultimate badass" future marines - best not call them space marines or else Games Workshop might sue - equipped with shotguns, pulse rifles, sentry turrets and more. Next he gave these hot-headed jarheads movement trackers, complete with the most terrifying heads-up display and bleep sound ever to grace film.
'There's nothing back here'
But, rather than craft tense standoffs versus these lithe, cunning adversaries, Gearbox have treated us to xenomorphs without any semblance of intelligence. And, copout of copouts, they've even thrown enemy marines into the mix, who think nothing of charging down corridors towards your stream of hastily fired bullets. Not the most auspicious of starts to a FPS then.
That's not to say you won't die - and often on higher difficulty settings. The sheer numbers of enemies, coupled with porous cover and aliens that sink into the glitchy scenery will see to that. But never will you be out-thought, or out-manoeuvred, which is more the pity.
Close encounters
The scenery clipping is far from the only bug too. As sentry turrets materialise out of thin air, enemy grunts rush blindly past you - presumably because you've reached a point in the mission without tagging their trigger point - and pressurised containers explode without damaging anything within their vicinity.
And though such issues may be fixed via patches, that won't cure Colonial Marines' most unforgivable flaw: that the xenomorphs here have been cursed with staccato movement, the very opposite of the sinuous, fluid flexibility that was so terrifying in the movies. Perhaps the most damning criticism to be made is that even the 'greasy' Alien: Resurrection xenos looked better than this collection of cardboard cut-outs.
Ultimate killing machine? Not in this game
The rest of the game looks much as if it has walked out of the PS2 era too, a problem compounded by bland environments and identikit bad guys. No wonder the preview events showcased the PC version which, while still less than stunning, is at least slightly better looking.
I'm not suggesting that Gearbox went into this to make anything but a good game, but six years of indecision, a constantly shifting release dates and seemingly a loss of direction has unfortunately turned the product into something to lament. After all, in a similar way to how we're now stuck with Prometheus as the "definite" precursor to Alien, we're now stuck with this as the gaming's official sequel to Aliens.
Dead Space 3: a story of assumed identity
Following hot on the heels of Aliens: Colonial Marines was Dead Space 3, a game which most had long suspected was set to take Visceral Game's claustrophobic horror in a new direction.
Oh eye
Sure enough, that's was exactly what we got, with long-suffering engineer Isaac Clarke being once more lured into battle against the corrupted necromorphs. His affair with the mysterious Marker – which set loose his tormentors in the first place – coming to some kind of conclusion in the process.
It offers co-op mode for a first time, as well as human enemies equipped with guns and even locates the action within more open environments, Clarke taking a trip to a snow-covered planet during large sections of the game. These foreign concepts twisting and transforming Dead Space 3 into something resembling Uncharted with zombie aliens, a marked departure from the atmospheric survival horror of before.
For that change, the game was attacked rather ferociously by the gaming press. While I can see why some criticism was due, there comes a point when you must judge what's on the disc - not what you hoped was on the disc. After all, we don't lambast Aliens for not being similar in concept to Alien do we?
Light him up
With that in mind I'd like to put it on record that I had a good time with Dead Space 3. Not quite as good a time as I had with its predecessors admittedly, but by upping the tempo while preserving the series' seamless design, Visceral have pulled off an action horror which walks all over the likes of Resident Evil 6.
The only downsides are a reliance on unoriginal boss fights and puzzle sections to which the solution is to find three keys for three slots – a gameplay mechanic that the industry really needs to start moving away from if you ask this grizzled gamer.
Crysis 3 out for an easy Prophet
Welcome back to New York. This time covered in shrubbery and once more featuring a Nanosuit-clad super soldier, though now sporting a bow and arrow – something of a theme this month.
The cynical ones out there - you know who you are - might say that Crysis 3's release confirms Crytek's milking of its existing CryEngine 3 engine for all its worth. That's before CryEngine 4 emerges on next-generation systems with the inevitably of night following day.
Boom, boom, shake, as they say, the room
If I'm being overly harsh it's because this is a growing issue. The likes of God of War: Ascension, Gears of War: Judgement and quite possibly Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag all following suit. The major publishing houses each looking to squeeze just one more game out of their existing setups before the licensed technology gets usurped by the next evolution in game design.
Owners of ninja PCs will no doubt scoff and claim that their machines are already next generation, and they might well be right. But does it mean that just because your game looks like the canines gonads you're not also deserving of a new experience?
As I've alluded to already in my PS4 announcement breakdown, there's little to be wholly enthusiastic about when charged with playing through almost identical situations as before. And here you're asked to pay full whack for the privilege too.
'Hair are your aerials to the cosmos. This is why bald-headed men are so up tight'
For what it's worth Crysis 3 does offer a perfectly adequate contemporary shooter action, with a decent mix of interior and exterior sections. There's also a quite lovely unveiling of the overgrown New York City in which you'll while away the hours.
The returning hero, Prophet, feels like a real force too. His Nanosuit's armour and cloaking modes adding tactical layers to encounters as before. Even if the bow and arrow, a weapon Prophet can fire yet still remain cloaked, feels like the unnecessary addition of a studio clutching at straws.
However, the feeling that nothing has progressed is hard to shake, with the game relying on all the same mechanics of cover, energy recharge and enemy AI as previously. As an add-on to Crysis 2 this might have passed muster. As a full-on sequel, however, there is simply not enough new material to recommend purchase.
Tomb Raider reboot leaves Lara at odds with herself
The Tomb Raider reboot throws a younger Miss Croft onto a mysterious island straight out of Lost - then proceeds to get her all dirty as she wades through mud, blood and God knows what else in a bid to survive.
Crystal Dynamics clearly had one eye on Uncharted during production – Lara's adventure borrowing much of the climbing and platforming approaches that Naughty Dog perfected during the crafting of its masterpiece. Where Tomb Raider ups the ante, however, is in its camera angles: close-ups and tracking cameras infuse a sense of claustrophobia as Lara squeezes through gaps and evades the island's unfriendly locals.
In tight space no one can hear you squeeze
The general flow improves upon Uncharted too. Lara's shifting environment ensures that she's forced to move ever onwards by distinct changes of pace. One minute she's balancing on a bridge, say, before the next sends her plunging down a waterfall – the action ratcheting up from walking speed to full-on sprint in a beat.
So far so good. The problem comes when Lara starts to encounter enemies on a regular basis. As you play she'll soon come into possession of the standard tools for killing: a bow, firearms and even a hand axe for those close encounters. But it's how the combat is implemented that holds her adventure back from greatness.
Stick it up your Janus
In the midst of a game where we're meant to believe the protagonist has agonised over the death of the first human she's ever killed, it's something of a stretch to then have her suddenly forget all about that and happily smash in the skulls of every person she comes across in a blood frenzy.
Unlawful charnel knowledge
The schizophrenic Lara then switches back to worrying about her sense of self-preservation, despite the fact she's clearly got the killing power of the Terminator. It presumably stems from a disharmonious blending of gameplay and script, the gameplay director only being brave enough to keep the action realistic for so long before gifting Lara the equivalent of superpowers.
I'm positive that most won't see a problem. Games are games after all and we expect to suspend a certain amount of disbelief while playing. But when story and action are so contrasting it's hard not to wonder why and how the design team failed to spot such a glaring contradiction. Especially when you consider that a stronger focus on non-lethal stealth would have benefitted both the experience and the believability...
Revengeance is a dish best served cold
And so we come to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, my pick for best game of the last few weeks. Not only because it's so darn cool - just look at that name - but because it shows how an established series might be reimagined by a different developer and so transplanted into a whole different genre. This is something I'd like to see more of by similarly brave publishing houses.
That the developer in question is Platinum Games should tell you the type of reimagining Revengeance is. The game going down the Bayonetta route as it places the returning Raiden at the heart of a game that swaps Metal Gear Solid's stealth for outrageous action.
Rule one: never fight in high heels
At its heart is Raiden's sword, the samurai (by now more machine than man) capable of slicing his enemies apart limb-by-limb. Indeed harvesting rival cyborg's cleaved parts forms a large part of the action, hands yielding ID tags and other innards replenishing energy.
Successfully parrying attacks is the key to the game, a good defence opening hostiles up to more powerful attacks, including the chance to take advantage of Raiden's attuned senses to gain the illusion of slowed time where katana blows can be aimed more accurately.
As was the case in Bayonetta, the challenge is to combine moves, with practiced players soon cutting a trail of destruction through enemy lines. And, unlike the contrary Tomb Raider, this game's plot even sees fit to challenge such a thirst for blood. The touch of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is apparent during scenes where Raiden considers the rights and wrongs of bloody vengeance.
Spark keeper
Revengeance isn't without its issues. Enemies could do with having more model variation, the camera is a tad cumbersome - though I like to think of that as Raiden having a blind spot - and the game, while not as short as some gamers would have you believe, certainly could have used some added scenes.
Repeated play-throughs do prove rewarding, however, with the combat so frenetic that fights rarely conclude in the same way twice. Perseverance will also hone your own technique to quite ridiculous levels too, and for the first time since Bayonetta - with the possible exception of DmC: Devil May Care - you're left with an action game that provides both ingenuity and a genuine challenge.
It's a return to form for Platinum Games following the disappointing Anarchy Reigns - and a warning shot to genre pretenders that Bayonetta 2 is coming to get them.


text:
myVermont.gov Account
Not Logged In
County: Essex
Census Population: 1,078
Land Area: 33.4 Square Miles
Population Density: 32.3(Persons Per Sq Mi)
Coordinates (Geographic Center): 45°00" N 71°34" W
Altitude: 1,042 Feet ASL
Town Clerk: Linda Hikel
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 159 Canaan, VT 05903
Physical Address: 318 Christian Hill Canaan, VT 05903
Office Telephone: 802-266-3370
Clerk Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Clerk Hours: M-F 9-3
Town of Canaan Official Website GOV
Town Map (Via Google Maps)
Mostly Cloudy
Winds are North at 5.8 MPH (5 KT)
The pressure is 1037.5 mb and the humidity is 43%. The wind chill is 25.


text:
Get Your Students to Love the News, #6: The New York Times Upfront is awesome!
Hey, this little series, "Get Your Students to Love the News," is becoming a real thing! Today is the sixth installment. When you have time, be sure to check out the other posts, too.
A few posts ago, I emphasized that when it comes to reading the news, there's nothing like the real thing: an old-fashioned newspaper or magazine, preferably in print (though that's not a requirement).
But this is not exactly easy to make happen.
Reason #1: It's expensive. Let's say I get a class set of The New York Times in print, weekdays only, from September through May. That's $3.50 a week, 35 weeks, 25 students, or $3,062.50. Impossible.
Reason #2: That's a lot of paper to recycle! Unfortunately, most newspapers won't deliver just once a week. A good alternative would be to try a weekly newsmagazine, like Time. But it's still not cheap. Twenty-five copies at $35 a year runs you $875.
Reason #3: Newspapers and magazines might be too hard for struggling ninth graders to read. Sure, we should challenge them (with individual articles that we find), but it's also a great feeling for students to be able to read on their own.
Despite all those reasons to give up on print periodicals, please don't! I have a great solution for you. It's called The New York Times Upfront.
A Scholastic publication, Upfront takes real articles from The New York Times, modifies them for middle- and high-school readers, and reassembles them in a tidy and colorful magazine format.
What's also great is that Upfront comes out 14 times a year. That's a good number of issues. Not too many, not too few.
The articles are done well. Let's take a look! Here's one from January after the death of Nelson Mandela.
And here's one about the anniversary of Tienanmen Square:
Upfront does a good job adding key maps, timelines, and images to help students gain background knowledge, a crucial ingredient in nonfiction. (Kelly Gallagher says so, and so do I!)
Also, Upfront is affordable. A class set of 25 copies will cost you $275 for the year. That's a doable price.
One of my esteemed colleagues in San Francisco, Marni Spitz, is using Upfront this year with her ninth graders. She's an excellent Global Studies teacher who believes deeply in the power of reading. Marni loves Upfront!
To be sure, Upfront is not perfect. I want to get my students — even the really struggling ninth graders — to the real version of The New York Times as soon as possible. And I do! But until that happens, Upfront is an excellent scaffold, a great way for students to find success.
If you've used Upfront in your classroom, please let me know what you think! You know it'll be enjoyable.


text:
Jesse's Story
Our Causes
Friends International
Friends International saves lives and builds futures for marginalized children across the globe. www.friends-international.org
Uganda Rural Fund
Uganda Rural Fund empowers AIDS orphans, underprivileged youth, and women to fight poverty in Uganda's rural communities. www.ugandaruralfund.org/
Jean R. Cadet Restavek Organization
Jean R. Cadet Restavek Organization is committed to ending child slavery in Haiti through education and international awareness programs. www.jeanrcadet.org
Love 146
Love146 works for the end of child trafficking & exploitation by caring for survivors, prevention & empowering a growing Abolition movement. www.love146...
James Place
James Place, Inc. raises funds to provide addiction recovery programs to people who otherwise cannot afford them. www.jamesplaceinc.org
Freedom from Hunger
Freedom from Hunger brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty around the globe. www.freedomfromhunge...
Music is Unity Foundation
Music is Unity Foundation funds educational and social programs that enhance the ability of the more than 423,000 foster children in the U.S. to successfully ...
Grass Roots Angel House
Grass Roots Angel House is a refuge in Tanzania where children from 10 different tribes and villages receive quality education and a loving family environment. ...
Clear Path International
Clear Path International provides innovative, high-impact programing to restore dignity and self-sufficiency to conflict survivors around the globe. www.cpi.org
Save the Children
Save the Children is the top independent charity for children in need and invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. www.savethe...
COPE provides UXO ( unexploded weapons) survivors in Cambodia with the care and support they required, namely by way of orthotic and prosthetic devices. www.c...
The Boys and Girls Club
The Boys and Girls Club of Cape Cod provides a safe place to inspire and enable all young people on Cape Cod to realize their full potential as productive, ...
Gosnold on Cape Cod
Gosnold on Cape Cod supports individuals and families affected by addiction through a full continuum of inpatient and outpatient services. www.gosnold.org
World Vision
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential ...
Monkee See – Monkee Do
Monkee See – Monkee Do is a helping, healing revolution started by a group of women from Momastery in response to a desire for more service projects, more ...
The Halo Trust
The Halo Trust, through Global Giving, helps remove landmines in Cambodia, one of the most landmine affected countries, with over 25,000 amputees. www.globalgiv...
Mothers Fighting For Others
Mothers Fighting For Others is dedicated to providing orphans and vulnerable children educational and social opportunities so they can learn, thrive and achieve ...


text:
"Waterfront residents, home builders, developers and government entities are encouraged to utilize this system to get the best prices from the best marine contractors and affiliated companies," announced Rick Fender.
Orlando, FL (PRWEB) June 30, 2013
Rick Fender of Fender Marine Construction who was interviewed for this report was the Founding President of the Florida Marine Contractor's Association. "With marine construction beginning to increase, the Florida Marine Contractor's Association decided to provide its members and the public with this valuable research tool," said Rick Fender. "This new "request for bid" option on the FMCA (myfmca.org) web site is now active. The new web based program will email all members within a 150 mile radius of a project when an individual, corporation or municipality completes the online form," explained Fender. Fender went on to explain that this new benefit will give the membership the ability to work together on bids and increase their market share.
"Waterfront residents, home builders, developers and government entities are encouraged to utilize this system to get the best prices from the best marine contractors and affiliated companies," announced Rick Fender. "The FMCA's membership consists of not only marine contractors, but vendors and professionals such as insurance agents, attorneys, engineers, divers, marine materials suppliers and more," noted Fender. Fender added that regardless if you need permitting assistance, insurance, equipment or materials, there is a member within the association to work with you.
Fender asked, "We are requesting potential users of the system to help the FMCA promote the 'request for bid service' to state and local purchasing departments, home builders, residents and developers." Rick Fender further explained that the FMCA will be sending out mass emails to various entities announcing the service, but we are already getting results from the system - see the attached bid requests that are current.
Rick Fender went on to explain, "Since Florida has an abundance of waterfront property, making it one of the most active marine construction areas in the country, the FMCA thought connecting the right marine contractors in Florida to the potential customers to be the highest and best use of our efforts." The FMCA has always strived to enhance the marine construction industry throughout Florida through education, working as licensing and insurance activists and providing the public with a resource to find the top Marine Contractors, Professionals and Associates in Florida. Fender added, "The FMCA website at http://www.MyFMCA.org and the newly added 'request for bid service' are easy to search when the public wants to know which marine contractors are licensed and insured for marine construction and to get prices for marine construction projects." Marine Contractors listed on the FMCA website have proven to the FMCA's Board of Directors that they have the appropriate licensing and insurance required for marine construction. Rick Fender explains, "Only the very best licensed and insured marine contractors are members of this prestigious organization."
"Not a lot of people know that marine construction in Florida requires not only the appropriate licensing, but it requires special insurance including liability insurance, worker's compensation insurance as well as United States Longshore and Harborworker's insurance," explained Fender. All of the FMCA member Contractors carry the appropriate insurance. "Marine construction is far different from other types of construction so much that the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board created a specialty license for the category, known as the Florida State Certified Marine Contractor's License," Fender explained. Fender went on to say that Fender Marine Construction is one of the select marine contractors to hold the Certified Marine Contractor's license.
"Florida property waterfront owners wishing to enhance their waterfront enjoyment and property values should utilize Florida Marine Contractor's Association members for peace of mind to install their docks, decks, boathouses, seawalls, stone revetments and other marine structures," Fender explained.
Fender Marine Construction is located at 1201 West Jackson Street Orlando, FL 32805. Potential clients can contact Fender Marine through our website at http://www.FenderMarine.com, or call 407-481-2750 now.


text:
It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
reply to post by TiM3LoRd
Damnit! Damnit damnit damnit!!!!!
DAMMMMMNNNNNNNNNIIIITITTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!edit on 8-11-2013 by LightAssassin because: can't spell damn it seems
And a bit more searching on twitter says:
John McClumpha @JohnMcClumpha 4h
Erm fellow tweeters - any ideas on what the green glow in the sky is over Cranbourne tonight?! pic.twitter.com/AUKUyZlWu8
John McClumpha @JohnMcClumpha 4h
Yep @evilsnoofy has it - the light from the racecourse reflecting *green* up onto the clouds (yes I did have to go and investigate)
John McClumpha @JohnMcClumpha 4h
@PhatRS @michaelmessig - nope not Aurora Australis unfortunately - a much less exciting reality - but looks awesome


text:
Ulster diabetes cases 'spiralling'
Northern Ireland has the fastest growing population of diabetics in the UK, it was revealed.
The number of people diagnosed with the long-term condition increased by a third during the last five years, SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey said.
A total of 80,172 adults and children have the various forms of the illness, which needs manual control of blood sugars because of a lack of insulin.
Mr Ramsey called for more investment in preventative and innovative measures to mitigate the effects of diabetes for sufferers, families and society as a whole.
"The number of people diagnosed with Type 1 and Type 2 is spiralling, and every effort must be made to highlight the cause and effect of the illness, and help curb its influence on to the families of Northern Ireland," he said.
General medical service figures recorded 80,172 adults and children diagnosed with the illness in Northern Ireland.
It represents a 33% increase in people diagnosed in the last five years and compares with 18% in Scotland, 20% in Wales and 25% in England. One form of diabetes has been linked to obesity and another to autoimmune disease which damages the cells that make insulin. Researchers are studying the use of stem cell therapy which could eventually provide a widely-used replacement for insulin injections.
Mr Ramsey added: "Clearly much remains to be done in this region, in the prevention, care and treatment to reduce complications, and to reduce the human and financial burden of diabetes.
"What must be recognised is that practically every person living in this world with diabetes owes his or her improved condition, if not their life, to the skills and patience of researchers dedicated to fighting this illness.
"However much work remains to be done, and future progress will largely be determined by the amount of money available. I can only reiterate that raising awareness and funds is fundamental for this year's theme to become a reality, so I urge everyone to spread the word of what they hear and see this week."