WDB
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 5:21:55 GMT
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Post by WDB on May 29, 2018 5:21:55 GMT
An ND filter simply reduces the light passing through by a defined amount, like plain sunglasses. There's a three-stop one built into the Fuji X100F, and I have an eight-stop one In my little filter kit.
A polarizer is selective, and comes in a rotating housing. At the micro level it's like a venetian blind, which allows through only those light rays whose plane of oscillation allows them to fit through the gaps. Light from the sun contains rays oscillating in all possible planes, but once reflected off a surface, like the inside of a window or a wet pavement, it is polarized at an angle determined by the plane of reflection, meaning that all the rays are oscillating in parallel planes. In sunglasses, the filter is fixed to block light reflected off horizontal surfaces like wet roads, but the rotating housing allows a photographer to select the exact plane to allow through and so which reflections to block.
Anyway, it works. Skies are more vivid, and scenes through glass or in the distance aren't obscured by reflections and light scatter. Just make sure you buy the 'circular' type, which is the only one that will work with through-the-lens autofocus systems. And turn up the EVF brightness enough to see the effect in the viewfinder.
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 6:38:53 GMT
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Post by tyrednexited on May 29, 2018 6:38:53 GMT
Yes: the €7.70 Tageskarte that gets you a full (till 3am) day's use of all the S- and U- trains, buses, trams, and even the Wannsee ferry...... If you're travelling 'en famille' and intend to stay together, the 'Small Group' day ticket is rather cheaper for up to 5 people. (€19.90). As said, don't miss the Reichstag (Britischer Arkitekt), look to see if there is any of the wall still standing ( I think there is still a little bit preserved) and, though things will have changed a bit since I was last there not long after reunification, a visit to the old eastern-bloc areas might still be of interest (is the Fernsehnturm still open?). Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, etc.
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WDB
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 7:20:59 GMT
Post by WDB on May 29, 2018 7:20:59 GMT
Checkpoint Charlie is tacky but at least we’ve seen it. (It was an easy walk from our hotel.) And yes, you can still ascend the Fernsehenturm without climbing gear, although you need a ticket and a wait.
The Brandenburger Tor is impressive but mostly obscured by crowds. But we passed through on the way to our early Reichstag appointment and it was blissfully quiet. An hour later - just after 10 - it was thronged again.
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 7:55:07 GMT
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Post by tyrednexited on May 29, 2018 7:55:07 GMT
The Brandenburger Tor is impressive but .... ..... juxtapositioned with Starbucks (or at least, it was). 🙄
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 8:35:26 GMT
Post by Humph on May 29, 2018 8:35:26 GMT
I used to work for a company that had a Berlin office. I visited it perhaps twice a year over a 6 year period but sadly never seemed to have enough free time to do the sights, other than through the windows of cabs. Often the way with these things.
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Deleted
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 14:47:11 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2018 14:47:11 GMT
Most surveyors can agree with that. Get to the building, inspect and go home....
It's ok if you are in your home town but I have driven through the New Forest three times in three years and never had time to stop.
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WDB
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 16:49:53 GMT
Post by WDB on May 29, 2018 16:49:53 GMT
... through the windows of cabs. Often the way with these things. Like this?
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 18:59:15 GMT
Post by Humph on May 29, 2018 18:59:15 GMT
Pretty much !
I'm off to Kraków next week. Never been before. Must check to see if there's anything to not miss sort of thing.
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 20:09:33 GMT
Post by tyrednexited on May 29, 2018 20:09:33 GMT
Pretty much ! I'm off to Kraków next week. Never been before. Must check to see if there's anything to not miss sort of thing. Just so you know what you have missed? ....and where has Slovenian Cabernet Sauvignon been all my life?
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 21:43:17 GMT
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Post by dixinormus on May 29, 2018 21:43:17 GMT
I've heard that Krakow is a very beautiful old city Humph. Probably worth an evening stroll around at the least.
Love Poland, had some great fun there. Never got to Krakow though.
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Deleted
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Berlin
May 29, 2018 21:51:50 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 29, 2018 21:51:50 GMT
Checkpoint Charlie is tacky but at least we’ve seen it. (It was an easy walk from our hotel.) And yes, you can still ascend the Fernsehenturm without climbing gear, although you need a ticket and a wait. The Brandenburger Tor is impressive but mostly obscured by crowds. But we passed through on the way to our early Reichstag appointment and it was blissfully quiet. An hour later - just after 10 - it was thronged again. I first visited East Berlin with an Irish colleague before the wall came down and walked through Checkpoint Charlie. A bit scary with the po-faced border guards barking out questions once they had your passport in their hands. You also had to exchange 25 Deutsche Mark for Ostmark at a 1:1 exchange rate and the guards expected you to leave behind any unspent currency when you returned to the West. I still have 20 Ostmark in my currency collection though We walked out of the border post and soon spotted that we were being followed. She stuck out like a sore thumb partially because we were the only people around, no kids out playing from all the high rise apartment blocks and no-one out shopping. Probably because all the shops we passed were closed even on a Saturday morning. The main reason that we spotted her though was that even though it was a bloody hot day she was dressed in a thick multi-coloured woolen overcoat and was keeping about 50 yards behind us. She followed us all the way to the TV tower where we had an awful lunch and a couple of horrible beers in the restaurant which cost about 5 Marks for the two of us. On the way back we took the U-Bahn and she was in the same carriage as us. The thing that struck me most about that day was how depressing East Berlin was. Grey, grey, grey. No signs over the (closed) shop doors, no neons, no kids around and spiked chains hung in every waterway to stop people trying to swim their way to freedom. Glub knows what the east Berliners must have thought looking over the wall at night from the top of the tower watching us in the west enjoying a night out down the Ku'Damm.
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Deleted
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Berlin
May 30, 2018 6:23:21 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 30, 2018 6:23:21 GMT
I don't care what colour party a nation elects, unless they stop its citizens from leaving. That's a sure sign the wrong regime is in power.
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Alanović
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Berlin
May 30, 2018 9:04:28 GMT
Post by Alanović on May 30, 2018 9:04:28 GMT
Checkpoint Charlie is tacky but at least we’ve seen it. (It was an easy walk from our hotel.) And yes, you can still ascend the Fernsehenturm without climbing gear, although you need a ticket and a wait. The Brandenburger Tor is impressive but mostly obscured by crowds. But we passed through on the way to our early Reichstag appointment and it was blissfully quiet. An hour later - just after 10 - it was thronged again. I first visited East Berlin with an Irish colleague before the wall came down and walked through Checkpoint Charlie. A bit scary with the po-faced border guards barking out questions once they had your passport in their hands. You also had to exchange 25 Deutsche Mark for Ostmark at a 1:1 exchange rate and the guards expected you to leave behind any unspent currency when you returned to the West. I still have 20 Ostmark in my currency collection though We walked out of the border post and soon spotted that we were being followed. She stuck out like a sore thumb partially because we were the only people around, no kids out playing from all the high rise apartment blocks and no-one out shopping. Probably because all the shops we passed were closed even on a Saturday morning. The main reason that we spotted her though was that even though it was a bloody hot day she was dressed in a thick multi-coloured woolen overcoat and was keeping about 50 yards behind us. She followed us all the way to the TV tower where we had an awful lunch and a couple of horrible beers in the restaurant which cost about 5 Marks for the two of us. On the way back we took the U-Bahn and she was in the same carriage as us. The thing that struck me most about that day was how depressing East Berlin was. Grey, grey, grey. No signs over the (closed) shop doors, no neons, no kids around and spiked chains hung in every waterway to stop people trying to swim their way to freedom. Glub knows what the east Berliners must have thought looking over the wall at night from the top of the tower watching us in the west enjoying a night out down the Ku'Damm. Exactly my memories of East Berlin, kevin. I went as a 14 year old on a school trip, did the walk through Checkpoint Charlie too. It sparked a fascination in me to learn more about the way of life in the East back then, and went on the school trip to Moscow and Leningrad two years later as a result. As you probably know I then went on to study Russian at University and spent a year in the USSR at Moscow State University, and had the fortune to live a bit of history as I was there for what transpired to be the final year of Soviet Communism.
There is something I miss about life there. The utter simplicity of it. Or, to put it another way, the almost total lack of entertainment and choices, which I think brought us together as a group and encouraged us to travel the country (usually illegally, there having been a labyrinthine internal visa system which would have taken far too long to negotiate). Fine for me to say that of course, I had a get out of jail card. The locals were stuck with it.
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Rob
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Berlin
May 30, 2018 21:47:46 GMT
Post by Rob on May 30, 2018 21:47:46 GMT
Krakow is a great city - had an excellent time there a few years ago. Nice and compact too.
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WDB
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Berlin
May 31, 2018 11:18:11 GMT
Post by WDB on May 31, 2018 11:18:11 GMT
The Brandenburger Tor is impressive but .... ..... juxtapositioned with Starbucks (or at least, it was). 🙄 ...whereas at Charlie: ...or more stylishly:
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