The world is in 3D

This 3D craze is wild.  Everywhere I look, something says "in 3D".  What people don't notice is that the world is in 3D, and you don't need special glasses to see it in all its depth.

Seriously, though, I got a good deal on The Three Musketeers 3D Blu-Ray disc.  For US$19.99, I couldn't do better, as that's about the same price as a Blu-Ray disc itself.  I have a cheapo (for 3D) LG Blu-Ray disc player and LED-backlit television.  They work, but they're not particularly great, nor should they rival a $4000 setup, should they?

I was surprised at the quality.  It didn't exactly make me move out of the way with objects coming at me but the movie didn't go crazy (there were 3 I remember) with ridiculous 3D for 3D's sake effects, either.  It was an interesting experience and it may not be matched for a while, given the price of Blu-Ray and 3D Blu-Ray movies.

Olympus has a new camera body, the E-M5, which is part of a new series of micro Four-thirds cameras labeled OM-D.  They're trying to draw upon their amazing OM-system with a lookalike digital version.  If you don't know about the OM-system, it's important to know that incredibly small camera bodies came out at a time when Nikon was selling the most huge camera bodies taking 135 format film, like the F2.

In any case, digital SLRs take up a huge amount of space for the size of the image sensor.  135 format film had a size of 36mm wide by 24mm high.  It wasn't 35mm film really, though people commonly call it that because it came from 35mm movie film.  Imagine that 36mm x 24mm in a camera body and wonder why the body is so huge.  Why can't I have a sensor that size in a camera body the size of my old OM-1N?

Olympus have tried to do this with a smaller, 17.3 x 13mm sensor, and the body is a bit smaller than the OM-system bodies.  However, a lot of space is probably used by the 5 axis image stabilization and the dust reduction system.  Including everything would mean having a much bigger body.

They have used a better, newer sensor and the image quality seems to be quite far ahead of my E-5, which I bought in November after it had been on the market about 1 year.  Am I uncomfortable with my decision?  Yes.  I would have preferred better image quality, even though the E-5 does well.  I'm still not sure either could stand against my E-1, or for that matter the OM-1N and a good roll of film.

Have you tried Yelp?  I've been reviewing the world lately, adding businesses, and letting people know what I think about shopping and eating in my area.  It's interesting to see whether I can actually help people from making mistakes or not.  Taste, of course, is very subjective and not everyone will agree.

The whole idea of Check-Ins reminds me of Foursquare, which I haven't used or the feature added to Facebook to produce advertising based on your location.  In one way, it's been interesting to use my iPhone 4S camera to document store fronts.  The camera is actually good, which is a surprise to someone who won't use a point-and-shoot camera.

It's good to use Yelp and I wish the mobile application would work well.  I guess that's something else I'll have to review.