Here, I just stole one of my brother's cinematography textbooks (it's what cleared it up for me too, JordyA - because I thought the same as you at first). :) Texture: The visual and tactile quality of the surface of an object, revealed in a photograph by variances in tone, depth and shape. Lighting has the most influence over how well texture is captured in an image. BTW, very nice pic, PC.. you guys have such different views of February than I do, though. grin - darkpen

Mmm.. DVD-R.. I'm just waiting for the standards to merge before getting one. And I'm kinda cheating, that work folder is currently a bunch of smaller image files with a 7.5Gb full frames AVI. :) - darkpen

Attached Link: http://www.ligos.com/index.phtml?pi=103

Hey, polishing plastic by hand is a feat in itself (at the very least in patience! :P), so you get extra points for that. :) - darkpen

It just struck me when I woke up this morning - if you really want to know more, you should ask in the sci.physics.optics newsgroup. A lot of the people who hang out on those sci.* are chemists and physicists, and you might even find someone who works (or studies) specifically in lenses. Even amateur astronomy newsgroups might be of help, too, as some of them make their own telescopes from custom mirrors and lenses. - darkpen

Wow.. so many factors, so much math.. grin I've taken about 3 optics classes and still couldn't tell you anything very specific about lens-making.. I've mostly learned the theory and math behind how they work. So, basics: lenses can be made with pretty much any refractive material (it's why a round bowl filled with water can be a fire hazard if it's in direct sunlight or why your eyes work when they're 90% water). From what I know from school though, most lenses are made from glass materials with formulas specific to the manufacturer. The reason because glass is mostly predictable as far as structure goes during manufacture (although a chemist would be able to tell you more about this - I only took as far as basic organic chemistry, myself). Polishing, from the little "field trip" we took to the National Research Centre back in college, seemed to be mostly made with sandblasting and water (for large mirrors and lenses) all the way down to very fine, high-power lasers (for very small pieces, i.e. fiber optics systems). Lasers in general are used to measure the lenses' properties, at least on the prototype, too. As to why some are better than others.. I'd say that most of the time it's because they're better suited for the job than others. While one lens may have less physical aberration (shape 'interference'), it might have more chromatic aberrations (color 'interference'), etc etc. So one lens for regular camera use might be excellent over another that sucks, while the situation is the exact opposite for, say, communications (shape reproduction is highly important in the former, while the latter might be more interested in the duration of the pulse of light itself). The whole manufacturing process is also a big factor, and the batch itself (you can get lemons in anything). Also, experience from the manufacturer helps a lot (math only takes you so far - the physical world tends to be quite different). So, anyway, I'm probably useless to you, but your post seemed lonely. :) - darkpen

No prob. I just called my mom, she says those holes are for one of those tall column-mounted-like flash (you'd screw in the leads). I hope it works for you! - darkpen

Attached Link: http://www.toptown.com/nowhere/kypfer/120-620faq.htm

That's not a bike, baby, it's a chopper. grin I love that line. - darkpen

My brother used to work for Epson (back when the Stylus Photo and the 1720 were just being introduced). At 1440x720, printing an image at 150dpi and 300dpi had no visible difference at all (to the naked eye or under a magnifying lens) because of the droplet size. 300dpi was mostly for dye sublimation printing. With the 2880 and the newer smaller droplets on models that came after the photo and 400/600/800 series, though, I'm not sure. - darkpen

Beautiful place, and excellent pics.. that first one looks sooo much like necrotizing tissue in a non-freaky way. :P (actually, that's what I thought it was at first glance - then I looked at it again and noticed the cracks in the wrist) Very neat. :) - darkpen

Very cool.. I love the POV too. - darkpen

Don't watch The Birds when they're around. :P - darkpen

Can you ask them when they're coming back home? I'm getting pretty tired of the snow. grin My fave is the second one (because of the reflections), but that third one played a neat eye trick on me.. at first glance I thought it was washing its feathers, and then I noticed the white on its head and realized it's looking to its side.. cool. :) I love the pose on the first one, though. It's taking that elegant look. :) - darkpen