Input width and height are from the source - here it’s the size of the film frame - .9” by 1.4”. This makes a lot more sense when your using a flat bed scanner for reflective (print) media sources. For resolution you specify the total resolution of the source media.

Silverfast isn’t easy to use - it’s learning curve is intense. That being said it can produce extremely good results. Expert mode is just that - it assumes that your an expert commercial scanner operator it just shows you the controls and assumes you know how to use them.

Very nice.

Red Digital Cinema.
I’ve updated the post to clarify this.

A lot has been posted on the purchase of Red Digital Cinema by Nikon. Much that I’ve seen seems concentrated on the fact that the acquisition gives Nikon a significant position in the cinema market but that only part of the story I think. It’s fairly obvious and reasonable that Nikon can leverage Red’s various expertises to create a full set of video oriented cameras. I do expect that Nikon will allow Red to continue to be a pro-cinema brand and will not interfere with their cinema products; it’s likely that Red will orient themselves to the cinema world completely. I think it will be interesting to see where the Nikon branded camera’s end and the Red branded camera’s start and if there’s an overlap model or two in the videographers space or if the videographers space offerings become Nikon branded products. It’s also likely the Nikon will take over the currently outsourced manufacture of Red camera’s and other equipment - it will be an interesting question to see how the branding on that shows up. It’s easily to assume hat Nikon will take over the manufacture of Red’s optics. Still, there’s another aspect to the purchase thats worth looking at in terms of the overall industry.

Red also comes with a significant patent portfolio - the Raw compression patents are just a part of it. Another part is the global shutter technology. Another are their codec technologies. Still another are their large format image sensors. There are some hints in the financial and legal world that Sony’s global shutter is dependent on Red licensed technology (conversely Red’s global shutter and indeed all of their sensors are dependent on various Sony technology and licenses). Since complex cross licensing agreements are very common in the technology industry this has the possibility of getting interesting. I’ll note here that Sony has a history of buying licenses of technology with its implementation expertise - if they want to use your technology getting them to implement it for your product is far less expensive if you allow them to use the technology. I’ll also note that both the Sony camera and the Red camera are roughly 33MP designs - meaning that the back ends are similar, e.g. the pixel transistors are different but everything else is the same. In particular the back end bus that moves all that data to a buffer in image processor would be essentially the same (although the actual silicon could be very different looking and using different circuit designs for the same process).

Of all the possibilities is that in order to get certain cinema technologies and global shutter technologies Canon will have to license is rather legendary auto-focus capabilities. I doubt they would want to but thats the point of the portfolio - Nikon can use the portfolio directly (if it hasn’t already) in its camera’s and also use it as a cudgel to get technologies they want, such as perhaps a better autofocus system. One can argue that Canon might not give up its AF technologies to get RAW compression and thats probably true. Raw compression and global shutter is a different value proposition altogether one that I think Canon would find attractive. And keeping the EF/RF mounts as supported options on Red will just add incentive to the deal. Sony’s AF is also extremely good and they would be an equally good partner.

This is all speculation - my point is that there are additional advantages to Nikon from the acquisition beyond the additional of cinema cameras and lenses. How many of them will be utilized that we actually find out about will be interesting to see.

Actually there’s quite a bit that is trusted to be true by the underwriters. Although that generally isn’t visible to the retail consumer. Two critical pieces of the process are taken on trust - your credit report and the property appraisal. The underwriting agent doesn’t validate either - they’re accepted on their face. And they’re sometimes wrong.

That’s not the case at all. Forbes to my mind tends to overvalue properties. James’s evaluation is closer to what I would value the properties at. You’re right that’s my opinion - you’re entitled to your own.

Beyond that the point is that the investors who invest in the banks - e.g. the people who actually provide the money the bank turns around and loans out do so under the expectation that the bank accurately manages the risk of these investments. That the bank also accurately presents the investment risks to them. The bank is also responsible to maintain proper reserves for its loan portfolio - the amount of reserves required depends on the risk level of the portfolio. Banks have lost their charters but getting this wrong. So by presenting fraudulent documents those investors and the banks were defrauded.

The court could find that the fraud was non-substantive and simply impose penalties for the submission of the fraudulent documents. That wouldn’t result in a large monetary penalty but might result in a barring of future business.

Or the court could find that the valuation was substantially off and impose a monetary penalty that would be based on the difference between the cost of the loan offered and the cost of a loan that accurately reflected the risks. Additional penalties could be applied too that too, under the heading of dissuading further attempts.

At the same time the court could find that the fraud was unintentional - that the values presented were believed accurate (from a legal standpoint anyway). That would keep the ability to do business in the state but still the fine would be substantial (again depending on how far off the valuation is found to be).

Intermediate penalties are also possible. It really depends on what valuation and actual intentions the judge and appeals courts accept.

You do bring out a good point though - the system is built on trust and there aren’t a whole lot of safeguards built in. Yes, as you said, “shame on them” is very much the case here. Fraud has been an issue that has plagued the whole system from the beginning. I haven’t seen any good solution for it that maintained the market successfully.

That’s not the fraud - the fact that the loans performed (mostly) is not the issue. It’s simply that they were acquired with fraudulent information in a system that is essentially built on trust. He defrauded the banks as to the amount of risk the loans had and that affects their ability to do banking significantly. That’s what the indictment was about, not about anything else.

Sanibel island, 1977

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Excellent composition and tonal pallet.

Looking it it on the inside is clearly a ventilator for the hay that was there. To adjust it one had to climb up into it. The building is c. 1840’s construction (possibly much earlier, 1810-1830), so I suspect that it was quickly replaced with better designs.

One of the challenges to dating things around here is the fact that out buildings often are significantly older/newer than the main building.

I had a home back east in NY that was listed as being built in 1918 but during some renovations I discovered that the first floor of it was built in the 1600’s (it was in the lower Hudson valley and adjacent to ruins that were dated from that period). So the building is like that - some of the interior construction suggests it’s older.

The barn had its first floor converted to living space in the 19th century and it had been irregularly upgraded since then. Unfortunately the electric in the building was from the 1950’s - nary a 3rd wire ground in the building. Worse, I suspect some of the outlets were pre-war hot & ground two wire setups without a neutral. The electric panel was in the bathroom (I’m am not kidding). Quite a bit of work later I have proper wiring and the panel relocated out of the bathroom.

Really nice, model has excellent expressiveness.

The creek and old dam - in -12F

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The building I use for a studio during the 2nd January snowstorm.

Good image - intriguing.

I must have grown up in an awful area.