The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Monthly Image: Google Pixel XL HDR at Wappingers Falls Bridge

    We walked over the bridge in Wappingers Falls on our way to a play:

    Wappingers Falls Bridge - Google 3D Overhead - 2017-09-22
    Wappingers Falls Bridge – Google 3D Overhead – 2017-09-22

    As always, we paused near the center to admire the view (clicky for more dots):

    Wappingers Falls Bridge - Pixel XL HDR - 2017-09-22
    Wappingers Falls Bridge – Pixel XL HDR – 2017-09-22

    That’s from the PixelXL, braced on the bridge wall, facing downstream toward the Hudson River.

    A dot-for-dot crop of the penstock, showing off the RGB LED garland:

    Wappingers Falls Bridge - Pixel XL HDR - Penstock crop - 2017-09-22
    Wappingers Falls Bridge – Pixel XL HDR – Penstock crop – 2017-09-22

    Contrary to what you might think, the gorge underfoot appeared almost black to the eye, particularly against the glare from the floodlights, so the HDR works very well:

    Wappingers Falls Bridge - Pixel XL HDR - Gorge crop - 2017-09-22
    Wappingers Falls Bridge – Pixel XL HDR – Gorge crop – 2017-09-22

    The JPG compression on those images doesn’t materially affect the results; the original image has most of the artifacts.

    The EXIF information:

    Wappingers Falls Bridge - Pixel XL HDR - Photograph EXIF - 2017-09-22
    Wappingers Falls Bridge – Pixel XL HDR – Photograph EXIF – 2017-09-22

    The “1/10 s shutter speed” probably has very little to do with any physical event. AFAICT, the Pixel camera records 30 images/s for the on-screen preview, then uses various images before-and-after the shutter click for motion compensation and HDR processing. If so, “1/10 s” corresponds to three images.

    I had the Pixel location tracking in “battery saving” mode with the GPS turned off:

    Wappingers Falls Bridge - Pixel XL HDR - GPS EXIF - 2017-09-22
    Wappingers Falls Bridge – Pixel XL HDR – GPS EXIF – 2017-09-22

    In reality, the bridge is about 90 feet above sea level. The “GPS Time Stamp” and, presumably, the date, use UTC. We’re in UTC-4, with Daylight Saving Time in full effect, so we were comfortably early for the 8 PM show.

    The camera doesn’t produce DSLR-with-big-glass quality images, but it fits in my pocket and it’s better than my old Canon SX-230HS for most purposes.