Lone Daisy

Ck in the Grass

White Flower

Purple Flowers

Rory

My 'NEW' DLSR

I just got my new (secondhand)  Digital SLR Camera in the mail today. It is an older model and is only 6MP but with decent lenses and having it set to shoot in raw mode it should be better then my cheap AUD65 point and shoot compact from ALDI. The cheapie is a traveler DC140 it is 14MP but has pretty cheap optics, a great little 'disposable' camera to carry on the motorbike in my EDC bag when I am out.

Traveler DC10

The DSLR is a Pentax K100D that came with a Sigma 28-80 Aspherical Lens that has a  Macro setting. The lens is a fairly cheap lens but being Aspherical with plastic body makes it small and light and is a great little everyday lens. 

K100D and Sigma Lens

I also got a set of batteries (4xAA Used but enough charge to test it out) a battery case and a really nice camera bag from Case logic that was not included in the original listing but he included anyway. Needless to say the seller on eBay got a great positive feedback review from me and I may buy some lenses from him in the future.

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Case Logic SLR Bag

A week or so ago a mate from my HAM radio club gave me an old Pentax film SLR camera, this is what led me to get a Pentax DSLR as he gave me a heap of M42 (Metric 42mm Screw thread) lenses with it in an aluminium hard carry case. I got an adaptor for the M42 lenses to convert them to K-mount which is what the K100D takes. This allows me to use all the older lenses. 

M42 to K mount adaptor ring

They even still make M42's in Russia and you can buy them really cheaply on eBay. So I have a total of 6 lenses for the DSLR now but 5 are the old M42's so are manual everything, aperture  and focus but that just adds to the 'old school' feel of using an SLR.

Hardcase with DSLR and lenses

I also crafted a mount for the DLSR to fit my microscope.. It is flaring the image a bit at the moment as you can see in the picture below but I will play with it and see if I can make the image any better. This was the first image I took with the microscope so I have a bit of tweaking left to do yet.

A logo from a small PCB
I call this one "Pacman The Small Maze"

And finally to round it all off here is a photo I took of a daisy, It was taken with the sigma lens in macro mode in raw mode. The only post processing was to blur the background a little more, it was already out of focus due to the narrow depth of field when using Macro anyway.

"Lone Daisy"

Repairs to the Ratbike

I have had to take my bike off the road for a few weeks as it wasn't running very well. I narrowed it down to two things, dirty carbys and coils breaking down under high load and when they got hot.

I spent nearly six hours cleaning the carbs, pulling them right down and scrubbing with a toothbrush, I have ordered a set of carby rebuild kits with new gaskets, needles, seats and washers. As well as the kits I also have a reusable/washable K&N Air filter element coming for the bike that drops in to the existing air box.

I lubed all the cables throttle, choke and clutch with silicone oil lubricant as well as spending some time tidying up some wiring on the bike re-wrapping it with tape and re-routing it away from sharp edges as I was a bit slack when I first put the wiring in for the spotlight and two way radio. I also have to add a fuse to it as I didn't have one which is a fire hazard.

I am also going to give it an oil change and new oil filter while it is off the road as well as new fuel lines and vacuum lines. I will be using 8mm High Performance coil leads and new titanium plugs to go with the high performance coils.

I got on to eBay and purchased a pair of Dynatek DC1-1 coils designed for electronic ignition as my bike is pointless. The coils are 3 ohms and put out a 35000 volt spark on the secondary side. This will mean better cold starting and better burn of the fuel. The coils also take standard spark plug leads unlike most motorbike coils that have the leads moulded in to the case.

I had to do some chopping of brackets that held the original coils and also reroute some cables and reposition the flasher can and cut out the bracket for that as well. I mounted the coils across the bike instead of along the frame as the are larger then the originals and wouldn't fit in the same place.

Personally I think it has come up well, now to just wait for some of the parts to arrive from the USA as well as get some bits from the local auto shop and I am right to go

Coils shown mounted inside the frame from the left of the bike

Coils from right, if you look under the edge of the frame you can see where the leads plug in just under the writing on the frame showing which coil runs to which cylinder

Coils from top right, you can see an aluminium plate running across the mounting points, this is the earth strap for the secondary earth to the engine, cable comes in to coil on the left of photo and then the plate connects both coils together