I’ve had the new camera for about a week, and there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity to get to know it yet, but I’m enjoying it — and it takes fantastic pictures. I thought it might be kind of interesting to see an A/B comparison between the new Canon PowerShot SD800 IS and my older camera, the Sony DSC-T9. The differences are pretty striking. Keep in mind that all settings are on default, and there’s no flash. If I put one camera on macro, both are on macro. If I set white balance to something other than auto (say, natural sunlight), both went to that setting.

Here’s a shot from the deck. First, the Sony:

And the Canon:

What is the Sony focussing on? One thing to note is that the two cameras were in the same position, but you can see a whole lot more in the Canon shot because of its wide-angle lens. (The Sony is not zoomed at all; that’s just the lens difference.)

This is “Self-Portrait in Mirrored Lamp.” First, the Sony:

And the Canon:

In this case, the Sony has come a little closer to the wall color — it’s not quite as gray as the Canon indicates, but it’s also not exactly peach as the Sony reads — but the Sony is way off on the red levels in the photo next to the lamp. I might have been slightly flush at my birthday dinner last year, but I wasn’t that red.

Here are some coasters. First, Sony:

And Canon:

In the Sony, it appears that the rust-colored coaster is on fire. It’s not. That chair in the background is also not supposed to be orange. It’s brown.

Finally, what would this comparison be without pictures of food? Here are some homemade molasses spice cookies. (Best recipe for these can be found in Cooks Illustrated. Mmmmm.)
Sony:

And Canon:

There’s considerably more detail in the Canon, and it’s not due to the increased resolution (7.1 MP vs. 6 MP). You can see a lot more individual sugar crystals. The difference in the wide angle lens on the Canon is hard to miss here. The Sony admittedly used to take good pictures — until I sent it to Sony for servicing on the sync issue, and it came back like this. Nice job, Sony. You suck.

Here are a few pics from the Canon alone. First, it’s Loki in his artsy senior picture pose.

One of the silly but fun features of the Canon is the ability to shoot only one color, and have the rest of the shot in black-and-white.

AEJ suggested this shot. Presumably due to disease, some huge old trees are being cut down a few doors from our place. Their current state — against the insanely blue sky of a smog-free LA day — is pretty cool.

Here’s Loki, tryin’ to look sexy. That’s right, ladies, he’s available. And fixed.

And last but not least, because I’m apparently doomed to be a crazy cat person, here’s a shot of the 3″ cat figurine who sits on a speaker in my studio. Yes, we bought it as a joke. Or did we?

UPS brought an exciting package today. No, it wasn’t a new watch (although I now have my eye on these incredibly awful holiday watches from QVC). It was the return shipment of parts for the orchestra version of “Redline Tango,” just back from their exciting trip to Bergen, Norway.

Being a European orchestra, there are none of those silly “composers can’t have a recording, or if they do get one, it’ll be crippled, or if it’s not, and they ever make a copy for anybody, we’ll sue them for more than they could ever make in a lifetime” union rules. As such, tucked between the string parts, I found a CD of the orchestra’s performance from October 5. No waiver to sign, no restrictions on use, nothing. Just, “here’s your piece. Enjoy.”

If you’ve never heard the original orchestral version of “Redline Tango,” I encourage you to check this out. Even if you have, but you’d only heard the recording that was previously posted here, please give this a listen. It’s spectacular, from the big violin solo in the tango (I think the best I’ve heard it), to the Eb clarinet soloist (this Norwegian guy sure gets klezmer), to the waa-waa trumpet moment (where the player goes for it with such conviction that the tiniest little squawk sounds like it must be written in the part — and maybe it should be).

This is the third orchestra with whom Andrew Litton has performed the piece — having previously conducted it twice with the Dallas Symphony and once with the Minnesota Orchestra. He gave two performances in Norway, and he tells me that the second night — which, sadly, was not recorded — was even better. Considering this recording from the first night is probably the best the piece has ever sounded, I can’t even imagine what the second night was like. As an added bonus, it’s pretty cool to read one’s bio in Norwegian. (“John Mackey ey fra New Philadelphia i Ohio, og er utdannet ved Juilliard Scool of Music i New York og Cleveland Institute of Music. Han er spesielt opptatt av musikk som har med dans a gjore, og har levert en rekke komposisjoner til blant mange andre New York City Ballet.” It also proclaims, “Redline Tango har tre avsnitt.” That it does, my friends. That it does.)

Now I just have to decide if these QVC watches are too cool. I mean, this one has major holiday bling with those fake diamonds inside. It kind of completely screams “tacky and gay,” but it might be so over-the-top that it ends up pulling the fashion mind trick of proclaiming, “I’m so cool that I can wear this incredibly stupid watch and make you think it’s cool, even though it is the lamest watch ever produced.” It’s going to be a tough decision.

Truthiness tells me that I receive countless emails from people offering to send me gifts to show their gratitude for what I do.* “You are like a king to me, Mr. Mackey. Is there anything you desire?” Usually I just email back with a condescending smile (what’s the emoticon for that?), and say, “no, just keep being you. That’s all I ask.”

Well, it appears that Bergdorf Goodman — the fancy-schmancy store in NYC where one might even find high-end mouse shoes — has finally produced an appropriate tribute. I present to you “Turbine” cuff links and studs.

Yes, it’s true. Here’s the link. As you’ll see, the cuff links are a little expensive at $2,850, but the studs (which are probably much more appropriate, if you know what I’m sayin’) are a bargain at $2,650.

So, if you’re a real fan, you’ll buy these for me. Or, you can wait until next year, when I’m pretty sure somebody will start selling “Sasparilla” belt buckles.

* Although this statement is full of truthiness, the “truth” is that the bulk of my emails are offers for “VfIAGRA,” “Russian Teens,” and notes about how bad my blog sucks.