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Repairing a Samsung SyncMaster 225BW

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Another department on campus sent out a note to the IT crowd complaining about 6 of their Samsung 255BW’s going out within a year. After some brief searching, it seems like this is a common problem with, you guessed it, bad capacitors. Being the fun loving tinkerer that I am, I offered my services to replace them.

A few days later, one of the bad ones showed up, and I was able to pull it apart and find, yes indeed, two of the caps had bulged to the point of leaking (as you can see from the title image, in the lower left corner).

With some searching on the badcaps forums I found the replacement caps that seemed the most reasonable in cost were some United Chemi-Con ones. The page for this monitor on badcaps is here. Much like most of the people on the thread, the two failed caps for me were the 820uF. All the stock caps were CapXon (which apparently has a reputation for this type of issue… at least during the time these were manufactured).

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Hazard 4 Kato Mini-Messenger Bag Experience

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I have had my Kato Mini-Messenger Bag now for over a month, and I think I can now write a review on how I actually like the bag.

The short version is, I love it. It’s a great bag. Well made (save one sloppy stitch that I already fixed), comfortable, and it holds a ton. And that, really, is the only problem. I’ll explain.

The bag has two main pockets on the outside surface. The front pocket on the flap, and a back padded pocket for an iPad-sized tablet. I store my Nook in the front pocket, and nothing in the back. Open the flap, and you have a pocket on the back of the flap (closed by a small velcro patch), then you have some MOLLE loops, and the map pocket area. In there, there’s pocket for a map, then some small pen-sized pockets, and another area closed by velcro that’s about the same size as the front pocket. Then the main area for CCW, or a Macbook Air, etc. I don’t currently use that space either. But that’s the thing, I don’t NEED to, yet. The bag has SO much storage and SO many pockets, I keep adding things, and forgetting they’re in there until I realize the bag has gotten overly heavy, and remove them to save weight. Is this a problem? No… most people (myself included), want storage space. It’s just a bit weird to have so many pockets that you forget what you’ve put in them.

So right now, I’ve got a Nook, Prius Fob, Leatherman XTi, CRKT Eat’n Tool, CRKT Van-hoy On Fire, 25′ of Paracord, 100′ of 25lb Mono-filament, Fenix RD20, Maglite XL200, Couple Pens, Lockpick set, 5×7″ Grit-it with an iPhone sync cable, MicroUSB cable, iPhone Charger, Nintendo DSlite USB charge cable, and two small bottles of Excedrin and Naproxen Sodium. The whole bag probably weighs about 7lbs. It’s not very heavy at all. At some point I’ll get a Macbook Air and add that to the bag, which will obviously add a couple pounds, but still a VERY good EDC bag.

The other minor annoyance is the use of Velcro/Hook-and-loop for closure. I hate the stuff. Noisy, wears out, etc. So, I took a couple pieces of hook field I had, and covered the loop side. So, they don’t “close”, but to me, that’s fine.

All and all, very happy. And extremely pleased with the service provided by the supplier Tactical Distributors. If you’re looking for a good EDC bag, and like the vertical style bags rather than a more traditional messenger style, I’d highly recommend it. Heck, judging by their designs, anything from Hazard4/Civilian Labs look great!

[xrr rating=4.75/5]

Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X PRO 1:1 Macro

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My wife is a photographer. She’s been doing product photography for a local jewelry shop for a couple years now, and in the last year has gotten into “normal” photography as well. She’s attempting to start a business doing it, so to help with that, we purchased the Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens (Nikon Mount) for her to do product photography outside work, as well as a pretty good portrait lens (though admittedly, with a DX (APS-C) camera, it becomes 150mm and you have to stand pretty far from the person being photographed.

We purchased the lens from the local Shutterbug (an Oregon based, often found in the mall, camera shop). They price matched to B&H, Adorama, and Amazon (though they initially tried to add in the price of next day shipping). We did this largely because they were able to order the lens, and were willing to let us play with it before purchase. Buying online doesn’t have this advantage. It took almost exactly the quoted 3 weeks to arrive, but it did make it in time for a planned trip to Portland (which ironically has a camera store that stocks this lens (Pro Photo Supply).

Initial impression is quite good. The lens feels quite solid, has the classic Tokina AF/MF switch (pull the focus ring toward the camera for MF, push away to AF), which I find very intuitive and useful. While the lens does extend with focusing, it’s not obnoxious. With the hood on, however, the lens does become pretty darn long at full extension. One of the biggest advantages to the lens is the price. At $489, it’s a bit over half the cost of the Nikon 105mm Macro/Micro Lens. And while, yes, the Nikon focuses completely internally and has VR, as well a focus motor, none of these things really make it worth the price difference. Especially given macro photography rarely uses auto focus, and since it’s generally on a tripod, VR is nearly worthless. Oh, and weight. The Tokina weighs in at 19 oz, while the Nikon is over a half pound more at nearly 28 oz (27.9 oz). Focusing is pretty darn fast, and pretty quiet. Not sure what some others online have complained about.

There are more extensive reviews here, here, and here.

All and all, I’d highly recommend. While I can’t speak for whether a filter should be used or not (using a relatively inexpensive one currently, will probably switch to a 55mm Hoya HD in the coming months), I still prefer to use them since filters are “cheap” relative to replacing a lens.

[xrr rating=5/5]