3d Print Raftless with PP3dP Up! printer

How to print raftless reliably with a pp3dp up printer

Contrary to what you have mostly been told by the user manual, your local sales person, or other experts, it is my experience that the up! & up! plus printers are capable of printing raftless to an acceptable standard once they are tuned correctly, with the correct settings used.

In this post Ill attempt to justify why raftless is worthwhile & asnwer some of the common issues caused during raftless printing that put people off it permanently.

 

Benefits of raftless 3d printing:

 

Raftless saves time & material

Youre not printing an unnecesary piece of plastic.

No Raft means less support material sticking to the largest surface

Less supports sticking out means a cleaner post-print finish, & thats a big plus when printing without the raft

Tuning your UP for raftless

3M painters tape

Kapton (captain) tape

 

Some recommended settings & model design consideration during print

TinkerCad vs 3dTin vs Gogle SketchUp

TinkerCad vs 3dTin vs Google SketchUp from a 3d printing perspective

Though I have used TinkerCad the most among the 3 & perhaps havnt used the other 2 enough to truly know their capabilities, Ill share an opinion as more of a beginner.

Summary:

If you want really easy & are new to modelling, TinkerCad has hit the nail on the head with being the simplest product of them all.
Straight forward & intuitive, you know what you are doing. A newbie will love the convenience & natural approach of the UI. The models genuinely are easy to print with fdm 3d printers.

If you want ease, but acept that TinkerCADs lack of any real toolset except for the 1 hole utility is starting to hold you down, then 3d Tin is definitely a good balance.
The problem with 3d tin is that it creates very poor textures, especially when you use a curved surface on a custom created shape.

Google sketchup is very useful if you want to use dimensions & create a very geometric item.
It allows you to make additions by drawing faces, which is quite useful when you want to create little cahnnels on extrusions in an already created object.
Its not fundamentally designed to create water tight models automatically so expect lots of open faces & unclosed walls, or holes, which you might need to check with netfab.

Im not going to hold that against sketchup though, because every modelling tool is designed with a certain approach, 3d printing just isnt SketchUp's approach. They work at the 'face level' on the mesh, & that is a fundamentally different way of modelling than the other 2 compared here.
It doesnt work too well with FDM 3d printers if there are any unclosed edges, but if you follow good model creation discipline, sketchup is ok.
But I did find sketchup to be quite frustrating at times, & also quite slow for complex designs.

Make Ruger 10/22 & SR22 look like AR15

Sprucing up the Ruger .22 Rifle into a M4 look alike

Anyone who has a Sr 22 probably loves the original M16 look that the rifle was designed to replicate.

Though it comes close, its not quite there yet. Yes you can get to Nordic components & buy some accessories, but they are very expensive, heavy, & hard to source. And unfortunately Nordic isnt the most interested in selling to overseas buyers either, cant blame them.

In this article, Ill point you to a few cheap cosmetic things that will give your SR22 that real assault M16/M4 look.

First, youll need to ensure your magazine doesnt give away the fact that its a .22

An original Ruger 25 round banana mag is also available, but its too skinny & gives away that its a .22LR calibre rifle. Also, in a place like New Zealand, you need an E cat license, else youre in trouble using a 25 round mag.

Well, here is a solution, a new trader on trademe called kiwistocks

And theyre also on facebook now

KiwiStocks on trademe makes these little dummy magazine extensions to fit any original Ruger 10 round rotary mag.
They just clip into the bottom & give your Ruger mag the .223 M16 magazine look!

No modifications of any kind needed, & they are easily removable & re-attachable.

Ok, its just plastic, but hey, the point of this exercise is to make the SR22 look sexy, & this little mag does it well.

Ive seen stuff like this on US sites as part of complete kits they sell to turn a Ruger 10/22 into a tommygun, but this is new, & its homegrown, love that!

The same kiwistocks fellow also sells a M16 style replica muzzle compensator :)

It slides onto your barrell & just looks cool. Its made of plastic & is quite light weight but strong enough to do the job. It has no effect what so ever on hiding the flash or what not, except that it looks brilliant!

There is also a shell deflector thing

And for those of us who want to get trigger happy on the range sometimes without the spraying our fellow shooter next to us on the range, the same kiwistocks also sells a plastic Shell deflector that just mounts off the scope rail, ingenius!

And my favourite, the angled slip on sunshade for any scope, this is just awesome!

This turns gives any normal scope a more military style look. Thats pretty handy.
Otherwise you'd only get such looks only out of a double the price tactical scope.

And then you want some picatinny weaver style rails to screw onto the front grip.

There are a few people on trademe that sell those. This kiwistocks guy seems to be the cheapest, but I have never done any quality checks against the other sellers.

Im not sure if I'd personally trust ABS plastic if you actually wanted to mount something on the rail, but saying that, well made ABS stuff is pretty strong.

Then there are accessories like a replacement scope rail made of plastic.

Helps reduce the weight of the rifle, which is great coz the SR22 though not heavy, is definitely not light enough to easily carry around.

Check out the plastic replacement front hand grip area.

It looks much more like the M4 & is lighter coz its plastic. In many ways that gives it a more authentic looks because its ABS which is very close to the material used on synthetic stocks.

... And all this stuff is Made in New Zealand which is such a breath of fresh air :)

....And its CHEAP AS..!!

Creating Punchy bass from the Sub Woofer

Sub Woofer tuning for clean & fast bass

In this post I share some techniques I use when optimising speakers with sub woofers in situations when the bass seems too muddy. 

Its like everything is hammering the bass but there is no distinct beat & all you hear is a thunderous vibration.

Many Home theatre & audio enthusiasts have faced problems with bass cleanup at some stage of their setup, & hopefully some of these tips will help investigate & fix your particular issues.

When I say punch & mid bass, one would assume I want things to sound like a car boom box, but thats not the case.

There is no shame in expecting better or more amounts of bass, but in some audiophile forums if you bring up the subject of more bass, they assume your're an idiot who has no appreciation of natural flat music.

I will state a few steps to try out to get more out of your HT setup.

The Scenario to demonstrate techniques with:

Ill use a scenario that I found most challenging to get right, & thats when you use a floor stander that can go almost as low the bloody sub in the first place, though not the same amount of db in those low frequencies.

The process works with any speaker, its just harder with floor standers that have a deep bottom end.

Im not a fan of automatic stuff, its never perfect. But these days, its a good start.

Audyssey, MCACC, YPAO etc all get you started because they give you a 'real' frequency indication of what has been done from the perspective to get things flat. This is needed so that you can then only make the enhancements you need rather than have to fix too many issues at once.

The Factors

CrossOver frequency:

No factor has more impact on your overall bass than cross over frequency.

You want to set the crossover to a point where the main speakers & your sub have a slight overlay in certain frequency.

Conventionally, you would check the frequency response & match them such that the sub takes over what the front cant handle. But the problem can often be that the whole setup creates flat bass that can be measured by a machine as being audible across the entire spectrum, but not necessarily punchy bass that has a presence with an attack, rather than just vibration you can feel in your heart.

Eq setting in your receiver:

If your receiver has an auto calibration system, start with that. It will even out the fronts so at least they are set to a reasonably 'flat' starting point, so you know what parameters to increment.

Woofer Volume:

I would recommend setting the woofer volume to 30% before firing up your auto calibration system.

 

B&W HTM61 vs HTM62 vs LCR60 & CC B&Ws

B&W HTM61 Centre Channel Speaker

No centre speaker in the entry B&W linieup has a more commanding presence than the beautiful & powerful HTM 61.

But when you throw that kind of money & sacrifice so much WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), you want to ensure it was all worth it.

If you are not sure what centre you need, or just cant afford a HTM61 or dont have enough space for the HTM 61, & want to consider the others B&W centres, then please read my previous article on HTM62 vs LCR60 vs CC6 vs LCR3 here.

This article compares the HTM61 to the HTM62, to analyse if people with the floor standers truly are better off with the bigger centre.

The primary objective for me upgrading to the 61 was NOT bass, it was the FST midrange.

The main reason I bought the 683 over the 684 was NOT the 2 woofers, it was the FST midrange!

So is the HTM61 significatly better than the HTM62, & worth the extra cost & space?

Short answer, YES!! The HTM61 is leaps & bounds better than any other 6 series centre speaker.

It is better in almost every way. The 3-way design has proven itself to be the king again.

Rarely would one suggest taking a stereo source & upscaling it to DD PL2x 5.1 as being worthy to test a centre speaker. But on this speaker, it actually makes a huge improvement.
Frank Sinatra never sounded this good out of the other speakers I have had.

I was simply playing out of a USB drive off my Marantz SR6004 with MDAX & Audyssey Flat turned on, & there is extensive improvement on the vocals.

If you have the B&W 683 & can afford the HTM61, & you have the approval of your lady to place a tank under your TV, then I have no doubt in recommending the HTM61.

Every other 6 series speaker is second class in comparison. The HTM 61 has met my expectations, & I despite it looking rather out of place under my TV, I dont mind it as the sound is brilliant.

I would also go so far as to recommend the HTM61 with 685 or 686. A lot of people ask me if a large centre will 'overpower' thier fronts. This is almost never a problem in my experience, because your centre channel levels can always be set down in your receiver. The timbre matching will not change with any new 685 / 686 + htm61 / htm62 lineup.
And contrary to opinion, you very much want a centre that is capable even for movies, because a lot of full range content is put through it.
The centre channel is NOT just dialogue, tough that is the main purpose in the original specification, it is no longer the norm. Sound engineers are putting a hell of a lot of content through it, & most tiddly centres are just dying when it comes to delivering all that.

So no matter what speakers you have from the new 6 series lineup, be it the 683, 684, 685, 686 or even the LM1, VM1, DD1! I would say go with the best centre you can get, it will do your systems justice & not cause any harm.

I had very high hopes from the HTM 61 & it is the one speaker that I really expect to blow my soundstage out of this world & one should not be able to decipher dialogue moving between the drivers.
 

This 'dialogue' also applies to multi channel DTS music DVDs which are my main use for my HT, so when I hear Don Henley's voice or his guitar in the Hell Freezes Over DVD from the centre channel, it should sound no different to the 683 fronts when the guitar is recorded for the front channels within the mastering of the same song. The sub crossover should be only a few Hz off from the Floor standers & I want to hear the 60-70Hz bass coming from the centre in a clean & rich prominent way.

The opening track on that DVD is a good starting test.

I am glad it has worked out.

Next, I will move to Starwars Ep 3 to check if Anakin sounds the same as his voice moves through all 5 speakers in the opening battle scene.

More coming tomorrow.

Tips for the Up 3d printing software

Tips to make UP! 3d printer software deliver

As per my previous post on the UP! 3d printer, getting things to work correctly is finicky.

It loves to break, or complain about your model.

In this post, Ill share the solutions to problems I faced:

1) The model looks hollow, but prints solid.

Check if you can do a repair in netfabb. The basic Netfabb version is free, if you dont have it, download it from this netfabb download link. You dont need to fill out personal info, its optional.

You might find that netfabb in its wisdom decides to completely close the faces as part of the repair, which isnt what you wanted, but this will get you a step closer to what you actually want.

Here, you can use a simple 3d program like TinkerCad to assist. IMport the stl into TinkerCAD, Clone the appropriate shape from the part that you want to make hollow, & then do a hole out of that in TinkerCad.

For example, if you want a tube running through the middle but the model file doesnt have a closed face at the hole opening edge, your print will fail. In that case, the netfabb repair will close that tunnel opening hole. Then you import that closed model, clone it, extend its length & do a hole cut in tinkercad.

Its easier than it sounds :)

If you have a professional program, obviously they all have their own respective tools for difference cutting.

2) Error: Part material not enough, Add material?

This one is a pain. It poses a question & yet does nothing after you click yes.

It doesnt withdraw the plastic or extrude any, it just stops printing & does nothing.

I read some of the threads on pp3dp support forum that suggested clicking to add a new spool & estimating the material. That seems to have done the trick.

3) Model has issues that cause it to not print properly, or fail the print due to support errors

Do a automated repair in netfabb, frankly, it rarely fixes the problem. What it does do though is let you see the triangle mesh & clean up any unnecessary complexities in the model.
After that, export the model as a .stl file from netfabb or other such program & import that stl file into TinkerCad.

Despite my disappointments with some aspects of TinkerCad as stated in my previous tinkercad post, its quite handy to get tinkerCads import mechanism to automatically fix the issues in that stl.
You see, tinkercad is designed for 3d printing so all models are automatically 'solidified'.

This works well as long as your model doesnt have any more than 100000 mesh triangle faces. Some models will. In which case, see if you can fix holes from netfabb & do some simple repairs in netfabb, often that reduces the number of faces just enough to get the model to import in tinkercad.

If you still have too many faces, download the free meshlab tool & perform a face cout reduction there. Do a google search on it, pretty easy to do.

After youve got it in tinkercad, simply do an export from it. Go to the Download your model to print option & it will give it back to you in stl format. Easy :)

4) The raft keeps on lifting, which is partly due to the head not being close enough to the platform.

This one is most annoying of them all. The printer is very delicate, despite what marketing you might read.
The whole platform & head assembly constantly move, & are attached on a central vertical arm.
This arm has to follow laws of physics, the longest unsupported end toward you is obviously going to droop, or it will be over-compensated, causing drooping in the back or vice versa.

I have to keep re-aligning this printer so often! I wouldnt call this 'robust' by any measure.
Im told this might be because I always use the printer at the fastest speed settings, but hey, it didnt say that when I bought it. Im using it under its designed operating specs, so as a consumer, I expect it to work & hold on.

5) The head assembly goes a tad loose & starts shaking every couple of prints!

This is perhaps the biggest engineering screw up of this device. Why on earth would you use just 1 screw to mount a large heavy moving object thats exposed to extensive inertia??!!

I mean, you dont need to be a rocket scientist to know that 2 screws will be just right.

The excuse is that 1 screw allows tolerance should there be a nozzle collision with items on the perf board, but that is not a fair argument as you can have 2 screws across the same plane mounted on the same yet tad longer piece which will also allow the same amount of head tolerance in the vertical axis.

I was offered a updated metal mount though which seems better as it fits the rails & I look forward to trying it, but I wont be using it extensively because that metal has no tolerance what so ever. Its either riid or flaky, they have to find a compromise.
Tightening the bottom screw helps, but come on, the thing is moving as fast asn an inkjet printers head! That screw aint gonna hold hard is it?? & if u tighten it way too hard, youll risk damaging the screw threads, so be careful :s

TinkerCad - Usable, but not great

Tinker Cad Free Version

TinkerCAD is perhaps the most popular free 3d modelling software around.
Its web based, & thats perhaps the main advantage.
Its not free as in open source style, its just 'free' enough for you to get into it.
There is a free trial, & a pro version.

This free version makes all your work publicly visible. This isnt too bad, just dont name the file something useful if you dont want people actively looking at it. Thankfully all rights stay with the creator so thats good.

Its all hunky dory when you are dropping some of the ready made shapes around & manipulating or exporting them into .stl files for you to 3d print, but you try to get creative with it & TinkerCad will tolerate you for a while but ultimately shit itself.

Its very slow once the design goes past the basics. No its not my hardware, my Radeon HD 6630 happily manipulated & rendered 3ds Max files.
Tinkercad literally re-renders the whole scene in front of you, every single basic shape, & thats where it often has a minor crash.

Here is what these crashes & model corruptions look like:

In terms of modelling functions, frankly, there arent any.

The only thing you can do to the ready made objects besides the simple resizing/rotating/moving is to use them like dye's to cut other objects. They refer to these as holes.

In 3d speak its basically cutting the mesh of the parent object by the intersecting area of the child object that youve positioned as overlap. Thats the entire philosophy of modelling in the free version.
I cant comment on the paid version, if it improves I dont know.

I was making a very simple design, purely geometric, but it had some curves in it.
Now if you have a rectangle, & god forbid you want to curve it a little so its a bit like a banana, then youre pretty much screwed. I got around with by using predefined shapes & then cutting them out.
There is no smoothing filter, or any mesh modifier. No way to join adjascent faces, or cut them.

Its basically 3d for people who have never touched a 3d program before.

For this target audience who are focused on using the 3d printer & making simple stuff rather than precision models, tinkercad is more than adequate, especially being a free product.

Using it is like writing with pencil, except your'e not writing with the lead, you're just scratching lead  randomly & then using the eraser to actually write in what you want!

After a few of these 'holes' are cut, the whole thing starts getting corrupted & the model looks like all the parts you ever used suddenly got dumped there.
Its extremely frustrating as it starts breaking things & changing shapes that you didn't modify.

The examples make it look all awesome, sexy & powerful. Its not.
If geometric right angles shapes is what you want, yup all good, try to add some elegance, tough luck.
The built-in cylindrical & spherical objects are fine, but its creating your own curved objects thats the problem.

Now as you can imagine, the internal complexities of the model which are just nothing but multiple model cross sections being activated or hidden etc impose such constraints that the model becomes un-editable with slow performance.

You try to make any change, or even rotate the view & it will error & crash.

Also, for some stupid reason, any change automatically leads to a save, which is silly, as that takes too long, & even a simple undo will take forever.

And the undo function doesnt even work sometimes when the model starts to get more detailed.

You can actually see it quickly recreate every single object youve dropped or cut in the model before it re-renders the view for you, & thats after every little change. Its nasty.

My design is almost complete, but I cant add the last few details, as it keeps on crashing!

An error shows up asking you to contact support, & thats just as annoying because it happens after every single click.

Thankfully, their support emailed me back promptly, so thats a good start.

Lets hope they get the issue investigated & resolved soon, which will be a good judge of their capability.
My speculation is that this wont be fixed too soon given the nature of how its related to their root design philosophy, usually you cant change those things that quickly.

Yesterday I got an email from them saying they have noted the issue but dont have a fix for it yet. Good on them for replying back, but as expected, no surprises there with not having a fix.

I will work on this & finish my model, & then, stay away from it for creations that require extensive manipulation of their basic steps.

TinkerCad is handy for cleaning up stl models which have holes etc

Youll often be in a situation where something you made looks fine to the eye but the 3d printing software will mourn about it not being a complete solid model etc.

Since tinkercad was designed for 3d printing as the target audience, it lets you import stl files & will automatically clean them us & 'solidify' them, within reason.

You can then export those stl files back out & your printer program will mostly accept them!

This is brilliant, & is perhaps worth sticking around with tinkercad for such simple manipulation.

Have a read of my UP! printer software tips here for details

B&W ASW608 sub woofer

The B&W ASW-608 is every bit a sub you want, without the size!

Something so compact never sounded this good!

An elegant 8" woofer may seem a bit wimpy, but despite its small size, it makes a commanding pair even with my B&W 683's

This is a real gem of a speaker especially if you are hard pressed for cash,or space.
This little sub is very worthy of consideration for those who would buy the heavy weight ASW610 in the perfect world, but cant.

Its a sealed enclosure design.

I appreciate there are theories around how the right kind of baffle ports play a big role is bass, but in my experience, a good music oriented sub has almost always been a sealed unit.
The bass is crisp, clean & not hollow.

I dont like speakers that just vibrate under the pretext of deep bass.

Best for:

Hi-fi music is what this little baby was made for, & with the intention of pairing your 685 or 686 class bookshelf. It does that job better than you might imagine, please do audition it.
In my opinion, it suits the 684 & 683 just as well.

The sound between 50-80Hz is rich & deep.

I would highly recommend this sub even to those considering a velodyne sub or people who own a different brand of main speakers.

The B&W manual suggests placement on one side of the centre speaker, just before the front, for best music performance. But in my personal opinion, it sounds much better in the corner.
Given the fact that there is no bass port, it may be the reason the bass sounds better in the corner.

Some disadvantages, though minor:

As expected, the 8" cone is not designed to be delivering sub 30hz bass at its peek & will sometimes rumble a bit rather than being clean.

The mid bass is fast to a point that the enclosure creeks a bit. It gives the impression of being so tight that something is pulling it aggressively, sometimes this makes the bass sound like it ended abruptly.

This is a complaint I also have from the mid bass of my much loved B&W 683s.

The unit gets very hot rather fast even though I use it at only 30% volume. Not a safety issue as its within operating temperatures & wont burn you, but its something that could be improved.

2 of the readers have had their amps blown within unreasonable time, as per their comments below, which is not very good given the asw 608 though entry level is not a 'cheap & crappy' brand. One would expect it to last longer.

It is also not fair to warrant the electronics for lesser amount of time then the speaker driver.

B&W should look into this, & consumers should be aware of this before they buy an asw 608 sub woofer.

Do you own a ASW608? What are your thoughts on its performance, what do you pair it with?

Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AFS vs Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR

The Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 AF-S vs Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR

Having owned both these lenses, I felt Ill talk a bit about their slight variances, & how they are still my favourite lenses for Image Quality.

Firstly, there is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with either of these lenses. If you are on a budget, buy the one thats cheaper! Mind you VR will cost extra & is very worth it, but if you are squeezed, get whats cheapest. VR or the lack of it on my other lens hasnt been a huge deal for me.

If youre on a very tight budget & have a camera body that has a built-in auto focus motor, then buy the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D. You will be hard pressed to find anything optically wrong with it. Just ensure your camera has a built in focus motor. This lense will not auto focus with cheaper entry level bodies like D40/D60 or D3000/D5000 & related series. D90 & upwards you will be fine.

Short answer, if you can afford either, get the VR version. Its lighter, slightly faster focus, tad less focus hunting when there is too much subject motion, & has VR.
It also has a tad nicer bokeh to my personal taste as compared to the 80-200 AF-S. Bear in mind bokeh is a personal thing.

I would think the new VR II version would be very similar to this. Have any of you got an ideas on the new version. Please tell us your findings.

The bokeh of these 2 lenses at f2.8 is better than the 50mm f1.8 or even the 50mm f1.4.
Those tend to be much brighter & sharper. but I like the clean & more warm subject isolation I get with the type of bokeh this lens in particular has.

I like the subject isolation, bokeh & colour rendition of these 2 70/80-200 f2.8s so much that I dont mind walking back 10 metres away just to get a picture with this lense, albeit looking retarted in the eyes of other amateur photographers who use instead of their 50mm f1.8 / 1.4 prime

What do you think? Please do share your thoughts. Whats been your favourite large aperture (fast) lense; prime or zoom, & what do you like about it, & what do you use it for?

Happy Photographing :)

A review of PP3DP UP plastic prototype 3d Printer

A review of The UP! 3D printer by PP3DP

I have not owned any other 3d printer except this one, but Ill share some personal experiences & tips.
The pp3dp site lists them for US$1500 odd, but you can get them in NZ from 3d printing systems for a much dearer amount. Saying that, you get the local support, which, trust me, you will most certainly need.

The 3d prints are acceptable quality, especially for standard geometric shapes, but when it comes to detailed intricate textures or artistic curves, this style of 3d print technology isnt still quite there.
The UP! printers are perhaps the better ones around, so this is not criticism about the product but more so the technology as a whole in its current state.

If you want small object with intricate detail, for example, high quality star wars figurines, well, forget it.

The printer is very easy to use, & works quite nicely, its fun to watch too!
Its quite intelligent in that it calculates most of the background work needed to get the model stable.
You dont need to muck with too many settings.

The bundled printer driver software is adequate, but not capable of doing anything beyond the standard scale & rotation functions. Some of the settings are not clear, which is annoying because you dont know what a particular function means.

Sadly, there is no real included documentation! But thankfully its not too complex to operate.
I was pointed to links to download docs from the internet, which cover more details.

There is hardly any documentation included, though there isnt much to do to get it going in all fairness.
The otherwise simple assembly instructions are not as intuitive as one might expect.

And if there is a fault, or anything goes wrong, you have to figure it out yourself.
In my case I am very lucky to have a good friend help me out with the support aspect, else I would be very disappointed.

The printer just cant print at .4 with full speed as its nozzle chokes.
This is more frustrating than you would think, becuase it will do it half way through a 3hr print.
No solution was presented to me for this issue, & basically I was told to use slower settings with higher density to stop the printer clogging.
Thats just bad design.

If your print has lots of edges & not many surfaces, & its a small model say 40mm x 40mm x 40mm, you'll be ok printing at 40 micron, but if it has any area where the head goes crazy pumping plastic through, expect it to air print rather soon after its done that.


The printer can accept many different file formats, but you will mostly need to use netfabb or something similar to optomise the models.
Most of the models created will have issues that the printer wont like, & thus wont be printed.
During the sales pitch, everything sounds very rosy, as though youd have a model & it would just print, but that is very much not the case.

You spend more time mucking around with models getting them to print & satisfy the mysterious needs of this device.

Also, the nozzle chokes really really quickly. At least thats been my experience.
I spent more time swearing that actually using the product.

It also doesnt beep or notify you in any manner, if something goes wrong.
In one case, it continued printing for 30 minutes without any plastic feeding in, probably due to what looked like a choked nozzle. Thats just dumb.

The standard recommended models are stereolith .stl files, but when you export models to this format from other native formats, you dont get to keep the original texture. You also loose some types of smoothing.

I used 3d studio max quite extensively, & when I exported to .stl, I lost some of the the smoothing applied on the mesh objects. Not pretty, but it works because you wont notice that on a plastic model of this size anyway.

The biggest bloody mission is getting the model off the base plate & breaking/cutting off all the support material used.
In case youre new to 3d printing, the way it works is that the model is printed lay by layer so each layer has to be stable enough for more plastic to be added to it.
In cases where shapes have plastic protuding out, the printer intelligently calculates & automatically designs supports for those areas, but then you have to take those off.

This is where things get messy, & tricky. If you pull too hard taking off the support material, you risk breaking the model itself, & if you dont pull enough, the material wont come off.
Excesive support material impacts the qualtiy of the print on that particular side, it wont be as smooth.

Also, the system doesnt tolerate any design fallacies, especially open edges or holes.
You see, the printer doesnt understand the concept of a minimum thickness, so everything should essentially be a measured closed surface from all sides.

Any 'facets' open on any object causes it to reject the print command.
Netfabb's repair utility helps, but doesnt cure the issues. You need to go back to the drawing board & fix it all. Sometimes this is to difficult as you need to pretty much re-engineer your model to ensure no object has facets that dont have undefined thickness, or ensure they are all correctly terminated at its ends.

As much as I find all of this exciting & the potential for this technology is amazing, in hind sight I think I rushed into this 3d printer & paid a tad too much for it, without researching the technology limitation properly. I also never actually saw a demo of something complex being printed, & didnt occur to request trying out one of my own models to see all the fuss it would have.

Saying that, this technology is growing & booming, & will improve quickly. And some of the design limitations only help you improve your model so thats the upside to the pain.

Also, any issues with support structure are trivial once you think accurately & rotate the model such that minimum vertical supports are needed to support it.

Do you own a 3d printer? Have you owned a competition makerbot or the like?
What were your thoughts? What do you see as the future of 3d printing?
Please share your opinions.

I will expand more on this review, & write more articles as I get more into it, but for now, this toy is definitely on top of my list.

More posts with specific items & models & videos coming soon!

Nikon DSLR - Active D-Lighting, Auto ISO etc

Auto ISO & Active D-Lighting in a Nikon

Auto ISO is a feature that most Nikon DSLRs have had for years, but Canon never implemented it.
Lots of professionals disliked it & advocated turning it off.
The same is also for Active D Lighting, thats Nikons version for automatic brightness & contrast correction.

How good are these 2 features, & should Nikon folks really use them?Short answer, YES!! They are freaking awesome!

I think most people who strongly advocate turning both these excellent features off, either do not know how to use them, or have unrealistic expectations, or are just plain in-experienced.
When used correctly, & consciously, Auto ISO & Active D-Lighting are awesome.
I will illustrate here with some examples.

For these pics, I used my biggest aperture lens, a Sigma 30mm F/1.4 fully open at f1.4 for all the photos. The idea is to use these features in challenging conditions, & what better challenge than low-light hand-held photos :) So all the pics are indoors with a small energy efficient fluorescent bulb with a warm colour temperature, to simulate a typical under-lit situation.

And you know my favourite quote "Get it in Camera"
Yes you'll argue Auto correction features are also an image enhancement, but given the fact that these auto features are only giving us the improved performance from our equipment rather than adding 'magic' to the photos, I dont consider them to be image manipulation per say.

Active D-Lighting

The idea is simple, you get a very natural looking extended dynamic range by creating good detail in shadows & not over-exposing your highs.
This is particularly important in low light photos when you want to rely on natural light.
This of it as the midtone correction built-in your camera, so it saves having to post-process things.

Here are some images, left to right, Active D-Lighting is off & then progressively turned on & its level increased.
The extreme settings are artificial, but the impact is noticeable.
I would suggest turning on active D-Lighting & using it on the 'High' setting in your Nikon DSLR

Auto ISO

B&W HTM62 vs B&W LCR60 S3 vs B&W CC6 S2 vs B&W LCR6 - The battle for the middle

In pursuit of the best overall B&W centre channel speaker

If you own a Bowers & Wilkins 6 series home theatre system, you might have struggled to find the perfect centre channel speaker, thats perhaps not as large & as pricy as the 3-way HTM61.
You might want a HTM61, but in the size dimensions of the HTM62 so that it doesnt look like you have a suitcase sitting under your TV.

Firstly, if you can afford it & have the space for it, the HTM61 is definitely the best of the lot.

Please have a read of my comparison between HTM61 the 3-way giant &, everybody else, here.

Its the only true 3-way centre channel speaker & in my experience, 3 way speakers have always impressed me over their 2 & 2.5 way counterparts.

If not HTM61, then read on...

I started with an LCR 60 S3, downgraded to a CC 6 S2, further downgraded to a LCR3, & then upgraded to a HTM62.

My current setup is:
Bowers and Wilkins 683 floor stander fronts
Bowers & Wilkins HTM 62 centre channel
B & W LM1 rear surrounds
B&W ASW608 8" sub woofer
Marantz SR-6004 7.1 ch Receiver (110W RMS per ch)

My recommendations (if you dont want to read the whole article):

Best overall value:
B&W CC6 S2

Most versatile performance:
B&W LCR60 S3

Best movie dialogues (you dont have to strain to hear every word):
B&W LCR3

Best for high quality music:
B&W HTM62

Ok, details on each speaker...

Again, if you have the money & the space, (& the wife approval to place a behemoth under your TV), then please save yourself the hassle & go buy a HTM61.
For the rest of us mortal folk, read on.

HTM62:

The Good:

Excellent overall performance, the new speaker truly is worth it.
The best timbre matching for the new 683 & related family speakers
Excellent detail in the mid bass & mid treble, very real sound
Best for hifi music audio

The Bad:

Not as open in the middle section of the vocals
The same muddy vocal issue that plagues other 2-way B&W centers affects this one.
Excessive LF response

 

LCR60 S3:

The Good:

Very good open vocals
Excellent separation between different instruments & speech
A true all range speaker, that really can be a L C R
No dullness, provides a clean full sound
Worth trying out as centre if you have a CM series bookshelf configuration, & are on a budget

The Bad:

A tad bright at the top.
Lacks mid bass.
The bass doesnt deliver good extension at the bottom.
Not the best timbre matching for 6 series floor standers.
Too big for what is not best use of that air volume.

CC6 S2:

The Good:

Very good timbre matching for 6 series floor standers.
Decent bass extension at the bottom.
Vocals have a rich depth, the LF extension gives a clean sound in surround music.
Overall a neutral sound, a true centre channel speaker.

The Bad:

Tad muddy on the mid-range vocals.
A bit too warm all over despite falling in the neutral category.
Bottom bass is not fast, everything booms for longer than you'd sometimes like.

LCR3:

The Good:

Very good sound for the small size & price.
Timbre match almost any 6 series speaker, even the big floor-standers, which for the price is an awesome result!
Vocals are very clear & sharp compared to other cheap speakers, easy to use for movies.

The Bad:

Almost no real low end bass, vocals in hifi music sound a tad gutless.
Not the most neutral sound, & a bit of dullness at the very top end.
Not a rich sounding speaker, but if you have 6 series bookshelfs, this is a great choice.

So there you have it, my little bit of experience with the B&W centres. Was it useful, please let me know your comments so we can make this article even better.

Which ones have you got/used? Im tempted to mix the mighty CM Centre 2 with the 683, anyone tried that yet? Sounds a tad silly, but I love crisp dialogue & I think the cmc2 will be an interesting upgrade... all in good time dear friends, all in good time! :)

Nikon 35mm F2D vs Nikon 35mm f1.8G vs Sigma 30mm F1.4 vs Nikon 50mm F1.8

The battle of the fast primes

Besides the obvious comparison, this article is also for anyone out who has a 50mm 1.8 on a DX sensor body & is considering an upgrade to a lens that delivers a true 50mm field of view perspective on a DX thats equivalent to a true 50mm on full frame FX.

What our contenders look like on the outside:



Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM courtesy www.SigmaPhoto.com
 

Nikon 35mm F2/D courtesy www.nikon.co.nz

 

 

 

 

 

Main advantages & dis-advantages of each lens

A very important element around comparing these 4 lenses is to remember that the Sigma & the Nikon 1.8 G are DX only, & mainly designed for the smaller APSC crop sensor cameras. They thus have a built in AF motor so it will work with any DX camera including the entry level D3000/D5000 series nikon bodies.

But it will not be all that great on a FX camera, unless you use crop mode & are happy with the 50mm FX FOV picture angle on an FX camera.

Both the nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 & the Nikon F 2/D are full frame sensor FX lenses, but will NOT Auto focus on the entry level Nikon DX bodies.

The Sigma is a tank, big & heavy. The nikons are light & easy to carry.

The sigma definitely has the best low light performance & its a noticeable advantage doing handheld low light photos which turn out quite well for subjects like pets & kids. Dont expect perfection out of any of these lenses in low light without some sacrifices.

The Nikon 1.8G is the sharpest wide open, so sharp that it beats the Sigma 1.4s at 1.8!!
I am serious. This Nikon lens is something Canon guys must miss as the performance of this $250 lens is better than some $700 lenses!

If you rely on short minimum focus distance, you should buy the Nikon 35mm F2D, the others are not macro, & definitely stay away from the Sigma. With a minimum focus of 45cm & a finicky focus, that is the worst thing at close distance, but yes, it works.
The 35 G is a good one, almost as close as the 35 F2.

Watch out for...!

If you are on a budget feel free to buy the Nikons used with relative peace of mind, but double check the 35mm F2d to ensure its not from a faulty batch back in 1999-2000 when lubricant leaked onto aperture blades & would randomly over expose your photos, it was nasty. Simple easy check, just slide the aperture actuater lever from the back of the lense & make sure the spring action is fast & crisp. The aperture should open & shut quickly.

Nikons usually last well so once they are checked ok you will have excellent life & re-sale value.

Be cautious buying the sigma used, make sure it doesnt have the usual sigma back/front focus errors or unreasonably low edge clarity / sharpness / contrast ok. Their focus becomes grindy & noisy very fast, ensure it still has plenty life left in it. Otherwise it will be fine.

If buying used, the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G is the best value prime among the lot, but it has its downsides as explained later in the review.

If you are buying new & dont want to buy used & are on a budget, go with the Nikkor 50mm AF-D f/1.8 Its an absolute no-brainer when it comes to best value. Have a read of my review here for details on why I just love the Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens.

I wouldnt recommend upgrading to the 50 1.4 as its still the same 50mm on dx which is 75mm equivalent & often too narrow on dx, which is the point of considering the 35f2 etc

Sharpness / Contrast:

Nikon 35mm F1.8 G is the hands down winner, even beating the legendary 50 1.8 wide open on DX.
Important to remember this is a DX only lens, unless you want to use it in 'crop mode'.

Colour Rendition:

Both DX Lenses are opposites in this area.
If you want absolutely gorgeous skin tone & beautiful detail in the eyes, the 35 1.8G wins hands down.

If you like a warmer (arguably excessively saturated) image, for low light interiors or architecture, the Sigma is good.

But if you want something extremely plain to say shoot in RAW & then work the saturation in Lightroom, then get the Nikon 35 F2.
I must confess this is so neutral that it didnt impress me. I think Nikon got a bit too carried away in making it so neutral that it almost looks bland!
35mm F2 didnt give me the kind of skin tone image I like for portraits.

Close focus / macro performance:

The sigma is not a macro lens by any measure, & if you do get close, say hi to barrel distortion!
The Nikon 35 f2 is so good its almost a macro lens! It gives you 1.5 times the image you would get from the sigma.
But there there, these are not macro lenses, so I dont like to worry about it. Use the right tool for the job. If you want macro performance, either reverse a 50mm prime lens, or buy a macro lens :)
Saying that, if you dont do much macro, but want a versatile wide prime, the 35f2 is a great choice.

Distortion:

The sigma as expected has barrel distortion, & sadly, its really obvious! Dont attempt shooting straight lines, else this thing will disappoint, what a shame, as the rest of the image quality was quite acceptable for an otherwise cheap F 1.4 DX.
It also has some vignetting, but interestingly its not as noticible.

The Nikon 35 G is marvellous in this regard. It also has surprisingly low vignetting, which is great!

Some say the Nikon 35 f/2 is sharp even wide open at F2, but that was not the case for me.
It also has some vignetting, perhaps a tad more than the sigma when comparing both at F/2, but its ok.
And the vignetting stays even on smaller apertures, thats ok for some portrait photographers, but I personally do not like vignetting & the Nikon 50 f1.8 is a great lense in that matter.

Bokeh:

I am a big admirer of nice bokeh in a lens. Its because bokeh is one of those qualities in a lens that helps you choose between 2 similar products, & of course, its one of the few things that is open to personal opinion too.

I like creamy blurred bokeh with low contrasted edges, I don't like excessively overexposed sharp bokeh like those rendered by many Canon & Leica lenses.
I like this appealing arty bokeh in all my photos, especially portraits, where a distracting bokeh shifts the focus from the main subject.

For me, smooth silky bokeh with a non bright edge looks nice for portraits shots, where the subject isolation is more critical than to have bright highlights in your face. I dont like mild repetitive bokeh, I like very soft edges & shapes to be blown out quite a bit.

The lens I benchmark all my bokeh to is the Nikon 70-200mm VR, a lens that I absolutely adore!

In my opinion, the Nikon 1.8G is the sharpest but sadly the only 1 thing it doesn't do well is bokeh. It forms donut bokeh rather than proper circles, & it tends to be a little too bright to my taste.
This is still the lens I prefer for indoor portraits though as the sharpness in the eyes & skin tone rendition more than makes up for it.

But the Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens is great when you want to photograph people or kidswithout a flash in room light, & want good colour & good bokeh in situation with ambient light & varied backgrounds.

Though sigma bokeh didn't blow me away, I think it is quite well suited among the others.
Its bokeh is smooth, buttery/milky I would say, & its not bright, yet has decent edge clarity

The Sigma did tend to over-expose the bokeh sometimes, but thats also partly due to F1.4 & metering against a close subject with lighting levels being very a little different between the subject & the background. Still, I noticed the Sigma does tend to over-expose its bokeh quite frequently.

The Nikon 35 f/2 D is a very neutral lense in almost every respect. Its rather unimpressive bokeh is inline with its neutral performance. I think the bokeh is characteristic of any other lens thats versatile enough for every need & is designed to be sharp, above everything else.
The boken of the 35 f2 was really not to my likeing, & I think my Nikon 18-200mm VR does a better job even at f3.5

I would call Nikon's 35 f2d bokeh a tad bright, with low impact & lack of saturation. It had good edge clarity but wasnt contrasty enough to my taste, the sigma won out for me, but not by much.

If you dont care about bokeh, the 35 F1.8G will blow you away.

Final recommendations:

If on DX & don't intend to upgrade to FX soon, get the Nikon 35mm f1.8 G - hands down overall winner. Love it!
It is now my favourite lens, & the only lens I would consider carrying if I couldn't take my 18-200mm VR.

If on DX & bokeh is critical, then a used Sigma is the best features for price & has the best field of view, very versatile. But I wouldnt say that the extra stop is NOT the main point, other factors are important. Tread carefully, & if in doubt, get the Nikon G.

If going to upgrade to FX, then 35 F2D is a good choice. Great lens in almost every situation. But if on FX, strongly consider the 50 F1.8. A50mm on FX is pretty decent.

If on DX, & on a tight budget, buying new or used, the 50mm F1.8 is great.
If you were going to buy the 50 1.8 brand new though, I encourage you to instead buy a 35 1.8G used.
If you cant make up your mind & are going to be on DX for a while get the 35 1.8G.
But if youre already considering FX, get the 50 1.8 It will not disappoint. The only downside is the narrow 50mm while you will use it on DX ie 75mm picture angle, otherwise there is nothing wrong with it.

Buying Used DSLRs - Cheap Good Cameras

Some good old Digital SLR cams & lenses that are worth buying used any day

These items were all some of the best in their day, & some are the best even today. You can be pretty confident buying them, knowing your investment will pay off well, & they wont loose as much value if you do decide to upgrade.

Camera Bodies:

Nikon D70
Nikon D50
Nikon D200
Nikon D2

Nikon D40
Nikon D90
Nikon D3

Nikon D5100
Nikon D300S

Canon EOS 5D

Flashes

Nikon SB400
Nikon SB600
Nikon SB800

Metz 58 AF1
Canon 580 EX2

Lenses

Nikon 18-70mm
Nikon 24-70mm F2.8
Nikon 18-200mm
Nikon 70-300mm
Nikon 70-200mm AF-D, AF-S, VR 1,2 etc

Nikon 50mm F1.8
Nikon 50mm F1.4
Nikon 35mm F2

Tokina 11-16mm F2.8
Tokina 12-24mm F4

Tamron 18-270mm
Tamron 200-400mm F5.6

Canon 24-70mm F2.8
Canon 70-200mm F4

Nikon TC20E2 2.0x Teleconverter
Kenko Teleplus pro 300 DGX 2.0x AF Teleconverter


Got anything else I forgot to mention, please let me us know :)
Have you owned any of these & want to mention some points of consideration, please share your thoughts.

Thanks & hope you find this useful :)

Best Digital SLR cameras in NZ

The best DSLR in NZ for each level:

If you want an opinion without going into extensive details, please get one of these based on your level of experience/$$$

If you dont see yourself spending thousands & entering the world of photography, please feel free to buy a more simple camera. Please check my recommended point & shoot compact cameras here.

If youre new to the world of photography & are about to buy your first camera, Please do read my previous blog post on the golden rules of buying cameras, might help you make a good decision.

Beginner Amateur

Nikon D3100 + 18-55mm + 70-300

Easy to use fun camera that even does video. Doesnt have an auto-focus motor, not the best in low light, not very fast in continuous shooting, but for the price, better than you might imagine.

Enthusiast Intermediate level & also my personal favourite

Nikon D90 + Nikon 18-200mm VR lens + Nikon SB600 flash

My current camera kit recommendation for people who are prepared starting out on a semi decent yet modest budget to spend $2000 (for new) or $1500 (for used).

Its slightly old, but still available, & thats why its unbeatable value, grab it before they stop manufacturing it for what is currently a crazy cheap price. Go ahead & buy used, these are extremely well made & will last longer than you might think.

These components have all been superseded, & thats why are under NZ$2000 brand new (or NZ$1500 used)
This collection will satisfy 95% of your photography requirements, especially if youre just starting off.
I wouldnt hesitate doing something on a semi pro basis with this gear, if I do my job well you will like the results.

Semi-pro Wannabe

For someone wanting to take things into the pro market without spending too much, yet getting most of the good features. The 70-200mm & the 11-16 are pricy, but worth it. If you're on a budget, get a cheaper D90 body & get one of those lenses.

Nikon D7000 + 18-200mm VR + 70-200mm + 50mm F1.8 prime + Tokina 11-16mm ultrawide + Nikon SB800

Serious Semi-pros aiming for the top

This is when things start to get very very expensive. If you're on a budget, start buying lenses first then worry about the body.

Nikon D700 + 24-70mm f2.8 + 70-200mm f2.8 VR + 50mm F1.4D + Nikon 18-35mm ultrawide + Metz 58 AF2

Yes the new D800 & the SB910 is out, but there isnt all that big a difference. To me, value proposition is really important, the camera shouldnt cost too much just because its slightly better.

If you want the best

Well if money isnt a problem then its usually pretty easy

Nikon D4 + 24-70mm f2.8 + 70-200mm VR2 + SB910 + Nikon 50mm F1.4 prime + Nikon 14-24mm ultra wide

And then youll need lenses specifically suited to what you do, which skyrockets the price. So you can pick from maybe:
Nikon 105mm F2 DC portrait, Nikon 24mm F1.4 low light, Nikon 200-400mm F4, Nikon 300mm F2.8, Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 etc

Got recommendations or experiences you'd like to share, please share them here.

Thanks, Good luck. Happy Photographing :)

Best Cameras in NZ Compact Point & Shoot

Here is a shortlist of cameras to buy in New Zealand.

 

So many digital cameras out there now its a real dilemma deciding what to buy.

I have given a preference to something small within each class, so that you get the true benefit of compact light cameras that are easy to travel with.

 

Prices are approximate as of today in NZ$. Some are priced based on parallel imports, all legit none the less. I believe in value, so superb cameras that would cost the earth arent included.

 

All of these do video, almost any new camera in the market does video.

 

1) Nikon Coolpix P7100 - probably the best features for the price, but also the biggest camera. - $480

2) Nikon Coolpix S8200 - very good compact camera & yet good features. - $320

3) Nikon Coolpix S6300 - very capable for the price, great value, & quite small too.- $280

4) Canon Powershot A4000 IS - very good small camera, nice & easy to use. - $200

5) Fuji FinePix JZ500 - nice cheap camera, will do the job fine. - $170

6) Canon Powershot A3200 IS - super cheap camera that does everything - $100

Its pure co-incidene that the top 3 are Nikons. Yes I own a Nikon DSLR myself, but when compiling this list I was hard pressed to find other brands doing a good job in the sub 500 NZD price mark.

The Best Guns & Optics - My Current Recommendations

My Recommended Guns & Optics to consider

This is a simple list of shooting equipment I currently recommend.
My aim is to improve this list as I find better stuff.
Please feel free to share your opinions on these too.

1) .22 Bolt Action Sporter

Medium price:

CZ 452 American wood stock + E Brooks trigger kit

High end:

Anchutz 1712

2) .22 LR Semi auto

Out of the box, low cost:

Marlin 795 stainless

Custom setup, very accurate yet versatile:

Ruger 10/22 + volquartsen muzzleweight barrel + volquartsen target trigger modifications added to ruger group

3) Centrefire bolt action Sporter - light calibres circa .223

Sako 85 Synthetic stainless .223 finnlight

4) Centrefire bolt action Sporter - medium size eg 308, 270 etc

Tikka T3 lite stainless wood

5) Extremely versatile good value Rifle Scopes

Best value performance:

Bushnell Elite 3200 Rainguard 4-12x40 AO

Low price versatile scope:

Simmons 8 point 4-12x40 AO

High end value:

Leupold VX II 6-18x40 AO

6) Close range magnification optics

Medium cost

Mueller APV 4.5-14x40 AO

Higher cost

Bushnell Elite 3200 Rainguard 4-12x40 AO

7) Long range magnification optics

Medium cost:

Burris 6-24x42 AO Signature Select

High Cost:

Weaver Grandslam 6-20x40 AO

Thats it! What do you think?

Have you had a play with any of these?
Is there anything here you wouldnt recommend, & why?
Please share the good, the bad & the ugly with us.

Various Shooting Disciplines & What Each Taught Me

A List of key lessons each shooting discipline taught me:

The skills learnt in each type of shooting all complement each other.
Exposure to these styles will make you a better shooter.
It is sad that some members of our already diminishing sport stereotype against other shooters without fully understanding the challenges each class of shooting comprises.

Let us explore how each of these shooting sports has so much to offer.
Do you have a story you want to share? Please post your comments below.

.22 smallbore match rifle & Air rifle .177 match (Olympic target shooting style)

Critical Importance on uniform breathing & patience to calm down.
Emphasis on Trigger release in the best stage of your breathing.
Trigger Finger position & break technique absolutely paramount.
Learning to use aperture sights trains the hand eye co-ordination more accurately from a true to distance perspective as there is no optical magnification available in most standard configurations.

You will learn to focus so hard that you must train to completely forget that the world around you exists. As at that point in time, all that matters is you & your equipment, ignore everything else.

10m Air rifle in Standing is even harder as you are doing all of the above whilst having to be in a vertical position with that 7kg rifle. You will learn how to position your hips & your lower back in an offset to enable them to cross balance your upper body & keep it steady.

.22 LR sporting rifle & Air rifle sporting springer class .177 cal:

Improves your fore stock hold, grip & placement technique.
Reiterates Importance of adequate, but not excessive cheek pressure.
No slings & fancy padded gloves with heavy barrels that add inertia to stop it all shaking.
The objective is shooting accurately with a versatile weapon & not to worry about 1mm.
Dont underestimate the accuracy of these lightweight guns, they are very capable.
An Anschutz 1712 is comparable to an Anschutz 1813, they both have the same Match 54 class action & I promise you that you will find they shoot identical at 50 metres with appropriate ammo.
The same is true for other good sporting rifles, they will routinely shoot better than you.

22 cal rifle rapid semi auto

Learning to use comparatively heavier triggers without cultivating bad habits of over-compensating them with your main gripping hand (usually left) causing left side pulling of shots.
Handling muzzle jump, anticipating/co-ordinating vibration, & letting off the Follow up shot.
Learning to push the hand down while pull the stock in just before firing the next round develops a multitasking ability

Shotgun Clay shooting (Trap, Skeet, American Sporting clay birds etc)

Quick acquisition of the same shooting brace position, posture & eye level from shot to shot.
No time to re-position things once the target flies out, you need to have practised all the directions & be prepared to shoot.
Learn to visualise your projectile as being an extension to your line of sight.
Quick Target Acquisition alongside range, travel path & wind estimation.
This discipline is harder than it looks, especially with high speed trap throwers.

Centrefire 100m

Hold it tight into your shoulder, but not so tight that your left hand starts shaking.
Dont worry about the distance, focus on acquiring your target. Stay in the moment & focus on your core technique.

Centrefire Sporting Rifle Rapid

You must accept that you wont be able to completely eliminate recoil & that follow up shots will be significantly less accurate given you dont have time to completely stablilise.
Its similar to .22 rapid fire, except that you will need to use a lot more cheek pressure after each shot is fired to assist in bringing the sights back on target.

Air pistol .177 target match 10 metres

Target Air Pistol, probably the hardest discipline Ive shot.
Shooting standing with only 1 arm extended, you will train your entire body to balance itself such that the right hand can float steady.
You will realise how timing is everything.
Dont anticipate the trigger finger movement. If you do, you will focus too hard on a precise trigger pull & that will come at the cost of sacrificing your target line up.

Repetition is paramount, so is endurance.
You will feel fatigue fast & it will hit hard exponentially, shot after shot.
A must shoot discipline to train you to the max.

I would think these principles are equally applicable to the 25m .22 match pistol discipline.
Are you a match pistol shooter? Please tell me what you think about my observations.

Details on the following disciplines coming soon as I get time to write more, watch this space:

Heavy Calibre rifle

22LR Pistol

Centrefire pistol

Heavy Calibre Pistol

Centrefire Rifle match / 3P

Are you a shooter who has experience with various things?
Please share what you felt was challenging in your disciplines of interest.
Please recommend any disciplines that are not in the list & tell us why you like them.

Happy Shooting people, go nail that bullseye.

Customise your Ruger 10/22 - Assemble your own 22 Semi Auto

Building the perfect Semi Automatic .22

For as long as I can remember, Ive had this vision that one day, I will own (likely have to build myself) the perfect semi-automatic rifle, a rifle that can give my bolt action a run for its money, whilst being the most comfortable gun to shoot.

The benchmark bolt action is my beloved CZ 452 American, a rifle I may never sell. It shoots better than me & I cant find anything wrong with it except its trigger which was easily fixed with a $15 CZ trigger kit. Please see my other post for details.

This might be the longest gun article I write, & will quite possibly continue to add to for some time.

So far Ive had 4 Ruger rifles & 3 Marlins. This post attempts to share my experiences from each attempt.

As usual, these are just my experiences & no one is paying me to write any of this.

Current Recommendations:

1) If you want superb accuracy, reliability & overall comfort & dont mind some extra weight

Get a 10/22 based design that you can customise the heck out of. You can either buy the receiver & trigger group, or start by buying a Ruger 10/22. Id recommend buying the whole rifle, then slowly adding components & selling off things when you dont need them. Its cheaper to do that than buy Ruger parts otherwise. Next steps:
  i) Buy Volquartsen target sear, hammer & spring. Preferably get them polished & installed by a gunsmith but if not, just put them into the existing trigger group yourself.
 ii) Buy a hogue stock, if you didnt buy the model that comes with it.
iii) Buy a $5 recoil bolt buffer, this little thing really does make a difference to your rifles vibration & reduce the wear on the bolt stopping pin's holes in the receiver.
iv) Invest in the $500 Volquartsen muzzle heavy target barrel. Have a read of my blog post on that barrel to know why thats my recommendation.

Thats it. Your combo will look somewhat like this once scoped:

2) Want something versatile, but more geared toward safe field use with a light safe trigger that YOU WILL MOSTLY USE WITH OPEN SIGHTS OR VERY LIGHT RED DOTs or ultra light SCOPES?

If you need to scope the rifle, go with the next option please. If you scope this config, the weight balance is not up to my recommendation & it will impact your trigger let off & your steadiness in the prone & kneeling positions.
If using minimal light optics, get a 10/22 with these options:
   i) Buy a Kidd 2 stage trigger group & tune it to your liking. In my experience, its well designed in that it doesnt let off even on light trigger pull settings if you accidentally drop the rifle. Be mindful in deciding what kind of Kidd trigger blade you buy, read my blog post for details on why that minute little thing matters.
  ii) Buy a $5 recoil bolt buffer, this little thing really does make a difference to your rifles vibration & reduce the wear on the bolt stopping pin's holes in the receiver.
 iii) Buy a .920 bull barrel Hogue stock, since the standard sporter stock is a narrow channel so play this smartly. It might be cheaper to buy a synthetic Ruger than by the Hogue stocked version. Dont buy the target version, Rugers bull barrel is ridiculously heavy much like most other 20 inch target heavy bull barrels. YOU NEED A WIDE .920 CHANNEL STOCK, but not the barrel.
 iv) Invest in a $500 Volquartsen Carbon Fibre target barrel.

In my case, I scoped this rifle & straight away realised that my tough but comparatively heavy Burris wasnt ideal so took the scope off, & because I was not going to do much field shooting, had to reluctantly sell it off.

If you have a carbon fibre setup, for the balancing to be adequate, especially if you are going to use a trigger with a metal housing (thats extra weight) then ensure you get a very light scope. Else, your rifle becomes poorly balanced with a majority of the weight on the trigger end rathrer than the barrel end which is very unnatural to shoot steadily.

For more explanation on this, please read my previous post on Rifle Weight Balancing & its importance by clicking here.

I added a butt pad to increase length of pull, please do that if you need to.

I bought the blade trigger version of the kidd trigger group, which was not the best option, the curved sporterised trigger would be better especially if using a sporterised style hogue stock.
For thumbhole stock or a pistol grip, you might find the straight blade trigger face better, see if you can have a try of both.

I also attached a very light weight muzzle compensator, mainly because the barrel was so short I had to constantly make an effort to put the gun forward of the safe shooting line in the range, & also the barrel supports in my gun safe were higher haha. Otherwise it would wobble around in the safe.
It looked cool too but had no real bearing on the muzzle jump, all seemed the same to me.

Here is what your setup should resemble:

3) If youre on a budget & want a semi which you dont think youll ever spend dosh on to customise

Get a marlin 795 or a similar Marlin with that same action in that price class.

An out of the box marlin 795 will out perform an out of the box ruger 10/22 any day, for a cheaper price in a lighter better balanced more versatile & field usable package.

The trigger is pretty good too.
It is lighter than the Ruger 10/22 trigger but has a tad more creep, try it out. Best bang for buck.

Its a shame no one makes enough accessories for them which is why time & again I go back to the 10/22 as the primary design to build my perfect semi out of, else the Marlin would be my experimentation platform instead of the 10/22 toward the hunt for the perfect semi.

 

Here is the complete list of my 22 cal semi autos built to date

1) Standard Ruger 10/22 sporter, blued with wood stock.

The weight balancing on this rifle was funny when you put a scope on it, it gets too heavy on top of the trigger & that has a huge impact on how well you let off the shot. If your right hand is having to hold up more weight that your left hand, you are usually going to expect some trouble.

Have any of you noticed this? Post a comment & let me know.

This rifle was bought used, but not very old or too much use. I didnt expect it to be so bad. It shot 1.5 inch groups at 25 yards, so inaccurately that I sold it off to someone who only wanted to shoot bunnies in his backyard under 20 yards range.
It shot crappy with ever type of amo I tried, I think the barrel was to blame despite looking nice & shiny.

Thats when I started to wonder whether a ruger 10 22 will shoot well 20 years & 2000 rounds later.
My question has not yet been answered...
Have any of you owned a 10-22 & after 20 years & 2000 rounds felt it shot adequately enough? Please share you comments here.

For now, my advice, if buying a used 10/22, ensure you shoot it before you commit, else stay the hell away from it.


2) Marlin 795 semi Auto, blued with synthetic sporter stock
This Marlin was also bought used, but in as new condition after seeing some test shot cards.
It shot so well that Ive been a big admirer of these Marin semis since. An out of the box marlin will out perform an out of the box ruger any day.
Its a shame no one makes enough accessories for them which is why time & again I go back to the 10/22 as the primary design to build my perfect semi out of, else the Marlin would be my experimentation platform instead of the 10/22 toward the hunt for the perfect semi.

Despite what I had read about the durability & workmanship of the marlin as being inferior to Ruger, & all the long temr issues with micro groove barrels, let me tell you that the accuracy was so good, out of the box at 50 yards I had a 1.5 inch group out of a .22 semi. This was using all sorts of ammo, no fuss.
Now thats impressive for a $400 gun!

It has a very simple trigger assembly, & everything is light. Its the best rifle for field use, yet is very accurate. It is heavier in the front then the back, yet light overall, beautiful balancing.

The muzzle jump was also much lesser when rapid shooting. The marlin being lighter than the ruger, you would expect the opposite, but it was just brilliant.

The only downside was that the original factory synthetic stock had too much of an angle making it very uncomfortable to shoot lying prone. Your stock butt plate would be on your chest instead on your shoulder area which was not fun to use.
So I then bought an ATI dragunov style stock which was much straighter & that helped, though not entirely. It had a non free standing pistol grip, which didnt really make any difference either in prone, though very good for kneeling.

I put 300 rounds through that gun once in around 4 hours. No problem, it didnt even get as hot as the Ruger 10/22. I put maybe a total of 1000 rounds through it before selling it to the next buyer & he was happy too.

I didnt notice a single trace of so called 'inherent low life' of micro-groove barrels. Nice shiny bore, shooting beautifully.

Target Shooting Tips & Golden Rules

Ways to improve your shooting:

The following rules in my opinion apply to any kind of shooting.

The golden rules are the numbered main points, & text is some supporting information.
Please feel free to just read the headings if you want a quick summary rather than a thesis, but I highly recommend you come back & read it all to gain a thorough understanding of things.

This is of course just my experience & my opinions, & I hope they are valuable to you.

Whether it is rimfire target, match, long range, silhouette, 3 position, centrefire, field, hunting, shotgun, clay trap, sporting or skeet, I think these tips & rules if followed will make you the best shooter you can be.

1) Get a gun that inherently fits you comfortably & feels like a part of your body.

You perform any action best when it is intuitive & feels natural. It should be like chewing or swallowing, make it a second nature & you will find it so easy that you will nail it ever time. A good comfortable firearm allows you to feel in control 'by default' without having to analyse every move to make or specific sequences to follow.
It fits the shoulder, has just the right height on the cheek for the eye placement, the perfect length of pull, the correct weight balance & no fatigue doing it all over & over.

Easier said than available, which is why at some point you might be best to customise it. But for a start, get the most comfortable thing possible, within reason, as a compromise based on the different criteria we discuss here.

Please read my articles on the Importance of Customisation for Ergonomics & comfort as part of the series on customising things to suit you & improve your shooting.

2) Try to get the best possible trigger to your liking.

Trigger release & let off, once again, if natural will stop you second guessing & thinking about 'how to pull it'. Nice triggers go off instantly so its all in line with when you really wanted to take that shot. This is paramount & saves you pulling a tad after you were spot on. A Nice trigger makes it all 'just happen' & thats a very crucial aspect of any sport.

3) Try & get guns + ammo that shoots better than you, saves wondering if the equipment is the problem.

Ideally, equipment that is comfortable & capable of shooting accurately would be perfect & not cost the earth. That is not always the case, but try to buy the most accurate gun in its class that fits you nicely. Some brands & models tend to be more ammunition fussy than others but yes after considering the bigger factors of comfort & trigger & inherent accuracy, do look at what ammo you will put through it. Good Firearms are peace of mind. Then, if you dont shoot, you know its the gun & not you. Helps you get on with fixing your problems rather than worrying about what may be wrong with the gun or the scope etc.

4) Get clear comfortable adjustable optics - scopes or sights whatever it is, good optics leads to less fatigue & strain

If using scopes & shooting small targets, there is no harm in using adequate magnification. 9x or 12x magnification isnt what makes your hand shake, its you thats shaking the hand, the optics is merely telling you whats happening.
Usually its very difficult & rather bad for your eyes to shoot under 50 metres without parallax adjustable scopes (Adjustable Objective) AO is fundamental to get clean crisp focus of the target & crosshairs. It lets you not have to strain to acquire & centre the bullseye in every shot.
This reduces fatigue & you dont feel youre looking down a fancy contraption. You want to keep things as natural & as intuitive as possible to be a good shooter.

5) Stay Focused & shoot with concentration. Give it all youve got. Get the correct mental state.

There is no substitute for good old concentration. If you can be bothered, then its probably not going to be great. Forget all the odds that are against you, & be sharp with all your senses for every single shot. Its hard, but train to forget about a previous bad short & still move to the next one with full concentration. Its easier said than done, I struggle with this myself. Even a little routine malfunction, & I tend to drop the next shot. Work on thinking calmly & resuming.

6) Visualise what you do even when off range & let your understanding get clearer with time.

Ponder over what you did. Think of how it felt, what the impact was & what different conditions were present. Compare that to a previous similar recollection. Join the dots, you will figure out something youre not getting right, & a possible solution to try out next time.

7) Do not flinch & fear the recoil. Accept it, make it part of you, try to enjoy it.

Think of recoil as being the standard simple mechanical reaction of pulling the trigger. Dont think of it as pain & pressure. If the recoil is causing pain & discomfort too quickly, something is wrong.
Youre either not shooting correctly, or something isnt fitting you right, or you need a nicer recoil butt plate, or your cheek pressure/overall rifle hold isnt quite right. Its not about your body size either, its about technique & confidence. Thats assuming you dont have a medical issue of course. Please dont dislocate your shoulder or break your ribs trying out something silly. Start small & climb your way up. Im not advocating you shoot a 50bmg the first day.

8) Dress comfortably - amount of clothes, type of fitting, shoes, temperature all matters

Excessive padding doesnt necessarily make you steadier.
Tighter version of normal clothing dont make you steady, infact the discomfort will make you shoot worse. If youve got custom fitting jackets or proper match shooting target jackets thats a different matter, but just wearing a tight t-shirt or thermals will not make you better.
If you get too hot, your breathing will suffer. If youre too cold you might stiffen up.

9) Put your own requirements & priorities ahead of the technical charts & reviews.

It pays to listen to other peoples opinions, but to a certain extent, your own gut feeling of comfort & being able to make that gun your own is crucial.
There is room for customisation once the foundation is correct.

10) Shoot different disciplines whenever you can, each will improve your specific weaknesses.

Understand & appreciate the skills needed to shoot each discipline exceedingly well, & then apply it to every other type of shooting you do. They all complement each other. Please have a read of my other post on what each of the various shooting discipline taught me.


Do you have any tips to improve shooting? Please share them with us

Shooting the famous handguns - 500 S&W vs 44 mag vs 357 mag etc

Shooting the famous Revolvers & Pistols

Ive shot most of the popular calibre handguns, & want to share my opinion.

For this post we'll start at the bottom of the food chain to build some points to talk about:

 

9mm Beretta M92 FS Military Tactical with Rubberised grips

Now isnt this a pretty little thing. Easy peezy, accurate, insignificant recoil, tiny muzzle climb.
Accurate for continuous shots, cheap. Well, there is a reason its so popular. Comfortable versatile cartridge. It doesnt have the kind of power serious use needs, but thats a different matter.
I particularly loved the Beretta M92 FS Tactical rubberised version (maybe its the same as the M1 tactical not sure). This handgun was so easy to shoot & had so little recoil I couldnt believe I was shooting a 'non .22' haha! It really felt like a .22LR being shot, wasnt even very loud!
Thanks P. Beretta, the day I start buying handguns, this beauty will be in my gun safe :)

.38 Special

My favourite calibre, accurate, managable recoil, & no discomfort when shooting the 8" barrelled S&W. As a first time shooter, I grouped it in 2 inches at 10 metres, which is good for a noob.
It is clean, not insanely fast, & jumps slowly. Allows you to do a good follow through, I can totally visualising this as being a target shooting favourite, & for good reason. Brilliant revolver, will be part of my handgun collection some day.

.45 ACP

There is a reason the M1911 is still a legendary & highly regarded pistol, & thats because despite being an old design, it is beautiful to shoot. Accurate, managable recoil, very capable for its medium size package. This is perhaps the winning pistol cartridge, versatile, not too heavy, & adequate for target practise without giving you a soar had whilst helping you get used to more recoil than a 9mm. This had slightly better grips than the older models, which would have helped, & It didnt look like the newest version either. Well, the newest version of this will also be in my gun safe one day! :D

.357 Magnum

After reading all the numbers around its efficieny & trajectory, I was expecting this cartridge to impress me in the small package. Well, it didnt.
The recoil jump direction was very random, it wasnt heavy intensity, it was just the thing shaking all over the place. Its the same 8" S&W revolver I used for the .38 Sp I enjoyed shooting.
It was less accurate than the 500 s&w mag & I didnt enjoy it. Also, it has this annoying whiny noise that lacks the thump, All that talk & no walk haha reminds you of poorly editing sound effects in cheap cow boy movies.

.44 magnum Desert Eagle

Being highly impressed with the M-4s gas blowback auto loading system, I expected this to be the best big bore handgun to shoot. It was the worst. The Gas reloading was so slow that the intertia of the slide moving slowly & stopping after the recoil jump had ended was very distracting.
You almost had the instinctive need to pause, check & ensure it was ok to take the next shot, because it felt like the slide was loose & going to come flying into your face.
The recoil was much lesser than shooting the .44 S&W m 29 as expected, but the overall fun was dead. Id rather shoot a .45 ACP for target practise, or the 500 S&W if I wanted some heavy action.

.44 magnum S&W legendary Model 29

Expected this gun to be much lesser felt recoil than the 500 s&w magnum, but turns out the built in muzzle break compensator inside the S&W 500 is really really good. The .44 noticibly climbed more ater each shot, & being lighter than expected, it did shake all over the place. The recoil & jump was very very fast. It really digs into your palm, be prepared for sore hands. The digging in is no less than the 500 mag. Overall accuracy was quite good but you do need to hold it really firm.
The standard grip wasnt too impressive, a bit too thin in my opinion, let alone the material being such that lots of metal from the chassis was directly exposed out in line with the grip.

500 Smith & Wesson Magnum .50 cal

A true masterpiece of precision. Has had its set of comprimises, but its amazing I could shoot it with so much ease cmpared to what I anticipated. The recoil is tamed really well thanks to the built in muzzle break, causing the jump to not climb over approx 40 degrees. The .44 magnum S&W M29 climbed a lot. The weight balancing is such that its extremely heavy in the front, which has its downside, but the recoil benefits far out weigh the slight shake caused by this excessive muzzle weight. The Grip was quite nicely fitting, again better than the antique .44 mag. Grouping was good. Overall, a very nice experience.

Do tell us about handguns you have shot or owned. Do you have any tips for taming them better?

Please do share your experiences.
Happy Shooting

The Norinco SKS 7.62x39 - Not just a Crappy Chinese gun.

For once, I have found a firearm made in China that I am quite impressed with from a value standpoint, for what it can deliver based on what it was designed for.
Ok, its technically not a Chinese gun, its Russian, so that helps, but lets give this one to the Chinese for a change.

The crappy $300 cheapo SKS is not the best gun, well its the $300 price tag that makes it very impressive.


The good:

- Shooting open sight it was brilliant. With open sights, shooting in sitting position off a table, using rubbish steel barnaul ammo, from 100 metres away, I grouped in under 3 inches!

- The recoil is very manageable, the jump is not bad, the cheek didnt go soar, & the shoulder was fine

- The gun didnt get too hot after a few continuous shots, or make excessive noise.

- The trigger is better than a Ruger 10/22! It has obvious stage 1 travel, & slight creep, but the break is not bad. The spring tension is uniform all the way through, so there is not much anticipation or excessive finger yanking that happens on other shitty triggers.

- IT IS FUN!! Come on, a nice not too powerful easy to shoot semi automatic centre fire rifle with a built in 7 round clip magazine, cant complain, its a whole lot of fun because the recoil is so manageable.


The Bad:

- The length of pull is not ideal for most average sized people, the stock is too short.
Its like they decided to copy the yanky doodle Ruger 10/22 hoping to get it all right. Well a $30 screw on 1" butt pad upgrade is really easy & very worth it as it provides a bit more non slip grip compared to the plastic, & adds even more softness to the recoil, so its worth it.

- Shit loads of Accessories are available to tempt you into buying them, but most of them are a waste of time, effort & $$!!

- If you ever put a standard full length scope on it, the ejected brass shells will hit the tube on the way out really really hard & dent it really really badly! It dented my $120 Sightron 3-9x40!! >:( Argh, dam u cheap chinese product, dam u hahahaha !!

- Putting a scope or any optical sight on it is a freakin nightmare.

- You cant just drop rings on & go with it. First you'll need to decide what kind of after market scope rail mount youd like to buy & then install it.

- Installing any of the after market mount options is a swearing frenzy. youll be dropping colourful f-words trying to scope the little bast*rd.

My post on SKS mounts is coming soon.

- Youll need to either get a short scope or buy a shell deflector. The shell deflector is of 2 main variants. The SKK & UTG style mount compatible version screws on the side of the mount rail you originally bought. The other more common option is to buy a cover that clamps into the rear sight.

- The rear sight clamp mount is absolutely finnicky, youll need to grind it precisely for a tight fit so that it doesnt keep shaking & start hitting on the scope tube, otherwise its pointless. And the UTG style version requires you buying a UTG style tactical mount that weighs a ton & is too high.

- All this optics & all those extra useless bits of metal increase the weight & screw up what was a nicely balanced rifle.

Decision:

Got a spare $300 for a bit of fun that wont completely disappoint you in the accuracy & usability mark? Get this little toy.

Want something better, go buy a REAL gun, if its accuracy & nice triggers & the best balancing, get a nice light little Sako, or a Tikka if youre on a budget.

If you want identical performance as a Sako with a few small corners cut, get a Tikka bolt action.
Its hard to beat for the price. Tikka guns have impressed me in almost every way.
More on that later.

If a good semi auto centre fire is what you want, perhaps look into a mini 14 or a Browning BAR, never used either but they seem like the standard.

Happy propelling lead & copper down your barrel at high speeds. Well, its a toy, cant call that real shooting now can I ;)

Have you got an SKS? How do you find it? Has it been customised? Was it easy? Please share your experience.