cygnusx1

I am a big fan of Canon digital SLR cameras but I bought a Samsung Camcorder because I am extremely happy with my Samsung DLP television. Oh well, I screwed up and bought a crappy camcorder. After some arguing, they told me that if I exchenage it for another camcorder, they will waive the 15% restock fee. Thanks for the tips on the Panasonic 3 CCD technology. The Canons look like a really nice deal but Best Buy doesnt have a decent Canon in their lineup They don't have the panasonic GS500 either and that seems like a really nice camera but it's just too much for me to spend right now. I am leaning towards the Panasonic VDR-D250 from Best Buy or taking the $60 hit and going over to Circuit City for the VDR-D300. Both use the 3 CCD technology and the Mini DVD. I like the Mini DVD because I can throw them in my DVD player or copy them to my Media Center's hard drive and re-use the Mini DVD RW over again. It doesn't tie up the camera when I am transferring video.

Best Buy refuses to waive the 15% restocking fee ($60). I feel that they really should, seeing that the video quality of this Samsung Camcorder is so bleak. The indoor lamp lit shots are like watching ghosts with zero color at all. Just black figures and shadows. The outdoor day light shots look like black and white. Nothing is sharp. I read the entire manual to try to remedy the lousy picture quality with settings. The focus hunts back and forth in anything but sunlight. It's absolutely junk. I can't believe they are going to rob $60 from me because of this piece of crap product they sold me. I even called their headquarters and got nothing. Any advice? Can I use the credit card company I used to pay for it with to leverage anything?

I am going crazy trying to buy a camcorder. I bought a Samsung miniDVD camcorder for $399 and the picture is horrid. Washed out colors in all lighting and really dull picture. I am currently battling BestBuy to take it back with no restocking fee. The product purely stinks. Can anyone recommend a camcorder for $400-$600 range. I want to shoot basic video around the house indoor/outdoor and also use it mounted inside the Z for some good in-car videos. MiniDVD, MiniDV, HardDrive, Brand, Model.....? anyone?

My 76 280Z has a solid hood. I have no idea what is shaped differently between it and a 240Z hood. Maybe it's the underside.

LFS was my first driving Sim. Look for RACER also. It's totally free, less developed but the physics are wide open and you can tweak your car anyhow you would like. It's fun to enter negative damping numbers in the cars data file. There are BRE 240Z's available for RACER as well. All free.

Careless, in Yosemite I was using a Canon 20D digital body with a really sweet Sigma 18-50 mm ($399) and a cheapo Tamron 70-300mm ($150). Of course these images are so shrunken for the web that you can't appreciate the detail. The originals are at least 10 times larger. I do post process the photos from RAW format which is as close to digital darkroom as you can get. Just an FYI. I learned a ton about photography and processing (digital) from hanging out and posting at photoblink.com. Sometimes the members can be a bit snobbish but I still admire the work of some of the best members there. If you appreciate the great art of photography, sign up at http://www.photoblink.com/ and browse the top rated photographers. It's mindblowing!

Here are a few I snapped at Yosemite this past summer.

I cracked a couple of pulleys at the hub because the bolt got loose. I could use a new one as well but I would need to fab an AC pulley to bolt to the damper. Z-Ya, let us know what you think of the pulley and which one you got. Very interested.

Well, Winter hasn't even started in New York. Usually the Z is barricaded in storage by this time. I took it grocery shopping today! Global Warming is going to melt the ice caps and I will have beach front property at 400ft above sea level in my front yard.

I used to take the ashtray out of the console and use the hole as a cup holder. Now my brake proportioning valve is in the ashtray hole. The 280Z ashtrays are right in front of the armrest and a few inches behind the shifter.

Server posted up top. Watkins Long Course numbers please. xfire user name is zcygnusx1

I dont hate either one, but I am very glad there are still S30's out there we can buy instead.

Here on the East coast we dump rock salt on them when they look like that. If you dont have an 80 pound bag of rock salt, you can just take a sawzall and just start cutting away the affected metal. It's pretty much what we do here. Good luck man.

LOL, more like "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" ... :-0 Glad you feel better though.

Well I grew up helping my dad to sketch and mill machine parts. I also helped him work on the family car. When I turned 16, he gave me the family car that ran really poorly and needed all kinds of work. He basically handed it to me and showed me where the tools were and explained to me how I could have the car and do what I wanted with it as long as I paid to keep it on the road. I changed the head gasket, fitted honda seats, fixed a ton of rust, rebuilt the mechanical fuel injection, and put in a stereo system. It was a 72 Alfa Romeo Berlina sedan. I plan to do the same with my son if he is as interested in cars as I was. Thanks for all the congrats. So far Nicholas is awesome and is super well behaved. The Z will definitely NOT go on the backburner for the next 16 years. In fact, I will be more likely to try to continue to improve and preserve it for his sake and will start another project one with him.

Thanks EvilC, yeah I am already getting less sleep....just lost my cell phone...in my front pocket. DOH! OK off to some nap time.

Well, I was out for a cruise in the Z this past Sunday evening. I was shaking out some cobwebs before putting it back into winter storage. I got a call from the wife saying that her water broke! I pulled a nice u-turn and made the 10 minute drive back home in 2 minutes. What a way to enjoy the handling and speed of the Z. Fortunately, we had sort of planned for this so we threw all the bags into the WRX and headed off to the hospital at about 6pm. We went in and they examined her and told us to stay overnight because she would have the baby the next day. I flipped on the TV set in the room and flipped a few channels to find a white 280Z with it's rear end jacked up and wheels spinning on Mythbusters! I told my wife that was a good sign. What are the odds of me turning on the TV and seeing a 280Z? I was still wearing my Z hat also. Well, few hours later I was helping the nurse work the baby out. It was all a miracle because we already had a scheduled C-Section on Jan 15th due to some possible natural birth complications. At 1:39 am 1/8/07 Nicholas was born full term without c-section. We will all be coming home tomorrow from the hospital. Wish us luck, it's our first.

Nice looking car. Can we have more angles! BTW if you dont have the original rubber strips from Nissan, and you don't want to pay an arm and a leg for them, take a look at my bumper conversion thread from about a 10 months ago. I had links to some stick on rubber trim the works fine.

It sounds like the injectors are ticking normally and the head sounds pretty good too. Since I put in my P90A I've almost forgotten the sound of a solid lifter Z head. Nice!!!! OK Phil, next time you're in NY stop by and help me get rid of the nasty Nissan FI stuff.

He was driving stOOOOOOpid fast! The car looked amazingly stable the whole time.

This one sounds nice too but its a short clip.

It does come with a standalone server. Not sure what the badwidth usage is but I don't think it's that much. I think it can support 30 players but most servers do 15-20. -Anyone want to model an S30 for us!! Now THAT would be sweet.

Here is all the info on the sim. http://gtr-game.10tacle.com/index.php?id=246&L=1 I would say at least a 128Mb dedicated video card. A 2G processor, and 1gig ram at least.

I dont know how these folks are running 1:51's???? Their cars just seem faster and they are constantly pulling away from me on the straights. I go flat out on the straights winding out the gears and they walk me! The only thing I can think of is car setup and corner exit speeds. I just don't have any more in me than 1:55 right now. Oh well, Saturday night we will play more. As far a LAG is concerned, I dont get very much at all. Actually my ping to you, Gollum, was about 30-50ms. I will pick a different server on Saturday night with the same track, Monza.

Server will always be in the very first post of this thread at the very top. You will only find the server in the list if you are in SIMULATOR mode. BTW Nice driving Gollum! busted a 1:55 at Monza first day out!