Lensbaby Twist 60 review – CNET

The Good The Lensbaby Twist 60 is easy to use and delivers great results.

The Bad The aperture ring could use more tactile stops.

The Bottom Line The Lensbaby Twist 60 lens can add some well-rendered novelty to your photos and video.

I love a new Lensbaby: having an oddball lens to shoot with while neck deep testing cameras with “normal” lenses really makes a nice break. And I had a blast with the Twist 60, designed to reproduce the idiosyncratic characteristics of the 1890’s-era Petzval lens. It makes the center pop and renders out-of-focus areas with a lot of curvature, vignetting and color contouring. The resulting photos are fun and funky.

Lensbaby Twist 60 photo samples
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Unlike the other resurrection of the Petzval lens from Lomography, Lensbaby’s has a more conventional design (for them, at least) which just tries to reproduce the look of the photos rather than the feel of using it. That makes it really easy to use and a lot cheaper; plus, it’s available in full-frame Canon, Nikon and Sony E mounts, while Lomo’s is only Nikon-compatible.

It runs $180 without a Lensbaby mount (£160 in the UK, or when directly converted AU$235 in Australia) or $280 with a mount (£250; directly converted AU$360). As far as I can tell, though, it’s not yet announced for availability in Australia.

As the name denotes, the Twist 60 has a 60mm focal length, with a 12-bladed aperture that ranges from f2.5-f22 and a minimum focus distance of 18 inches/45.7 cm. The mount that comes bundled with it is basically a metal tube. If you buy it without, you can drop it into any of Lensbaby’s Optic Swap mounts. If you have a tilting version of the latter, Lensbaby says that you’ll get the best results with it in a nontilted position.

Astronaut becomes the first person to finish a marathon in space

British astronaut Tim Peake hasn’t been shy about his plans to complete a marathon while aboard the International Space Station, and he’s clearly a man of his word. The explorer became the first person to finish a marathon in space on April 24th by running the 26.2 miles of the London Marathon on a treadmill aboard the spacecraft, in sync with the race down on Earth. Of course, he had to fudge things a bit to replicate the experience — he used an iPad to show London’s roads as he ran, and he had to be strapped in to keep running in the microgravity environment.

Peake didn’t set any speed records. He finished in 3 hours and 35 minutes, which was well behind winner Eliud Kipchoge’s 2 hours and 3 minutes. The time also trailed behind the 3 hours, 18 minutes that Peake set as a personal best while on terra firma. Mind you, the astronaut probably isn’t about to complain. Whatever setbacks he encountered running on the ISS are peanuts compared to a historic achievement like this, especially when it proves that you can endure grueling physical tests in space.

Source: Reuters

Dutch police seize a secure communications network

The worries about criminals using encryption might be overblown, but that changes when a secure network appears to be used primarily with that activity in mind. Dutch police have both seized encrypted communications network Ennetcom and arrested its owner, Danny Manupassa, over beliefs that the business was being used for organized crime. Reportedly, many of the 19,000-plus users used the company’s modified BlackBerry phones as part of “serious criminal activity,” including drug trafficking and gang murders. Manupassa himself is accused of money laundering and possessing illegal weapons.

At the moment, Ennetcom portrays itself as a victim: a notice on its website decries an “international collaboration” between governments in an attempt to silence a defender of “freedom of privacy.” It also makes no mention of the seizure, and implies that any shutdown was necessary.

While it’s true that law enforcement is sometimes less than sympathetic to encryption, that isn’t necessarily the problem here. It’s more a matter of how that network was used, and how much its owner knew about what was going on with his customers. There’s a good chance that many users are innocent, but that may not matter much if the network operator either condoned the sketchier customers or was involved in shady behavior of his own.

Via: Reuters

Source: Ennetcom

Ben Heck’s mechanical TV, part 2

Welcome back for part two of the Nipkow Disc Mechanical Television build! We have the motors and vinyl set up, and now it’s time for the electronics and light box. Felix gets to grips with Linux and checks the duty cycles with an oscilloscope and multimeter. Now that we’ve reached our conclusion, Ben and Karen tear the project down and discuss what might come next. Have thoughts on what you would have done differently? Tell the team on the element14 Community page.

Acer Aspire S13 preview: Slim and suitably priced

When it comes to luxe laptops there are an increasing number vying for your attention – but all too often they cost a grand. Not so the Acer Aspire S13 which, starting at €699, is poised to take on the likes of the MacBook Air, Dells and HPs of this world. But can it truly keep up?

The Aspire S13 has some well thought-out touches to its design. The lid has a nano-imprint pattern that glistens when it catches light, diamond-cut edges are most pominent around the device’s trackpad, while a polished aluminium hinge adds some character.

It’s a slim machine at 14.8mm thick, undercutting even the MacBook Air. Slim means light, too, with a starting weight of 1.3kgs (that increases a touch for touchscreen tech and extras) ensuring this is an easily portable 13-inch machine. It’s not mega-tough, though, as there’s a little flex in that super-slim screen/lid panel.

Despite all these big words and lovely sounding materials, though, the Pearl White finish we saw felt like a middling effort. It’s not the unibody aluminium design of the MacBook Air that this Acer will be so readily compared to.

Pocket-lint

The S13 we handled came with a touchscreen to command Windows 10, which had plenty of brightness and decent viewing angles thanks to the IPS technology. Its 1920 x 1080 resolution isn’t the highest on the market, but Full HD for €699 is nothing to shake a stick at.

The trackpad is smooth to the touch and supports touch gestures, while the keyboard feels naturally spaced, offers back-lighting, but not the most satisfying travel of a keyboard we’ve ever used.

Under the hood there’s the capacity for a top-end 6th-gen Intel Core i processor and up to 8GB RAM. Want to spend just €699? You’ll be getting a Core i3U processor for such cash.

Other specs included full-size USB 3.0 port, HDMI out, decent 11a/c Wi-Fi and Dolby Audio. Battery life is said to hold out for 13-hours per charge thanks to a 54Wh battery, although we suspect this will be less with more powerful loadouts inside.

Overall the Acer Aspire S13 has some well considered design elements, but fails to feel super-premium when handled. Which is befitting of its price point, really: the S13 is a beacon of potential in the mid-level market rather than the MacBook Air-beater it so wants to be. But take it for that and there’s plenty to please from this slender and suitably priced laptop.