The weekend rolled around again, so I dropped by Akiba this week too. There’s always some kind of event going on in Akiba on weekends, which makes it fun. It’s a neighborhood I need to visit regularly.
Now that I’m here, first things first: food.
Chabuya, a ramen shop in the Gourmet Court on the 8th floor of Yodobashi
The owner seems to be a bit of a celebrity. Apparently he’s even opened branches overseas.
Ajitama tonkotsu ramen
Pretty ordinary for all the hype. The ramen shop near my place serves something at least this good (then again, maybe my neighborhood is the weird one). I should have just gone to Koumen. Next time I’ll have to hunt down somewhere else that’s good.
Belly full, time to move on.
Today was the day of the hands-on event for Pentax’s new cameras, the K20D/K200D, held at a place called Akihabara UDX. While Canon and Nikon keep announcing great bodies, Pentax has been floundering a bit lately. I was curious to see what kind of camera they’d be releasing.
Sample prints on display at the entrance
Maybe it’s the 14.6 megapixels, but even blown up large the breakup wasn’t very noticeable. Good resolution too… There was probably some Photoshopping involved, but even allowing for that, the new camera’s resolution looks pretty decent.
The other side
These ones are in color. At a size this big the details get mushy… not that it bothered me much.
The event hall
Quite a crowd. And I was surprised by how many old men there were.
There were all kinds of events.
They clearly put a lot of preparation into the event. Lots of chances to actually try the cameras, and lots to see.
An event where they print out the test shots you take…
I tried the K200D. It has more features than the one I use, but the results were the worst. Soft focus, and the white balance was a mess. I couldn’t tell if the shake reduction was even working… The organizers set it up and handed it to me, and this is what I got? It made me wonder if these guys were out of their minds. I thought it might be the kit lens, but even when I swapped in my own lens later, it didn’t get much better. I know it’s not really fair to judge only from what’s on the LCD, but the poor LCD quality is something I really don’t like either. What’s the point of skimping on the screen…
I played with the K20D too, but it was nothing special. It’s got live view now, but since you can’t check the focus with it, it’s actually more of a hassle.
A model
Well… this is about the limit with the 31mm lens. The 85 is heavy, so I haven’t been carrying it lately, and I really regretted it. From now on I’m never taking it out of my bag.
I walked out pretty disappointed with the K20D/K200D. They’re supposed to go on sale in early March, but I’m not that interested anymore. I’ll have to seriously consider switching to Canon or Nikon. (If I switch, it’d have to be the 5D, right… but it’s just so big…)
Street scene in Akihabara
Well, Akiba has always been a neighborhood full of creepy otaku guys and off-kilter loli characters.
Walking along, I happened on a place displaying the MacBook Air, so I went in and had a play.
It really is thin, but it’s big. So can you really call it portable… The keyboard feel isn’t bad, but I’m not happy with the screen resolution. At that size they could have fit something like 1440×960. Beyond that, it’s missing so many features it’s almost ridiculous. If a 1920×1600 MacBook Pro came out at around 2 kg, I’d consider buying one as a desktop replacement, but the MacBook Air didn’t tempt me at all.
After trying the MacBook Air, it was chilly, so I looked around a little more and headed straight home. There’ll be more events once the weather warms up, so I’ll just have to wait for spring to hurry up and come.