RantMachine

Battery vent hose?

If you overdo it and something falls off you'll be able to borrow a torque wrench from me

You successfully change all the plugs, then wake up the next morning and suddenly realise that you own a Bandit

And therefore FUN and AWESOME

Put it this way - I'm at work at the moment, the camera and lens used to take the photos I'm editing right now would set you back as much as a brand new CBR125... Hell, thinking about it the contents of my camera bags are worth more than my bike would've been when it was brand new... A £29 flash is a drop in the ocean!

Begrudging spending more on a photographic setup when you're using a 350D and a £29 flash? You don't know you're born

Dakar. They don't just die, they get tortured along the way.

The Halfords 8-60nm one is £40 with the trade card, and does of course have a lifetime guarantee.

Ah, right - not as simple to work with as I'd hoped, but still achievable. Essentially the biggest benefit with taking the approach of overwhelming all other light is that you won't have to adjust the exposure on the camera as the ambient light changes. Also if you don't take this approach your photos will all have a mix of the colour temperature of the natural light, the artificial light from the building itself, and the flash. In theory the flash should be a close-ish match to the daylight, but not so much that you should rely on it giving consistent results when you use them together. And editing white balance on a few hundred images each with multiple colour temperatures it play is an utter bast*rd Yes, it'll be a pretty hefty flash each time it fires - but to be honest, one the sun starts to set it'll be pretty darn noticeable no matter how powerful it is. If you really want to spare everyone else from the flash, you could maybe look at hiring some kind of free standing curtain to go across the entrance to the alcove? But you'd need to be wary of people blundering into the screen and knocking the camera on the inside. Perhaps contact the venue and ask if the couch can be rotated 90 degrees? Then you could go for a setup a bit like this (if you get a second flash, which will hardly break the bank): Have the flash off to the side as your main flash, with a lot of diffusion on it as Phil was talking about. That way the majority of the light is being thrown away from the rest of the room, and you'll get nice catch lights and visually pleasing lighting. Plenty of guides online for DIY softboxes. The on camera flash is on a low power setting and with some diffusion, all it's doing is filling in the shadows that you'll get from having your main light off to the side. Plus if you take the slaved flash approach it'll be triggering the second flash, but I recommend the PC cord approach over this otherwise every camera used by a guest will set your flash off! Also, you're going to get some nasty flash reflections from those windows, especially in the evening. Might want to see about draping something behind the sofa, or getting a pull-up screen of some sort. A nice curtain or drape made from a dark red, blue, or purple velvet (or a similar material) will work wonders, if you can arrange one. Doesn't reflect any light back into the main part of the room and looks very classy if you intentionally ruffle it a little. I'm stupidly busy at work this week so can't waffle on as much as I'd like to, plus I hate typing out long winded explanations like this - it never works well in photography! Not adaptive enough, need to be able to roll with the punches faster than this allows. But these are all the kind of challenges I have to deal with at work so I know full well that whatever you want is ultimately achievable with enough persistence

There are far worse ways to go that dying while doing something you love, why take that away from people?

Any joy with it?

I don't think it's quite as bleak as Phil makes it out to be. He's got a very valid point about battery life, but there are a few ways to work around it. Option 1: you can get little things that look like AA batteries with a power cable dangling out and going to a wall socket. They don't recycle the flash as quickly as using decent batteries will, but then again your application is going to be more about endurance than speed, so these could be a tidy option. Assuming the flash has a ready light, it could be worth setting things up so that the people on the sofa can see it so they know when the camera is ready to go. Option 2: If there's a way of setting it up so that the flash itself is safe from collision with tipsy guests, I could loan you on of my Bowens flash heads. Free standing, all the bells and whistles, mains powered, and a lot more output than your little flash. With regards to exposure metering, it's just going to be a case of sticking it in manual and throwing enough flash at the subject that the ambient light doesn't factor into the equation. This applies to the colour temperature of your shots too - if the flash isn't providing near 100% of the light for the exposure you'll get a nasty mix of colours in there. Depending on the environment you're using it in, the little flash you've got might struggle to do all this. At full power it'll cope fairly well with overpowering ambient artificial lighting, so setting it up away from direct sunlight is a good call. If this is going to have a space or room to itself, blacking out the windows (binliners & masking tape then draw the curtains to hide the mess) and replacing the light bulb with a low wattage will be a big help, or screening off the area somehow. I have a light meter somewhere which could also be handy for getting the lighting set up, if I can actually find it... Just drop me a PM if you want to organise something, I'm sure I can make time to help out I'm just hoping he'll rock up on one of the bikes, I've forgotten what a working one looks like

Also I can probably be a big help with working out how best to carry off the booth itself, mobile studios and booths are kinda our company's thing, and I designed the current generation. Must be doing somethin right for us to have 200 of the things booked in a single fortnight next month

Are you still working in Cambridge? If some constructive suggestions and practical assistance would be of use while you get to grips, I could go over your options with you some time if you bring the kit over my way after work one day. I already spend my entire working life doing this sort of thing, so what harm will a few extra hours do?

That'd be consistent with the 660Z problem then, I know it was 2008-2009 models that suffered from that the most. Maybe check the connections to see if they're corroded - even if it's located a bit more sensibly than it is on the Tenere, it'll probably have the same not-so-great connectors.

Which model year is your bike? I know the first couple of years of the XT660Z had some nasty reg/rec problems wherein the connector breaks apart over time and they stop feeding power back to the battery, intermittently at first. Unless the 660R has the reg/rec in a slightly more sensible place than the Z (ie. not directly in the spray of the front wheel), that could be your problem.

Makes a change If (or should that be when?) my BMW fails its MOT and I have to get to the rally in a car, does that mean my costume is you?

They tend to lean towards German bikes, too

Geneva is well worth a visit, as is pretty much anywhere in the Canton of Bern but Kandersteg in particular. Helsinki is also well worth a trip. Lovely city, lots to see, very friendly people and awesome food. Tinned bear and wolf on a market stall amused me greatly - wasn't blown away by the taste of wolf or the price of bear, though

That settles it then, take a blowtorch and stick his hands together. Only way to be sure!

In my mind, a punishment shouldn't be made to be considerate of his future employment or family planning. After all, he may not have been driving with the intention of killing someone, but he was certainly driving in a way that didn't make consideration for others. If he gets a job in another town, he can get the train. If he gets a job in the same town, he can cycle. If the kind of job he wants necessitates having his own means of transport, tough luck - I hear McDonalds are hiring. If he has a family, they can all get the train. Karma is a bitch

Bollocks to that, a 1 litre can still kill someone if the driver is enough of a twat. Limit him to 50cc and public transport. That'll get him to and from any job, he just has to choose between looking like a twat or paying over the odds.

We all need friends like that guy!