CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[CitroJim]

Yesterday was spent enjoying a bit of very sociable trail running with my fellow Spider Runners in a particularly picturesque bit of Hertfordshire

We visited the Queen Mum's memorial en-route

Saw a place that needs a bit of renovation..

And enjoyed some giant scones back at the café we used as our HQ

A great day out

[CitroJim]

And that's the July Citroenian A to Z column written and electronically despatched to the editor

I can relax for a bit now until it becomes necessary to dream up a bit of content for the August issue...

[MattBLancs]

The "spider runners" sounds like you specialise in, well not a "three legged race" but more so!

[CitroJim]

We spiders just specialise in social banter and eating cafes bare of food Running is secondary

[CitroJim]

I absolutely love this photo taken on one of my repaired cameras

I didn't love the job of loading the film into my developing tank The film (AgfaPhoto APX100) is extremely thin and curly which makes it difficult to handle. It took me three goes to get it loaded and in doing so I lost a couple of exposures

These Agfa films are very cheap and cheerful. Cheap for a good reason...

[myglaren]

Used Agfa for years (professionally) and always found it excellent. Better colour rendition tan Kodak with the exception of Kodachrome.

[CitroJim]

Used Agfa for years (professionally) and always found it excellent. Better colour rendition tan Kodak with the exception of Kodachrome.

The old Agfa was fine Steve... This 'new' Agfa is Agfa in name only - It's made in the UK by Harman, the company that makes Ilford and Kentmere film, chemicals and papers...

The old Agfa-Gevaert is long defunct as far as photography is concerned although they are still extant and active in other imaging fields.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agfa-Gevaert

[CitroJim]

It's taken a while and I'm very late to the party with this but better late than never I guess

I now have a dual display setup on my office PC

The big second display is in fact an old TV that's been unused, gathering dust and taking up valuable space in my bedroom. I was never again going to use it as a TV so I'm happy it's found a good second use...

I'm quite pleased, given this monitor is at last 15 years old, just how good a PC screen it makes In those 15 years it's seen hardly any use except a short time during lockdown when it was my bike Turbo Trainer display screen.

[mickthemaverick]

Does that laptop run on coal Jim? I see a VGA connector on the side

[CitroJim]

Does that laptop run on coal Jim? I see a VGA connector on the side

No, finest anthracite - I can't be doing with smoking in my office That's the HP Probook I bought on eBay from Jim in Brixworth. Runs Windows 11 beautifully

You do indeed see a VGA connector Mick and it does the job admirably. Both laptop and monitor have HDMI sockets and I'd be interested to see if that works but don't have a suitable cable.

If I thought it might be worth it I'd be tempted to splurge a fiver on an HDMI lead...

[mickthemaverick]

Interesting that Jim, I'm certain the HDMI would work but you may find an issue. HDMI ports can be controlled by the source and hence I found I couldn't connect live footy to the TV with HDMI as Sky were able to disable it but it worked fine using the VGA connection for video and a 3.5mm jack lead for the audio from the headphone socket!! That was all when trying to watch Sky footy in Majorca. I can bring you a lead to try next week if you like as I'm sure I have a spare

[myglaren]

You just made me wonder if I had a VGA port on my laptop and indeed I do.
Don't know what I would do with it though.
There are a load of monitors floating around here, I can't think why I would need more than one on the go at a time though.

This does for me and as many as required can be added.

(I previewed that, zoomed in on it then couldn't find my way out, clicking on the 'workspaces' there that weren't )

[CitroJim]

Interesting on the HDMI Mick...

I can bring you a lead to try next week if you like as I'm sure I have a spare

Thanks Mick That would be hugely appreciated... If it works I can then replace it for you

Don't know what I would do with it though.

Set it up and I'm sure you will Steve

The main reason I did it was to have a big screen for editing photos with good colour/tonal rendition. One thing with a laptop screen is how the colour perception and look of a displayed image changes significantly depending on the angle you view the screen. Using a big second screen obviates that and gives a constant, predictable and repeatable reference.

[myglaren]

I do very little Gimp-ing Jim and find the laptop screen adequate but agree that that is a good reason for the extra screens. I see some with multiple screens and often wonder why.

[CitroJim]

I do very little Gimp-ing Jim and find the laptop screen adequate but agree that that is a good reason for the extra screens. I see some with multiple screens and often wonder why.

I very rarely use Gimp these days Steve... I'm increasingly finding Raw Therapee (https://www.rawtherapee.com/) does 99.9% of what I need without all the Gimp quirks

Having a giant screen that is in reasonably good colour/grayscale calibration really is a game-changer when dealing with image manipulation