Planes, cameras, and automobiles

Do you want to carry one camera that is excellent at almost every kind of photography, including portraits, landscapes, children running around, wildlife (including birds in flight), macro, etc? The Sony RX10 IV does it all The lens is sharp at all focal lengths and all f stops. Quite incredible. Summary (see below for more details): Has an incredible 24-600 mm equivalent lens The lens has a very bright aperture range of f2.4-4 The lens is very sharp throughout its zoom range The camera is super versatile: landscapes, portraits, wildlife, fast action... No changing lenses Has great 4K video Has a built-in flash Has very fast autofocus (with tracking) Is water resistant Shoots RAW files, which provide a much better image quality than jpegs No need to use the menu for anything (this is really an amazing, underappreciated, and misunderstood feature) Can shoot 24 frames per second, which is crazy   More details: This camera is great for all situations: kids, animals, travel, etc. ...

This review was updated in November 2024       Intro to electric vehicles (EVs) This may be a good time to switch from internal combustion engine (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs) for a lot of people. Good reasons to buy/own an EV: They can be super fun to drive. A Tesla can be as fast and handle as well as some super cars. The acceleration and cornering are a lot of fun. They are much cheaper to run, if you charge them at home and your electric rates are not very high. In Seattle, it costs 2.5-3 cents per mile to run our EVs (10 cents per kWh). Our gas SUVs used to cost us about 20 cents per mile, when you include the fuel and scheduled maintenance. Please check your rates to get accurate numbers. They are super easy to operate. In our busy lives, even going to a gas station can be a chore. With an EV, pull into your garage and plug it in. There is no scheduled maintenance, ever. No oil changes, no tune-ups, no timing belts, etc. You will not even need brak...

  If you are curious about the cost savings provided by electric cars, below are some numbers I calculated for 100,000 miles driven.  Besides the cost savings, electric cars have other advantages that should not be overlooked. I outline some of them in this article .   Tesla Model Y and Lexus RX350     Nissan Leaf and Nissan Sentra Assumptions Electric car is charged at home Cost of electricity: 10 cents per Kwh. This is a flat rate in Seattle, but it ranges from 4-30, depending on the state and time of day. Average efficiency of Tesla Y (291 Wh/mile) and Nissan Leaf (275 Wh/mile) is 283 Wh/mile. No unscheduled maintenance Gas car is provided with regular maintenance (oil changes and tune-ups) Batteries and tires are not included, as they would be the same for both types of cars  Average gas price as of Sept 2022 is $3.7 The gasoline car does not use premium or diesel fuel Oil changes are every 5,000 miles and cost $80 Tune-ups are every 30,000 miles an...

 Updated in December 2024   I have a 2021 Model Y Long Range (here is my mini review of it) with 20" wheels. After 26,000 miles on my original Goodyear F1 tires, it was time to replace them.  Summary: The Pirelli P zero all season (AS) ELECT tires dramatically improved the ride quality and road noise, while improving efficiency. If I had spent several grand for a suspension upgrade, I would not expect to see this kind of a ride quality improvement. In summary, compared to the stock tires (Goodyear F1): Ride quality is much better (I no longer avoid bumps/holes I used to avoid) Road noise is reduced by 20% (measurements shown below) Efficiency is better (see below) Handling is not quite as good (the car leans a bit more in the corners) The traction is not as good, but still very good (some may call it playful)   Trade-offs you have to make when you buy tires: Tires have two main features: Traction/rolling resistance. On the one extreme, you have very grippy, ru...