Hal MacLean

I’ll keep this one brief. If you are at all looking for a lens in the 18-50 range, this one should be all you need. I use it on my D200 and love it. Fast, crisp and versatile. I used it for a wedding recently and found I didn’t need to change the lens at all, but did have to move in closer to the subjects. I used it at a conference recently and found it coped pretty well with the very low light levels. I love the crispness of the image and whilst I can see some slight vignetting in the corners at each end of the zoom range, it is not significant enough to make me stop using it. Go and try it yourself - make sure it is the HSM version, and you won’t be disappointed.

I am now wondering about the 18-200 lens I have written about previously… this new one knocks spots off it at equivalent zoom range, so I might well be looking to replace the older one. Maybe I ought to try the Nikkor 18-200 VR lens… anyone managed to get hold of one for less than £500, and if so, what do you think of it?

I’ll start by saying I don’t actually mind people using a phone on a train. In fact, I’d prefer people spoke than sat in silence, even if the speaking is to an unseen recipient in a conversation. I also think there are times when a phone on a train is essential, particularly at those busy times when you need to be in touch for work reasons but have to travel to meetings by train.

I’m not worried so much about the London Underground or any other tube based train system. I kind of expect not to be able to use my phone on those. They are, for the most part, underground! I realise that in the Dartford Tunnel you can get a radio signal in your car, but in a tube train you can’t. ’nuff said.

What I really, honestly, absolutely can’t understand is why overground trains have such exceptionally poor reception for mobile phone signals. Even when the train is running through a massively open area, and phone masts are in plain view, my phone struggles to get a signal. Perhaps the train was going too fast… (err, ok, perhaps not).

So here’s my idea and this should work on any electrically powered train.

If the trains had mobile phone ‘base stations’ in each carriage, capable of handling the numbers of phones in use, and those base stations were connected to the overhead cables, surely the cables could be used to carry the data signal to a repeater station that then linked to the main cellular network? It seems as if this isn’t possible - I can’t be the first to think of it, and I’m sure some phone companies will have investigated why this isn’t possible. I’d like to know where I can read about it all and find out why it isn’t possible. If I am the first, and it turns out it *is* possible, then why the heck hasn’t it happened yet?

OK, I’ll come clean. I was on a journey from London Euston to Preston in Lancashire on Friday (yesterday). We went right through the middle of the country, via Milton Keynes, Wigan and so on. I needed to make one five minute call, but it took over an hour to complete with all of the dropped signals and nonsense I had to contend with. I was really quite agitated by it all, and I can’t be the only one to have suffered in this way.

Is anyone doing any research into this, or a feasibility study? I’d love to be involved.

I had to pass on my thoughts about this company after they produced some pull up banners for the YHGfL ‘Virtually There’ project launch.

We were asked to create six banners for the day, about four days before the actual event. This is pretty tight to do, but fortunately the artwork was quite simple. I contacted Fastsigns to check that they could produce the banners in time.

They could, and did so at a very reasonable price. I gave the artwork to them on a DVD late on a Thursday afternoon. The signs were ready on the following Monday. Personally, I think that’s pretty good going!

So thanks, Fastsigns - the work was excellent, the client was pleased and the signs helped make the event look good, too. I’d certainly recommend anyone looking for a signmaking company to contact Fastsigns in Chelmsford:

FASTSIGNS^®
6 Victoria Court
Victoria Rd
Chelmsford, Essex  CM1 1GP
England

Tel: 01245-350450
Fax: 01245-280022
863@fastsigns.com