Tip for bash users: Control-r allows you to search your history for specific lines you've used in the past. After hitting control-r, you'll see a prompt like this:

(reverse-i-search)`':

Start typing what you're looking for, and the most recent matching command will appear after the prompt. Hit enter to run that command.

If you want to go back earlier than the command currently on the line, keep hitting control-r to cycle through matches in your history.

It seems like it's been awhile since I've read any good news about Flickr. Usually, it's news that some user got shafted, some employees laid off, or that some newcomer is putting yet another nail in Flickr's coffin. But BetaBeat has an article mentioning a new makeover that's coming soon, and that sounds great to me. As a long-time Flickr user, I'll admit that I've looked around at other services, but I've stuck with Flickr so far. Let's hope that this makeover, and the changes that they've suggested might be coming throughout 2012, revitalize the site a bit.

It looks like Kodak is getting out of the camera business, along with several other not-profitable ones. It continues to be a sad time; hopefully the focus will see them come out the other side with a solid business.

While discussing the SB-N5 Speedlight for the Nikon V1, I mentioned it had a tendency to overexpose when directly used to light a subject. That's been fixed in the latest firmware, 1.11, so go get it. Good news, although I sure wish they'd release a firmware update to fix a couple of the usability issues with the camera, particularly the image review in single-shot and the slow shutter speeds the camera favors in Auto ISO. Those two issues are the ones that still annoy me after using the camera for awhile now. That said, I'm still loving the V1.

I had a blog idea written down to discuss the relatively broken nature of the "previous track" button in iTunes, but Marco Arment beat me to it. His is better than mine would have been anyway, so consider this a hearty "+1" from me.

A key bit:

Stop making the “Previous Track” button behave like it does on CD players, where tapping it first brings you to the beginning of the current track, and tapping it again within a short time goes to the previous track. Even on CD players, that was often annoying.

Instead, make it behave just like the “Next Track” button in reverse: always just seek to the previous track. If the previous track is bookmarkable, resume from its last-played position, and if not, play it from the beginning.

The Economist has an excellent article on Kodak, including it's recent history. Of much interest is the great comparison with Fuji, a company that was in much the same shape as Kodak going into the digital revolution, but took a much different path.

A little while ago, I posted my thoughts on the meme that DSLRs are dying, which were mostly a reaction to Trey Ratcliff's article about the same. I was interested to read that David "Strobist" Hobby is seemingly heading the other direction, to medium format. He says he's not done with the "35mm" format, but that he's limiting his investment there in favor of bigger sensors. Interesting times.

In my case, I find medium format interesting, but too expensive right now. Especially with DSLRs getting so much better every generation, I don't feel the need to step up, and my existing investment in Nikon glass feels like the right place to have my money tied up.

If anything, I've been pondering whether or not to sell my D700 while I can still get a decent resale price for it, and see what the long-rumored D800 brings. With the V1 filling in for the everyday camera, I would love to have my DSLR be a high-resolution monster. I guess I have to decide about that soon, but I'm still definitely committed to the F-mount for this generation of cameras.

Ryan Brenizer has a succinct review of the new Nikon SB-910 Speedlight. It looks like a great speedlight, as expected, except for the new $100 added to the price. The best new "feature" of the SB-910, for me, is that it convinced a bunch of people to sell of their SB-900s to upgrade. My SB-900 has been great, so I picked up a second one in excellent condition on the used market for $300.

I mentioned earlier that Kodak was planning to file for Chapter 11 protection, and they've now done it. The Online Photographer has a good write-up and comments section discussing the company.

The camera pictured there, the Instamatic, was also my first camera; it was a hand-me-down/gift from my grandparents, and I loved it. It, along with a Polaroid they later gave me, certainly ignited my interest in photography. I was recently trying to describe to my wife, the nostalgic romance the black-and-white darkroom holds for me, even though the plain fact that I'll never go back to it from digital printing. The thought of the smells of Kodak chemicals certainly trigger fond memories (a strange concept to someone who doesn't know what I'm referring to, I know), and I'm sad that Kodak will clearly never again be the same. Hopefully they can find a way to restructure and reinvent themselves into something lasting and relevant again.

OK, OK, enough with the photography/camera posts for a minute. ;)

Some shows I particularly enjoy are coming back soon, so I thought I'd give them a shout.

Justified is back tonight on FX. The first season was fun, but far too cartoony. The second, however, was really good. It had better pacing, a wider cast of characters, and just a little more believability (I mean, Raylon can't shoot people that often, can he?). But just a little; it still had plenty of action. Here's hoping that season 3 is as good.

Another guilty pleasure, Cougar Town comes back on Valentine's Day (evening, really). I really didn't expect to like this show, given the original pitch, but it quickly turned into a comedy that Val and I enjoy watching. I'm glad it survived and that it's back. I hope it keeps going and maybe finds a little more popularity.

Last, and certainly not least, the season 5 premiere of Mad Men will air on March 25th. I don't need to say much here, I don't think. I'll be watching.

Tangentially related, I finally caught up on Doctor Who last night. I've still got the last episode rumbling around in my head, but I think I'm a little disappointed. I think the "big question" could be a fun thread to explore, but I felt a little cheated by "The Silence" and the resolution to the Doctor's death. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I think the resolution wasn't clever enough, given the tremendous way the season started. That was quite a set-up to squander. That said, I think Matt Smith has really hit his stride with the character and made it his own. I wouldn't mind seeing his split with Amy and Rory become permanent, though; it feels as if there's not a lot new to mine there, and this is a natural breaking point.

I ended up at Vlad Dodan's blog after following a link to his hands-on preview of the Fuji X-Pro1. Not many people have had a chance to shoot with one, so I found this of particular interest. It's a good read, so you should check it out if you're generally interested in the camera. If you've been reading me, you'll know that I'm worried that the Fuji's AF won't be up to snuff. Here's what Vlad had to say about it:

Auto-focus speed was decent. Not Nikon V1 fast but not too slow either. My biggest problem with the AF isn't the speed though. It's the fact that it hunts, and misses quite allot, if you're looking through the viewfinder. If you're using the back LCD it gets considerably better. (Still hunts but at least you can see if you have your subject in focus or not)

That sounds like the X100 to me, and it was a deal-breaker. There's some really good stuff in there, too:

The viewfinder is the main character of the show and If you loved the one on the X100, the new (v.2) will bring you joy.

That's great, since I thought the viewfinder was one of the best things about the X100, so I'm happy to read this. These days, I've pretty much decided that I'm not going to be in the market for the Fuji, though. Not because I bought the V1, but because the Fuji is too big. I think that for me to buy another system, it's going to have to be either significantly smaller than my Nikon DSLR system, or significantly better. Sounds like the Fuji has a way to go on either score, but I'm super-happy to see that they're trying, and I think they'll have a lot of success going the route they're headed.

I decided to poke around on Vlad's blog a bit, since I'd never read it before. It turns out that he also did a preview of the Nikon 1 V1 that I find to be accurate and fair. I can't tell from the post when it was published, but if it was near the launch, that's a lot better than how most people were reacting to the Nikon 1 system at the time.

Speaking of useful F-mount lenses on the Nikon 1 V1, I spent some time this weekend playing around with the 50mm f/1.4 on the V1. With an angle-of-view equivalent to a 135mm lens in 35mm terms, the 50mm is a fun focal length. It's a good portrait lens, especially with the shallow depth-of-field the fast lens affords. The overall physical package is appealing too: it's certainly bigger than you'd generally want for a compact set-up, but is still small for the reach and speed the combo provides. The extra glass feels pretty well-balanced as a whole, and I really like the way it feels in the hand.

The lens is a sharp one on an FX camera, and it's also very good on a CX-sensor camera. The corners, which can get soft at f/1.4 on an FX camera, are no issue at all on the 1-series. With the camera set to use its electronic shutter and the sounds off, the 50mm did well for candid portraits that fill the frame well from across a table. The complete package is small and unassuming, especially from that distance, and the lack of sound really kept attention off of me while I shot.

I considered having an existing investment in Nikon lenses a minor plus in the Nikon 1 format's favor when considering whether or not to buy it, but the FT-1 is turning out to be a real boon for me. The V1 is a really fun camera to shoot with in any case, and the different personality of each lens that was already in my bag is proving to be more than just a nice side-benefit of the Nikon 1.