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Ok… this one is easier and there are plenty of ways to cheat so… we’ll get some answers this time!!! MAKE ME PROUD!!!
Which picture was taken at latitude 29°54′19.89″S and longitude 71°16′27.38″W???

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So who’s stumped?  *Sees the sea of waving hands*  Well if I was stuck looking for something I’d look where else??? GOOGLE! Not the search engine though… I wouldn’t pick something that obvious.

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Well… Barbatobox got it.  Nice work and yes… you can go into Google Earth and specify coordinates in when you “Place Marker” or whatever it’s called (I can’t verify it now but trust me… it’s there).  Congrats… now I’ll have to think of my next obnoxiously hard trivia question.  Thanks for playing!!!

So the answer to the trivia question is because the sensors in digital cameras cost so much to manufacture the first companies to make digital cameras took the sensors from video cameras which shot at 4:3 to best fit a standard TV screen.  I know the manufacturing costs have gone down but it would be somewhat pointless to create sensors for different aspect ratios when the camera (or Photoshop) can crop and artificially create whatever ratio is needed.

No one got though a few got close.  I’ll think of something easier for next time.

Ok… so #2 coming at ya.

A camera’s sensor (the digital part that replaced film) is the most expensive part of the camera.  About 75% of the camera’s cost goes to this one part and that was one of the first big hurdles manufacturers had to overcome… how to make a digital camera affordable enough that they will actually sell.

So that leads us back to the question… why would a digital camera use a 4:3 ratio (the sensor decides the ratio)???

Ok… I’ve heard a few good guesses but let’s see if I can put a few more people on the right track.

There are really 2 points that might give away the answer.  The 1st is the ratio.  4:3 is a VERY common ratio and used in a few things that everyone reading this has at least one of and probably uses it daily.

If you can figure out the relevance of the 4:3 ratio the only part left to figure out is why the hell someone would think it’s a good idea to use that ratio in a digital camera.

Point #2 will come next week sometime unless someone gets it in the meantime. 

After last post I thought I’d toss out a trivia question.  I’m debating on what the “prize” would be (if any…) but I’ll leave up the question until July 1 to see if anyone gets it.

Old school cameras aka… film cameras… shot pics in a 2:3 ratio but today’s digitals shoot pics in a 4:3 ratio (some cameras have a 2:3 setting to get that ratio but it’s not actually shooting that ratio… the camera is just cropping the image immediately rather than when you print it).  You’ll notice it mostly when you print them because some of the pic always gets chopped off.

So the question is why on earth would digital cams shoot in a ratio that requires cropping to fit frames that have traditionally worked well with film pics, especially since digital cams are newer technology???

Good luck… suckas.  Email me your guesses at ryan.hahn@wheresmymind.net