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**SeabreezeDetailing** · Oct 28, 2005, 01:25 PM

Holy cow Batman, Jeff Smith needs a new camera!!!

Looks good from what I can see!

**Jeff Smith** · Oct 28, 2005, 01:36 PM

Originally posted by SeabreezeDetailing
Holy cow Batman, Jeff Smith needs a new camera!!!

Looks good from what I can see!

Hehe, Thanks. I am gonna play with this camera a bit more. I played with various settings today. Might take another stab at it tomorrow.

I tried my best to keep the out of these particular shots. I knew the thing was gonna be bright enough without the sun glare. There are some more pics in the gallery with the sun. White sur does not show it like the darker colors though. I tired and tried to get some close up full on sun shots to show the lack of anyswirling as the result of the recent work I did but They were all so super bright you could not really make out if swirls were there or not.

I was so tied up trying to get good pics of the truck I had not even noticed my little helper had managed to weasel into a couple.

**SpoiledMan** · Oct 28, 2005, 01:44 PM

Yeah, looks good from what I can see. Give the "auto" mode a try on the camera.

**SeabreezeDetailing** · Oct 28, 2005, 03:28 PM

Jeff,

How do you like the Ridgeline so far? When I first heard Honda was making a truck, I was very skeptical. How's it working out for you? There are a few around here. Oh yeah, I like the rims.

**RamAirV1** · Oct 28, 2005, 03:45 PM

Last picture came out the best. Focus was better on it.
What digicam are you using?

Are you shooting in macro focusing mode?

Make sure you didn't accidentally turn the AF off.

RamAirV1

**Jeff Smith** · Oct 28, 2005, 03:53 PM

Originally posted by SpoiledMan
Yeah, looks good from what I can see. Give the "auto" mode a try on the camera.

I tried it several ways and tried to keep track of what pics were taken in what mode. Mostly I just switched in/out of macro mode.

**Jeff Smith** · Oct 28, 2005, 04:09 PM

Originally posted by SeabreezeDetailing
Jeff,

How do you like the Ridgeline so far? When I first heard Honda was making a truck, I was very skeptical. How's it working out for you? There are a few around here. Oh yeah, I like the rims.

I love the thing. Bought in in June and have not been back to the dealer since. I never was much of a "CAR" person before owning this thing. But I started getting so many compliments on it I got kind of addictied to them. So then I got into the detailing enthusiast craze and the comments keep on coming.

But specifically about the truck/car/thing, It's great. I hade a big F-250 XLT Larriet with a 460 in it. 4WD and all the bells in whistles. but never really had a need for anything thig big and powerful. So I went for this thing. Plenty of pep. Very comfortable ride. almost crlike but still has that stiffness and rigidity I like to see in a 4WD.

To look at it one does not think it could be a 1/2 ton truck. but when you look at the specs the bed capacity is something like 1170# (working from memeory here). I bought a new Craftsman 26 HP rider mower and when they were loading it I hustled around to the side of the truck to see how far it would drop. After it bounced a time or 2 I could not see that it dropped at all. And for the ride home, It was like it wasn;t even on there. That was about the biggest load I see myself dealing with for the forseeable future, so I am happy there. Plus, being able to lay a 4' wide piece of plywood in the bed, flat, was a good point foe me. It will hang over the end of the tailgate a foot or so but that is doable as long as it lays down.

Lots more plusse but I'll not get into it more than that unless someone has a specific question.

On the Negative side:
The back window is a power sliding window (which is good), but, I don;t care if it's just morning dew on the roof, you had better not open that window as every drop of it will be all over the leather seats in the back. The models with the power moonroof don;t seem to be prone to this.

The composite bed marrs up very easily. Not deep scratchews perdsay, but every little scatch turms a brilliant white. One of my near term projects in going after this for a fix.

Turning radio was surprising wide considering the size. I catch myslef making a U- turn and soon realize I need to do a 3 point turn around.

I like the rims as well. Those are the first Chrome rims I ever bought. Thankfully I fell in here at about the sam,e time I bought them so I was able to start off on the right foot as far as proper care goes.

**Jeff Smith** · Oct 28, 2005, 04:18 PM

Originally posted by RamAirV1
Last picture came out the best. Focus was better on it.
What digicam are you using?

Are you shooting in macro focusing mode?

Make sure you didn't accidentally turn the AF off.

RamAirV1

It's a Kodak DX3600

Some shots were in macro

Did not turn AF off. Sure of that as I would have had to open that feature up in the menu and I know I did not.

I think one of my problems was when switching in/out of macro mode I was catching myself just pointing and shooting. After I took about 30% of the pics I realized I wasn't waiting for the little light to quit blinking telling me the camera was ready to shoot. So I don't think I was allowing the Auto mode enough time to make whatever adjustments it needed to make. Can you tell I am not Camera Savy???

But, I have a few good suspicions where mistakes were made and I have another old beater Geo that I am gearing up to start practicing with the Rotary on. I think you can see it in a couple of the shots. I hope to make a big project out of that and can apply what I learned today and make improvements. I plan on taking my sweet time and hope to grab multiple pictures of each step and posting. Kind of a newbie rotary user type of thread.

Whaddya know Come to MOL for Camera training now as well.

**xs2k** · Nov 7, 2005, 10:36 AM

Wow, your car is brand new and you have that much stuff on it?

Looks good!!!

**Jeff Smith** · Nov 7, 2005, 11:01 AM

Originally posted by xs2k
Wow, your car is brand new and you have that much stuff on it?

Looks good!!!

Oh trust me buddy, It's not as much as it might seem. I do alot of polishing, I'd bet I have taken off quite a bit of the original layering. Not doing it so much for the protoection aspect as for the experience. I figure winter is coming and now is a good tme for me to play. I do several applications of a glaze or wax until I have a "decent" grasp of the characteristics of that particular product. Then i move on to another. I figure while I am new to all this and my enthusiasm level is still high, I can focus that energy into the learning aspect and become very familiar with the various products that Meg's offers so that when I hit other folks' vehicles I am familiar with the product, what it can do and how to correctly apply it. I have likely used it on my own finish first and am not learning on someone else's vehicle.

Plus, as most most folks state. There is no scientific evidence that supports the theory the layering wax beyond a certain point is doing much. Do I see a major difference, at this point, between one product and another? Not really. Do I think I am adding any additional protection? Hope so but not depending on it.

Again, it's the learnng thing I am after. Sitting here now wainting for a coat of Gold Class to set up before removal. I applied a coat yesterday on top of #7. Looked great but wanted to get a second coat on today. Too pretty to stay indoors. I think #26 is coming up soon, likely in the next few weeks.

Thanks for the compliment. When folks ask what I use the first words out of my mouth is "ELBOW GREASE".

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'06 Honda Ridgeline

'06 Honda Ridgeline

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