Ovidiu Predescu's Weblog

Hasselblad to discontinue XPan camera

It looks like Hasselblad is going to discontinue their panoramic Xpan cameras. The reason is a new European law that prevents manufacturers to use lead in their products. Ouch, I guess a number of cool products might disappear from the market because of this.

And I just got such a camera, it's a really cool camera. What a pitty! From here.

Snow in Bay Area

The last week we had a very unusual weather in the Bay Area. It started last week-end with some snow showers, and continued throughout the week, although mostly with rain.

Last night (Friday) we had rain and hail, followed by snow, while thunders were hitting the Santa Cruz Mountains. Highway 17 to Santa Cruz was closed because of the heavy snow that caused cars and big rigs to skid. Highway 280 to San Francisco was closed just north of hwy 92 because of the snow and poor visibility. San Francisco also got some snow, just enough to get people out playing.

This morning East Bay mountains were covered with snow, even more so than the days before. I decided to check out the snow there, and around 10am this morning I encountered snow at about 700 feet, according to my car's GPS. The road to the top of the mountain was closed because of the heavy snow that was on the road. The same road had been closed last Sunday, because of the snow that fell during the night.