Matthew Buchanan (Home)

Nearly forgot: the 33rd America’s Cup starts tonight in Valencia and will be decided by next weekend. No New Zealand boats are competing due to the change in race format, but there are at least half a dozen kiwis competing across both the US and Swiss crews. Might well be a yawnfest, but have a read of Alinghi’s tech specs:

Its canting mast is the equivalent height of a 17-storey building and withstands compression comparable to 50 SUVs balanced on a foundation the size of a tennis ball.

Not to be outdone, BMW Oracle’s trimaran has an optional wing sail that is more than twice the area of a Boeing 747’s wing, the largest of its type ever fitted to a racing yacht.

The overhauled Leica M8.2 digital rangefinder camera, where “important attributes such as discretion, intuitive work and robustness have been further improved”. (via Uncrate)

MacBook x-rayed. (via Aja West)

Justin Ouellette:

Best Photokina ever. Nikon has a new 50mm, a length which has been out of fashion for a long time but has always been my favorite, so it’s neat to see it enjoying a bit of a resurgence (due in no small part, I imagine, to its moderate telephoto character on cropped sensors). Kind of sad to see them continuing down the path of lenses with no aperture rings, but I guess technology marches forward. Canon’s aspheric 1.2L is still the main object of my 50mm lust, however. If someone made 50mm breakfast cereal I’d eat it.

The new 50mm 1.4 has a silent wave motor, so its autofocus will work on Nikon’s baby SLRs, the D40, D40x and D60.