How plain the original Japanese R2 is, compared to the bootleg, isn't it? This disc has just four episodes and costs 5040 Yen. That's around US$40. (Jun 2003: each disc is now 4800 Yen.) The bootleg boxset cotains four discs, with forty-eight episodes (half the series), and costs only S$80 (~US$45).
The temptation is great, I tell you. :-)
I should mention that after 3 years, I have bought 14 DVDs. Still have 10 more to go! When I am done with Maison Ikkoku, let's see how long I take to finish Ranma 1/2! *grin*
I didn't want the DVD and the CD casing to overlap, but I guess I didn't do a good job.
In case you were wondering whether the exposure settings are correct; yes, they are. This is because the camera itself records them (and more) -- with the time, even! The settings are transferred correctly to the webpages. This one is f/13, isn't it? :-)
I don't remember exactly why I use f/13 for this one, perhaps because this one was exceptionally close -- very close to the lens's minimum focusing distance (45 cm). I wanted the words on the disc to be readable, so a large DOF is required. However, the DOF is still not enough; the words are still not sharp. If only I have a shift/tilt lens! ;-)
I didn't use f/16 or smaller because of an unfounded fear of diffraction. Diffrrraction, what's that? Never mind, it's not important. To improve on this kind of shot, I need to take at three apertures to see the effect of the DOF. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough film to experiment.
In the original 1840 x 1232 image, the words on the back of the CD casing are easily readable -- even the smallest ones below the DVD info table. As for the ring of words on the rim of the DVD, only the closest ones are readable. The film (even an ISO 400 one) should have slightly more resolution than this, so it will be even better if it were scanned in using a 2820 dpi film scanner (my Minolta Scan Elite II, for example). This will result in a 4032 x 2688 image. The original scanned image is just a 2.16 Mpixel image, for goodness sake! (It is a very good 2.16 Mpixel image, I must admit.)
You may have noticed a white patch on the right of the DVD. That is the reflection of a film cansister I used to prop up the CD casing. The CD is propped up using another film cansister too. I have a bunch of these lying around; for what, I also have no idea. :-) I did check for reflections, but I didn't see any. :-( I suppose the angle-of-view matters.
Lens Minolta AF 50mm f/1.4. Aperture f/13. Shutter speed 1/3. 2-sec MLU. On tripod.