Knuckledragger

Nate, get a model that offers full manual control of aperture, shutter, ISO, exposure compensation and white balance (at least daylight/tungsten/flash). If you're looking for a Canon I'd investigate the premium S series (S95/S100/S110) over the G. The S has a faster lens (F/2) and while not as robustly built, it's not as ...brick-like as the G series. Lugging around a G gets annoying quickly. Like Blessingx, I have a 2002 vintage G2. Mine's IR-modified, because me. The S series have excellent LCD screens. I used a PowerShot G11 ...about 15 years ago and did not like the screen at all. The "other shoe" of this suggestion is that clean copies of PowerShot Ses cost more now than they did new. The new cameras that are are super popular are those goddamn Fuji X100 series models that every hateful "influencer" flogs are featured heavily on social media. The X100s are usually out of stock and always overpriced. I've seen the photo results and they're ...fine, but I'd rather read about a Kardashian plane crashian than use one ...what was I talking about again? Oh, yeah. Speaking of being an idiot with a camera, I got a combination that should not work to function a few days back. One of my muses is an Asahi Super-Takumar 35mm F/3.5 lens I got in a lot of old M42 primes I bought off eBay in 2007. It's a wacky design that goes back the late 50s, though my copy appears to be from the 70s. It's such a deeply flawed lens, it's hysterical. F/3.5 is a laughably small aperture for a 35mm prime. The back of the lens extends too far into the camera body so that it doesn't work with modern full frame models without using mirror lockup. It takes 49mm filters (I have an army of 52 and 58mms, and basically no 49s, because it's not 1977 and we don't wear rayon anymore.) The lens's aperture increments in full stops, because half stops are for suckers and third stops are unknown. It's not particularly sharp at any aperture setting and in fact is un-sharp in a very odd way. I think I mentioned a while ago I picked up a used 50D. It's a 2008 EF-S body and easily accommodates the Takumar. I used the combination quite a bit in early part of November: This time of year the sun spends most of its time on the horizon and produces very strong colors. I took this horizontal at the back edge of my property. It really illustrates what I like about the 35mm Takumar. The way it handles out-of-focus highlights is just odd. Also the way it handles details that are (theoretically) in-focus is just ...flawed. It never reaches proper sharpness even at small apertures. It has what a friend of mine described as a "horror movie" aesthetic. My grandfather placed some stones on the property line ~65 years ago. Photo taken with my 17-40mm, which is a workhorse of a lens since I got it in 2008. Since the the 35mm Takumar works without issue on my 50D, I did the logical thing and got it to work with my 5D IV. I spent considerable time learning to use mirror lockup and Live View (two things I avoid under normal circumstances.) I'm now sufficiently blind that I have to wear my reading glasses to see small details on the LCD screen. Focusing with live view is a shot in the dark. Metering is a lesson in chimping and re-shooting. 5K jpeg, feel free to pixel peep. How does the 35mm Takumar perform with the 5D IV's much better sensor? Fine, I guess. This shot was taken a very small aperture (F/16, IIRC.) This is about as sharp as my copy ever gets. Even though the DoF is pretty large, the farthest OOF highlights have that weird quality. The Takumar stands in stark contrast to my CZJ 135mm F/3.5 Sonnar, which is sharp at any aperture and paints OOF highlights a beautiful, ethereal way. The Sonnar hints at dreams and magic while the Takumar offers ominous uncertainty.

Gibson Hits Trump Guitars With Cease and Desist.

As I mentioned a while back, I've been getting more familiar with the combination of my D200 and 300mm F/4. Taken through my kitchen window, which often results in a hit to the contrast. In this case it wasn't so bad. The same two deer, two days in a row. Quack, quack. A very technically flawed photo, but a rare case where I caught the great blue heron with his wings open. They are giant birds.

Base model Mac Mini for $499 (click the coupon box) and possibly another 5% off with an AMZN Visa: https://amzn.to/3V6uZNd I just bought one, in spite of my objections to a 256GB system drive.

By the blue lagoon.

Not on the Icelandic news site:

Bose buys McIntosh, storied maker of high-end luxury audio equipment.

Wow. I learned that J. Saul Kane died. He was only 55. JSK was a fascinating character. In the early 90s, he played a huge role helping produce legendary rave tracks like EON's "Spice" JSK was best know for his solo work undfer the name Depth Charge where he combined elements of rave, breakbeat and house with kung fu samples. He was also a serious photographer, working mostly in his native London. JSK's other notable characteristic was his pure "no BS" policy. He neither gave nor took it. This made him an odd fit for the music industry, but he had so much raw talent he got ahead anyway. I was Facebook friends with him (ya rly) for like 15 years. He was one of the people whose activity where never not interesting, whether he was him excoriating some fevered ego like David Guetta, showing off his street photography, or some new piece of musical kit he had acquired. This only begins to cover how cool his studio was. Also JSK wasn't just a gear hoarder. He did amazing things with it. John understood sequencing, synthesis, mixing and mastering. John had the distinct aura of brilliance about him, which came through in everything her pursued. He's a man gone far too young, and completely irreplaceable. He will be missed. Rest in peace.

A guy on reddit got this stack for $1500. Not a bad price per pound.

"Working as intended." (I'm running the newest MacOS and iOS.)

I, too, took a picture of the moon. Of course, it's not entirely in focus because a bird got in the way. Stupid bird!

New Mac Mini Has Modular Storage, 256GB Model Will Have Faster SSD. I do not know what to make of this information. 256GB is entirely too little space. I can make do with 512GB because I use so much outboard storage. 256GB won't even hold slsk, my torrent client and download folders.

I just bought the XIII remake. It was $2. When it came out (4 year ago) it was universally panned. Not only because it was a ruinous remake a of a beloved original, but also because it was plain bad. Apparently it's had a major patch since then and I'm morbidly curious enough to try it out.

Catchy tune!

It was 100% the corgi.

I put this image in my Slow Forum folder last June and I haven't the foggiest idea as to why.

I've done a lot with photography over the last few months, from re-editing a bunch of shots I took of a car show in a Walmart parking lot (ya rly) in the summer of '07, to mucking about with my 300mm Nikkor to completely missing the aurora borealis we had here. I also got divebombed by a flock of honking Canada geese.

I have questions.

Valencia, Spain has experienced some biblical flooding and mudslides.

Obligatory.

Y'all know the phrase "Not the flex you think it is?" None of these are Photoshopped.