Did some mirrorless shooting with focus peeking today.
Right, peeking no peaking. Camera was the Wista 45 (no mirrors just ground glass!! ) And peeked at the focus areas on the ground glass with a 10X loupe. No Z, but it should count!
Trying out the Nikkor-SW 75mm 4.5 lens on the Wista. The 90 f8 Nikkor is turning out to be not quite wide for some of the things I want to do. 90mm is equivalent to about 28mm in full format, while the 75 is closer to about 24.
lsds wrote:
a few more glimpses of India from a visit earlier this year.
Yakshagana from coastal Karnataka(South India) - a unique theatrical dance art form that traces origins to the 14th century. A "performance" always spans from dusk to dawn and is an intense night long affair with some scenes even roping in the audience/public.
Ballard wrote:
Chin, did you happen to take the narrow-gauge, steam locomotive train between Durango and Silverton? Incredible scenery and interesting historic rail line. I have fond memories of when David and I were there. I had one AF lens with me to travel light, so nothing to post here.
Funny you should say that, we actually went to the train 'station' to check out the schedules but since we didn't plan ahead, we were suddenly faced with the prospect of leaving the rental car behind!
I have a distinct recollection of going inside the station which kinda functioned as a visitor center - they had lotsa stuff since, knick knacks. My wife at that time was in a 'fossil collecting' phase and they had a number of specimens for sale.
We were also tempted to divert and visit the Mesa Verde NP but I recalculated and decided we couldn't spare the time. In the end, we walked out of the cul-de-sac and there was a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory not far, on the left if one was facing outwards. And I bought a bag of peanut brittle. The sky was incredibly blue, with a few tufts of very white clouds. The sun was slightly low, the beams turning the store facades orange, our eyes squinting in response.
I remember all this as though it were just last week. Memories, they're such fickle things.
NightOwl Cat wrote:
Yup, I'm sure that MB problem was most likely causing your computer's bugginess. My main laptop is now just over 7 years old and so far, still going strong. Good luck on the decision on whether to upgrade all or just a newish MB.
So far what (if this is ever a help to anyone else) I’ve discovered that new boards with the older lga1155 socket and 4DIMM slots are very few and expensive, and used boards with similar requirements cost more than when new. It appears recycled HP and Dell motherboards are plentiful on *bay but not the other enthusiast brands. I may just be pushed to a newer build and reusing case and power supply and other minor ancillaries.
Following as they say, contemplating building another desktop machine or replacing my laptop. The main issue is that I need a laptop to run astrophotography software with the telescope attached but I could get a small basic one for that.
pbraymond wrote:
So far what (if this is ever a help to anyone else) I’ve discovered that new boards with the older lga1155 socket and 4DIMM slots are very few and expensive, and used boards with similar requirements cost more than when new. It appears recycled HP and Dell motherboards are plentiful on *bay but not the other enthusiast brands. I may just be pushed to a newer build and reusing case and power supply and other minor ancillaries.
A few photos from a stroll in the direction of Piazza della Signoria.
The steps are a great spot to people watch or just take a break and enjoy the view.
Had to slam on the brakes and take a photo of the entrance. Nice home!
The Piazza is an awesome outdoor museum plus around the corner is the Uffizi.
Fountain of Neptune (ca 1575), has been undergoing a full restoration for the past two years which was very recently completed.The fountain had not been operational for many years and looks fantastic.
Fuji X-E1 and 28/2.8 AIs
Thanks to all for the likes.
Regards,
Serge
Reagan wrote:
Buy a Mac.......Buy a Mac.......Buy a Mac.....
R
That pops in my head every now and then, but Windows has been so stable since v7 that I have a hard time with the additional costs of an apple desktop. With the reuse of other parts I can add a 9th Gen i5, 16gb ram, cpu cooler, MB with all the connections I could want, for about $600. I can’t even touch a MacMini base model for that. Perhaps even add is GPU though I’m not using an LR version or PS version that would really use that, and I’m not a gamer.
I use an external monitor because I will hook my work laptop up to it when working from home at times, so an iMac is out of the question, and it still has the additional Apple costs. Not anti apple, my wife and I both run iPhones though the next phone purchase (hopefully 4-6 years out) may be scaled way back.
lsds wrote:
a few more glimpses of India from a visit earlier this year.
Yakshagana from coastal Karnataka(South India) - a unique theatrical dance art form that traces origins to the 14th century. A "performance" always spans from dusk to dawn and is an intense night long affair with some scenes even roping in the audience/public.
This thread of ours is remarkable in its consistent combination of high quality photography of all types along with wide-ranging friendly banter. This post is my effort to contribute to the latter, with regard to my recent resurgence of interest in guitar-playing. In my 20's I was a pretty active participant in the folk music scene in St. John's, Newfoundland. Then in my 30's I moved back to mainland Canada (Ontario) and fairly quickly let my music go as I developed other interests.
However, about two months ago my interest in playing music resurfaced and has been gaining momentum ever since (hence the collection of three guitars shown in previous posts). Today I converted all of my original songs to digital format from the cassette tapes I recorded in the late 1980's. I also scanned a photo of myself playing at the 1984 Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival in St. John's, which is posted below. The gentleman behind me, stage right, is Dermot O'Reilly who was a member of the well-known Irish band, Ryan's Fancy (they had a nationwide network TV show for a while, and they played for the Queen and at least one Canadian Prime Minister along the way). Dermot was also just a really great guy, whom I remember very fondly (Dermot died due to cancer in his late sixties; the YouTube video below the photo shows Dermot playing one of his original songs. The long-neck banjo player to his left is Fergus O'Byrne, another alumnus of Ryan's Fancy who settled in St. John's). The people behind me, stage left, are brothers Pat and Joe Byrne (not to be confused with "O'Byrne"; you can see Pat's sunglasses over my left shoulder, and his cowboy boot behind my left foot) then Harry Martin (who plays with Dermot and Fergus in the video) and two fellows who were visiting from Labrador. We were on stage together as songwriters, each to perform an original song. I have no idea what lens was used for this shot, but I can guarantee that it was manual focus! I was 26 years old in this photo.
anitrone wrote:
Just sharing a photo, havent been taking many photos lately, guess life took over photography but getting out my gear and trying to get in a creative groove again.
Been here many times on this forum and still enjoy your banter and photos. This is just a typical one of my favorite subject...my lil yorkie Tuki taken with the Df and the 105mm F/1.8
pbraymond wrote:
That pops in my head every now and then, but Windows has been so stable since v7 that I have a hard time with the additional costs of an apple desktop. With the reuse of other parts I can add a 9th Gen i5, 16gb ram, cpu cooler, MB with all the connections I could want, for about $600. I can’t even touch a MacMini base model for that. Perhaps even add is GPU though I’m not using an LR version or PS version that would really use that, and I’m not a gamer.
I use an external monitor because I will hook my work laptop up to it when working from home at times, so an iMac is out of the question, and it still has the additional Apple costs. Not anti apple, my wife and I both run iPhones though the next phone purchase (hopefully 4-6 years out) may be scaled way back.
I would caution you on any MacBook computers of the current generation. Honestly, any Mac of this generation isn’t that great. Since Apple has pulled away from the end users being able to fix or upgrade their own computers, they have turned into a company that values form over function.
As you may or may not know, I work for a junior college. I am now the sole “Mac guy” on campus, servicing about 900 Macs and iOS devices. I manage all the Mac labs (save one). If I were in charge of the budget and needed to stretch the money, I would replace all the Mac’s with desktop PCs in every lab. For what you pay for an iMac, you can get a PC that will run circles around the current generation of iMacs. Same goes for iMac Pros. Most people don’t realize that even though the iMac is marketed as a desktop computer, all of its guts are laptop grade parts. Granted, they are built to a higher standard than most PCs, using name branded components. They simply are not as powerful.
There are even more problems with their laptops. In their quest for the thinnest and lightest laptops, something had to be sacrificed. That something is cooling. I have a brand new MacBook Pro that I use as a portable office. It has the i9 processor inside of it, along with 32g of RAM and a 512g SSD. Should be a monster right? First time I fired up my LR library, not only did the computer get super hot, but to combat that heat, the processor is throttled. It dropped down to 1.2gHZ. My old 2011 MBP with an i7, never throttles. Plus, I have to buy dongles for everything. Laptop has four Thunderbolt 3 connections. 2011 has USB 3 x 2, 2 x Thunderbolt 2, SD card slot, Ethernet port... Form over function.
Never any problems with any of my Apple products in 10 years
No crashes, no viruses, no anti virus software to slow it down
Never having to defrag
I would like to build a PC again one day but probably just so I could hate myself ay a later date for doing it
) And peeked at the focus areas on the ground glass with a 10X loupe. No Z, but it should count! 
