IMALlama

joined 1 year ago
[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Huh, any particular ABS brand(s)? I am tempted to grab a roll. I've been running polymaker's ASA and other than warpage on big parts with my lower chamber temps (yay big printer with lots of enclosure surface area) it prints fairly well.

I run the filter inside an enclosed printer with an exhaust fan.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

What zone and hemisphere are you in? I'm guessing Northern and somewhere it gets cold(er)? We're zone 6a and I left our first year globe artichokes in the ground more or less as is. They're not brown, but they don't look that happy after a few hard frosts. I'm surprised to see what looks like new growth on yours combined with the brown.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

You're saying ABS is printing easier for you than ASA? That's interesting. From my limited understanding, ASA has the reputation of being easier to print.

What brands/blends? I've been printing basically only ASA and PETG for a little while now. Haven't tried ABS.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I sent my A9 off for surgery - https://www.lifepixel.com/photography-gear/anti-aliasing-low-pass-filter-removal 😄

That's pretty cool, the thought hadn't crossed my mind previously. $350 seems a bit steep, but now I'm not going to be able to unsee this.

I think my initial “yuck” with the OM-1 was the 12-24 just taking bright landscape shots … everything looked, muddy.

I briefly shot the A9II and the OM-1 back to back again and sold the OM-1 to MPB :( Probably for the best long term, but it was a tough decision due to my lack of adoration for the A9II. I do greatly appreciate what it can do, I just don't love it. The results do speak for themselves and the A9II's tracking AF is just so easy to use.

And yes, with my 200-600G, monopod is a minimum, tripod if I know I’ll be stationary. Handheld is practically never, but I have in a pinch and with sufficient bracing, and for just one subject (before it flies or runs away typically), I can manage. And I’m only 44 😄 … hoping I can keep using it for another 10 years or so at least!

I'm 38 here, but even if you're young and very athletic, holding 5-6 pounds in front of your face for an extended period of time still isn't pleasant - especially if you're not doing it frequently enough to build those muscles. What about the 200-600 puts you off, especially if you're using a monopod?

I only use that for wildlife though … for the odd recital or what have you the boy has, I bring the 70-200G with the 2x TC.

No reticles or indoor sports here (yet?), but the 70-200GM does look like a very nice lens! So far I've been stubbornly sticking with primes for days I'm not doing sports photography, but the idea of a zoom with a touch more reach is kind of appealing. I've been circling the 70-200 F2.8 along with the F4 and F4 ii (quasi macro!) and Tamron's 28-200. For whatever reason, a normal zoom doesn't really appeal to me - I'm totally happy using my feet and know to bring a 35 with me if I'm going to be in a tighter space.

100% agreed about “the one you’re carrying”, which is why I haven’t actually put much money into anything lately - I do about 90% on my Xiaomi 13 Ultra, with a 1" sensor like was in my FZ-1000. I find I only use my big expensive gear when I actually go out to “do photography”, which is pretty rare these days. My son is 14 now too, so there’s way less recitals and games and events and such for me to shoot.

I guess I'm lucky in that my kids are younger and we are fortunate enough to be able to afford to be members at a couple of local attractions. Between visiting those places and going to parks, I'm out with the camera most weekends.

Groggy day today here for me, so a slightly rambley and discombobulated response, but, as I’ve typed it, I’d might as well post it now :-)

All good, I also tend to be a bit verbose so cheers!

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I sold the OM-1 today :( it was hard to pack up the two lenses especially, they feel very nice on hand. The A7III and A9II are not always responsive, especially when turning on, but man are they easier for me to chase my kids around with. I also sold the A7III. The A9II with a compact prime like Sigma's i series is actually more compact than the OM-1 with one of the 1.2 pros.

If you're willing to give Sony a shot, the OG A9 is worth a look. The A9II has the same sensor and the A9 has had a ton of firmware updates that put its AF performance on par with the A9II. The biggest differences I remember are the buttons (they feel slightly nicer on the A9II) and the addition of an Ethernet port.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

The perfect bag can be a never-ending quest. Good luck!

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

It will decompose, but only it a hot compost pile.

To some extent, this means large scale composting, but you could theoretically do it at home if you live somewhere with four seasons (specifically fall) and have trees that drop leaves on your property or nearby. Let your grass get a bit taller as the trees start turning and mulch/bag the grass and leaf mixture. Bonus points if you have a ratio of 30 carbon (brown stuff) to 1 nitrogen (green stuff) by weight. "Normal" composting into. This is why big piles of fresh mulch get pretty warm and stream in the middle.

I don't know what it would take to break down PLA in compost, but suspect it would take more time than a typical home pile if you manage to get it hot. It would probably be benefit from shredding to speed things up, as would the rest of the stuff in a typical compost pile. Amusingly, your PLA is probably ripe for getting whacked with a hammer, or a hammer mill.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's great that you're trying to carry your camera more often, presumably so you can use it. The only thing to keep in mind is that a buried camera will be hard to get your hands on. It might be worth considering a multi-chamber backpack at some point in the future.

Examples include Lowpro's fast pack and a whole bunch of Amazon brands.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

IMO there's little need to buy new in the computer world unless you want to do something silly like have a snapdragon x laptop or have the disposable funds to go the gaming rig route.

My desktop is a retired business workstation, a HP Z420. I bought it for $250, installed a smaller SSD ($100 new) for the OS + apps, upgeaded to the "best" Xenon that fit the socket ($150 used), upgraded to 64 GB RAM ($107 used, yay ECC memory being dirt cheap on the used market), and a 1070TI ($225 used, purchased just before covid).

It's more than fast enough for my needs still.

This was all about 4-5 years ago, so you could probably do even better with more modern hardware.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

That looks like under-extrusion to me.

Here's the quick "tune your extruder" arc:

  1. E-steps. Mark your filament about 125mm from a known reference point, extrude 100mm, measure again. What percentage of 100 did you get to? Adjust your e-steps accordingly and try again. You should never have to mess with this number ever again unless you physically change parts in your extruder. More detailed guide
  2. Temperature. Print a temp tower. Choose the temp that looks the best and offers good layer adhesion. Your filament will extrude differently based on your extruder temp
  3. Flow rate / extrusion multiplier. This will require more typing from me, but there are a number of ways you can generate test prints for this, so check the linked guide. More detailed EM multiplier guide.

After you get #1, never touch it again unless you change things like your extruder gears. #2/#3 are a good idea whenever you start a new roll of filament, although I personally don't bother unless I'm trying a new material, brand, or color.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (4 children)

If you're "squashing" the camera on the hot shoe and base plate, you're probably fine. Especially given that your backpack probably won't be able to fit that much stuff besides the camera cube and your laptop.

Just keep weight off the lens/lens mount. It will be a lever and you don't want to tweak anything.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

The PWM signal once it starts getting jittery is basically only 0 or 100% and corresponds pretty well to the swings in temperature.

I've moved the head hot and cold by hand and haven't gotten any weird behavior. Normally when I have a wire break there's a very specific location that will reliably fail. That's not the case this time.

 

Klipper aborted the print with:

Heater extruder not heating at expected rate Transition to shutdown state: Heater extruder not heating at expected rate See the 'verify_heater' section in docs/Config_Reference.md

Before any of this started,I goobered my original Rapido, so I replaced it with a Rapido 2. It's been in the printer since April, but I haven't done a ton of printing with it. After the replacement, all was well for a while. At some point, Klipper started randomly tripping thermal runaway protection. The spikes were instantaneous, so I suspected a wire break. It wouldn't be my first and they're usually easy to find. I moved the tool head around trying to find it with no success. I pulled apart both cable chains (yay Voron) to look for the wire break and didn't find one. I flipped the printer updside down and connections at the MCU - everything was fine. I went through the hot end and inadvertently pulled the thermistor out of the m3 slug. Here's a stock photo:

Suspecting a potential wire break at the thermistor, I manipulated the wiring to no real effect. Inside the M3 bung was some dried white stuff, which I think was probably Boron Nitride Paste. I bought some more from Slice Engineering and reinstalled the thermistor.

Two things changed after this. First, the terminator seems to be reading lower than it did before. I say this because I have a ton more stringing than I did previously. Second, the temperature is no longer spiking but it is doing this high frequency oscillation thing now.

The oscillation only happens once the printer is moving quickly. If it's still, or moving slowly, things are fine.

Thoughts? I'm suspecting the thermistor, but would like to troubleshoot if possible vs just throwing parts at the printer.

 

Title basically. I've been "long term renting" a few camera bodies by purchasing used gear with the intention of selling what I didn't want to keep. I'm now at the point of thinning the heard. I'm partially writing this for myself, but am more than open to feedback :)

The cameras in the post photo are an OM-1 and an A7 III, but I'm really comparing the OM-1 against an A9 II. The A7 III is generally a solid camera, but its mechanical shutter is somewhat loud to use in places like museums with the kiddos and its electronic shutter catches tons of banding from modern lighting. Both the OM-1 and the A9 II solve that problem, although the A9 II does so a bit better (yay faster readout).

What do I take photos of?

Candid kids (playing, sports, etc), some pets, some bugs, some plants, some landscape. But mostly kids in various states of motion.

What lighting do I shoot in?

In other words, do I really need the ISO/DR performance? There are a few answers to this question. First, I shoot in a wide range of lighting:

Second, when I shoot in lower light I am able to decrease my shutter speed and/or use fast glass to keep ISO fairly low:

Third, I am wary of needing to push ISO in the future for faster motion + lower light, but this isn't currently a concern.

What kind of lenses am I using these days?

For shorter distances, fast(ish) primes. On the long end, telephoto zooms.

On e-mount, I have a pair of Sigma 35mm lenses: their f/1.4 and f/2.0. The 2.0 is much more compact and is on the camera most of the time. I also have Sony's 50mm 1.8, which I will likely upgrade if I keep the camera. Closing out my e-mount collection is Tamron's 150-500.

On M43, I have the 25mm 1.2 pro and 12-40mm. I don't yet have a long telephoto, but will buy one if I decide to stick with the OM-1.

OM-1 Pros

  • Of the cameras in this comparison, the burst rate of the OM-1 is frankly nuts
  • Feels more mechanical than it is. Turns on nearly immediately, even when sitting for a long time, and its controls are all very responsive
  • New M43 glass is cheaper than FF glass, used M43 glass is very available
  • M43 is a much more macro friendly mount, especially once you factor in 2x FF equivalency. For example, the 12-40 has 0.3x magnification, but when you factor in that the sensor is half the size of a FF sensor this is equivalent to 0.6x
  • The promise of compact
  • The promise of fast AF

OM-1 Cons

  • Minor one first. Since the camera isn't very popular accessories are somewhat harder to find and/or have less verity available
  • Even when in focus priority, it will happily take photos that are out of focus. This seems to be more of an issue for humans than say birds, but I happen to want to take photos of humans
  • Human face/eye detect works fairly well as long as faces/eyes leave the frame when they're lost. If the face/eye stays in the frame, and the camera starts to lose focus, it will continue to indicate focus on the face/eye as it slowly goes soft
  • FF lenses can be even more compact once you get into FF equivalency, especially when you get into shorter focal lengths. More on this later
  • The depth of field preview thing bugs me. For those who haven't shot M43, their preview (eg waving the camera around to get framing) and focusing happens wide open. They only step down when you're taking photos. They do have a depth of field preview button you can use, but the workflow turns into: press button, camera steps down, focus, camera opens, take photo, camera steps down 'just in time'
  • If you want GPS coordinates in your photos the companion app is very silly. The OM-1 can encode GPS coordinates as you take photos, but only if you launch the camera app and record your location as you're walking around. This requires you to take an action in the app. Leaving the app in this mode will drain your phone battery. Sony/Nikon/Fuji simply require the companion app to be running in the background on your phone
  • This is a quibble, but in a series of photos the OM-1 will fiddle with exposure a lot more than any other camera I've used. It's easy enough to address in post, but it's somewhat distracting while culling two very similarly framed photos with slightly different expsorues

A9 II Pros

  • Very easy to use autofocus. Set it to tracking flexible spot M or L, aim the camera at the thing you want, engage autofocus, forget about it
  • If it loses a face eye, it tells you immediately and often before that face/eye is out of focus. I've taken very few out of focus photos with this camera
  • Preview and focus are stepped down, although it will occasionally go wide open to acquire initial focus. Once focus has been achieved it will step back down
  • Huge quantity of available glass to fit basically any need/use case
  • Ability to push ISO
  • Large ecosystem around the camera

A9 II Cons

  • The HMI is laggy, the camera can take a long time to turn on if it has sat for a while
  • Expensive glass
  • Physical size/weight of of lens when you get into bigger focal lengths

One sentence each

A9 II = very easy to focus on taking photos (framing, depth of field, etc)

OM-1 = the promise of compact, very fast

On compactness

On the shorter side of the focal range: Once you factor in FF equivalency (2x better total light gathering thanks to surface area, 2 stop depth of field difference), my 25mm f1/2 turns into a 50mm 2.5. This means that I can put something like Sony's 50mm 2.5 G or Sigma's 50mm F2 DG DN on the A9 II and have very comparable image quality with a more compact lens.

On the telephoto end, my 150-500 spends a lot of time between 350 and 500. It's a sharp lens, it focuses quickly, renders nicely, and I really appreciate 500mm. But it's heavy at 1.7 kg and the zoom ring is pretty stiff. The closest M43 lens to it are the pair of 100-400s. They will admittedly gain me quite a bit of reach, but I don't need that reach right now. Physically, they're not much smaller than the 150-500, but they're 600 grams (the Olympus) and 750 grams (the Panasonic) lighter respectively. I do wonder how sharp the Panasonic 100-400 is and am somewhat wary of the Olympus 100-400 since in Sony land its Sigma counterpart has the reputation for somewhat slow AF.

 

Pros:

  • Massive quantities of flowers for about 3 months
  • Bees love the blooms
  • The plant doesn't need any care to thrive
  • We've transplanted a few of the seedlings. They're true to their parent in terms of color, but the parents seems like a double bloom and the children seem like single bloom
  • If you want a hedge, this seems like a good option

Cons:

  • Seeds! So many seeds. Each of its hundreds (thousands?) of flowers will produce 10+ seeds. They all don't germinate, but it's a numbers game. If you want to avoid pulling volunteers up you're best off pulling the seed pods off the plant before they open on their own

I pulled ~2 gallons of seed pods off a week prior to this picture. My wife dumped them in the compost, so no epic 5+ gallon photo 😭

 

OM-1 with Oly 25 f1.2 pro @ f/2.8

I remain on the fence about this camera, but it can take some pleasing photos if you get it to focus where you want it.

 

If you look at the very bottom of the screen shot you can see that the home, search, etc buttons are cut off.

Happy to provide more info to help. I'm on a stock pixel 3a.

 

I am (slowly) working on mounting ACM panels to my Voron 2.4 to try to get my chamber temps up to reduce/eliminate warping on big ASA prints. I only needed 12 of these parts, so I chose to print them sequentially.

Want to know how slow my progress has been? Well, this photo proceeded this post and I made that post weeks ago... I'll crack open the cable chain and get this ball rolling again soon. Or maybe I'll ditch the chains and go to a USB toolhead. But that will require me to print some parts, so I guess I have to fix this. And if I'm doing that it's going to probably be 'good enough' for quite some time... 🙃

There's nothing major in the print queue, but I do want to make sure the printer is ready to go when something does turn up.

 

Seeds for those interested. They're called trombettas and they're a climbing summer squash with everything you would expect there - nice, mild flavor, etc. They only have seeds in their 'head'. If you pick them young enough the seeds won't be formed so you can eat the entire thing. If you wait a bit longer, you can very easily scoop the seeds out and slice or stuff the head. Head to tail, these things can easily get over two feet. They can also be a bit curvy.

I've found them to be very hardy over the years. They climb really well without encouragement. The vines in the photo are easily 9 feet long.

 

I can see the wire break in the cable chain :'(

 

I'll have to grab a photo of a more curvy one in a few days, but here's a taste.

For the curious: they're vigorous growing, climb, produce well, and taste a lot like a zucchini. If you're pressed for square footage and want a squash, they're a great choice.

 

It's always amazing where tomato seedlings pop up. We've found them all over our yard, but this has to be the oddest location yet.

 

I may have gone a bit overboard. This is a mix of some beans, cucumbers, mini-cantaloupes, butternut squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and tromboncino

 

They do turn (mostly) green when you coo them, but the kids still think they're super interesting, which is a win.

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