Month: December 2024 (Page 2 of 3)

–Walked to UPS to pick up helicoid grease.

–Brought the Sony out to play with. Surprisingly easy to set up focus magnification on the–wait for it–AF ON button. Good: you can select how long it stays magnified (like forever). Less good: shutter won’t take it out of magnify mode; you have to hit the AF ON button again.

–Took some decent abutilon pics with the Contax N Digital.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Tamahagane knife. Stopped at Bel Air for cream, milk, cheese, cream cheese.

–Bought a Sony A7R V from 6th Avenue Electronics (no tax). 60 megapixels, and a viewfinder with twice the resolution of my A7R IV. It’ll take a while to set up, but it should be the last camera I’ll ever need. Pretty much every lens ever made has an adapter available for Sony.

–Well well well: Charged up the Contax N Digital and took some abutilon pics. DXO would not open the native RAW files. Installed Adobe DNG converter and converted them. DXO would not open the DNG files. Tried Apple Photos app. It too would not open the RAW files, but it easily imported the converted DNG files and edited them in a trice. The editor even has a feature which is new or which I just didn’t notice: for Light and Color, it has a master slider that moves all the sub-sliders (Exposure, Brilliance, Shadows, etc.) in a smart way to give a pleasing range of results. So much for DXO.

–Later that same day, the Photos app was having some issues, and was reminding me of why I went to alternatives. Sooo…I went back to Lightroom. Seems I have access to Lightroom Classic and Lightroom [Creative Cloud], which may be why I vaguely remember spending $240 for a yearly license instead of $120. Anyway, I only need Classic, so removed LR CC and will be more careful when renewing next September. From what I’ve read, I can’t remove JUST the CC app (which is a separate app)–Adobe is obnoxious that way. Anyhow, I re-did some Christmas night pics that I had done in DXO, and the results were pretty astounding (as was the process). LR is smooth, simple, and just makes things easy. Wish they still sold it.

–Marie’s chicken pot pies for dinner.

–Played with cameras some more. Tried a couple M9s, was not happy with their metering.

–Dropped a couple of packages off at UPS.

–Went to the village Christmas party.

–[edit] DXO doesn’t support the .RWL files from the Leica C-Lux. Well, crap.

–Played with cameras a lot, trying to justify getting a new M11 Glossy. In the end, the SL2-S blew everything out of the water, as usual. The combo of (1) best viewfinder and (2) best low-light sensor cannot be beaten, even though it’s 24 MP vs. 60 in the M11.

–Picked up cough drops at UPS and dropped off the Meades front flipper, on its way to Louisiana then South Africa, where maker Thys Meades graciously agreed to add a clip.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Finished making the “tile rock” for Kenny (like the fountain with broken tile pieces and grout). Looks like crap.

–Went to UPS to mail a couple more packages and pick up a Yubikey (set it up at Coinbase) and leather repair tape (tried it on my chair; looks surprisingly good (i.e., invisible)).

–Pepperoni pizza from Costco for dinner. Not nearly as good as Costco brand cheese pizza last night.

–Heard a loud hissing outside around 5. On investigation, it appeared to be a sprinkler leak between our house and Ray/Sherry’s. Turned their water off at the main spigot. They got home while I was leaving a note, and said it was just the sprinkler (not a leak), so I turned their water back on. I’m dubious: we haven’t heard that noise in two years.

–Went to UPS to send off packages and pick up Nexium.

–Put gas in the Honda. Last time was in August.

–Played with watches. Was going to swap dials on the two Day-Dates, but chickened out after getting them apart.

–Took the BMW to Brainy Zoo Toys for a second “volleyball” game. Then to the post office to mail Rob’s present. Was reminded that the PO is on strike in Canada. Took it to UPS (where I dropped off Jan’s goody box) and they’ll send it to Canada for $47. Yikes.

–Lunch at McDonald’s.

–Dinner from Jacks Urban Eats.

–Played with cameras, replicating last year’s Christmas card neighbor shots with D-Lux 7, SL, SL2-S and Q-P. Q-P continues to surprise. The SL2-S may be technically better, but the Q-P takes some very pleasing photos.

–Put gas in the BMW.

–Got a haircut.

–Went to Bel Air for dessert, milk, cream cheese, coffee. No more Peet’s for me: I didn’t notice until I got home that the package weighed 10.7 ounces. Several other quality roasters are still doing 12 ounces.

–Took Grace shopping at Brainy Zoo Toys at Folsom Premium Outlets. I think she got most of what she needed for relatives and god-children.

–Re-heated a Blaze pizza for dinner. Pretty soggy.