Month: December 2024

–Canon R5 Mk II came in. Couldn’t get it to work to save my life. Finally PM’d seller, who reminded me of “Disable shutter if no lens mounted.” All good now–though I don’t see much improvement in viewfinder quality, and it may shake as much as the Sony. Crap.

–Had lunch with Tom Elken at Jersey Mike’s in Folsom.

–Managed to hand out all CHristmas gifts to Tom and DV alley neighbors.

–With Namecheap raising prices (and a little slow), I searched a lot and opened an account at iWebFusion for < $5/month. Trying to migrate now, with issues of WordPress database login. Will figure it out.

–Played with cameras. Putting th battery extension grip on the Sony turns it into a gigantic monster. It’s been retired. Tried to get shutter count for R5 as practice for incoming R5 Mark II. Had to buy a $9 app that said “<= 1,000 actuations.” In small print on the bottom it said “This camera reports in 1,000 increments.” So much for testing the new one.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final and Bel Air. There were many cartons of eggs at Bel Air yesterday; zero today.

–Looking to migrate away from Namecheap as they’re going to raise their rates to $75/year, compared to $35 for others.

–Post Office has no record of Canon R5 II being shipped two days ago. “Label created; waiting for item.” Kee-rap.

–Went to Bel Air for various things; got a fraction of them.

–Stock market is plunging, and (for no obvious reason) taking crypto with it.

–The only good news: my abutilon cuttings, which have been sitting in water for a month or so, are going nuts: new leaves, blooms growing, etc. I don’t get it, but it’s fun to see.

–Went to New York Bagel for bagels and bagel dogs.

–Did a tiny bit of Christmas shopping for Grace at Daiso.

–Finally was allowed to re-open the wsf@comcast.net account at Binance.us. Have to wait 48 hours to add or subtract funds. Added Coinbase and Binance to my iPhone.

–Cleaned ear wax out of hearing aids. Better.

–Grace finally got Chase to wire $10k to sister Jan.

–Rainy morning.

–Woke up with right eye really foggy; drops had no effect. Lasted for hours, then went away. Crap.

–Had Walgreen’s print the Denny and Kenny photo (25 cents). Got a frame there when I picked up the print and framed it. Looks nice.

–Went to UPS to mail off Juli’s package.

–Played with cameras, especially the new Sony A7R V. Kind of disappointing.The viewfinder doesn’t seem as spectacularly different from the Leica SL2-S or the Canon R5 as I was hoping, given its specs. Further, the Canon has better ergonomicsand (often) a very pleasing look in photos. So I bought the Mark II model from a guy on Fred Miranda. Now I truly have two of everything.

–Went to Folsom Eye for follow-up visit with Michelle Hoyt. I told her about reflux (no response) and urination problems (“That’s rare,” she said). Right eye is still dilated, but TV closed captions are really clear.

–Sony AR7 V came in. I don’t see a huge difference between its viewfinder and AR7 IV’s but it’s early yet.

–Went to Folsom for right eye cataract surgery. Waited 2+ hours in the waiting room, another 40 minutes on the gurney. Major deal: anesthesiologist and everything. Surgery was quick. Eye is so dilated I can’t tell how successful it was.

–Canned soup for dinner.

–Picked up photo prints (Sullivan, Bunker, Wasdell) at Walgreen’s.

–Got “2 for $20” pizzas at Pizza Guys on Vehicle Drive, one for us and one for Kenny. Really good pizza

–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.

–The Silkie (BMW) to the Folsom farmers market (Honda had a dead battery from trunk lid being ajar for a while) for Clenentines.

–Took Grace shopping at Target.

–Played with crypto. Was moving stuff from Coinbase to Phantom wallet, got a notice from CB about delays due to security checks. So decided to go back to Kraken. Discovered another wrinkle at Kraken involving unused/used/expiring receive addresses. Too many weirdnesses at Kraken, so back to Coinbase. The moves went okay; they just urged me to get a hardware key, so I ordered a(nother) Yubikey from eBay. No more wallets/Kraken/Robinhood/Gemini/Binance/etc. Coinbase is fine, and should be pretty bulletproof with a hardware key, I hope.