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Did a ‘thing’ yesterday

Romantic Jazz Candlelight concert.

Went up to Madison, WI on the 28th to see Garbage (and Noel Gallagher, not so much for him). Concert was cancelled due to smoke, but my friend's daughter found a Zappa tribute band from Milwaukee playing at a local venue called Crucible. Opening band was from Madison, and was pretty good. The Zappa tribute band was quite good, though I didn't hear any recognizable Zappa songs. Note the Zappa effigy behind the guitarist (T-shirt on it said titties something). One of the guys said they are going to Germany to play in a Zappa competition. First 2 pics of the opening band, second 2 of the Zappa band. Made up (kind of) for the concert being cancelled. Also, some really good pizza up there (Ian's and Grampa's). My wife said that Grampa's might be the best she's ever had. Close for me.

I built a tree bench/table. I'll cut plugs this weekend to cover the screws Monday. The surrounding ground will have artificial turf installed this weekend. The turf will extend up the box about 4". Monday I'll cover the PT 2" X 6" box with matching 3/4" Cedar.

confirmed: tubes are inside

These Buchardt Audio Anniversary 10 are supposed to be amazing. The bass is said to be phenomenal. Very low without being boomy. They're active, bluetooth and have an internal DAC and streamer. Future-fi. When I first saw them, I thought the woofer was blown out. $4,000 ish. Different tuning can be had through the App.

So for the last 24 hours I've been toying with the idea of buying a refurb'd D3S. They're not that expensive, and a fraction of the price of a new Canon mirrorless. Insane high ISO performance. 12MP is fine for me. As I mentioned I have Dinny's old Nikon 50mm, which I have not used in the 15 years I've owned it. I also have a super neat Nikon 75-150mm F/3.5 E zoom (it has lousy CA, but the best bokeh I have ever seen.) Well that idea is officially dead. I did some reading and (re)learned that it's not a good idea to mount M42 lenses to Nikon bodies. Nikon's flange depth is the issue. M42 lenses cannot reach infinity focus without an optical adapter that acts as weak tele-extender and reduces image quality. Canon does not have this problem. I have an army of M42 glass. From amusing crap (Yashika 50mm F1.9, a very beat up Ashai Super Takumar 50mm F/1.4) to stunning and historic optical achievements (Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar MC 135mm F/3.5, Tair 11A 135mm, Meyer Orestor 135mm F/2.8, Orestegor 200mm F/4, Orestegor 300mm F/4). Yes, I have more manual 135mm primes than a used camera shop and it's not like 135mm is a particularly useful focal length. Stop looking at me like that. The point here is there is no way in H E double hockey sticks that I am giving up all my manual lenses. I'd sooner buy a refurb'd 5D Mk II and I kind of hate that body (it was a sign of Canon going in the completely wrong direction: high MP count, lousy high ISO performance.) My Meyer-Optik Orestor 135mm F/2.8 attached to a friend's Rebel digital body in '09. One zebra ring is focus, the other is aperture preset. The Orestor has a 15 blade aperture. This shot was taken with my 30D and my Tair 11A, which has a 22 blade aperture. The Meyer-Optik Orestegor 300mm F/4 tank shell of a lens mounted to my Rebel K2 film body in '08, not far from where I'm sitting now. It has a 19 blade aperture. All of these lenses with insane number of aperture blades allow for absolutely sublime "bokeh shaping." It's so heavy it more or less mandates a tripod and still subject. I've mentioned this before but the 300mm Orestegor is a medium format lens with its own 35mm adapter. I've always wanted to buy an old Pentacon Six or whatever body and try out the 300mm with double the FoV and same DoF. I have told myself I'm not allowed to buy any more film cameras until I've built a darkroom. [I'm nearly 50 years old. I probably will not live to build a darkroom, but it's not entirely beyond the realm of possibility.] Photo of the Tair 11A's aperture by Simon's utak on Flickr. The 300mm Orestegor's aperture as captured by SteveFE on Flickr. I don't have any photos OF the Jena Sonnar, but I have a few taken with it (what an odd idea): Study of a bar ...thingy. ISO3200 on my 30D, which in general sucked at that ISO. Note how sharp the metal detail is and how pleasing the OOF areas are. The truth is, I have definitely not used the Sonnar enough. It's probably the best of the bunch from an optical perspective. Bonus, SteveFE holding his Orestegor in 2006, propped up against his car so he doesn't fall over: Me with the same lens, doing an imitation of Steve in 2009: If the lens looks smaller when I hold it, that's because I have freakishly oversized mitts. TL;DR: All digital camera bodies are ultimately disposable. Glass is forever. I have a thing for lenses with a silly number of aperture blades. I'm sticking with Canon.

A big congrat (1 each) to both you and Kathleen!

Awesome, congrat!!

Congrat!

Congrat^2! (wanders off to look up the word, 'covenanted')

Congrat Al!

The Titan and a Fleshlight had a baby?

Congrats to both of you 🎉

A congrat, each, to you both!

@blessingx Fuji X-E1 or X-70

Yeah D850 seems to have the same problem and I see no improvement in the Z8 in that regards. No one was paying attention to colour when it was 'normal' and somehow with these new mirrorless technology it somehow got lost and accepted. I don't see values going up much, because at the end of the day it is impractical to have a big and heavy camera like this with old batteries and cards, adapters, etc. Shutter is obnoxiously loud, too, kids love it though. Might as well get a battery grip to make them hear it at 8fps haha. The other camera that I borrowed some time ago that was really good is the 1DX (or 1DC) and this guy seems to confirm that and it's even more impractical than the D700... Why can't I have a modern, convenient (USB-C charging) FF camera with great colour and viewfinder that is not so big and heavy... I still miss the M Type 240 that was basically the most portable camera I had with great colour (and the SL2 was the best amongst cameras also shooting video). And the unanimous verdict seems to be that an M9 renders even better, so I might end up with one despite so many red flags about it.

I worked at a used camera store many years ago. We'd periodically find little red plastic circles that said "Leitz" on them in boxes of junk. People would pay real money for those. Even more, apparently, if they are glued to a Panasonic P&S.

First 2 chassis just arrived. Getting it tested!

I do approve of the two Klipschhorns in the corners of the longer left side wall. 🤘

Enjoyable for many years. As the therapist in Grosse Pointe Blank As the Lieutenant in The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming As the father in Edward Scissorhands As George in Glengarry Glen Ross Thanks Alan - RIP.

pretty sure all of my boards have the holes electrically isolated.

I had to read through the whole thread after seeing your quote of my post. What is a maniacal bunch of cunts! Claire might actually want that English to Elvish thing.

RIP to another legend

It's exactly what you think it is.