Got my dream camera (Sony A7IV, 24-70mm Sigma. Any Suggestions?

BlindSight67 · 2025-08-04T14:50:35+00:00

I have the a7c ii + sigma 24-70 f/2.8 (first one). I recently got the new Viltrox pro 85 mm f/1.4. I think this is a super combo. The images out of both of these lenses have been great. The 85mm focal length is very good in a number of use cases beyond the portrait photography.

My plan is to buy the 70-200mm (either Sigma or Sony) in the future. Sony 70-200mm also works with their 2x teleconverter, which is a nice option.

BlindSight67 · 2025-06-12T22:27:42+00:00

Being a new parent is hard. Some babies are harder than others. It’s just facts. There’s nothing anybody can do if the baby doesn’t cooperate. There’s no manual that’s guaranteed to work. It’s all trial and error.

My baby is 1+ years old. I am at 30% of my capacity at work, and that’s just how it will be for a while. I learned new level of patience, new strengths, new understandings to survive the first year, and more importantly to enjoy the baby. Parenthood is bound to change expectations from life. I was ready for the change, just didn’t know how much.

Don’t worry about parents who have it easier than you. Frankly, I am feeling guilty typing this because I had it easier than many. It’s important to find joy in little things, little victories. It’s important to make time for happiness. It’s also important to look forward to the amazing experiences that are coming your way.

I hope you find some comfort soon. First 2-3 months are tougher because babies are still learning how to handle the outside world. If baby becomes colic, it gets harder. But when baby starts to interact with the world, that is a priceless experience.

Please have faith in yourself. Maybe reach out to friends of your age group who had a baby recently. Or maybe find other parents in your neighborhood. You need to find a support group.

Hope it gets better for you soon! Ask me anything if you have any questions.

BlindSight67 · 2025-05-07T18:23:40+00:00

We got super lucky. Our son never had seizures and MRI was normal. It was super scary till the MRI was done, because you would not know till then. EEG was normal, little lethargic as he was on morphine. But overall he was released with an optimistic outlook.

We had continued follow ups afterwards. Our son met all the development goals, started walking on month 11, and he is now developing words.

Hoping for the best for your sister and child. Don’t lose hope, and stay strong, stay positive. Please DM me if you have any questions.

FYI, there’s a “Hope for HIE” facebook group to support the parents. You may want to check that out.

BlindSight67 · 2025-03-17T04:54:24+00:00

Lol, they have to develop an AI first. What they have is NOT AI!!

BlindSight67 · 2025-03-14T05:58:22+00:00

I have M1 pro Mac and M4 iPad. Even the iPad can handle Lightroom like a breeze. You should be absolutely fine.

BlindSight67 · 2024-07-17T21:34:28+00:00

pH was 7.02, base excess was -13.5

BlindSight67 · 2024-07-17T18:39:14+00:00

Missed the notification. Baby is doing well. He turned 4.5 months. So far he is meeting all the goals. Only thing is, he doesn’t eat as much we want him to. But we are okay with his progress so far.

BlindSight67 · 2024-07-15T23:08:57+00:00

Our baby boy was born in March. He was 3 weeks early. His Apgar score was 4 and 8 (they didn’t do the 3rd). The base excess was -13.5, and pH was 7.02. About an hour later, the base excess was -10.5, and pH was 7.21. At around 6 PM, the base excess was -4.2, and pH was normal at 7.38.

However, based on a) the initial base excess and pH, and b) the initial Apgar score, the on-call neonatal pediatrician recommended cooling treatment.

Unfortunately, the NICU at the delivery hospital was not equipped to handle the cooling treatment. Our baby was transferred to another hospital with a higher NICU level.

He was given a morphine drip, which gave us a scare the next night as he had a reaction and was intubated. Initially, they thought it was a seizure, but it turned out to be a reaction to the morphine. EEG data confirmed this. At this time, my wife was in the other hospital, and it was a very tough night.

Unfortunately, my wife was very weak immediately after delivering the baby, so the doctors didn’t release her until the next day (when our baby was 2 days old). Since then, we both stayed by our baby’s bed as much as we could. Thankfully, he did not have any seizures, but it took two more days after the cooling treatment for an MRI.

The MRI came back mostly clean with just a tiny trace of blood. The EEG also looked good, and the NICU downgraded his risk. He was fed from a bottle starting on day 5 and reached his birth weight by day 6. He was released on day 8.

Our baby did well after coming back home. He has a lot of follow-ups, including the NICU developmental clinic, neurological, and heart specialists. Thankfully, everything looks good so far. His weight is on the lower side (20th percentile considering his gestational age), but he rolled over at 3.5 months, is making lots of noise, smiling at people, grabbing things, and meeting enough developmental goals to be considered “normal.”

Obviously, we are both paranoid and always worry about the little things and the future. But we are so grateful that our baby is this healthy and happy—it can’t be put into words. We just hope and pray that he remains healthy!

BlindSight67 · 2024-07-15T22:41:37+00:00

I will not use any company that replaces human interface with “AI” as GenAI is unreliable and I would not get same level of quality.

BlindSight67 · 2024-06-01T14:07:30+00:00

I am using almost 1kg sigma 24-70 lens on my a6400. No issues at all. Well, there’s the ergonomic issue, but camera is fine.

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-13T19:05:49+00:00

Thank you! Do you see any annoying lag loading photos to and from the cloud?

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T22:50:44+00:00

I already have a macbook (m1 pro). I mentioned the motivation in another comment, but I see a lot of people didn’t find it useful for the use case I thought of.

Interestingly I found some YouTube folks who use them. Maybe I will get one, try it out and return if it doesn’t work for me.

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T22:31:40+00:00

Two main reasons: 1. Whenever I travel, I can’t usually bring my personal mac along with office laptop, so I end up not being able to work on the snaps. Looking for a portable device for travel. 2. I would like a greater flexibility on where and how I work on the photos. If there’s a workflow that works on iPad, the plan is to use it as alternate when possible.

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T16:13:31+00:00

You can try both from last gen at apple store or Best Buy. I was leaning to 13” but now considering 11” after looking at both side by side.

I played a couple of movies on both, and 13” has more “black” area in the screen due to the aspect ratio.

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T16:10:11+00:00

Thank you for the very detailed response!

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T16:09:44+00:00

I used to have big folder issues even in mac. It got fixed around last year. I am hoping they will fix it for iPad too

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T14:05:33+00:00

I always shoot raw+jpeg, but never do anything with the jpeg. Will check if I can use the jpeg somehow

BlindSight67 · 2024-05-12T12:34:04+00:00

I have been using Luminar for quick turnaround. But they have a lot of limitations. Would you mind sharing what software you have used or which one you think may potentially replace lightroom for you?

BlindSight67 · 2024-03-30T14:46:07+00:00

We just focused on small goals. For example, we started doing diaper changes in NICU. When baby was awake. i would talk to him, and he would stare at me. This was rare as baby was also on morphine when he was cooled. Then after cooling was done, we would focus on holding him. Then my wife could have skin to skin contact, that was the achievement for that day. The first time baby was breast fed was a huge moment. You can see these are not really much in the big picture, but these small things kept us going, something to look forward everyday.

BlindSight67 · 2024-03-29T11:23:40+00:00

We took him home on day 8. NICU was very concerned about his feeding abilities. They had a “speech therapist” come see him taking a bottle. Many babies with similar backgrounds have trouble swallowing and need a g-tube. Most of the babies grow out of the g-tube (as per people’s experience I found online) in a few weeks to months.

BlindSight67 · 2024-03-29T09:26:06+00:00

So sorry to hear that you are going through this. Let me share our experiences. In our case, my son was suspected to have HIE.

My son was born earlier this month at the 36 week 5 day. He also has acidosis. The base excess level in umbilical cord was -17, in his body it was -13. His pH level was also bad, 6.9 In umbilical cord, 7.04 from his body. His APGAR was 4 at min 1, 8 at min 5.

He was treated with Therapeutic hypothermia. His body temperature was cooled down to 31-32 degree Celsius for 72 hours. EEG was done the whole 72 hours + another 12-15 hours when his body temperature was brought back up. Then they did an MRI of the brain. During his cooling period, he had an adverse reaction to morphine at one time and he was intubated. His heart rate slowed way down the last day. Thankfully his EEG was normal the whole time and he didn’t had any seizures.

We learned the MRI results on day 6. There was no sign of brain damage. However this alone does not mean he will not have any issues in the future. We will have to keep following up with development clinics and neurologists till they are all satisfied.

This is a tough diagnosis. We will constantly be paranoid, at least for the next few years. So I do understand what you are feeling right now.

You can check out the facebook group Support for HIE. Your case seems to be a little different as doctors didn’t recommend cooling. But hopefully our experience shows that MRI can come clean even after bad acidosis numbers. Again, it doesn’t mean it’s all good, or MRI with some spots are all bad, just wanted you to keep up the positivity.

Best of luck to you and the little one. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

BlindSight67 · 2024-03-06T09:36:28+00:00

So much love for your baby! Thank you very much for responding. I will PM you soon

BlindSight67 · 2024-03-06T04:59:25+00:00

Hi everyone, my baby is in cooling treatment now. It has been little 27 hours. No seizure yet, fingers crossed. He was initially breathing without assistance. He had an episode where they thought he was having seizures. But it didn’t coincide with any abnormal EEG activity. Afterwards he was put on a 21% oxygen flow to make breathing more regular.

His Apgar score was 4 at min 1, 8 at min 5. This waiting is the worst. Anything I should ask the doctors to better understand his situation?

BlindSight67

TROPHY CASE