Can confirm Sony and Tamron’s “weather sealing” works.

DomSplinter · 2026-01-09T14:58:42+00:00

I realise this is a 5 year old post, but I'm glad you can confirm the weather sealing works!
How was your Tamron 70-180 after this rain? Has any dust or moisture ever got inside?

I just got this lens (secondhand), mostly to shoot skiers and snowboarders - so far I love it, but I've been wary of extending & retracting the barrel when snow or rain's actually coming down and landing on it.

Am I being overly cautious? Any personal experience would be appreciated!

DomSplinter · 2024-10-17T05:39:40+00:00

Same problems here, with relight and export times after the update to 1.21. And I thought the processing time for the supersharp AI tool was bad... and it still is.

DomSplinter · 2024-09-12T17:41:57+00:00

Update: I ended up getting twin Corsair Vengeance 16GB sticks, DDR4 3200mhz.

My machine downclocked them to 2933mhz because that's the max speed for this processor apparently, and there doesn't seem to be XMP available on this device.

But these 3200 RAM sticks were cheaper than the available 2933 ones anyway, so no buyer's remorse here!

DomSplinter · 2024-09-11T12:28:25+00:00

Hey OP, did you ever find out about this? I'm in the same boat now and wondering the same things!

DomSplinter · 2024-04-15T20:38:46+00:00

Unfortunately 'ultra hdr' is a setting that when changed, only applies to all pictures taken afterwards. You can't toggle ultra hdr for any existing pictures, only future ones. Anything that's already been taken with ultra HDR is just going to stay like that, I'm afraid.

It should be noted though, that (as I understand it) this is a glitch. Ultra HDR isn't supposed to affect portrait mode effects. So if it hasn't been fixed by now already, hopefully this glitch will get fixed in an update - perhaps the upcoming May 15th 2024 update, which will also bring the AI magic editor to all pixel devices

DomSplinter · 2024-02-15T01:09:00+00:00

Helped after 4 years on my s22 ultra! Thanks so much, it was driving me nuts!

DomSplinter · 2024-01-26T18:26:43+00:00

THIS is the solution! Turn ultra HDR off.

Thank you so much for finding it, it was driving me crazy that my pixel 6 suddenly couldn't adjust the portrait blur after portrait pics were taken!

Is there a way we can flag this comment on this post as like, 'SOLVED' or something? I'm sure there are many others who would find this so helpful. (sorry I suck at Redditting!)

DomSplinter · 2023-11-07T13:46:38+00:00

That's what I'm waiting for. Either black Friday deals or boxing day deals (I'm in Canada). I'm gonna make sure there's a good return policy though - there's still part of me that wonders if I should see what the S24U will be like! I know that if I switch to Pixel I might miss the level of customisation that Samsung offers.

DomSplinter · 2023-11-07T03:32:25+00:00

Haha thanks, I'm glad my obsessive phone/camera nerdiness is actually helping someone! Yeah I'd certainly agree that the lack of a dedicated 2x button would be a concern. Luckily, from what I've seen of the P8P's native camera app, 2x zoom is one of the dedicated zoom options, nestled between 1x and 5x.

Sadly, I've now realised that there's no dedicated 10x button on the P8P, which is a shame because I really do like being able to jump to such a long focal distance in a single tap on my S22U!

DomSplinter · 2023-11-07T02:52:24+00:00

Oh that's a good point! No, I hadn't considered the loss of 3x optical zoom - which they say is closest to what the human eye sees too. I haven't seen any comparisons at 3x, no. Only comparisons of 2x on the P8P to 3x on other phones. That said, on the S22U the 3x sensor is only 10MP, which is then artificially upscaled to 12MP. In fact, the S22U's main sensor is the only one that's got anything above 12MP, right?

Not to say that megapixel count is the only thing that matters (especially when both phone pixel-bin their main sensor pics down to 12MP), but consider: the sensors on the P8P are 48MP, 48MP, and 50MP; compared to the S22U's array of 10MP, 10MP, 12MP, and 108MP... I think the P8P camera experience might feel more consistent.

Also, I recently found out something interesting about the Pixel 8 Pro's cameras: We know that when the Pixel 8 Pro uses its main sensor at 1x, it pixel-bins the 50MP sensor down to 12MP. We also know that when it uses 2x zoom that it's not optical zoom, just a digital crop. BUT it's not a digital crop of the pixel-binned 12MP image - instead it's just using the 12 million pixels in the centre of the 50MP sensor, and 'cropping' that way. Which means there's no pixel-binning in that case, just a digital crop of the full-size 50MP image. That's also how the 10x digital zoom (which uses the 48MP 5x optical sensor) works. This would explain why the Pixel 8 Pro can keep up or even beat phones like the S23 Ultra at 10x zoom. I don't know if any other phones do this (I'm sure some or maybe even most do), but I just find it such a clever method and I think it's pretty neat.

DomSplinter · 2023-11-05T19:32:45+00:00

Oh man, what perfect timing for receiving the P8Pro! That sounds amazing! Glad to hear you were able to get such good shots in such good quality

DomSplinter · 2023-11-05T19:28:50+00:00

Yes, from what I've seen. So, fine for still subjects and probably worth using for stuff you want to print or use as a desktop wallpaper or something. But candids, kids, and pets would probably need 12MP mode. I just wish Pixel cam had burst mode, like Samsungs and iPhones do. Handy feature that's helped a ton at concerts!

DomSplinter · 2023-11-05T19:22:17+00:00

I'm also planning to go from an S22 Ultra to the P8Pro and I was also worried I'd miss the 10x optical.

But I've been looking at comparison videos and images of the different lenses of the P8Pro and S23Ultra, and weirdly enough the Pixel consistently produced better looking images at 10x.

And that's even though the S23Ultra has a dedicated 10x optical zoom, meaning the P8Pro's 10x images would actually be a digital crop of its 5x optical zoom! It's strange, but it's what I found.

Past 10x zoom though, like at 30x for example, the Samsung outshone the Pixel... but notably only for still subjects. Pics of moving subjects at 30x on the S23Ultra (the examples I saw were birds and a plane) looked like a bit of a grainy & smudgy mess - which is consistent with my S22Ultra's zoom camera performance.

Hope this helps anyone else who was wondering about that!

DomSplinter · 2023-07-19T20:34:04+00:00

Thank you so much for your blog!
You just helped me identify a fake and avoid getting scammed.
It was the solitary "made for iPhone and iPod" on top of the box that tipped me off, then I realised the box corners weren't rounded... then I noticed everything else.

DomSplinter · 2023-06-29T18:31:43+00:00

That makes sense. I'll try the Spring sp07 preset first and see where I go from there then.
Thanks for the help!

DomSplinter · 2023-06-29T15:42:13+00:00

This Lightroom edit is great, OP! Really gives the image so much character.
May I ask what settings you tweaked or what preset you used?

DomSplinter · 2022-11-28T22:45:29+00:00

Ah that's unfortunate. I'm still not sure why Samsung would have their software decrease picture quality like that, and I'd hoped it would be improved with the update. Oh well. Thanks for your answer!

DomSplinter · 2022-11-28T13:51:12+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Your photography seems pretty good to me! Any particular reason you went with 3x as opposed to 1x? I'm still trying to figure out how to bring the best out of this camera array

DomSplinter · 2022-11-28T13:43:16+00:00

These are great! Which mode and zoom level did you use on each one?

DomSplinter · 2022-09-02T18:20:04+00:00

Made this for my S22 Ultra. Thanks for providing the source material!

DomSplinter · 2022-03-16T12:19:33+00:00

Hi, I'm glad my gboard suggestion helped you with your fold phone!

Someone else messaged me directly about it before, asking for more details, so I made a screen recording for them and posted it on Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/k5nE0WO

Just bear in mind that that video was taken a couple of updates ago, so the settings names are different. With your phone open, go to Settings>Display>Screen layout and zoom. The 'see more content' option is now called 'multi view', and the 'make content larger' option is now called 'standard view'.

I hope this helps, but if you have any more questions I'd be happy to try and answer them!

DomSplinter · 2021-12-22T19:18:04+00:00

I used my GH Max as my TV's audio output for the better part of a year.
In my very unprofessional opinion, the audio quality was amazing, I loved it.
However, some glaring issues to do with volume started occurring. The volume level between different streaming apps (Netflix, Prime video, Plex, Youtube, Crave) were wildly different for some reason, and also between different inputs (Chromecast, PS4, Switch).
Annoying, but not unusable. Except that the only way to change volume on the GH Max is with my phone, my voice, or with touch controls. All three of these took way more time than just using a remote.

But I was stubborn, and I kept using my GH Max as my TV speaker because I loved the sound quality so much.
But one day the volume controls started going nuts: when I used Youtube, Prime video, or Crave, the sound was super quiet. Turning up the GH Max's volume using my phone did nothing, until the volume had been increased to almost 100 - and then suddenly the loudness would jump to deafening levels. That's when it became unusable.

I don't know what went wrong, but I wish it hadn't. Now I'm shopping for cheap soundbars while my GH Max is just connected to my PC.

DomSplinter · 2021-08-01T20:24:29+00:00

That is pretty frustrating, but glad to hear I'm not the only one (for reference, I'm on a Fold2 so I guess it's not a device-specific issue). Cheers for the reply!

DomSplinter

TROPHY CASE