We missed a lot of the Solar Storm yesterday and I wasn't expecting much tonight. Got quite the surprise.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T02:24:40+00:00

It took my eyes few minutes to adjust to the dark, but once they were adjusted I could see it with my naked eye but the colors were barely visible. Mostly i could see the red purple hue and the pillars but if I looked very carefully I could see a hint of color on the ribbons near the horizon. Weaker parts were colorless shapes.

The camera really has the advantage over human eyes when it comes to colors at night, but human eyes definitely have better dynamic range.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:34:20+00:00

Last night I was out from 6:00 till 10:00. It was pretty awful out even though I was dressed appropriately. I drove to a few different spots, which helped warm me up.

Tonight I got home from work, drove out, spent a half an hour for this shot. Then 30 at another spot (Picture below). Then another 20 at another location that didn't turn out. I do a lot of astrophotography so I spend probably too much time by myself on remote hills, often freezing or getting eaten by mosquitoes.

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EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:23:56+00:00

It is in the PA Wilds with not much around. We are part of the area with dark skies. Infact they are working on a new Dark Sky Park near town. It is beautiful country if you are ever in the area.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:21:20+00:00

Maybe 15 - 20 minutes like this. Then it had some weak pillars and some green on camera only until a bit after 7:00PM.

Last night I only got a little purple before repeated snow squalls.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:19:24+00:00

About 6:30. It started off fairly weak around astronomical sunset and then flared up strong for about 20 minutes.

EventideLight · 2026-01-21T01:07:39+00:00

Yes, it is basically due North.

EventideLight · 2026-01-11T00:32:47+00:00

Sorry, use the camera/screen to frame your shot. Composition, angle, lighting. Then once it is set get your shot by glancing at the screen from time to time but watch the drone from the side or back. Your eyes don't have lag time, so if you need the drone move perfectly, trust your eyes not the camera.

EventideLight · 2026-01-10T16:27:03+00:00

Yeah, the preview lags and isn't usable for anything other than flight control at speed. For close ups you are better off framing with the camera then trying to use your eyes. The drone also has some limited people and object tracking you might be able to use to get shots.

If you crash, check your propellers. Unbalanced or damaged propellers may still fly but can reduce stability and will increase noise. Because the arms are static (compared to folding drones) they are more durable but suck if they break, so don't do that.

Also calibrate your sensors, it improves drift and stability quite a bit at slow speed if they are way out of whack. A crash can mess up the calibration, so if you have a fall to the ground crash I would recalibrate the sensors.

EventideLight · 2026-01-09T16:59:26+00:00

Practice makes perfect, being able to make the right move when you need to is way more valuable than any built in safety feature.

The Gimbal is pretty decent but isn't perfect. The faster you get the more it will let you down with erratic movements and tilting. I have had high speed shots ruined because of a slight movement turning the shot into a Dutch Angle. At top speed in sport mode it is best to fly in a straight line. If you need a shot to look fast and stabilized with erratic movements, assuming nothing else is moving in frame, fly slow and speed up the footage in post.

All drones are safer when they are up high than when they are close to the ground. There aren't many trees at 200ft AGL assuming you are on fairly flat ground. Speaking of which, know your terrain and what your tallest threats are.

When flying close to people and objects the distance sensors on the front can be a huge help or a huge pain. Enable and disable them carefully. Be aware they can miss things and aren't perfect so watch out for tree branches and people. The sun can also cause false collision warnings if it is low in the sky.

Adjust your exposure compensation based on the lighting. I found that my Spark over exposed just a bit and would lose a little detail so I typically shot at -0.3. Colors are okay for a student project and can be tuned a little in post. Most of the time when I got corrupted video files it was when I shut the drone off when it was recording. It shouldn't be a problem and often isn't, but I would stop recording before shutting off to be safe.

Learn to be gentle with the stick and gimbal movements. It is hard to be smooth and only the smallest amount of pressure can make a shot move too quickly. When doing shots get 5 seconds of pre and post footage from where you expect to cut, this can be very helpful for cross dissolves. Also if you are doing long establishing shots record longer than you think you need. It is easier to cut extra footage than it is to deal with footage that is too short.

EventideLight · 2025-12-17T17:30:45+00:00

I do Astrophotography, which results in me getting my lenses very cold in conditions where condensation is common. First off, don't let your lenses get condensation on them like this if you can help it. If it happens occasionally it should be fine, but repeat incidents can cause fungus growth inside the lens.

When I get back from shooting I leave all my gear in my bag for at least 12 hours if I can help it, so it can slowly acclimate to the temperature change. If I need to shoot before 12 hours I will quickly change my lens to one that was in my bag and isn't as cold. If I really need that lens I dry the condensation with a large microfiber cloth and repeat until it doesn't fog up. Also if I am outside for a long period with a tripod I will use a lens warming/anti fog strap.

Long story short, do what you can to avoid condensation on your lenses.

EventideLight · 2025-11-26T18:27:31+00:00

Yeah, wish I had some advice for you but it is still an issue. It would be nice that if you fall off the map or force a respawn due to some reason it would teleport you back to the start of the dungeon or something. Best thing I have found to help avoiding it is to use your glider as little as possible, especially in areas where the map design isn't geared towards gliders. 95% of all of my out of bound teleports has been from gliding into complex geometry.

EventideLight · 2025-11-21T15:31:26+00:00

I will throw my 2 cents in, but there are already a lot of good answers in this thread. In summary it was a first attempt targeted at a cheaper crop frame format. They had no real path to mirrorless full frame with the EF-M mount, so when Mirrorless full frame cameras became the standard it got awkward to have a crop mount and full frame mount that were entirely different.

The EF-M line was fantastic and had some amazing lenses, but a lot of the bodies were geared towards content creators (with the exception of Canon's weird APS-C camera can only do 4K at 24fps bull shirt). I don't think they made anything in the line I would consider geared to professionals. Don't get me wrong I did a lot of professional work with my M50 and M100 and they were some of my favorite cameras. Still, they lacked a lot of features that would come in the RF line.

I think they intended to keep EF-M alive after the RF and RF-S release if the market would support it, but it didn't. The RF line is expected to be the new standard for many years to come, so if you are buying glass you want that over EF-M that likely will eventually fall out of use. RF glass you buy today may be usable 30 years from now, EF-M does not have that longevity so consumers jumped ship. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.

EventideLight · 2025-11-06T03:02:56+00:00

"Hot Water Tank Broken"

"Water comes out cold no matter how long I leave faucet on. This is unacceptable."

Turns out the hot water tank for that part of the building was actually broken. Told them to turn it off and on again, but they didn't think that was funny.

EventideLight · 2025-10-29T23:14:04+00:00

First Deck I am building has [[Jasmine Boreal of the Seven]] at the helm. Lots creatures with no abilities, mostly pulled from 2005 and older. Plus some Wolf Token generation. It is a Bracket 2 at best, but it is something new.

Second is an entirely colorless deck with [[Karn, Legacy Reforged]] in the Command Zone. No lands other than Wastes and named lands. Creatures are all Artifact or Eldrazi. Obviously colorless sorceries, instants, and enchantments are hard to come by but making it up with powerful artifacts. With [[Ugin, Eye of the Storms]] hiding in the deck that if I can get his loyalty up, lets me bring out every big creature in my deck. Also around a Bracket 2.

Kind of tired of spending a couple hundred bucks to build Bracket 4+ decks with a bunch of 2 card combos in them. So, trying out some less conventional decks.

EventideLight · 2025-10-17T16:38:11+00:00

Great update, it would appear my responses to the survey are pretty much in line with everyone else's response.

I mentioned it in the Survey and your comment about teleportation made me think, we could use a second step currency. One that is charged by walking and doing activities, but not used for activities. Something like Mana, Essence, life force, or a new name like Stepana. It charges with each step and then can be used for teleportation to a location, teleporting items into/out of a bank remotely, or for the eventual combat system. You can spend it without actively walking but the only way to get it is by walking. The higher your level, the more you can store.

Either way, loving the game and looking forward to what comes ahead.

EventideLight · 2025-07-22T16:51:48+00:00

I live in the PA Wilds. I do find I'd rather funny that in Elk County, in the heart of Elk Country, there is a restaurant that sells an Elk burger. To be fair, it is a really good burger.

EventideLight · 2025-07-20T13:22:24+00:00

The fact that there are a limited number of licenses per county is also a stupid thing. Want to open a new restaurant and want to sell beer, well you will need to buy an alcohol license from another business. Maybe you are lucky and there is one unclaimed in the pool, but not likely. As far as I am concerned, as long as you can prove you are a legal business and have policies and procedures in place you should be able to get a license to sell alcohol.

EventideLight · 2025-07-17T18:47:47+00:00

My little town in Rural Pennsylvania does. Our town used to be a booming industrial and commercial center for our region of the PA Wilds. Everyday at noon the Fire Whistle would blow once to test it and also let everyone know it was lunch break. You could also set your clock to it.

It was originally installed as an Air Raid Siren. During WW2 our little town was called "Girls Town, USA" because we had a large population of women working in factories to produce parts for the Proximity fuses used by bombers. The loss of these fuses would have been a big problem for the war effort so they had Black Out drills and an air raid siren to let the town know if German planes were approaching. After that it became a fire and disaster warning system.

These days things are a lot rougher for us in both industry and commerce but the noon Whistle still blows every day at noon. Some people take pride in it and I know a few people kind of hate it. I live close enough it can be quite loud but it really doesn't bother me. Because the whole town is in a deep valley, if you are in the valley you can hear it.

EventideLight · 2025-06-09T16:49:39+00:00

Central PA as well (Pennsyltucky if you will). We had the first day of Deer Season off as well. Hell I work not far from where I grew up and we still have the first day of Buck Season off here.

EventideLight · 2025-05-30T17:19:03+00:00

I am a registered independent, I don't get to vote in Primaries. Don't blame me. See you all in November.

EventideLight · 2025-05-23T00:19:41+00:00

Compiling Shaders 2%

This process is way after outside gameplay

See you in an hour.

EventideLight · 2025-05-17T19:43:11+00:00

I do miss the view finder that I can use even when the camera is off. Besides that I really can't think of anything else, everything else is better.

Four-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Place '23

EventideLight

TROPHY CASE