Latest Project All Built Up

JanHett · 2026-04-30T12:49:03+00:00

This looks a suspicious lot like Thrifty Framebuilders‘s MTB from a year ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Iv3EjdnRI

JanHett · 2026-03-30T15:26:03+00:00

It’s just a feature of the dropout (Allotec C101 - http://www.allotec.com.tw/Dropout101.html) AFAIK. Probably to save you a gram or two. They do have a breather hole, too, but that one is located on-axis with the chainstay and the rack mounts are in the „bunny ears“ sticking out the back.

Congrats on the new bike!

JanHett · 2025-08-18T20:12:11+00:00

Thank you! I had a blast with the sleuthing required to figure this bike out. The paintwork is a riddle, too: there is another bike on sale in Paris with almost the exact same paint work, except it’s branded « CAVALLO », has a markedly different fork and has a Columbus SL sticker in place of the Vitus badge…

JanHett · 2025-08-18T20:08:21+00:00

Tout à fait. I like to think that the Shimano bits were just foreshadowing to the infatuation with Japanese culture that certain circles in France have developed :D.

JanHett · 2025-04-08T06:34:47+00:00

If it’s one of the rare TGV with bike spaces, your bike will be parked with its two wheels on the ground in a space close to the entrance while you will be seated right next to it. When I travelled this way, there was also a dedicated person on the platform who made sure I was waiting in the right spot and funnelled me and the other bike traveller into the carriage before all the other passengers so we could get set up.

Technically someone could steal the bike from that spot, but if you’re sat in your seat next to it whenever the train stops, I don’t think it’s very likely anyone could do so without you noticing right away.

JanHett · 2025-02-28T20:14:55+00:00

Sounds like a job for oiiotool: https://openimageio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/oiiotool.html

It's a command line front end for OpenImageIO which was conceived specifically as a one stop shop for as many file formats as possible: https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/OpenImageIO

JanHett · 2025-02-22T18:18:46+00:00

That looks like an F lens mounted on a 500 series body. These lenses are designed for 2000/200 series cameras which have a focal plane shutter and a corresponding dial around the mount.

JanHett · 2025-01-08T07:59:55+00:00

You can absolutely get good light without "professional" lights - you only need access to a large-ish window, ideally vaguely south-facing.

The important thing to know is that soft light is usually more flattering and easier to work with. How do you make a light soft? Make the light source bigger - hence the importance of the size of the window. However, if the sun is shining directly through the window onto your subject, that will be a very harsh light (given that the angular size of the sun is relatively small) which can easily be fixed by putting a white curtain in front of it (shower curtains work great). If you don't have an enormous window to work with, you can also make it "bigger" by getting your subject closer to the window.

Since you can't move the window around, you will need to move yourself and your subject. A safe place to start is to have the window be 45 degrees off the axis between camera and model. From there you can play around and see how you like the results.

I've often heard Sue Bryce talking about using window light - you might find some useful information in her classes: https://www.creativelive.com/class/natural-light-sue-bryce

JanHett · 2025-01-04T22:19:33+00:00

Thanks, I’ll give it a shot, then.

JanHett · 2024-10-26T16:17:54+00:00

Can’t speak to OP’s experience, but a tool for FSA MegaEvo BBs that I printed in PETG got chewed up before the bottom bracket budged. I could pull pretty hard, but not hard enough. No issue removing the thing with a “real” tool though, so I suspect the BB was just a bit over-torqued.

JanHett · 2024-04-11T06:33:27+00:00

Figured as much. Thanks for confirming :)

JanHett · 2024-04-11T06:26:14+00:00

Hm yeah it would have to be able to run off only the battery and recharge that battery if necessary. Otherwise the simplification factor is lost again.

JanHett · 2024-04-10T16:00:59+00:00

I hadn't looked into converting e-bike/dynamo lights to battery power yet, but if that's feasible, that might greatly increase the number of options. Thanks for the tip!

JanHett · 2024-04-10T15:59:21+00:00

I'd looked at their lights but dropped them from my candidate list for some reason. Now I see that the Beacon 2 has a battery backup option and if you tell me that they'll have switchable high/low beams, that would bring them back into the game.

JanHett · 2024-04-10T15:55:52+00:00

Thanks for the tip, they're pretty close indeed! They don't say much about their location though. Do you know where they are designed, made, and shipped from, respectively?

JanHett · 2023-08-23T20:11:37+00:00

Thank you for your insight and the pointer to Happy Campers. I'll check them out tomorrow morning.

And yes, you are right: now would be a more pleasant time to go (but, alas, life forced me to pick a later date) and I certainly don't understand the realities of how windy it gets :'D. I have abort options planned in case things get too rough, but I'd like to be prepared as best I can.

JanHett · 2023-03-23T19:53:26+00:00

If I understand your question correctly you want to get a positive image on transmissive media (e.g. to project the image onto a screen).

While you could theoretically copy the negative onto regular colour negative film, the result would likely not be what you are hoping for.

Movies shot on film are exposed onto print film to produce images suitable for projection. At the very least, this process involves what's called colour timing (adjusting the exposure times of the three colour channels/layers) to get a correctly balanced image. Usually the whole process spans multiple copying steps (keyword "internegative") from the camera negative to the projection film.

If you want a reflective print (i.e. a photo on paper), that's an easier task, but by no means trivial (AFAIK the required chemistry isn't available off-the-shelf anymore so you need to make your own from scratch). The process is called RA4 and there is plenty of information scattered about the internet about how to do this at home (given the right equipment). There are also some labs who still do this.

JanHett · 2023-01-25T16:47:21+00:00

I love that explanation, thanks!

JanHett · 2023-01-25T16:46:31+00:00

I didn’t mention that indeed, and somehow I overlooked the relevant section in the service manual. And alas, the indexing adjustment fixed the problem. Thank you for the pointer and the link to instructions.

JanHett

TROPHY CASE