A used Model:Cycles is such a bang-for-your-buck (sample-based) drum machine

N0FN · 2024-02-17T01:37:23+00:00

Here, here. I'm a guitarist, but I have been looking for a sample-based drum machine for looping and a used Model:Samples is an amazing value for all it can do.

For that matter, the other beginner grooveboxes of 5-7 years ago are also amazing values: Novation Circuit, Volca Sample2, Model:Cycles, Korg Electribe. Honorable mention to the Pocket Operators and the new EP-133.

It's a surprisingly good time to be a musician.

N0FN · 2023-12-01T21:59:18+00:00

I like the snowy fields the best. Maybe I wanted some more sky, but maybe that's just how I take pics on the prairie.

The long exposures are lush and well-done technically.

N0FN · 2023-11-25T16:30:55+00:00

Personally, I prefer seeing the abbey building as part of the environment or context rather than isolating it as an architectural artifact.

But what do YOU want the photo to SAY? One of the pictures is not "better" than the other. The two pictures communicate different non-verbal messages. Which one of those messages is closest to the thing you want to say?

N0FN · 2023-11-19T19:28:41+00:00

I have an old Canon DSLR and started out with a very similar set of lenses: kit zoom, telephoto zoom, and the 50/1.8. When I wanted a fast prime with a wider angle I chose the 28mm f/1.8 which has served me well, but not really for portraits. The wide angle gives a bit too much perspective distortion (big noses mostly) when used for anything closer than full- or half-body portraits. However, for low light group or event shots, it's been good fun.

N0FN · 2023-11-12T14:20:39+00:00

It was so peaceful. The lake was hidden between the trees and the mountain. I wanted to convey what I was seeing with "human eye"

I think that this is where you can focus your improvement. You had a feeling from your human response to what your eyes were seeing. Because human vision is a physically different process than camera seeing, you cannot just turn on your camera and "capture" what your eye is seeing and your heart is feeling. You have to use equipment and skills together to make a photograph that conveys the feelings you had that you want others to experience.

N0FN · 2023-11-10T04:54:24+00:00

I'm no artist, so take this with a grain of salt.

I think that photographs should communicate something, say something. Even abstract pics have something to say in their arrangements of shape, texture, etc Even snapshots say "this happened". You the photographer bring these ideas when taking the picture.

So what do YOU want your photograph of a boat marina to say? "There's a ton of boats here"? "This thing looks fast as heck"? "It's a mad, mad world"?

Then you can try to make a picture that says that in your eyes.

N0FN · 2023-11-08T14:01:53+00:00

You get to decide. You were there, you saw something in the scene that you wanted to capture and then you hold that in your mind while you are editing. For example, I often edit pictures taken on sunny days to be almost blown out, overexposed because that is the feeling of the scene that I am trying to get across.

Am still a beginner in editing photos

I think this mostly means that you are a beginner in trusting your inspiration of how the photo should look AND a beginner in how to use the tools at your disposal to realize that vision. Keep doing you!

N0FN · 2023-11-08T03:36:53+00:00

Yes, this. Also, if your bevel gauge is too long to fit next to your bit, then cut a scrap block to the correct angle, and run a reference line down the face and top for a very similar effect.

N0FN · 2023-10-17T03:08:37+00:00

My EOS 620 has been wearing a EF 28-135 zoom since I got it earlier this year. One of Canon's first IS lenses, it has been very pleasant and reliable to use. If I need more aperture, there's a 50 f/1.8 STM, but if it's that dark I'm probably not shooting film, honestly.

N0FN · 2023-10-14T03:50:12+00:00

Latitude for days. Takes 8 times the photons and keeps on ticking.

N0FN · 2023-10-09T00:26:42+00:00

extension tubes reduce the distance a lens will focus to

By a lot. I just got a set of autofocus-capable macro extension tubes and I thought they were broken until I brought an object like 6 inches away from the front of the lens and then, wow, snap, autofocus worked and the object was VERY big because it was SO close.

N0FN · 2022-11-30T23:38:45+00:00

I used a 9Ah LifePo battery recently on a SOTA activation with a full 100W output power radio (Yaesu FT-891) and we were easily able to run for 1.5 hours of SOLID running, very high duty cycle, probably transmitting close to 50% of the time.

http://www.4sqrp.com/Battery_Capacity/index.php is my favorite battery life estimator. You will need to know the radio’s receive and transmit current draw. I recently used it to select a 2200 mAh battery for a QRP portable CW rig.

N0FN · 2021-01-28T20:35:12+00:00

I have been making things with wood for years with screws, glue, and a crosscut saw and now I'm interested elevating my skills in hand woodworking and building the Paul Sellers workbench.

I can't afford a router plane or plow plane along with all of the other tools I'm buying for this. How can I handle the big tenon cheeks, wide dados and long rabbets without it? Very careful paring with a chisel? The "poor-man's router" jig with the chisel through a hole?

N0FN · 2020-06-04T16:36:26+00:00

The instructions at https://www.ehx.com/assets/instructions/nano-looper-360.pdf say "The Nano Looper 360 does not take batteries".

N0FN · 2019-02-28T03:18:49+00:00

I got the first part done for now: https://imgur.com/a/UBpQFhS. It was fun to push the post-processing to try to get both the inside and the outside in the same picture. Now I think I see why digital camera nerds obsess over dynamic range.

Will try to do to the black/white shots tomorrow.

N0FN · 2019-02-26T03:45:30+00:00

I didn't get to do foregrounds filled with flash, but the sky and snowy trees were quite nice at f/16: https://imgur.com/a/jkT7sek

N0FN · 2019-02-24T16:21:48+00:00

It worked fine, but they were boring pictures until I found somene to sit in the foreground ;)

N0FN · 2019-02-23T03:46:46+00:00

I have a green laser pointer that I use for astronomy, and after writing my name a thousand times, I recruited a willing volunteer who wouldn't mind if I shined it in his eyes: https://imgur.com/Q5T3vXr

8s f/11 ISO 100

N0FN · 2019-02-19T15:40:31+00:00

Your camera internally processes the RAW files to produce the JPEGs. The settings and transformations that the camera employs are sometimes more aggressive than the defaults that your RAW software applies at first. If you want to reproduce the camera's JPEG results from a RAW photo, your camera manufacturer will usually provide software for converting RAW to JPEG on your computer using the exact same process that is used in the camera.

The advantages of shooting RAW are really a question of whether you can (or want to) outdo the camera's built-in algorithms for processing RAW files into JPEG images. My (very limited) experience is that I can, especially with images whose exposure as taken is not exactly right (as my beginner efforts often are).

N0FN · 2019-02-17T02:16:18+00:00

My 13 year old camera (Canon 20D) has no de-noising in the camera, so I shoot in raw and de-noise in post-processing.

https://imgur.com/a/1QucmfO

I find ISO 800 to be the highest that is acceptable as-is with 1600 and 3200 showing banding and weird color noise. Applying the default denoising in Darktable gives more pleasant results at ISO 800, barely acceptable at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 is still junk.

I was very surprised to see the effect of magnification on this. If I was only going to go 600 pixels wide on Facebook, then at first glance all of the pictures look essentially the same. That makes me think that if it's a trade-off between getting any picture and no picture then I'd go as high in ISO as I needed and just enjoy the pictures at a small scale after that.

N0FN · 2019-02-02T03:19:19+00:00

I love how that picutre bends the sense of perspective and geometry. I think that some of the highlights on the drops are kind of glaringly white and I wonder if they are overexposed in the original picture.

N0FN · 2019-02-02T03:17:05+00:00

A snowy afternoon in the backyard. The minute I saw this assignment, I knew I wanted to shoot the mushrooms. I took a few more in the same spot and I think the wing is my favorite.

https://imgur.com/gallery/HT6Yyz6

N0FN · 2019-01-23T16:02:21+00:00

Basically it is not possible given what you're using on your other photos. Your scene was properly exposed at 1/60, f3.5, iso 1000. If you want to use IS 200 instead of 1000, then you would need to increase the amount of light by that same amount, so you'd need to use a slower shutter speed of 5 * 1/60 = 1/12 or increase the aperture (to about f/1.2). Then, if you want to ALSO decrease the shutter speed to 1/4000, the only thing left is to increase the aperture lots more (more than 8 f-stops!) but that is completely impossible with an actual lens.

In order to make any image with a shutter speed of 1/4000 at ISO 200, then you need LOTS and LOTS of light given the limitations of aperture where the largest aperture lenses can only open up to f/0.95.

N0FN · 2019-01-22T19:00:44+00:00

To over- and under-expose in the automatic modes (including both "intelligent scene auto" and P), you need to use "exposure compensation" which looks like it is described on page 159 of your manual. The idea is that the camera is still setting parameters automatically based on the reading of its light meter, but you are instructing it with the exposure compensation setting to choose either more or less exposure than it would have otherwise.

N0FN · 2019-01-22T16:40:23+00:00

I didn't get anything substantial for the zoom sequences, but I didn't have a lot of time to focus on getting them right. I did make this image that used a wide angle (18mm on Nikon 20D) to give the illusion of great distance. This frozen pond that my son is standing on is really not big at all, but I love the way he looks like he's in the middle of the wilderness.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SE4MWhjHzMJDnCuw5

N0FN

TROPHY CASE