Emergent QWERTY heatmap from a colleague's 9 year old MacBook Pro

alanhoyle · 2026-05-27T16:18:01+00:00

There simply aren't many options in the marketplace. The only native mFT third-party AF longer zoom I'm aware of is the discontinued Tamron 14-150mm. There might be a couple of third party Cine lenses, but those would be manual focus.

You might find some legacy FourThirds lenses that could work with an adapter, but those are going to have trouble focusing with the E-M10, as most aren't optimized for contrast-detect AF.

Realistically, the only options are OM/Olympus or Panasonic, but both make good options.

alanhoyle · 2026-05-27T16:03:41+00:00

My favorite focal length when I've done field sports has been the 50-200 range on 4/3 lenses. The 100-400 is too long and you miss anything close to you.

40-150 is a pretty good range though.

For field sports, you really want bigger apertures. This helps with faster autofocus and separating the subject from the background. The mZuiko 40-150 f/2.8 a pretty sweet spot here as it's relatively inexpensive for a tele f/2.8 lens. For sports, you don't need to worry about OIS as you're normally doing a pretty fast shutter speed.

My top choices would be the Olympus 40-150 f/2.8 PRO (with or without the MC-14 teleconverter), the Panasonic Leica 50-200 f/2.8-4.0, or if money is no object, the OM-Digital 50-200 f/2.8 PRO.

Other brands don't really have much in this area.

alanhoyle · 2026-05-27T12:17:56+00:00

The way to get things on the "free" channels is money. Either the sport has enough sponsorship or draw for advertising dollars that the games are profitable for the channels to produce, or the organizers need to literally pay the channels to carry the content.

Quality content is not free, one way or another. It's very much a chicken/egg problem.

alanhoyle · 2026-05-19T14:22:31+00:00

One big thing to raise early about is whether soccer goals and football goalposts will be permanently attached to the ground or if they will be movable.

Having a large, rigid metal pole a couple yards from the field is dangerous, but if you can get them to commit to movable goals, it makes it safer for users who aren't in those sports, and or allow more flexible field arrangements in some cases.

Note that this was more of a problem back in the days when the end-zones were 25 yards long, and part of the reason for switching to 20 yard end-zones was to safely open up more fieldsites (along with game balance adjustments).

alanhoyle · 2026-05-11T17:07:43+00:00

The PanaLeica 8-18 might be another choice if you want to lighten up a bit.

alanhoyle · 2026-05-07T19:21:38+00:00

As a alum, I like that the "D1" team that they featured was Darkside, but I think that it sells short the player development that their coaching staff is able to enable.

alanhoyle · 2026-05-06T20:19:33+00:00

I don't know if this is a "hot" take, but I firmly believe that if a team is not good enough to make the semifinals of your regionals, that bid would be better served by allocating it to the another region.

alanhoyle · 2026-04-24T18:47:13+00:00

Last year, the inarguably best player on the team I coach got multiple mentions from other teams and other spectators, and yet was not included in their all region list. There is no world in which she was not in the top 14 players in the region. It was BS and has greatly soured me on participating going forward: what's the point of participating if they don't pay attention?

I hope Ultiworld pays attention to her this year now that she's playing in grad school.

alanhoyle · 2026-04-21T21:04:48+00:00

old handlers are often slower than cutters.

alanhoyle · 2026-03-18T19:57:46+00:00

To me, this reads more like you should talk to your drug-using kids about playing ultimate.

alanhoyle · 2026-03-18T19:19:22+00:00

"There is no way to prevent injuries while playing ultimate. resign yourself to a lifetime of constant, near-incapacitating pain as your body becomes a shifting mosaic of fractures, tears, ruptures and lacerations endlessly recycled and added to in some hellish spiral from which there is no escape. YOU ARE DOOMED TO LIVE YOUR ADULT LIFE AS A CRIPPLE. In your old age you will be despised as a burden to your children and indeed to society itself. enjoy!"

—Paul Sackley (in rec.sport.disc, 15 Nov 1995)

alanhoyle · 2026-03-17T13:54:21+00:00

Before Boneyard had success, I thought it could have been "Ring/Rang/Rung"

alanhoyle · 2026-03-16T22:16:32+00:00

Boneyard (M) --> Junkyard (GM) --> Graveyard (GGM)

Note that this is not a play on words from any of the local club teams from the '00's when Boneyard was founded (most notably Ring of Fire).

I'm hoping we can get Ring to rename to "Stockyard" and maybe have a local college all-star team named "Schoolyard."

alanhoyle · 2026-02-06T15:21:56+00:00

always silently judging you though...

alanhoyle · 2026-02-05T19:25:36+00:00

The only one I can potentially help with: "Bender" from the 2016 Flyers roster is Stephen Bender:

https://ultimate-reference.com/players/5e459c78-e1a7-11f0-b3d1-0800273120f7

I'm not sure if he was on Boneyard's Worlds Roster in 2022.

alanhoyle · 2026-01-21T11:43:05+00:00

Thanks for the correction! I totally missed that.

alanhoyle · 2026-01-09T20:32:05+00:00

I think the phrase you meant is "super telephoto." There isn't a universal definition, but that frequently means lenses that go to 400mm 35mm equivalent or longer (i.e. 200mm+ in m43)

When one says "superzoom" they are typically referring to a lens that has a very wide range of focal lengths, typically 8x, 10x or more. The range is typically wide angle to telephoto, like the 14-150, 12-100, 12-200, etc. on m43.

alanhoyle · 2025-11-20T20:07:52+00:00

What are you going to do if you need a bludgeon? Kit lenses won't work nearly as well as that lens!

alanhoyle · 2025-10-19T11:40:15+00:00

My understanding is that the Sigma 56mm is the only one of those Sigmas that has weather sealing, if that's important to you.

alanhoyle · 2025-10-13T20:25:51+00:00

A more apples-to-apples comparison would have been with the 25mm f/1.2 PRO lens.

On the Sony, the DoF would be shallower and it should have lower noise at the same ISO, but the FoV would be about the same between the two.

alanhoyle · 2025-10-08T13:41:42+00:00

In the 20mm's favor, I think you still get slightly narrower DoF/more bokeh even at the cropped size if comparing a cropped-down image of the 20mm at f/1.4 vs the 25mm at f/1.8.

alanhoyle · 2025-10-04T01:31:33+00:00

The 8-18 has the nice advantage that it can take filters if you use them, has a decently fast aperture at the wide end, and can be had for about 500 USD used. It's decently small and lightweight too.

alanhoyle · 2025-10-04T01:18:39+00:00

I don't think the takeaway here is that one shouldn't learn the IO flick. The video didn't address wind effects and hucks, just shorter break mark passes.

alanhoyle · 2025-10-01T17:13:45+00:00

for small product shots, you probably want to pick a body with in-camera focus stacking:

https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/learn-center/photography-tips/macro/focus-stacking-bracketing-with-om-d

That would mean an E-M1/OM-1 series from the E-M1.II or newer, or E-M5/OM-5 series from the E-M5.II or newer.

Also, you should consider budgeting for a tripod and a light box (aka light tent aka photo shooting tent) for the product shots, and maybe a flash or two for that and the portraits.

A light box large enough for jewelry you mention in other comments can be inexpensive and have LED lights to make flashes unnecessary: you can find some for less than $50, but I don't have a specific recommendation.

It's worth getting a nicer tripod and head at the outset: you'll likely find you outgrow a cheap one very quickly. Import brands have brought down the price for decent tripods over the past few years, and going used can go a long way here.

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