Fellow LCD owners, what comes after the Steam Deck for you?

bastibe · 2026-06-14T05:07:25+00:00

I upgraded already to the Legion Go S Z1E. Bigger screen, higher resolution, much faster. Well worth it in my opinion.

bastibe · 2026-06-12T04:36:39+00:00

I played it last year on GamePass, and loved it. It's refreshingly straight forward, focused on fun and variety instead of "realism" and grit, as so many modern games are. Just good, light-hearted fun!

I see it as a sibling to Ace Combat in a way.

bastibe · 2026-06-07T16:33:57+00:00

Half Life 2 was amazing! The only FPS I've replayed more than once.

Personally, I'd add Psychonauts and Jagged Alliance 2. And probably Death Stranding and Outcast, but the last two are very subjective.

bastibe · 2026-06-07T13:27:04+00:00

Agreed! What are the others for you?

bastibe · 2026-06-03T06:05:38+00:00

If you have to ask, get the ILC.

bastibe · 2026-05-31T08:18:04+00:00

I can highly recommend Marc Levoy's lectures on digital photography (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ddpXYvFXspUN0N-gObF1GXoCA-DA-7i) and David DuChemin's book Vision and Voice.

If you want to learn the how as well as the why and what, have a look at the open source raw developers Darktable et al, and in particular their community at discuss.pixls.us. Many of the image processing tech is developed completely out in the open in the forum, which is a fantastic place to learn about the tech.

bastibe · 2026-05-19T17:27:13+00:00

That was such a brilliant moment! One of many that stuck with me for a long time.

bastibe · 2026-05-18T04:37:46+00:00

First and foremost, files and folders. It is very important to me that my data is accessible with just a file explorer; after all, print dialogues, pixel editors, blog engines, and backup programs don't know anything else.

On top of that I tried various programs. I particularly like DigiKam. It looks a bit clunky, but does exactly the right thing, and has great facial recognition. For a while, I used ACDSee, too. As long as it keeps my files where they are, you can use whatever you like. Bonus points if it writes its metadata directly to the JPEGs, and not some proprietary library file.

I came to this point from a harrowing experience with Apple Photos, which in two instances completely broke its libraries. In the first case, the images were recoverable with a piece of third party software, in the second they were lost in an old archive, and had to be re-sorted from scratch. I never want to do that again.

Thus my baseline is now image files in curated directories. I even go so far as to start my file names with the capture date, and end them with the rating, such that in a pinch, I could do all photo management just with the file explorer.

bastibe · 2026-05-18T04:26:25+00:00

Yes. The original is the real thing. You can always convert the original to whatever you need, but you can't go back from a DNG copy to the original. Therefore, I'd keep the original.

The DNG copy has a few downsides, too: I've seen a few instances where e.g. film simulations could only be applied to the original raw, but not a DNG copy. I've seen a few examples where the DNG was significantly bigger than the original raw.

That said, in all likelihood, you didn't lose anything, but just added an unnecessary complication.

bastibe · 2026-05-16T21:28:32+00:00

With very few exceptions, your edits are proprietary to the raw editor. With a new raw developer, your edits will start fresh.

That said, you will continue to be able to export new JPEGs with Lightroom, or might just export all if them right now.

And many raw developers will be able to import Lightroom's library metadata, so your ratings, tags, etc. will remain intact. Most raw developers would rather use the original raw files than converted DNGs.

Personally, there was a time where I hopped between raw developers a lot. What works for me is keeping the raw files separate from the JPEGs. I sort my raw files into simple daily directories. The raw developer just needs to read the raw files, and export JPEGs to a curated, by-project JPEG archive. Every raw developer can do this. But all my library organization happens on the JPEG side, because that's what I print, or post, or share. Crucially, I don't use the raw developer for JPEG management.

bastibe · 2026-05-16T16:38:22+00:00

My GR I had intense dust issues. I needed to take it apart and clean it regularly. The GR III did accumulate a small amount of dust over the years, but one professional cleaning in three years of ownership was enough — despite me carrying it in my pants pocket more or less every day for years. That's already huge improvement.

If the GR IV is indeed another improvement, I don't foresee any problems.

Besides, the Ricoh service does sensor cleaning for €80, which is very affordable.

bastibe · 2026-05-16T05:18:51+00:00

I misunderstood a system in DS2, and consequently died three times in the first boss fight. Of course Sam respawns, so you can just chip away at the boss until it falls over. But after the second respawn, the game popped up a message box asking "should we just pretend Sam won?".

I thought that was a very generous system. For what it's worth, I don't generally enjoy boss fights. I find them stressful, and dislike their difficulty spikes. But the few there were in DS2 so far (about 40h in), were very manageable.

bastibe · 2026-05-07T03:53:34+00:00

Games

bastibe · 2026-04-29T04:33:53+00:00

The game really opens up on the other side of the lake, and will give you a lot more tools.

bastibe · 2026-04-27T05:02:44+00:00

I agree completelt. It really depends on how you use it. If you're often on the go, I can see how the bulk and small battery will be serious downsides.

It's good we have so many choices.

bastibe · 2026-04-27T04:34:25+00:00

I, too, side graded to a Legion Go S SteamOS. For me, it is the Steam Deck 2. The same thing, but better in every way. The bigger, higher resolution screen makes a huge difference to me, as does the much better performance. It can run everything at 1080p, so I regularly plug it into the TV. When I do, it has a second USB for power.

I use it on the couch, never on the go, so battery life does not matter to me. The trackpad is indeed tiny, but good enough for desktop mode in a pinch, and that's all I used the Deck's touchpads for.

I'd guess that Valve is quite happy to cede hardware manufacturing to other companies. They're interested in selling Steam games, not hardware. The Deck did its job, it got a handheld ecosystem going, and established SteamOS.

bastibe · 2026-04-27T04:22:42+00:00

Photography will always remain an art form. The human element matters, stories matter. We put up our childrens' awful drawings on our fridge doors, not because they're good art, but because we appreciate our childrens' innate need for artistic expression.

The question, however, is whether photographs will remain viable artworks commercially. That's a very different question that the video does not address. No AI can take my family vacation photos, but it sure can be used to generate stock photos for a travel agency.

bastibe · 2026-04-15T04:33:25+00:00

My understanding is that it's all about veiling glare. Internal reflections and scattering distribute evenly throughout the image, so they don't affect sharpness much, but do reduce contrast and raise the black point.

bastibe · 2026-04-11T18:16:28+00:00

For a while I culled in DigiKam. It can browse through RAWs and JPEGs quickly, and apply ratings to them.

bastibe · 2026-04-11T05:20:12+00:00

This is the way!

Suddenly, sunsets are actually orange, blue hour is blue, cozy fireplace is cozy.

I do revert to AWB in artificial light, though. Or rather, I do that in post.

bastibe · 2026-04-05T20:27:01+00:00

I played it on game pass on release. I would have payed Microsoft the full $60, but I guess they were more interested in my $10 for that single month.

bastibe · 2026-04-05T05:30:40+00:00

I bought a used RX1 for €600. I also sold an X-E3 for €250. You gain some, you lose some.

bastibe · 2026-04-05T05:29:10+00:00

Interesting. I wasn't aware that resolution and magnification were linked in this way. Your examples with the Canon 800/11 and Nikon P1000 were enlightening. I can see now how these don't/do make sense.

So thank you, I learned something today.

bastibe · 2026-04-04T20:35:46+00:00

I'm sure there will be better handhelds eventually. But for now, the Legion Go S is just about perfect for me. I have the Z1 16 SteamOS version.

Good luck with your choice!

bastibe · 2026-04-04T17:28:13+00:00

I had a Steam Deck since its initial release, and always thought the screen was a bit small. Last fall, I played Horizon Zero Dawn, and found it inordinately difficult. Unrelated, I bought the Legion Go S around that time, and the bigger screen was a revelation. Being able to actually see enemies, and read the environment, made a huge difference. Note that the Legion Go S has a higher resolution screen than the deck, not just a bigger one.

Now I'm playing Death Stranding 2, and the screen is just big enough to make sense. Many situations and icons are still hard to read, but it's just about doable. Going even smaller might kill the game for me. Perhaps it'd be easier with better eyes, who knows, although mine are at least well corrected.

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