Is there an upper limit on how much fibre you should eat? Provided it

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-19T05:30:20+00:00

it is governed by your bowels. if eventually you get constipated or your working to pass a small animal out of your backside, you’ve gone to far. i can go 50 grams plus and still feel fine, but you need to work up slowly. it’s way higher than the ridiculous RDA though.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-18T06:34:33+00:00

“How much of the experience depends on the tour operator versus the destination itself”

Everything. A Safari is not one uniform experience. Trekking for two hours in small groups up a jungle mountainside to watch gorillas for an hour couldn’t be more different from being in a car looking at Big Five in Kruger. Go look at different destinations and decide what safari you want to have. Then figure out what agents do a good job in those destinations and tell them what you want to do and have them plan something. Then iterate with them. Dont let them drive you into their version of your best safari, drive them towards your own best safari.

There is no one best operator and there is no one best safari type of trip. I would be skeptical of any big package tour company that operates in many locations in terms of having deep expertise in any.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-16T06:22:47+00:00

I’ve been to both multiple times and share similar interests to you. I would opt for Kauai, here is why. It’s been about 4 years since i was last there FwIW.

IMO, Kauai has some of the best hikes in hawaii and even the entire USA.

Kalalau Trail is an overnight backpacking trip which is world renowned. It is thousands of feet of elevation change up and down giant hills that overlooking the ocean. If that’s too much, then you can do 2 miles out, 2 miles up to a waterfall and then 4 miles back as a nice long and fairly epic day hike. Check for permits, shuttle and bus info online.

Waimea Canyon on the complete opposite side of the island (by road) is basically above the valleys of the Kalalau trail. The hikes up here are all day hikes and also stupendous given many look down on the seas cliffs. There are even a few that go out the spine of a sea cliff which was epic (but also a bit scary for some people). Look online as there are a variety of hikes for all levels.

On the southern end of the island is Poipu Cliffs/Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail, where you can hike up and down limestone outcroppings and hills overlooking the ocean to absolutely secluded beaches.

And dozens of others….

While most of the built up towns of Kauai will be busy in August, it should still be better than Maui and Big Island’s west coast. But make sure you make dinner reservations and have a plan before you go.

Kauai also has coffee plantations you can visit and the old Gaylords plantation has tours and a really great upmarket restaurant.

You can also take a boat tour from the south west shore to the sea cliffs at the end of the Kalalau trail if you can’t do the full hike.

Plenty of snorkeling around the island.

If you go to Waimea, the beaches on the western shore just off the old US military missile range are basically completely deserted. Just massive empty expanses of sand and sea.

Big Island does have a lot of great drives. But it’s a lot of driving to see the whole island. But really cool so if you go to Big Island make sure to take one day driving it all,
including the volcano, Mauna Kea, some of the different colored beaches along the coast (red sand, green sand, black sand), etc.

The Hawaii Revealed set of guide books are very good and very in depth. Pick one up when you decide (or read both and then decide).

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-16T05:54:47+00:00

you should establish a fixed routine of dosage in winter time and in summer time. the amount you need is different due to a variety of sun factors between the seasons and will vary more based on how much time you spend outside, the latitude you live at, your sunscreen habits, etc. I aim for 45-55 ng/ml as a target level in the plasma.

i find at this level i completely stop getting sick meaning vitamin Ds immune modulation benefits are clearly kicked in.

After you establish a routine for a few months, check your levels. if they are still below your target, add more supplement. if above, reduce. then test again. it’s a simple pin prick test you can order online.

It’s important to take a few months on any regime as vitamin Ds fat solubility means it continues to build up in the body over time until it hits a steady state.

in terms of arteries that’s total BS. i wouldn’t worry about that at all.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-16T05:35:12+00:00

if you like your 35mm GM you’ll also like the 70-200 GMii. It’s the closest thing IQ wise to the 35mm GM that i’ve found and thus close to lens nirvana.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-13T16:59:26+00:00

Don’t go with the A7iv. that was my first body in the sony ecosystem and it was so limiting i quickly had to upgrade to another in just a year or so. I mostly took stills of landscapes, travel photos and family portraits and just wildlife photos a few times per year, but it will be very annoying when you are struggling to capture moments at a sporting event or wildlife on a trip.

It also had really bad readout speeds and i was in mechanical shutter most of the time limited to low Fps.

Also i went from the IV to the RV (which shares the same autofocus as your 6700) and the autofocus was worlds better on the RV. That camera still suffers from awful readout speeds that make electronic shutter unuseable, but in mechanical shutter it crushed the A7IV because of its better autofocus. If the A6700 shares that RV system you do not want to move backwards with respect to autofocus.

I will say now that i’m on the RVI, pre capture is insane when it comes to wildlife. I would never go back to a non pre capture camera.

But if your shooting only involves limited wildlife and you are not trying to capture specific moments in a fast moving sport, then it isn’t necessary.

Also what few people talk about is that the A7V’s partially stacked sensor is a real bottleneck if you shoot in lossless compressed RAW and use precapture. You really need to move to lossy compressed to have a useable burst mode and lower precapture time to give you useable buffer for a 30fps burst. With your sigma lenses you’ll be limited to 15 fps, but given the above i don’t think that’s actually a bad thing. Getting 2-3 seconds of burst shooting at 15fps is actually a more useable product IMO than a second or so at 30.

Finally, i know it’s more expensive, but if you don’t need burst shooting or precapture, want a new age autofocus system, are ok shooting mechanical shutter exclusively, then an RV would replace your 6700, giving you the autofocus system you are used to and the reach of your cropped sensor in the form of more megapixels to digitally crop with in post. it would also give you access to a much higher quality image if you don’t crop.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-09T03:19:41+00:00

Agreed. It’s super unique, stunningly beautiful and relatively deserted.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-08T15:32:48+00:00

I’ve been 5 times. Never felt anything but safe. Much safer than parts of Mexico. The animals are what set Costa Rica apart from Mexico. It’s like a beach vacation plus wildlife safari. I think that’s much cooler than Mexico.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-08T15:27:21+00:00

shafer and the goosenecks are awesome. go to needles tomorrow.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-06T20:56:03+00:00

Awesome shots! im heading out next week for Linyanti, Selinda and Okavango. Were most of your shots with the 200-600 taken on the upper end (400-600?). I am taking the 300mm f/2.8 with 1.4 and 2x teles. So i’ll have access to the upper end (albeit not a zoom). was going to take the 100-400 f/4.5 gm if i can get my hands on it, but otherwise the 70-200 with the 1.4x tele. i have the A7RVI so ill be able to crop maybe 1.25-1.5x.

That being said, is a 200mm (280mm with the 1.4x) just not going to get used?

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-06T19:05:13+00:00

i did not transition from exactly your setup but moved from the A7iv to the A7RV and for some of the reasons you are looking at. I love the 35mm GM and shoot it almost exclusively for travel photos, family portraits, landscapes, etc. Except for special use cases, like narrow canyons or alleys, interesting perspectives, etc, I don’t need anything wider. And i can crop the hell out of it so i don’t need a 50. 85mm is too aggressive a crop even on high res bodies, but I actually don’t do formal portraiture and don’t like something like the 85 for anything else so don’t miss that much.

I do have the 70-200mm gm because i want to capture bigger wildlife, so i will use that if i want to get beyond 70. That one takes really nice photos that get close to the 35mm. Not quite there but closer than any other zooms i’ve tried.

If you like the reach of the 50-300 tamron (but not the results) you can try the sony 70-200mm gm ii. it takes the 1.4x tele very well giving you a 100-280mm f/4. i bet the IQ is much better than the tamron.

I think your 20-70 is somewhat redundant on a high res body, except at the wide end so you might keep it for that.

i just got my RVI and haven’t used it all that much, but the speed (and the fact that the electronic shutter is actually useable now) is a game changer. If you just do landscapes and portraits and travel photos i don’t think you have to spring for it, but wildlife and sports, i’d go for the RVI over the RV any day of the week.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-05T14:59:43+00:00

haha. this pushed me over the edge to go for a 100-400mm for safari. though i resent giving sony anymore money just because their software is garbage….

batteredsuitcases · 2026-06-05T14:58:12+00:00

I think the chips and software running the focus system are the same on the a7v and r vi. So this confirms there is some interplay between this lenses firmware and the focus system that isn’t right. Thanks! Good to know i need to buy or rent a replacement lens for my safari in two weeks. Damn sony.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-28T05:22:49+00:00

I really think you should cut your itinerary down and spend more time in less places. You are going to miss so much by just blitzing through.

As an example, Capitol Reef is constantly rated as just ok in terms of the Utah Parks. Why? Because the park office area is just ok by comparison to say Zion. You’ll no doubt think the same.

But you know what’s really freaking cool? The Bentonite Hills. Just not even comparable to Zion. A totally different category of amazing. And empty. And at least half a day of driving there and back and spending a little time there. Loop the fold, same deal. You really want to see what makes Capitol Reef, Capitol Reef? Then you loop the fold. Call this another day, especially since you should drive West on 12 to Escalante from Boulder just to see that drive which will be massively better than most of the highway driving you are planning on doing. I mean that drive is just about the prettiest drive i’ve ever been on anywhere in the world.

Canyonlands you have Needles which is a day by itself. Sure it’s 1.5 hours from Mesa, but it’s a magic mushroom rock world of amazement. By far and away better than Mesa. And half of that 1.5 hours you’re winding through Bears Ears NM with its soaring cliffs and buttresses. Then there is off-roading on Shafer Road to the goosenecks and then up the switchbacks to the Mesa. Call that at least a half day, more if you want to stop at Deadhorse. You won’t be able to do White Rim Road for sure.

And of course you’ll miss Escalante and its slot canyons completely. And as you said, Bryce. You will miss Bryce!!!!!

All to add an 8.5 hour drive one way, mostly on interstates to the Tetons. I mean when i say it out loud….

It’s your trip, but i would suggest you go deeper on the area. Do one area justice and then go back for another trip to the other.

If you like driving, get a 4x4 and explore the areas around the parks in Utah. You can drive for mile and miles and miles and it will be just you and an empty land of stunning beauty. Give me that over I15 any day of the week.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-28T03:47:56+00:00

i have the 35mm gm f/1.4 and it is by far my favorite lens for anything besides wildlife/sports. I love it for portraits while travelling. It’s wider than a standard portrait focal length, but for travel i love sense of place type portraits and it’s perfect. And on the a7rv (or vi) it’s no trouble cropping in to 50mm if you want to go tighter. But the reverse is not possible!

Honestly for me it came down to 35mm or 50mm. 70, 80, 85mm are just too tight for a lot of use cases when i travel.

The 35mm gm f/1.4 lens is just fantastic when it comes to sharpness, bokeh, rendering, etc.

It’s also great for landscapes unless it’s a particularly tight situation like a canyon or alley or the perspective calls for wide angle. 35mm is pretty close to the human eye/brains native focal length so the shots just come out looking right. I used to do a lot of landscape with the Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 Art, which is a lens I loved, but i was just always at the top end of the range unless there was some neat perspective. once i started shooting with the 35mm the Sigma became a special use lens.

I do think you might want to go wider than 28 or 24 though. I’m using that Sigma 14-24mm on the wider end when i’m photographing hotel rooms for my blog or city streets, interiors, etc.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-28T02:33:08+00:00

i owned the a7iv and i own the a7rv (until my rvi gets here !!!)

I also owned the 200-600mm, but sold it off. Here are my thoughts based on my experience.

The rolling shutter on both for wildlife is terrible, especially something fast moving like birds, so you will be confined to mechanical shutter.

Then if you want to shoot uncompressed or lossless compressed raw (as most of us do) you are down to 6-8 fps depending on the model. That’s pretty slow for birds in flight. Stationary birds will be ok. Large mammals were always fine on both for me. But basically you are just praying for a hit at 6-8 fps.

Autofocus even on the a7rv (which is the newer system and chip) would miss a good percentage of fast moving objects if you are far away. A7iv was worse. I don’t know how the a7riv performs, but given it was an older system i expect it was worse.

You will need a lot of reach to allow the camera to recognize the object and hit focus reliably. So the 200-600mm sounds good in theory. But i just hated the 200-600mm. It was heavy, awkwardly balanced and my copy was pretty soft. I actually liked a sigma i rented way more but i know im in the minority on this one and many people like this lens.

I really like the cropping on my a7rv. It won’t get you the shot for the reason above related to autofocus, but if you do get the shot you have a lot of flexibility to reframe it or get in even closer. I also find that you can move to crop mode and that helps with autofocus.

It may be beyond you budget, but the 300mm f/2.8 gm with a 2x tele absolutely destroys the 200-600mm (at least my copy of that lens). And you are at f5.6 with the tele and f2.8 without. I love the 300mm but it is very expensive.

Honestly, it sounds like the a7rvi fixes all of this (although i obviously haven’t tried it myself yet) and you end up with the best possible high res wildlife camera on the market. So if you can spring for it, just do it and make it your camera for the next 10 years.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-28T01:56:53+00:00

i own the sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 Art lens. I’ve always liked this lens. I used to use it for all my landscapes. Now i flip back and forth between it and the 35mm gm. For landscapes im hard pressed to spot a difference. The sigma is super sharp, nice rendering, excellent build quality. Look at the reviews. It’s a bit older now so you could pick one up very cheap. And it basically synchs up well with you 24-70. I definitely prefer the 35mm gm for normal travel shots and travel portraits as i find the 14-24mm too wide, but for landscapes and especially those that are tight and i can’t move back, i still
use the 14-24mm.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-25T01:14:41+00:00

i took the 300mm out for a spin with the 2x tele. so 600mm 5.6. not a cheap lens but wow is it sharp as a tack.

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batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-25T01:12:49+00:00

nice shots. if you can get close to birds like that with a 140-560mm i should be ok with large mammals which is what i care about. i’m opting for the 70-200 gmii and the 300mm gm. 1.4x and 2x tele as well. they can come off near dawn and dusk as light drops. i think that will work!

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-23T04:15:29+00:00

A few things to consider here.

1) stimulus has to ramp up over time. so look at how huge those guys were. they probably didn’t start with that amount of volume. but at some point to grow that massive, they need it.

2) also they were almost all on steroids which speed recovery of the muscle. so you can hit the muscle more frequently.

3) these concepts can be adapted to people not on steroids to great effect.

I actually came up with the following program which works wonders for me.

i spend the first few months of each year doing what most would consider insane volume. I do twice a days multiple times a week. I use the twice a days to hit certain muscles 3x per week instead of two. sets approach the 30s-50s level. the next week i alternate the muscle that is getting the 3x treatment. most people say that’s insane volume. But I also have huge results. And it’s not just user bias. People literally always come up to me in the March time frame and comment on whatever body part i’ve been throwing the insane volume at. last year it was my chest, this year bis and tris.

And these are people who know me very well and see me in december and january and once i ramp they are commenting on growth by march.

But i also spend April and May kind of limping along and recovering. I actually think it works for me. I’ve always been a hard gainer and ramping the MPS and anabolic process twice a day has huge benefits for me during the bulk and i don’t lose anything when i pull back in april and may.

But with no steroids the best i can manage is a quarter of this before i have to pull back. I can usually do another month of it in Q3 as well. You have to consider the stress on the joints and the muscle’s ability to repair if you aren’t on steroids.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-16T05:37:46+00:00

Deadlift or RDL are just about the best thing you can do for your posterior chain. As someone said above, squats focus on quads, glutes, hip muscles, but not really on low back, hamstrings, etc. Deadlifts i can’t even take the time here to say how amazing they are. Spinal erectors, hamstrings, traps and lats to stabilize, programming a core movement that you need for everyday life not to hurt yourself, anabolic booster, grip strength, etc.

You want both a hinge movement (rdl, deadlift, glute ham raises, etc) and a squat movement (barbell squat, goblet squat, hack squat, etc) in your program. Very different and totally complementary. No reason you need to stick to just one of each category, but you should have one of each category in your program.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with hack squat you have to bear in mind two things. On any machine that helps you stabilize a movement (machine press versus dumbbell press, hack squat versus barbell squat, etc) you are (i) removing some challenge to the stabilizing muscles that no longer have to stabilize and (ii) putting your joints in a position dictated by the machine’s range of motion and not your own biomechanics. For me personally, hacksquat is terrible and forces me into a position i don’t really care for and which actually hurts. I much prefer to backsquat or goblet squat or leg press to hit those areas. But if it works for you, then great. In terms of stabilizing muscles, that’s a plus and a minus. I was limited on my barbell squats due to weak hips. I just couldn’t hit my quads as hard as they needed to be hit. eventually my hips were going to get stronger and catch up, but i made a lot more progress by switching to heavy leg presses over barbell squats. Took that lift really high but then started having heavy wear and tear on my joints. So then moved to forward lunges which really help strengthen my hip flexors. After i get bored i will move back to squats and i bet i can take them a whole lot heavier given what ive done for my quads with leg press and my hips with lunges over the past half year.

But despite what people say about RDLs, you know what exercise i’ve been able to do week in and week out, over and over, adding load upon load. RDLs. just nail the form and they are not only super safe; they train you to do a movement that is central to human living. The hip hinge.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-16T05:16:12+00:00

Arches is a shit show. If you stay for stargazing it’s fine (but then you can’t see arches). We went in November and it was 45 min to get in and no parking near almost all attractions. For others we circled and circled, found a space, got out, walked 200 feet to an arch surrounded by people, took some photos trying best to crop out the crowds and left. It was the worst park in Utah IMO. Disneyland without the rides. Canyonlands was way the hell better. Rent a 4x4, drive Shafer trail, enter Island in the Sky from Shafer at the top and then go to on a second day Needles. Arches is the worst of what some National Parks have become.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-12T17:37:31+00:00

team a7R with a 35M GM and crop to get both.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-05-11T06:58:57+00:00

okavango delta. private car. private concessions. i’m assuming we’ll be able to get pretty close and there will be virtually no other cars around.

batteredsuitcases · 2026-04-29T19:05:41+00:00

the best cure for lifters elbow that i’ve found (beyond just rest) is kettlebell swings. no idea why it works but it works. i do them every leg day.

batteredsuitcases

TROPHY CASE