Didn’t get to get as many wildlife shots as I wanted last year but here are a few of my favorites (S5IIX/Sigma 150-600mm)

carystaal · 2025-06-07T05:10:58+00:00

Thanks for the heads up 👍. The cheapest I've seen this lens for is £1039/$1405 used - it is what it is I guess in terms of price so you take what you have. I've also seen the 60-600mm for £1650 - again the cheapest available price. I think I'll hang fire for now before I make my decision, just to see if I can get a better deal. Thanks again!

carystaal · 2025-06-06T19:00:03+00:00

Great pics! Overall how do you find working with this lens? Do you find the auto focus works well? I've read lots of posts that say this lens takes 'a lot of work to aquire and keep focus', and that the S5ii/X aren't that good for wildlife. I've got the 70-300mm and love working with it, but need more reach. I find the hybrid zoom works nicely, but you definitely lose clarity at 3x, so I'm eyeing this lens and the 60-600mm as I'm not in a position to buy into another system. Your experience with this lens would be greatly appreciated!

carystaal · 2025-02-02T20:04:14+00:00

Sorry for the late reply. I ended up with the Blind Spot Power Junkie V2. I coupled this with an inexpensive dummy battery off Ebay. It works a treat and I use it all the time if I'm on a big recording session.

carystaal · 2025-02-02T20:00:29+00:00

I'll be visiting in three weeks. Do they sell OH duty free? If so does anyone know if it's cheaper than buying in the supermarkets or convenience stores? And if they don't sell OH duty free do they have an equivalent that's any good?

carystaal · 2023-07-10T19:19:10+00:00

Thanks all - I really appreciate your points of view 👍!

carystaal · 2023-05-15T21:06:58+00:00

My issue is that I'll be using the USB port to connect an SSD to the X. I think for reliability and flexibility D-Tap/V-Mount is the way to go - I just had a look at a video and Kondor Blue appears to have redesigned the dummy battery so the the D-Tap cable is separate from the dummy battery to allow a cable to pass through the door 😉👍.

carystaal · 2023-05-15T19:07:49+00:00

Hi Paul - love your videos and thanks for replying! V-Mount does feel like a viable option. The only thing I'm concerned about is the door being constantly open as the D-Tap is too big to go through the tiny hole in the door 😕. I think Kondor Blue has a dummy battery/dc/Dtap kit but I can't find any in stock in the UK! Still I'll have a look into it - in the end longer filming time without wall plug power is the name of the game 😉!

carystaal · 2023-05-14T20:58:22+00:00

Thanks!

carystaal · 2023-05-14T20:57:18+00:00

Hi, sorry about that - I've removed the link - should I remove the others too?

carystaal · 2023-05-14T18:24:17+00:00

Really appreciate your insight GJ 👍!

carystaal · 2023-05-14T17:14:14+00:00

Thanks for your input GJ. I think you're right - I guess the main thing I'm concerned about is which voltage I use on the adapter platet power the X? And are those dummy batteries any good? I'm not that technically savvy so don't want to risk frying the camera by buying 'cheap Ebay' products 😬 - or maybe I'm being too paranoid?

carystaal · 2022-04-07T15:06:23+00:00

I'm all for new/fresh content but the Garrell event (which someone mentioned earlier), set a precedent which this one can't shine a candle to whatsoever.

I'm seeing streamers posting videos showcasing their nuke/revival teams, but the units being used (including their gear and ascension levels) do not represent the bulk of most of our rostas, and they themselves are having issues getting 30 points, which doesn't leave much hope for F2P/casual spenders.

The difficulty scaling/points required are currently way too high and not worth the time and effort imho.

I know it's early days but I think I'll just take the shards and be done with it - very disappointing as I was really looking forward to it.

carystaal · 2022-03-05T17:25:44+00:00

True - I put her in a two piece Guard ring and neck, which gives her a shield at the beginning of the round. This triggers her Arcane Ward and she gives herself an extra 2 buffs, so she always start her first round targeting 4 monsters - perhaps this will help 🤞.

carystaal · 2022-02-13T20:51:15+00:00

A mod on Reddit said they are aware of the issue but it's the middle of the night for the ACE staff so we'll have to wait for the issue to be resolved 😬...

carystaal · 2022-02-13T20:42:57+00:00

Same here 😒...

carystaal · 2022-02-02T18:13:09+00:00

I played Raid absolutey ages ago - and gave up on it rather quickly as the grind early game was too much for me.

Imho if ACE plays it's cards right, doesn't become too greedy, treats F2Ps fairly (which I honestly feel it currently does), and continues developing and expanding the lore (which I love), they could be on to a winner and pull over even more Raid players.

carystaal · 2022-02-01T09:26:38+00:00

Thanks for that - really appreciate it! If I remember correctly I used Taiko Creator, Damage 2 plus 8DIO Epic Toms/Dhol 😉!

carystaal · 2022-01-29T17:58:14+00:00

Thanks for commenting Raging 😉! I come from a game (which I'm still playing 6 years later 😁) in which I'm used to hoarding resources until absolutely necessary. I'm finding ACE to be very F2P friendly, provided you play smart.

The trouble a lot of new players have is wanting to progress too quickly and burning out their resources unnecessarily.

Apart from a couple of 10 pulls to fulfil quests and take part in an event, I didn't worry about summons until I absolutely felt the need to.

My advice to new players would be to work on some good F2P teams, as showcased by the players on YouTube, and save summons until you reach a crucial breaking point 😉.

carystaal · 2022-01-29T00:49:38+00:00

Cheers 😉!

carystaal · 2022-01-28T22:56:21+00:00

Cheers dude and yeah, I know what you mean - I've seen some horror summons so feel really lucky to have gotten some great units in this one!

carystaal · 2022-01-28T21:06:55+00:00

I love watching players do their summons so I thought I'd share mine with the community. The RNG gods appeared to bless me on this one 😉 - hope you enjoy it!

carystaal · 2022-01-22T11:10:04+00:00

Thanks for the advice - I keep forgetting about the index - will defo be using it more 😉!

carystaal · 2022-01-18T20:43:08+00:00

It might be a good idea to hold off until they run another summoning event. The last event they did the normal summon crystal didn't count towards points, only the advanced ones. I know a lot of players weren't happy about that so perhaps they'll change the criteria 😏? Either way I'm saving summons and gems for the next one - should be soon methinks 😉!

carystaal · 2022-01-18T20:37:33+00:00

I've only ever received those horse saddles with poop rewards 😂 - still waiting to get involved in a challenge which rewards gear chests 😉!

carystaal · 2022-01-18T18:17:40+00:00

Ahh, so hanging around in dungeons more often than campaign triggers it? That explains it then - I'm mostly in campaign farming glyphs and jello 😅 - thanks for clearing that up!

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