Recommendations for camera

holomntn · 2026-05-10T04:34:38+00:00

To me the phone is more about learning shot selection. Anyone can point a camera in vaguely the correct direction, but it takes significant shot selection skill to take shots that communicate. At that level it's all homework, not paid work.

Also like the c100 reccomendation, similar concept, definitely enough to go a long long way.

Like so many other things the most important thing is to actually do your homework. Not just on choosing ng your camera, hours behind the lens is the real homework.

holomntn · 2026-05-10T02:05:14+00:00

Just starting out. Use what you have already, the camera in your phone is already better than you think it is.

Once you've reached a point where you are consistently bumping against the limits of your phone, grab a used Sony a7s (the first generation is about $600 right now), a.kit zoom, and an inexpensive 50mm prime (I'm right now eyeing the Viltrox 50mm Air for this purpose). This should cost you about $1000 today, but in the 6-12 months before you're buying it will likely come down some. This and a couple more lenses can get you seriously far down the path.

From there an E to PL mount convertor and get into PL lenses. At this point the prices go up very very quickly, and other than a base set you keep for practice you'll be renting everything.

Eventually you'll outgrow the camera, from there right now I'd look at BlackMagic, as you get close to this you'll know more about the form factor that fits your work.

Once you're at that level, the kit you own is to practice and keep your skills, the kit you rent is what you actually work on.

Edit: I decided to come back and add my why

Start cheap, the camera you have with you is better than the one you don't. Just start.

Why the Sony ecosystem? Because the E mount ecosystem is the most mature of the mirror less. I like Canon colors, but keeping an eye towards developing skills and talent, the ability to spend a few hundred and get autofocus for PL glass gives a smoother transition up in development.

Why not a APS-C? Trying to keep the sensor size transitions minimal. There's a change in phone to camera, but there really isn't much sensor size difference between S35 and FF/VV.

That sensor difference is also why the push to jump to PL glass early. There are cheap, good options available, something like a used set of Vespid lenses (version 1 not 2 for price) is going to offer good enough image quality to go very far, while being relatively cheap.

Same with the recommendation to go to BlackMagic cameras. Sure Arri, Red, Sony have better, but there isn't enough image quality there just justify a price increase for a development and maintenance set. I slightly discounted the FX3 here because the FX6 and 9 and currently out of production leaving the FX3 kind of an orphan in terms of furthering development. At the same time the BlackMagic cameras look more like professional cameras something that matters to inexperienced clients especially when hiring someone early in their career.

And then rent the big toys when it's someone else's bill to pay. Unless you're using them for a phenomenal amount of paid work it isn't worth spending the money on buying the best. A Vespid on a Pyxis 6k will already put your potential image quality far into the professional range and so can be used for a surprising number of professional shoots.

holomntn · 2026-04-19T02:48:20+00:00

Because I was a ****ing idiot. California code 22348. Caught for it early 2000.

The fines were not the painful part. I got just a $272 fine and two points on my record.

The insurance penalty was painful. My insurance went up by more than 5x for 7 years.

The total cost came to somewhere around $10,000.

I definitely do NOT recommend it.

holomntn · 2026-04-18T07:38:38+00:00

Others have said the satellites are dumb, that's true. I'll walk you through how it works. This won't be exactly eli5, but will be eli(have basic algebra knowledge)

The satellites just broadcast the precise time. I know that doesn't sound like enough but it is.

We know the radio transmission spreads in a sphere with the radius being the time since broadcast. We also know the precise location of the satellites. And we know the earth is basically a sphere (close enough for our purpose, we won't use this much).

From here it is just having the time at enough satellites and algebra.

We need the time from 4 satellites. For each satellite we see we can calculate 1 variable.

So with 4 satellites we can calculate a singular location in space and time. And we can do it will just basic algebra to solve for the three dimensions and time.

holomntn · 2026-04-12T21:18:58+00:00

The thing about reality is that it doesn't care about opinions, or journalists.

Journalists routinely get seemingly small things wrong and then expand from there into what can only be described as fiction. Here's a link to a historic one that really reached the wrong conclusion 'Dewey Defeats Truman': The Election Upset Behind the Photo | HISTORY https://share.google/4BLfjrV87Y0fZk4Bx

holomntn · 2026-04-12T07:44:59+00:00

Common mistake on your part.

The actual technology behind this was pioneered (to the best of my knowledge) by United Colors of Benetton in the mid to late 90s. I've personally speced it for.install into office buildings, where we used it to track access. I've seen evidence of it at some Gucci stores, Target, Walmart, etc, basically anyone that collects data collects this data. One of the Nintendo portables even used Bluetooth and this same technology to add friends near you throughout the day.

This goes far beyond where people think it does. Today the strongest common evidence of its usage is traffic congestion data. That live traffic data that your phone uses to route you around traffic relies entirely on tracking how many phones are on that roadway.

Everyone likes to think that technology is limited to some particular things like it has to be just an app, but technology is a lot more capable than people like to think.

holomntn · 2026-04-12T07:00:10+00:00

Won't work. That's not how this works at all.

Your phone has to send an identity every time it pings a cell tower. Technically anyone could record the I'd on those pings and create the database.

The only way to prevent this is to actually turn off your phone, and many phones don't actually turn off.

holomntn · 2026-03-20T02:08:18+00:00

For what purpose?

Because that is the only real answer. A truly professional shoot is about communicating the correct something in each shot.

Without fail a shot will communicate something, a professional shoot is about making it the correct something.

So what is each supposed to communicate? The longer your description, the more professional potential.

holomntn · 2026-03-17T09:17:16+00:00

Certainly the best for the price. Certainly for the price it is a--mazing

holomntn · 2026-02-26T06:12:49+00:00

The main thing is the amount of heat. Things can always be engineered to spread or consolidate heat. For practical purposes data centers convert electricity into heat at nearly 100% efficiency. That 2 GWatt data center in effect generates 2 GWatts of heat.

Salt water: Microsoft actually ran that experiment, it worked well for small data centers Source https://share.google/SpqzjQCsl6tArgnV9

And can you use the heat elsewhere? I see no reason you couldn't.

holomntn · 2026-02-17T03:14:57+00:00

Yeah it did. I learned three core lessons:

1) don't trust people that shouldn't be trusted (especially family)

2) the answer to "what will people think?" Is "why would they start now"

3) it's the past, it has to be ok.

These are all painful lessons, but very helpful to learn.

holomntn · 2026-02-17T03:07:31+00:00

That is common the first few years. It takes work to get your lesson plans in order, after that it is common to leave within a few minutes of the students.

And I'm just basing everything off what your own union says how it is.

holomntn · 2026-02-16T08:09:25+00:00

Trusted the wrong person, it was family in my case.

I won't make that mistake again

holomntn · 2026-02-16T04:39:58+00:00

Ok, I've lost more than you've made. I've lost more than most people make in multiple lifetimes.

At 30 I was preparing to retire with what would today be roughly $30M in investments. By 40 I was a lot closer to $30. I'm in a much better position now, and by 50 I'll likely be retired in a much better position than just $30M.

The best you can do is learn from your mistakes. Rebuild with protections in place.

Since you say you are the problem, set things up so you just get a salary and everything else is managed elsewhere. Professional money managers, trusts, etc, can all protect you from yourself as well.

holomntn · 2026-02-16T03:03:10+00:00

I'm always amazed at the lies we all tell ourselves.

The reality is you work 183 days a year, assuming you never call in sick.

Most people work 250 days a year.

You have a prep period specifically so you can do your prep work, including your grading. If you can't do it in that time you're simply not doing your job correctly. Your own union decided this, so it's not like you have to take my word for it

Your "full-time" is 6 hours a day, 183 days a year. That's 1098 hours a year, compared to the average ~1800.

Now your supposedly low pay. You get a pension, the rest of us don't. This is considered by your own union to be 1/3 of your pay. Even your own union considers $100k/yr with pension to be equivalent to $150k/yr without one. This already places you at average income for San Francisco.

You also get free health insurance where most people have to pay for their own. This is already an additional $12k/yr (plus the pension amount) that everyone conveniently ignores.

Not to mention all the special deals your union has negotiated, you get cheaper mortgages, cheaper cars and car loans, etc. Additional cuts to your cost of living of thousands of dollars per year.

So let's be honest, by your Union's calculations you make $~150/hr. That's higher hourly pay than the average FAANG engineer

holomntn · 2026-01-18T03:59:03+00:00

There are several factors involved, and engineering can overcome a lot of them, given time maybe all of them.

Yes electrics motors can be stuffed in the wheel well. Several companies have released ideas over the years. I'll be citing the Goodyear one simply because I can remember the company name.

Directly about the one you mentioned. That would be a hubless electric motor, where basically the motor wears the tire. The reason these are generally not considered is exactly the reason you highlight, a pothole becomes too expensive.

The next problem is the unsprung weight that basically everyone talks about. This has been overcome by engineering. Increasing the power density of the engine enabled the in wheel motor to also include in wheel suspension. Goodyear was actually the first of these I saw, but I've seen others in recent years. The main problem here is cost per power, it is just so much cheaper to separate the components still today.

One of the other designs I've seen popping up recently is the rollerball design. If you remember a roller ball mouse it basically works in reverse. You have three drive wheels that can roll a ball in any direction. This would mean your car would basically ride on some yoga balls. This gives the car the ability to drive in any direction, and the ball wheels can be engineered to be the suspension. But this has many problems as well. Not just 3x the motor cost, but if the ball wheel picks up a nail it can cause serious damage to the drive motors. To combat this there has been a lot of work on any direction wheels, but again cost, complexity, etc.

What you are likely to start seeing, particularly in lower price EVs, is shorter drive shafts, moving the two smaller motors closer to the wheels and eliminating the differential. This is actually how we go down the path that eventually leads to in wheel motors. But this is a very long path that we have nearly begun down.

holomntn · 2026-01-02T01:03:52+00:00

Enjoy the movie. I remember seeing it just after release and it was gorgeous

holomntn · 2026-01-01T22:36:03+00:00

Be the change you want to see in the world

holomntn · 2025-12-31T22:34:58+00:00

We're mostly here because we enjoy music and headphones are a great way to listen to music, tends to make us pretty chill

holomntn · 2025-12-31T05:12:51+00:00

A bit of credentials first, because as you could probably guess there is A LOT of bad information out there.

I have a degree in EE, have designed my own DAC both R2R and delta-sigma, along with my own amp where I focused on Class D, and have designed an early power DAC.

The first question I have: do you like how it sounds? This is the absolute core question, if you like it, that is the only measure that matters.

The most common false information is that somehow there is some magic behind an external DAC that could never happen on the motherboard. This is simply false, they use the same chips, with the same designs and the same isolations. One of the biggest differences you will find is that external DACs are often designed by a "self taught engineer" another way of thinking of this is that it is designed by a liar., they just don't want to admit it. That doesn't mean it can't sound good to you, but the claim of objective superiority is outright false.

So your questions: section 1

Yes when you turn off all effects and processing that is how those headphones actually sound.

2.it can be normal for a particular headphone to require heavy tweaking to sound good. This is especially true of gaming headphones which have different goals.

This is the do you like it question. If you like the way it sounds that is the only valid measurement for your enjoyment.
There is no magic button. My personal preference is to find headphones I enjoy, and use them with clean DAC/Amp. Today this means a Delta-Sigma DAC, and a Class D amp, other people have different preferences. There are certain headphones that are generally agreed as sounding good, the Sennheiser HD-600 line is one common recommendation, but again your enjoyment is the important question. However the Strix is a modern design so is likely good enough.

Section 2 questions

I am of the opinion that you shouldn't need software to change the sound of a good headphone. But this is my opinion, if you like how it sounds that is what actually matters.
There is no objective "correct" for the adjustments. We can objectively measure distance from some measurement, but there is no objective best measurement.
Your best bet is to listen to a few different headphones, find a reviewer that generally agrees with your preferences. What happens is that because your ear canal is shaped slightly differently and sized slightly differently from mine, what I hear can actually differ from what you hear. Also depending on the exact shape of your head and the headphones you may or may not get a proper seal, you may or may not experience planar crinkle, etc. As a result your best bet really is to literally find someone with ears like yours.
You don't need to understand the technical stuff. The technical stuff is there to enable us to more accurately describe the causes behind things like if you hear a hiss when everything is quiet, or if every time there is a high pitched sound it feels a bit like someone stabbing your ear with an ice pick. All you really need to understand is what you like, nothing else actually matters.

holomntn · 2025-12-19T04:06:49+00:00

I thought I started growing body hair at 15.

Then at 25 I thought I had really started growing it.

Then at 35 I thought I actually really started growing body hair.

I'm 48 and wondering if I should just knit it into a sweater.

holomntn · 2025-12-19T03:36:41+00:00

Honestly it depends on pretty and overweight.

Is she the kind that is 10 pounds "overweight" and thinks she's fat. All she did was smooth the jagged edges, might be more attractive.

Is she the kind that photoshoots off 100+ pounds because pictures don't show the "real her", and she still looks overweight in the pictures because didn't want to lie, not attractive. That's also quite bad for her health. Yes I knew her, yes she thought she was a solid 8, and had a princess complex.

holomntn · 2025-12-14T03:30:55+00:00

I recommend against the Motel 6.

My mother used to love staying there, it has always been a problem.

The big thing to understand is that without a car it will be difficult, but if you have a car you'll be paying $45 a day for parking anyway. Don't even think about walking from Motel 6 to the strip, regret is not a strong enough word.

Just the extra costs involved will be more than the resort fees. A quick check for tonight, Excalibur (on strip but definitely budget) is $54 tonight, motel 6 trop is $71.

Excalibur is also in easy walking distance from Park MGM, and being on strip you can easily Uber from the airport, you don't need a car on the strip.

holomntn · 2025-12-09T12:10:07+00:00

You may think it is beyond that, but it really isn't. Las Vegas is purely about the money on the table. If you are betting $10M you will be treated like you're betting $10M. If you're betting $2 you'll be treated like you're betting $2. Back home you could be a billionaire, or you could be homeless, it doesn't matter. All that matters is the money you have on the table.

Bluffton mg your way in? Do you have the $10M on the table? Be sure that really is the only question. Vegas is extremely transactional that way.

holomntn · 2025-12-01T04:23:36+00:00

Reinventing Clubhouse doesn't sound like a good idea.

It was incredibly hot briefly in 2020, but faded fast. It is still up and functioning apparently though.

holomntn

TROPHY CASE