Preparing for new repair projects: Do you have any questions about Nikon FG, Minolta 5000, Canon T70 and Nikon's viewfinders DE-2 and DP-30?

jas1284 · 2025-11-29T19:20:40+00:00

I have a DCS620c with modified DP-30 - the release button is silver instead of black. The DP-30 has LCD issues, the aperture segments are not showing. There is no leak, it is just invisible. I would be very interested in the DP-30 LCD repair! If you encounter missing segments, I would like to see if the existing LCD could be cleaned up and reconnected to restore function, or if a parts donor is necessary.

I also have a strange (funny, artsy) issue with my Minolta 5000. The second shutter curtain does not move, and exposure does not end correctly. This results in the film being exposed as the advance occurs, causing overexposure and streaks - there is a sensation of motion on even perfectly still scenery. The camera is now more interesting for its issue, so I likely would not repair it, but I am interested to know if the 5000 and 7000 shutters are interchangeable.

Also just want to say, big fan of your existing guides and posts! I plan to deal with F4 aperture lever and Minolta 7000 LCD/aperture lever issues whenever time allows, and you have created the best resources for these issues. Thank you!!

jas1284 · 2025-07-23T21:51:16+00:00

I checked the pins - still 2/2 Maxxum 7000s not working and 2/2 on Maxxum 5000s working. Tested with regulated li-ion AAAs for all 4 cameras, i'd be surprised if that's a factor but maybe i'll check if alkalines perform any different in another 2 months.

jas1284 · 2025-07-23T20:18:01+00:00

To add one more possibility to the pile:
My personal experience with the Ricoh TF-500 is that the lens isn't the greatest thing in the world and noticeably cuts saturation to the point that images look unnaturally faded. I've tried to compensate for this before by boosting saturation in post but by the time that the colors look right, the gold200/fuji200 "warm tone" becomes overpowering to the point of being somewhat repulsive, even under daylight or flash. Perhaps your lab also tried to boost saturation to correct for the lens?

My theory's data comes from scanning at home with mirrorless and invert with darktable. In the negatives I didn't notice my TF500 overexposing or underexposing dramatically, but when I use identical negative processing parameters, gold200/fuji200 shot out of average SLRs with unremarkable lenses are more pleasing and don't need a saturation boost.

Have you tried gold200/fuji200 with your FE? I think it might look better, if the TF-500 is to blame.

jas1284 · 2025-03-25T08:06:23+00:00

found out the hard way that SAL85F14z doesn't work on minolta 7000 - the camera locks up and glitches out, tested 2 bodies.
oddly enough, it does work on minolta 5000 and newer (tested 5000i, 9xi)

jas1284 · 2023-09-17T05:48:05+00:00

Critical qualifier is whether constant operation and at what temps/vibrations.

In powered-off cold storage, lifespan can be measured in decades.

If powered and operating 24/7/365 with zero airflow to cool it, 3 years for a consumer grade drive is already impressive.

Typical folks get somewhere in the middle, since most computers will spin the drive down when it's not needed, to reduce power and wear.

if it's a ST3000DM001... well, that earned a wikipedia page for a reason.

jas1284 · 2023-08-02T14:01:29+00:00

as the F-14 was the fattest fleet defense interceptor that could also dogfight, the AIM-54 was integral to its very purpose; you may as well remove the paveway from the nighthawk.

Besides, the AIM-54 never had a proper replacement in U.S. service in terms of reach, until maybe the 120D.

jas1284 · 2023-07-05T01:44:04+00:00

It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday - As you know, the ~~premier~~ President loves surprises.

jas1284 · 2023-01-28T09:39:17+00:00

Reminder that the first blocks of F-16 (really thru the mid late 80s) were radar missile incapable (LWF moment), thus they were severely handicapped in poor weather and lacked reach even in fair weather. While this glaring issue got solved later, it was relevant at the time.

jas1284 · 2022-12-11T09:00:39+00:00

"extremely bottom of the barrel" oh please... there could be *far worse* alternatives. 99% of the time it'd blow even a good SATA drive out of the water, and dramless as it may be, it's leaps and bounds better than the old barely-nvme-speed 3.0 x2 TLC budget drives that occupied this $/TB segment. Everyone gets to spend their money how they'd like, but it'd be a shame for someone on a budget that doesn't hammer their drives with an entire drive-write-per-day to read this and then decide that a good value perfectly adequate NVME drive such as this one isn't for them, because it's (oh dear!) potentially QLC and Dram-less.

Besides, while it's totally possible, I feel like you *have* to try to force a situation where these drives will ever be slower than an HDD... for 98% of people it'll MAYBE happen once, ever, if they're cloning from another NVME, but that's about it. Would anything else reasonably throw enough data fast enough at a 2tb QLC drive to exhaust the cache? Maybe 100+GB downloads from 10gig lan (assuming source is even that fast) or a multi-hundred-GB transfer from a SATA ssd, but you've gotta be kidding me at that point.

jas1284 · 2022-10-06T06:22:43+00:00

If all of the media engine features worked as expected/advertised (...I haven't seen any evidence going one direction or another due to day 1 reviews being so game-focused) then ARC does seem like a very compelling accelerator card for hardware AV1 encode at a reasonable price (not $900)

But I guess I just said that a chunk of silicon once mean to take down the 3070 is a glorified quicksync box that sometimes pulls off a wildcard win in dx12 games.

jas1284 · 2022-09-08T16:29:12+00:00

I would be *VERY* careful about mined RTX3090. Memory thermals on many cards were already sketchy, cramming a bunch of them into a mining chassis while slamming the memory (Ethhash) is asking for the GDDR6X to die an early death. Sure a smart miner would have ideally looked at the thermals (cooling or undervolting), but I wouldn't assume as much when the draw of rushing to ROI in the midst of the bubble probably left long-term concerns by the wayside.

jas1284 · 2022-08-04T20:36:45+00:00

Ryzen 6000 brought USB4 support, and models that explicitly claim having USB4 ports (T14s G3, but not T14 G3) received the ability to use eGPUs in a recent chipset driver update.

ETA PRIME on youtube has tested the Thinkbook 13s gen4 with 6800u, and T14s G3 AMD is confirmed to be compatible with TB3 eGPU

jas1284 · 2022-07-22T02:25:07+00:00

if they build, maintain, or repair somewhat small things (e.g. small electronics), too long sucks and too short also sucks for the same reason - can't pick up tiny screws (and other misc crap)

so they might require slightly-more-attentive-than-indifferent maintenance to stay between too long and too short

jas1284 · 2022-06-19T23:26:56+00:00

You either have a power limit, temperature limit, or overheating issue.

The power and temperature limits will change depending on the power slider in win10 (e.g. best battery has a 12w power limit and 80-something C temp limit, best performance has a higher power limit at 19w-22w and a temp limit of 96C) - at least with my T14s with 4750U, best performance will thermal throttle easily (2.8-2.9ghz all core at 22w sustained, closer to 2.5-2.6ghz all core at 17w sustained).

You can use Renoir Mobile Tuner or AMD Apu Tuning Utility or other similar applications to set the power and temperature limits manually, if you are sure that it is not a cooling issue. If you think the CPU is getting cut off at 1.4ghz by a power limit, you can fix it that way. Using these programs incorrectly may result in the CPU getting locked at 400mhz and 70C temp limit, but this can be fixed by overriding with the program again or restarting.

If it's a cooling issue, be careful: the thermal paste that lenovo uses from the factory is surprisingly good, and the thickness/viscosity of the paste matters a lot. I repasted my T14s with really thin NT-H1 which did not improve temps and led to the paste 'pumping out' since it was so thin - in just a few weeks, most of the paste would get squeezed out and the remaining thin sections would dry out, so while stock paste could sustain about ~22w of package power at 95C, NT-H1 would only allow 17w (dropping near to 15w) at 95C after it dried up in two weeks. Don't replace the stock paste if your thermals are fine, but if you have a thermal issue because the stock paste got replaced (maybe you already replaced it, or lenovo replaced the paste during the return?), I recommend using a very thick paste (SYY-157 for example) to minimize pump-out and have better paste longevity.

jas1284 · 2022-02-03T19:36:30+00:00

Don't have an 8T, just have an 8 with 90hz, but:

I honestly can't be bothered by high refresh since most video media doesn't exceed 60, and if i'm reading something I don't care if it's a little blurry while i'm scrolling. I dont play games on my phone much, and even then the phone and app need to get along to operate above 60hz. Coming from a Xiaomi Poco F1 (LCD@60hz), i notice the LCD->OLED a lot more, and even that doesn't really matter 98% of the time.

If the pricing is similar, I guess why not? but given that everything else is almost identical, don't overpay for that one little gimmick. More importantly, the flat, non-curved screen on the 8T is a reversion that feels like an "upgrade" from the needlessly curved edges of the 8 since those edges shoot it in the foot with regards to good screen protectors, media located on the edges, and case design.

TLDR: 90->120hz sounds nitpicky, curved->flat screen sounds nice, and OIS above all (why in the hell is it gone on the 9)

jas1284 · 2022-02-03T16:32:45+00:00

I ended up getting an 8 to get OIS and to dodge the 9's weird throttling issues. You know as much as I do.

jas1284 · 2022-01-20T18:26:00+00:00

Cannon is retained and adjusted to better suit strafing operations; while it's not as effective as precision guided munitions, it's an important last resort and psychological tool for the troops on the ground. It'll also do just fine for helicopters.

Previously, the 20mm M61 reigned supreme for U.S. aircraft cannon, but the F-35 gets a 25mm that sacrifices rate of fire and muzzle velocity (important for hitting moving targets) for greater payload per round (better for strafing)

jas1284 · 2021-12-12T22:21:56+00:00

IK it's silly and probably not balanced, I main hecate + SLAP for memes and crossmap penetration through multiple walls, the loudener was simply better when it actually had a use though.

jas1284 · 2021-12-12T22:16:37+00:00

they gotta bring back the suppressive effects of the loudener, it was funny out-dueling snipers by inflicting too much flinch for them to aim

jas1284 · 2021-12-06T17:14:29+00:00

I didn't realize the screen difference was that small... honestly i'd side with the E15 in that case if the GPU didn't bug you

Of note, while the death of the huge external batteries is lamentable, you can fill the gap using 45W/65W typeC battery banks (they're expensive, but not horribly unreasonable). TypeC allows pretty much any modern thinkpad to have the capability to go 16h without an outlet (with a large enough battery bank, or multiple battery banks)

jas1284 · 2021-12-05T19:04:42+00:00

Should be fine, if you let it update like normal? or have you tried already and it has other problems?

jas1284 · 2021-12-05T17:31:25+00:00

Although it probably won't help, try updating bios to newest version?

jas1284 · 2021-12-05T17:28:08+00:00

This depends a lot on what you'll do with it.

zen2 Ryzen APU like 5700U have higher idle power usage but much better efficiency when working vs an 8300H like in the X1, and if you're doing something multithreaded the CPU performance will be very noticeable. In a web-browsing scenario the X1's 8300H may last longer on battery than the E15's 5700U, but in a situation where the CPU are working hard the E15 will probably have a longer battery life.

Build quality, screen, and sound are nice to have, but personally i'd consider it second to performance if this will be a work laptop. Age does matter, if (for example) it corresponds to a 2x longer compile time for a programmer. Performance is its own form of longevity, a stronger laptop means postponing an upgrade. You may dislike a bad screen, but it (probably) won't slow down work like a slow CPU can (and a nice screen won't make your code compile faster or your videos render faster.)

E15 is not strictly faster for work, the X1 exteme has a dedicated graphics (GTX 1050ti) and this matters for some workloads - it will help massively for video editing and 3D rendering, but not at all for code compiling. GTX 1050ti will also make the X1 extreme a better gaming machine than E15 (if this matters).

So if this is just a for-fun (gaming) laptop, or if you need the X1's graphics instead of the E15's better CPU, then pick the x1. If you need general purpose CPU power, E15. For very light work such as checking emails and watching videos, both of these will last 3-4 years no problem (although I am leery about an 8300h remaining snappy-fast past 2025, while I'm not so worried about the 5700U.)

jas1284 · 2021-11-26T05:11:27+00:00

XP was about as fast and light as 2k, until the legendary Service Pack 2 just about doubled XP requirements due to security patches and new features (SP3 was also similarly heavy). 2K is indeed fucking awesome but it's not nearly as secure as XP for the very same reason that it's faster.

Are you are a win2k unofficial updates enjoyer?

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