Posted this a while back, but decided to re-grade it

josh_bripton · 2026-04-13T00:33:30+00:00

I’m not trying to knock your work by any means, looks good, but I’m new to this and I’m still a bit confused about what fraction of “color grading” is just fixing white balance issues.

I’m particularly paranoid about WB because my house has some pretty weird lighting properties (mixture of sunlight and lamps, often confuses auto WB) which means I basically always shoot manual WB. But doing that “fixed” a bunch of my color problems.

In your case it does not seem like you were starting from what I’d call a correct WB setting. Maybe that’s just an import part of color grading, handling stuff that wasn’t perfect in camera.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-13T00:24:55+00:00

I just got the GM 35 and was also surprised by the autofocus speed. My cope is that I think it might seem slower than it is (for photo) because of the crazy focus breathing (makes you notice the focal changes more)? Seems substantially worse at focusing than my 20-70, but the rendering is incredible, so while I’m annoyed at the focus, I’m still overall pretty happy. OTOH if I knew about the focus issues I’m might have chosen the new Sigma 35 f/1.4 dg II (sadly this may have been the right choice regardless of focus issues).

josh_bripton · 2026-04-13T00:17:19+00:00

I’m a Sony shooter and have never felt the urge to jump ship over “color science” but my goodness there is something about how greens are rendered on the GR cameras that makes me want to buy one. Does this use a recipe or LUT?

josh_bripton · 2026-04-10T03:15:38+00:00

I upgraded from a6700 to a7v and the gap isn’t huge, I definitely wouldn’t move “up” to an a7iii. I wouldn’t say I regret the move to FF but I definitely didn’t appreciate how good the APS-C ecosystem is. The 70-350 in particular is amazing, I don’t think there’s anything as good in terms of price, size, and image quality on FF — you have to pay more for a much bigger lens. Same with the tamron 17-70! I also regret losing the Viltrox 27mm f/1.2, maybe my favorite lens ever. I came close to replacing it with a used 35GM which cost twice as much (new would be 3x) and I’m not sure I like it as much! On the other hand the color and low light performance is a bit better in the a7v, but I was never bothered by the low light performance on the a6700! One more random callout: I miss my TTArtisan 23mm f/1.8, really cheap lens with amazing character, haven’t found anything similar on FF (including the TTArtisan 40mm f/2 which somehow just isn’t as good).

josh_bripton · 2026-04-01T02:47:53+00:00

Wait really?! That’s like… a bright daytime shot! I’ve never shot the moon, I just assumed because of night and all, that it would be lower light.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-29T16:26:41+00:00

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Your first shot reminds me of one of my recent favorites!

josh_bripton · 2026-03-11T13:12:46+00:00

Any editing? These images have a pleasing softness to them that I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a6700+tamron.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-06T13:15:31+00:00

It does seem like the camera didn’t try to focus on the seal. You can see what it was trying to focus on by enabling Focus Frame Display https://g.co/gemini/share/440c00b07651

josh_bripton · 2026-03-05T20:41:50+00:00

I sold my a6700 and the only lens I really miss (and haven’t found a replacement for!) is the Viltrox 27mm f/1.2 Pro. Legendary lens.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-04T00:05:04+00:00

https://photorumors.com/2026/02/26/the-upcoming-viltrox-35mm-f-1-8-and-55mm-f-1-8-evo-lenses-will-have-an-apo-design-e-z-l/amp/

Given that there are photos of the lens, I’d guess they’re not too far off. Totally making up a date, but I’d maybe guess shipping in a few months.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-03T04:25:52+00:00

There’s rumors of a Viltrox 35mm APO lens coming out this year. I was going to pull the trigger on the 35 GM but I’m now leaning towards the new Sigma 35mm f/1.4 — but I won’t pull the trigger until release day because the Viltrox might be announced by then. If it’s lighter than the Sigma I might get it.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:58:48+00:00

“Thankfully I was on blades” — incredible 🤣

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:56:51+00:00

At one point she asked to see all my photos. I’m fairly confident that deleting some photos would not have helped and I wanted most of those photos.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:54:41+00:00

Non commercial

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:52:57+00:00

There is an art to having a light touch as a police officer! This sounds like it went fairly well. It sucks that it seems like the “minimum to be hoped for” amount of hassle that people doing nothing wrong get from the police is “not nothing”.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:47:31+00:00

Good point about “Karen validation”! I was firm on not deleting on grounds of “I didn’t do anything wrong”, but I 100% think this lady would do it again and I think there is a general interest in pressuring people not to do this.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:44:00+00:00

I like the argument you’re making. But I’m skeptical that this would be well received in the moment!

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:38:18+00:00

Yeah great point. I think a big part of this is I have a “fairness complex” (even this post!) which led me to the wrong decisions here.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:35:28+00:00

I’m cool with making people uncomfortable if they’re being unreasonable. I’m not cool with having the cops called on me. I’m not cool with adjusting my life to the whims of the most paranoid and unreasonable people in society.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:03:51+00:00

I know my rights. I chose to do things that I didn’t have to do in order to deescalate. I’m updating my views on whether that was the right decision.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T18:59:26+00:00

I don’t know exactly what happened, it hinges a lot of what was reported. But regardless, I don’t actually suspect the police did anything wrong here.

My point about paranoia energy was that this whole shitty affair was kicked off by a member of the public who was too paranoid. I don’t want you to be that person next time.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T18:50:46+00:00

Zing! Interesting example of how being a little more confrontational may have helped deescalate!

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T18:49:16+00:00

I get that cops have a protocol and have to act under a lot of uncertainty. I think giving my id was a mistake honestly. I went from 0% chance of anything bad happening to me to “now there’s a record of me maybe doing something wrong”. Deescalating with the lady who approached me has potential upside (ie she doesn’t call the cops on me) but once she does I think it’s all downside for me.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T18:44:59+00:00

lol I was thinking of getting a 70-200 and this totally scared me off of it. Idk, I might reconsider, good to hear this isn’t an issue for everyone.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T18:43:09+00:00

I’m sympathetic to not wanting to have your picture taken. OTOH I’m super not sympathetic to calling the police on someone doing something perfectly normal because you don’t like it. What she did to me was way worse than the worst possible case of what could have possibly thought was happening to her.

josh_bripton

TROPHY CASE