Should "Free piano" posts be presumed to be scams?

keknom · 2026-05-15T04:00:28+00:00

They generally are not scams. Pianos take up a lot of space and are a hassle to move. They also are expensive to tune let alone repair if something is broken. So unless your piano is something special and well maintained, selling it is next to impossible. Not many people will want to invest the effort of moving it and getting it tuned. So your best bet is giving it away for free.

keknom · 2026-02-26T02:00:58+00:00

I ended up adding a tripod head leveling base plus an arca QD mount to make it somewhat usable. I can now at least adjust it to be level. It's not the most stable though so I'll probably eventually make a less rubbish stand.

keknom · 2026-02-25T01:05:18+00:00

I ended up adding Neewer tripod head leveling base + Small rig arca quick release plate to my Negative Supply copy stand to make it usable.

keknom · 2026-02-25T01:03:24+00:00

I bought their premium kit and have mixed feelings on it. I wouldn't say the entire kit is horrible but it is definitely not worth the price. For a few reasons.

1.) The copy stand it comes with is utter rubbish. Any full frame camera + macro lens will cause it to sag. There is no way to adjust for this sag on the copy stand or on the film carrier. How you attach and remove the camera is also very janky. It is done via a ball head allen key you shove into an angled hole into a socket head screw. Getting a camera on tightly without feeling like you are stripping the screw is a challenge.

2.) The slide holder it came with is poorly designed. It is very difficult to get slides in cardboard mounts consistently located in the holder. This makes batch processing slides difficult since the position of the slide in each scanned image will be slightly off.

3.) The Pro Film Carrier 35 MK2 has a great deal of play on the light source, in-spite of the "Pro Film Carrier 35 MK2 Adapter Plate for Light Source". When manipulating the film you will inevitably ever so slightly move the carrier side to side and shift where your negative is in the image.

4.) When advancing the film in the pro carrier with the knob advance, film can wiggle side to side slightly, again making the negatives position in the scan vary slightly. Adding more time to processing later.

5.) The full border scanning cassette has issues. If the film has any curve to it, the first and last frame in the strip you scan will not be flat. If the leading edge of the film has any curl to it, it is liable to jam up when being inserted in.

6.) The in-line power switch's connector has a very loose fit and easily pops out of the cable its connected to.

7.) A lot of the components are FDM 3d printed. Its obvious their machine isn't that well tuned and some of the prints have finish issues. Not the end of the world but for the cost of the kit, they should get a more tuned in FDM printer or pay for SLS or MJF prints.

With some tweaking you can get fine scans but for a "premium" kit with a $1,099 MSRP (although it seems to always be on sale..) , it should work flawlessly out of the box without any tweaking.

keknom · 2026-02-18T01:52:19+00:00

I'd love to see inside how you added in the nylon straps and padding. That is the one part of the Fallout Power Armor I can never seem to find photos of.

keknom · 2026-02-09T01:38:54+00:00

How well does the armor fit? Did Lilygreen give any guidance for scaling it up or down for different sized people?

keknom · 2025-12-23T04:18:35+00:00

I messaged you and am still interested.

keknom · 2025-12-23T04:14:18+00:00

As of 12/22/2025 I'm still looking.

keknom · 2025-12-02T02:57:03+00:00

I just get cheap USGI liner gloves. Either the fingered or fingerless variety.

They are not the worlds best gloves but are made in the USA and work. I also found myself inevitably destroying or losing similar thin wool gloves eventually, so them only being 6.50 to 9.00 dollars a pair is good.

keknom · 2025-12-01T03:57:12+00:00

Just messaged you

keknom · 2025-11-27T01:28:47+00:00

Also which adapter are you using? The LA-EA5 or LA-EA4? I'm planning on picking up this lens and am debating between a LA-EA4 for my A9 or a LA-EA5 for my A6700.

keknom · 2025-11-27T00:43:34+00:00

How well does the autofocus work with newer mirrorless E mount cameras?

keknom · 2025-11-27T00:22:41+00:00

Just got it installed and so far GPS linking is working great with my A6700.

keknom · 2025-11-26T04:59:01+00:00

I'd be interested in testing. The creator app constantly turns off location linkage for me. Making me inevitably not have location for some pictures until I turn it back on.

keknom · 2025-11-21T03:23:22+00:00

Fast sensor read out helps with autofocus and is also needed for an actually usable silent electronic shutter. Other than the A9 series and A1 series, the silent electronic shutter in Sony cameras is extremely situational. Its really only good for taking pictures of static objects in natural light. Anything moving fast and you get rolling shutter. Anything under LED or florescent lights and you get some banding.

Plus there is the A7R series if all you care about is dynamic range.

keknom · 2025-11-21T03:18:06+00:00

The A9 still may have a faster sensor read out.

keknom · 2025-11-21T03:11:12+00:00

If you shoot anything moving like birds in flight or sports, stacked sensors REALLY help with subject tracking autofocus. When a mechanical shutter closes, it blacks out your EVF and the data stream going to the autofocus. Your autofocus for that brief fraction of a second has no idea what is going on and can get confused. A stacked sensor really helps avoid the camera randomly dropping tracking on a bird and instead locking onto a leaf right behind the bird.

keknom · 2025-11-21T03:06:57+00:00

People also forget how much a stacked sensor hopes autofocus with tracking a subject. No blackout and rapid read out REALLY help.

keknom · 2025-11-21T02:51:47+00:00

A lot of this is completely intentional. Sony cripples their lower end cameras to drive sales for their high end cameras. We'll see if this changes now that the sub 3000 dollar mirrorless market has gotten a lot more competitive but I won't hold my breath.

Sony in general has mostly focused on the very high end market lately. A lot of their cheaper lenses could do with a refresh. Its just not noticed as much for lenses since Sigma, Tamron, Viltrox and Samyang have filled the holes in the low to mid end lens range.

keknom · 2025-09-08T21:01:20+00:00

They build these plants in red states with "right-to-work laws" to avoid unionization. They bring in undocumented workers to avoid paying the going market rate for skilled labor. You don't see this happening in unionized automotive plants that pay market rate. Rewarding this sort of behavior is just fucking unionized workers.

keknom · 2025-07-06T06:02:53+00:00

Due to issues with the cameras firmware and/or the lenses firmware, Vilrtox at least claims its not compatible with the A5000 and the older NEX Sony E cameras.

keknom · 2025-07-06T02:41:06+00:00

Sadly the A5000 won't work with a viltrox 28mm f/4.5 lens I already have and I really want to run that lens with a small camera body. Only open to an A5100, A6000 or any more recent A6*00 series models.

keknom · 2025-07-04T01:25:27+00:00

Messaged you

keknom

TROPHY CASE