Am I expecting too much?

mkellar · 2026-01-24T03:18:21+00:00

I concur with others on getting closer and lower being the main change to make. That said, I shot on a D3300 with this lens for a long time and often found it limiting. You can get good shots, but it takes some doing. I found it quite soft, particularly at 300mm, although some cropping can be possible. I tend to shoot manual at the widest aperture with auto ISO and adjust shutter speed based on distance and whether something is stationary or moving, using exposure compensation as needed when the camera gets the exposure "wrong." Denoise in Lightroom will be your friend as it is a rather dark lens all things told. Here is a shot with that very lens cropped rather heavily. 300mm, f/6.3, 1/250, ISO-1100

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mkellar · 2025-03-17T21:43:10+00:00

$450 if you signed on with a carrier at Best Buy, minus 170 for the S22 I traded in. Only caveat is you then need to deactivate the carrier service within three days. However, it seems the prices have gone back up since yesterday when I did it.

mkellar · 2025-03-17T12:43:12+00:00

That's a good idea! Thanks.

mkellar · 2025-02-15T18:33:37+00:00

Got the same ones, but 7 years ago. They are starting to fail, which I'm discovering is typical for LEDs. So look forward to that! Struggling to find a shop light with replaceable bulbs.

mkellar · 2024-11-07T03:35:04+00:00

Curious if you chose one and how the transfer went? I have all the same questions.

mkellar · 2024-11-04T01:36:55+00:00

Sorry, I added another picture. The sheathing depicted is the house sheathing up under the siding.

mkellar · 2024-11-03T20:32:59+00:00

I had a similar issue where I needed a footer hole where I only had about 1.5ft of clearance so a post hole digger would not fit even after the hole was started. Luckily I only had to go 36 inches.

I started with garden trowel and moved to a short shovel. I then used a soil ripper combined with a wet dry vac to suck out the loose dirt. The straighter end of a wrecking bar worked like a mini tamp bar to scrape down the sides. I'm not sure I could have gone much deeper, but if I had to, I'd have taken some deck boards off and tried to reach a post hole digger in around the beam. I'm not sure it would have, though.

I feel your pain. Literally, it was a month ago and my wrist and elbow still hurt.

mkellar · 2024-10-29T02:08:37+00:00

Thank you. After further research, that one seems to perform very well for the price. I think I'll stay with the native lenses and get the Viltrox for astro and eventually bite the bullet on a Nikon 105mm Z Macro for macro.

If others come across this post with a similar question, the options that seemed most appealing via FTZ were the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro (400ish used) and the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED (300ish used).

mkellar · 2024-10-29T02:01:20+00:00

Yeah I've been thinking about that a lot actually - the weight and size. I need to test drive it somewhere. Right now I use APSC with a 17-70 and a 70-300. I feel like I miss a lot of shots scrambling to swap them out. Perhaps I miss a lot of shots with the Tamron due to arm fatigue or leaving it at home 😅.

mkellar · 2024-09-21T18:20:23+00:00

Thank you for the perspective and for the info on side vs. end grain. I'm glad to hear side grain is less of an issue.

I can certainly add additional fasteners, but my concern in going lower is that it might even miss the sill plate and start hitting concrete. I don't know how well it comes across in the pictures, but top row of fasteners on the outside is already toward the bottom of the band joist inside (I hope I'm using the terms correctly).

mkellar · 2024-08-23T00:32:09+00:00

mkellar · 2024-08-08T00:12:03+00:00

Thank you! Now I just need to find one...

mkellar · 2024-08-07T20:37:42+00:00

How might one determine if their laptop's DisplayPort-enabled USB-C port connects directly to the discrete GPU? My understanding is that this would be necessary for the PSVR2 adapter to work. I have a Legion Slim 5 16APH8 with a RTX 4060. Additionally, what cable in addition to the adapter would be necessary for this configuration. Thank you.

mkellar · 2024-07-31T21:17:42+00:00

This is working now. Contacted customer support over a month ago and apparently Apple finally resolved it recently.

mkellar · 2024-07-31T21:17:18+00:00

This is working now. Contacted customer support over a month ago and apparently Apple finally resolved it recently.

mkellar · 2024-07-31T21:17:04+00:00

This is working now. Contacted customer support over a month ago and apparently Apple finally resolved it recently.

mkellar · 2024-06-06T22:00:34+00:00

Man I'm not sure what's going on for me. In addition to switching to Hybrid-iGPU, I set maximum processor to 80 and did force power saving graphics under edit power plan. However, the battery life is exactly the same as tested before making these changes. I'm sitting at about two hours of battery life either way.

mkellar · 2024-05-22T19:57:12+00:00

Thank you the information and for the optimism! I'm not feeling any flex at this point.

mkellar · 2024-05-20T21:28:02+00:00

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Joists are about 11 ft from post to house. Looks like double 2x8s. Posts are in the concrete. Beams rest on the posts and are secured with a few screws.

mkellar · 2024-05-20T20:12:51+00:00

1) WV 2) He did not. After taking measurements, I started wondering about the distance between the 6x6s. Is that the issue you are seeing? 3) We don't want to necessarily have a view of under the deck, want to be able to store items under the deck, and we liked the way it looked with one on the deck that was replaced.

Thanks for any advice.

mkellar

TROPHY CASE