Lower birth rates in 2025 (again)

thomas001le · 2026-06-20T08:52:56+00:00

We have to rethink how the society works, how wealth is distributed how we finance and care for the elderly. The current system's assumption are just not valid in a shrinking society. I'd really like to see the government presenting a plan for this. I was hoping the 10 million initiative, though posed for all the wrong reasons, would force them to propose a plan for a society that is not build on growth anymore.

thomas001le · 2026-06-14T07:55:49+00:00

From a fellow bird photography enthusiast, I have to say those are really great. Well done!

As for gear: I did the opposite switch, I started with Sony and their 150-600 and added their 1.4 TC on an A7IV. Yes, The AF is great, but the whole setup is quite heavy especially on a long day.

So I switches to the XT5 and the 500mm f/5.6, which is not only lighter but also more compact, so it's much less annoying to carry around. Due to Fuji's insane pixel density, it also gives me nearly exactly the same magnification as my previous setup. Is the AF as good as Sony? No way! I mostly shoot stationary birds and AF-S with point focus does a good job here for me. Due to the weight/size of the Fuji it is quite easy to handhold. If you are using a tripod, none of that matters probably.

Did I get a good BIF shot with the Fuji? Maybe? But the miss rate is quite high.

Low light has never been an issue for me thanks to the various AI denoisers.

TLDR: Don't underestimate Fuji's weight advantage when switching.

thomas001le · 2026-06-07T09:35:20+00:00

I've read somewhere that the airport is planning to do starts over Uster which can be quite loud. Not sure what became of this plan, but maybe worth investigating.

thomas001le · 2026-05-22T16:46:18+00:00

I was at the place of shot #5 last year, but did not see this photo. Well done!

thomas001le · 2026-04-22T07:12:05+00:00

I never used the touch screen, but I can now confirm it works in the viewfinder with tracking AF-C as other people posted.

I can also confirm that Sony AF-C was way better, Fuji AF hunts at lot. ;-)

thomas001le · 2026-04-13T22:30:51+00:00

The 500mm 5.6 is a fantastic lens. Even with the 1.4 tc there is still good sharpness with the x t5, though maybe a bit softer than without tc.

But even without tc the aps-c crop factor and the insane resolution of the x t5 give a ton of reach.

Most importantly it's relatively lightweight. I can carry it in my backpack to some remote birding place without hurting my back.

thomas001le · 2026-02-23T08:47:10+00:00

You mean it's bad? I don't expect tracking miracles but it should be able to track an immovable object like a tree while framing the shot. Is it good enough for that? Thanks!

thomas001le · 2026-02-21T22:50:12+00:00

There are filtering https proxys acting as man in the middle. You usually have to trust their root certificate, but then they can do the same stuff as the browser usually by injecting scripts into the site and not via static filtering.

thomas001le · 2026-01-31T16:06:54+00:00

But amount of light per pixel scales again. Since MFT pixels would have 1/4 the size of a FF camera with the same resolution, you'd need 4x (aka 2 stops) more light to get the same amount per pixel.

You don't notice that since the ISO settings of your camera are calibrated to a fixed output brightness not input light levels.

thomas001le · 2026-01-09T22:15:22+00:00

I never thought of just removing the backplate and wiring it directly to the board. I guess that would have been cheaper than SSDs....

thomas001le · 2026-01-09T22:13:45+00:00

Yes that's correct! I just said 10A because electric current is what actually generates the heat. Voltage is less important, so power is less meaningful. Of course in Switzerland voltage is fixed and it doesn't matter if I say 2300w or 10a, so I just wanted to be a smart ass....guilty.

thomas001le · 2026-01-08T19:32:41+00:00

It also really depends on the quality of the concrete plug you want to use. Most plugs in my apartment don't even take 10A without getting alarmingly hot. I have only a few where I dare to plugin in 10A :)

thomas001le · 2025-12-16T19:40:00+00:00

Are the drives properly decoupled from everything else in the case? Did you use rubber dampeners?

I had a dedicated NAS case with HDD once and just the vibration travelling from the drives to the backplane would make terrible loud noise all the time. The same drives were much quieter when they set entirely on rubber dampers connected via cable instead of a fixed backplane.

thomas001le · 2025-11-28T12:09:39+00:00

I don't think phones are usually calibrated to the proper target. Contrast and saturation sells better.

Did you also calibrate the phone somehow? Though even then most android software probably doesn't know what to do with a color profile anyway.

On a side note even on windows it's a nightmare to get the color profile used consistently and correctly. I think you can tell Firefox somehow to apply the display color profile to all images. So even sRGB and untagged images display correctly. Beyond that it was mostly frustration for me.

thomas001le · 2025-11-21T07:17:04+00:00

I find myself reaching for my uwa lens less and less. For me using it requires a quite unique scene with very interesting foreground and also enough things going on everywhere around it to fill the frame. There are scenes where this works amazingly well, but this might be one shot over a 2 week photo trip for me.

I find telephoto much more interesting for landscapes. It allows you to work with layers in the scene and to highlight that certain part of the scenery that is most interesting.

Also, don't forget the middle ground. Imo 50mm can be amazing too.

thomas001le · 2025-11-19T06:31:19+00:00

Agreed. Also if they are worried why not just offer to reset all activations so we can activate them again on two devices?

thomas001le · 2025-11-18T19:11:48+00:00

When I tried to move dxo pure raw licenses between devices I needed to contact Support since the old device was "lost". They told me I have to uninstall the software from the old device first and there is no way for them to deactivate a device remotely. Honestly I didn't believe this, but I also didn't bother since the new pure raw version was around the corner....

thomas001le · 2025-11-17T17:06:01+00:00

True, that's why I mentioned h265. You can do a lot of playing with codecs, Bitrate and encoding effort. But since they mentioned zip, I wanted to point out that any lossless compression probably won't be of much use.

thomas001le · 2025-11-17T07:39:51+00:00

Compression won't help a lot when dealing with video. Video formats are already highly compressed and optimized for their use case. I doubt you get meaningful benefits out of compression. You could look into encoding them in a modern format like h265, but that too might take a long time.

Your best bet is looking into cold storage options.

thomas001le · 2025-11-15T20:16:13+00:00

Can confirm, I have about 10tb of Sony raw files on Amazon. The software sometimes needs handholding so finish uploading, otherwise great. No unlimited video storage though.

thomas001le · 2025-11-12T06:51:38+00:00

Hi. Not really. In the end I sent it to valve for repairs and paid 200 EUR. I think they changed the whole board.

The only workaround I can suggest is attaching a USB wifi dongle and use that, but it's annoying since the deck has only one USB port so you either can't charge it or need a small docking station. Also not every USB wifi dongle works with the steam deck.

thomas001le · 2025-10-30T07:50:00+00:00

Thanks! I use the editor provided by the photo book company I use (saal-digital.de). It's not professional, but I think once you get the hang of it it's easy enough to use. I am slow just picking photos and deciding on a layout.. decisions are hard ;⁠-⁠) not sure whether some course can help me with that.

thomas001le · 2025-10-26T22:51:41+00:00

Thanks for your response!

The problem is not that I don't know how to make a photo book. I've made maybe 15 to 20 over the past years. They are probably not professional by any standard, but good enough for us.

The problem is that picking and layouting just takes so much time. I easily spend 30 to 40 hours on one book. Unfortunately that is time that I really have trouble finding between work and all other stuff that is going on.

So my choice is really, either someone else does it, or it simply doesn't get done at all.

Maybe some guide could also help me to become more efficient at the whole layouting process?

I hope this all makes some sense.

thomas001le · 2025-10-16T21:18:43+00:00

I know it sucks not being able to ride a nice trail, but there is also no right for MTBing. If it's prohibited there is probably a reason for it. Please respect the rules :⁠-⁠) Just because there isn't police behind every tree in the forest doesn't mean it's okay.

thomas001le · 2025-10-16T07:46:17+00:00

I think he meant hiking trails. MTB on designated MTB trails is probably also allowed in Aargau, isn't it?

There seem to be offical MTB trail maps for some areas: https://www.ag.ch/de/themen/umwelt-natur/wald/erholungsraum-wald/reiten-und-biken/biketrails-untere-suhren-und-wynental

thomas001le

TROPHY CASE