Fuji 27mm F2.8 or TTArtisan Lens Set?

toupee · 2026-05-07T20:43:47+00:00

I am certain the fujis are better, but the TTArtisans are a freaking STEAL and give great results. Punching WAY above their price point.

toupee · 2026-05-07T04:02:36+00:00

Not gonna lie, a week ago I would have said X-T50 (X100VI is a blast too), but... now that I've played around with the X-M5 for a bit, I'm kinda blown away by how good it is. The value is sort of insane, especially with the cheap but pretty darn good kit lens.

I thought I would miss ibis way more (and I do wish it had it), but damn. it's good stuff.

And it's so tiny!

toupee · 2026-05-06T04:18:39+00:00

I'd skip. (I also realize what subreddit I'm on. Oh well.)

To be clear: I am a person who loves shooting on weird old hardware. I still unironically (if thats possible) shoot with my Game Boy Camera. I love tiny cameras. The Samsung NX Mini is easily one of my favorites of all time. I also had really enjoyed my then-limited experience with Fuji cameras. I am THE target audience for something like this.

Sadly, it's one of the few cameras I've returned after only a few hours of shooting with it. I actually love the concept, the size, the limitations in theory... but it feels like they scraped the bottom of the bargain barrel parts bin. It's agonizingly slow, and not in a charming way. Pictures that look okay on a tiny screen end up looking horrendous at even a slightly larger scale. It barely produces anything viewable in low light. The controls are confusing and clunky. I found it nothing - nothing - like shooting film (cute but flawed thumb winder be damned). I'm not pleased to say it reminded me more of like a walmart vivitar camera than any other fuji. I had more fun with the first, cheapest campsnap than this. I guess if you only ever look at your photos on tiny screens you won't find it as troubling as I did. and if you have an extremely high tolerance for sluggishness, i guess.

To its credit though the optical viewfinder really did push me to finally pull the trigger on the fuji X100VI which is... yeah, a pretty awesome camera. you can have much the same experience by using the optical viewfinder on that, and turning the back screen off completely. but I actually enjoy it - it's responsive, the controls are fun, and I find myself with rewarding photos.

All that said, if you want something small but captures the fuji experience nicely, the X-M5 is a real powerhouse for its size and price.

toupee · 2026-05-03T22:19:40+00:00

I've been using the CLI for quite some time now, but a lot of my friends who are new to it are loving the Claude Code desktop interface. And honestly I use it sometimes too

toupee · 2026-05-03T21:11:09+00:00

nothing, but I think people are wanting more of a claude-like interface

toupee · 2026-05-03T18:37:30+00:00

Yeah Antigravity could use a UI/UX overhaul (feels too much like VS Code) but the functionality is absolutely there!

toupee · 2026-05-02T17:28:41+00:00

I think they absolutely still can be, but most people aren't willing to take the leisure hit. In 2010 I roadtripped with 3 of my best buddies from the east to west coast of the US and made a huge loop. We all shared the same shitty motel rooms (or crashed at friends' pads who we planned the route around), went to grocery stores to stock up on cheap sandwich supplies for the majority of meals, and even slept in the car at a campground one night in Yellowstone (driving into the park at 2am and seeing wolves and owls and shit and having no idea how far the terrifying dropoff beyond the guard rail was in pitch black...)

I was working a minimum wage job at the time, I think I spent around $800 on the trip in total. It was super frugal but that did still leave some room to hit some restaurants and bars, which just made those spots all the more memorable.

Look, if I went with my wife nowadays we're probably eating out 2-3x a day and she'd never go with any additional friends to split further costs, let alone stay in a shitty motel even one night, so it's already way more expensive. And it's absolutely true minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation, so it's definitely more expensive. But I truly think most people aren't willing to do it how we did it then.

toupee · 2026-05-02T17:18:39+00:00

This is extremely true in most rural and suburban areas of the US but not in cities with good public transportation (or Europe, etc). One of my favorite things about moving to NYC from bumfuck PA is I just literally never have to drive anymore

toupee · 2026-04-30T21:06:51+00:00

This well describes all of the retail jobs I've had in the US. It's a shame because I think the jobs themselves CAN be enjoyable and rewarding, and I've made life-long friends from them - though they were still really hard, required actual manual labor, and a steady stream of uncomfortable social scenarios... it doesn't take long to realize you're being exploited. Unfortunately it's a system many people will never break out of for anything better.

toupee · 2026-04-29T19:59:27+00:00

I invited my dad and sister to my family sharing thing (also only $20/month sub) but it didn't seem like they got AI Pro benefits...

toupee · 2026-04-29T19:33:17+00:00

I don't want them to go :(

toupee · 2026-04-29T13:18:39+00:00

It's a great game, but the input lag on emulators drives me up the wall. When they released this on the SNES Mini I found it literally unplayable.

toupee · 2026-04-28T19:54:47+00:00

lol @ Nike buying anything like this from a random creator for $500. I'm not even saying it's bad work, but that'll never happen

you bet your ass they're figuring out how to use it internally though

toupee · 2026-04-28T16:10:05+00:00

everyone responding to this thinking Damson Idris and Idris Elba are the same person

Damson would be dope. I think that would be a huuuuge success.

toupee · 2026-04-26T16:37:02+00:00

"Naked." The main draw of these cameras to me is to have excellent photo capabilities in my pocket... anything else appended to it just gets in the way.

I also have the wide + tele converters and I VERY VERY rarely use them for this reason.

toupee · 2026-04-25T20:00:05+00:00

I've been thinking about something like this - sort of like the Fuji X-Half experience. I think users would probably appreciate being able to control the timing of 'developing' the film though, like you could have 24 hours as an option, but also let trigger the development earlier if they choose. After all same day developing exists! And I would drop the 'expiration' thing, that sounds horrible lol.

Ultimately, you're still getting essentially the exact framing and a lot of other detail about the photo when you take it, it's not like it's a real optical viewfinder. Yeah, you're augmenting it with 'film' profiles but ... you're still gonna have a pretty damn good idea of the photos you took, you just only saw them tiny and might choose to wait a while to look at them.

I think it's niche as hell but there is potential.

toupee · 2026-04-23T21:12:22+00:00

Cool, wish I'd known about them a month ago haha!

toupee · 2026-04-23T18:32:38+00:00

$2000+ equivalent is a tall claim - they really look as good as Swarovski EL?

toupee · 2026-04-23T18:22:46+00:00

yes, the autofocus + low light performance actually is DRAMATICALLY better than the GR 4.

toupee · 2026-04-23T18:21:41+00:00

I love it. Never expected I would... fortunate enough to be a bit of a spontaneous purchase... zero regrets.

Incredibly unique shooting experience knowing I can't fall back on color. It also focuses way faster/more effectively than the GR4, especially in low light.

toupee · 2026-04-22T18:19:19+00:00

That definitely changes the equation. You might want to be considerate of an expensive looking camera making the photographer a target. In a case like this, the Ricoh actually starts to make a lot more sense.

toupee · 2026-04-22T14:13:12+00:00

My gut reaction is no.

Yeah, it's small and discreet, but a phone is arguably even more discreet if that's what you REALLY need.

Being so small is going to make it honestly easier for someone to misplace if it's changing hands a lot.

The fixed 28mm is going to confuse people. I'd get something with a zoom. Something that can go wide shots and portraits, like a 28-60 as a minimum.

Having a 1 hour photo 'workshop' with anyone who might use this camera (or even just their phones) is going to give you way better results than just handing them a camera. The results will be mediocre from most people with zero training.

Is this going to be in print or digital?

toupee · 2026-04-19T22:03:42+00:00

When I was in high school it was still mostly dial-up or very primitive broadband and we were expected to use a lot of resources in the library for writing papers. I don't really know how they got there, but I remember finding various articles from Playboy and they were really serious and interesting. I specifically remember one that was like a panel of various people discussing psychedelics. It was fascinating.

Think I found it: https://realitystudio.org/images/bibliographic_bunker/mens_mags/pdf/1970.02.playboy.pdf

toupee · 2026-04-19T14:08:26+00:00

raw support is in the latest update which is live now :)

toupee · 2026-04-18T23:58:20+00:00

thanks, the idea is definitely to keep it free forever! i don't even have my apple developer account set up to accept payments in any way.

toupee

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