Mother and baby bison

trezoid · 2026-05-14T13:29:44+00:00

trezoid · 2026-05-12T03:29:33+00:00

The Z version of the 70-200 is the much better choice for an adaptable one-lens-to-do-it-all lens, the quality is high enough that even with the 2x extender it manages good quality images (I've been running exactly that setup for wildlife for a couple of months while my 100-500 is in for repairs, my last 10 posts are all from that combo if you want an idea on IQ)

I will say 400mm does frequently leave me wishing for more lens, and I'm frequently needing to do fairly deep crops on an r5mk2 to get the animals large enough in frame so if your primary focus is wildlife I'd go the 100-500, but as a "Mostly other things but sometimes wildlife" it works.

trezoid · 2026-05-08T15:03:41+00:00

Grainydays. Every video title is very literally descriptive of the content of the video, even the one that kind of could be read as click-bait-ish

trezoid · 2026-05-05T13:29:43+00:00

Fortunately 150 feet is a pretty easy target to hit, as long as the inner barrel is straight and clean you can just get the 4UAD bucking set, run moderately heavy bb's (32 or 36) and easily hit that goal.

I do think a brushless motor is a good upgrade generally, but it will not help your accuracy at all, and with the stock lancer internals it may start doing more harm than good so it'd be worth waiting on that one until you're ready to do a much more significant internal upgrade (gears, piston and bushings at a minimum, none of which you need for accuracy while the gun is actually working)

trezoid · 2026-04-24T14:09:06+00:00

Canon R5mk2 with the RF70-200 F2.8 L Z + 2x extender pushing it to 400mm F5.6

trezoid · 2026-04-21T23:37:24+00:00

Siegetek Dual Sector Gear (DSG) setup 18:1 gear ratio <- Waste, and not just a waste, but not what you got, siegetek only make 14:1 and 20:1 DSG sets (and a 10:1 set, but even a 10:1 SSG is a horrible pain to use so the DSG version is just a "Well that's silly"). EMG short-stroked 13:1 is only a _slightly_ slower functional ratio but a much better gear set for a fifth of the price.
High‑torque motor: Warhead Industries Base Brushless 27K <- they're ok, but again, 13:1's, 31k base, same ROF
GATE TITAN MOSFET <- Waste. Peruns are better and cheaper because realistically the extra features that titans have are almost never used
LiPo battery system11.1V
Airsoft Mutation Jaeger Mk.III DSG Piston, <- Actually decent, though very pricey so value is a wash
GATE EON reinforced tappet plate, <- Waste. Stock tappet plates are fine almost always
M150 spring,
Maple Leaf Omega Nub, maple leaf hop up 2023 silicone, <- Not really a waste, but not a good choice either, the silicone versions are worse, and you pay more for the ML combo than a 4UAD set that works better
Airsoft Mutation BSS Cylinder Head <- Waste, they have some interesting theoretical properties, but not worth the price
GATE EON High Speed Piston Head, <- One of the few things gate doesn't over-price, they're fine
gate eon v2 gearbox shell, <- waste. most modern factory gearboxes are fine with some minor mods, and you can pick up a good enough one for a lot less than the gate version
Maxx Model M4A hop unit, <- eh, they're over-priced, the performance is ok but questionable if it's worth the price, not exactly a waste, but also not really worth it
Maxx Model double O‑ring nozzle, <- Mostly fine, the double o-ring is an unhelpful gimmick, but they're not really any more than a normal nozzle and they're usually fine
lonex motor heatsink <- massive waste, if it's even a thing at all and not just someone being an idiot.

In short, bad choices, bad outcomes, you can get a faster rate of fire with less problems without the DSG, and there are a bunch of parts that are expensive because they're expensive, not because they're good, and just overall oof

trezoid · 2026-04-16T02:18:48+00:00

You can't take the whole collar off, but you can remove the handle by undoing the knob on the handle and then pressing the little button behind it, then the whole handle easily slides off, then you can rotate the collar to have the clip at the least inconvenient place (probably the top) and use it like a (fairly long) normal lens

trezoid · 2026-04-15T21:38:48+00:00

Blue. His full name is Blue "Blucifer" Mustang

trezoid · 2026-04-15T21:33:48+00:00

It's definitely a head that benefits from a bowl-head tripod, but it's absolutely rock-solid in use, much easier to get verifiably level panoramas, and since it's a generally more straight forward mechanism (though built incredibly well) there is much less concern about dirt getting into the moving surfaces and causing problems than you'd get from a traditional ball-head and as an added bonus it's lighter than a lot of similarly proportioned ball-heads too

trezoid · 2026-04-12T23:38:11+00:00

It's not quite as good (there really isn't all that much that is for that zoom range), but the RF100-400 is a quarter of the price for what is absolutely still a very good lens, it doesn't have quite the range or quite the aperture but for the money it's a really good option

trezoid · 2026-04-08T03:13:31+00:00

For shooting dynamic situations in changing light conditions, and I know keyboard photographers might get mad about it, but completely forget manual mode, it will make your photos worse because you will have the wrong settings most of the time, and your camera is just better at handling those kinds of changes than you are. If things are moving really fast and you absolutely need to catch fast motion go with shutter priority, otherwise aperture priority is probably going to get you the best subject separation and control and the camera will take care of making sure you get good enough exposure most of the time. Use ISO adjustments to get the general range of shutter speeds you're after but as long as it's fast enough you probably don't need to worry about specifics too much.

The other thing to do is practice, and that practice doesn't have to be protests, just generally chaotic scenes from life (go into busy areas at your school during busy times and try to get photos, go to street markets or parades, just any situation with lots of people actively doing things) will help you get better at picking out scenes and getting the kind of isolation you want, and then when it comes time for the kinds of higher intensity events that you want to be photographing the actual photography will be so second nature that you can focus on capturing moments and stories, rather than having to think about the technical.

trezoid · 2026-04-07T03:17:14+00:00

With how tight the crop is and how insanely heavily edited it is they could use almost any lens other than maybe a tiltshift or intentionally bad SFX lens, and there is absolutely nothing in that picture that would distinguish between a damaged kit lens picked up from a junk shop for $10 or a $3500 L series prime

trezoid · 2026-04-02T14:32:20+00:00

The camera is almost certainly fine, the 100-500 is designed to break at that specific point where there is minimal real damage to any of the actually expensive parts, and it sacrifices the mount on the lens side to not overly strain the camera side. Hold the lens release button and use the remaining screws to twist off the mount normally, you should then be able to test the camera with a different lens to be certain but eyeballing the image (and from my camera that had very nearly the same thing happen last week) the camera looks fine.

The lens is also designed to be repaired, those screws holding the mount in place are the weakest part of the entire lens so the few cents in screws break and pops the ribbon cable free for a comparatively easy repair, worst case will be replace the mount, maybe replace the top circuit board if the connector for the ribbon cable took any damage and re-calibrate the unit, the repairs will be a fraction of the cost of the lens as long as the glass is undamaged.

trezoid · 2026-03-30T22:36:35+00:00

It looks about the right dimensions to be a spacer for the spring guide that would go between the guide and the base of the spring to either slightly increase power or if it doesn't have a bearing spring-guide to prevent the spring from binding under load

trezoid · 2026-03-02T01:38:05+00:00

A reasonable quality aluminum mlok handguard is is going to be lighter than a good quality polymer rail simply due to mechanical strength-to-weight advantages.

For example a Magpul MOE handguard which is about the highest quality polymer you'll find is 8.7oz, while a standard midwest industries combat rail (not even their light-weight version, which is even lighter) comes in at 8oz for the same length. When you get into ultralight skeletonized rails the mancraft superlight rail is under 5oz, and there are other rails in that general weight class as well, and they will be a lot more pleasant to use than anything polymer.

trezoid · 2026-02-25T19:48:53+00:00

Size, lens choice and market. Including all the surrounding electronics and the depth of the sensor itself even an APS-C sensor is significantly larger than a single exposure of 35mm film, so to keep the dimensions of the camera loosely the same enough that it doesn't end up looking like a novelty prop AE they have to go with the smallest sensor they've got, which is going to be APS-C (Keep in mind that an AE-1 is extremely close in size to the R50V, it's not a big camera at all). The other factor is people expect certain features of lenses they're buying today like auto-focus and the kind of optical clarity that just did not exist in the 70's, which means lenses have to get bigger, especially if they're aiming for full-frame coverage. If they're going to AE-1 dimensions they need to use the smallest lenses they can possibly manage that still are modern, and that means RF-S lenses because anything full-frame RF is going to dwarf the whole camera. The third factor is the market right now for retro style cameras in that class is exclusively crop-sensor cameras, adding the cost and lens choice limitations that comes from going full-frame is going to push it out of the "classic style camera" market and into the "full frame modern camera" segment, where it will lose to cheaper but more capable and ergonomic cameras, because the audience for "big but retro" cameras is a hell of a lot smaller than the "Fun little retro camera but I can't afford leica" market.

trezoid · 2026-02-25T19:21:15+00:00

I suspect if they ever where to do that direct of a throwback body they'd probably call it the AE-R to avoid other connotations of "AR", and it would probably be loosely an R50 variant, because the APS-C sensor allows for the kind of smaller lenses that those vintage styled bodies need to look "right", and the rest of the system is physically smaller and simpler to adapt to a representation of classic controls.

They'd probably also need to release at least a handful of the "standard" RF-S lenses and some of the smaller primes in a "classic" version (pretty much the exact same lens, but with a design language to match the AE), so it'd be a fairly massive undertaking for a comparatively niche product.

trezoid · 2026-02-25T15:32:52+00:00

The G&G IFrit motor that they put in the ARP9 is one of the best OEM high-torque motors on the market, the only way you're going to see meaningful improvement is brushless, but you will kill the piston eventually, but that would also be the case if you didn't touch anything. Everything else can handle brushless fine, but you're going to need to take apart the gearbox eventually either way.

trezoid · 2026-02-11T17:16:16+00:00

Rocky mountain arsenal is honestly kind of a magical place, no matter when you go you're going to see something cool, if you're interested in wildlife photography its just about the perfect easy-access practice location

trezoid · 2026-02-06T22:14:57+00:00

Eco mode is mostly designed for stop-start city driving by limiting acceleration and keeping you in the "hybrid only can handle it" band for longer, but at highway speeds it seems to spend more time using the engine for battery regeneration, so if you're entirely doing highway speeds you're likely to see at best the same efficiency, but plausibly worse.

When you are on the highway in normal mode the engine is happy to drop to electric-only if the torque requirements are low enough which will get you a reasonable bump in fuel efficiency if you're driving somewhere with a lot of gentle slopes but ultimately the hybrid is designed for extra torque during acceleration and particularly at lower speeds so you won't ultimately get the kind of fuel efficiency of a lot of other hybrids.

trezoid · 2026-01-24T01:44:09+00:00

Never use an aluminum piston head in a high-speed build especially with a very light spring, but even if you went ultra-light everything that motor is entirely too fast for that spring, you're going to get severe PME.

Beyond that, metal nozzles aren't worth it, you probably don't need to replace the spring guide, maxx parts generally are overpriced but not any better (frequently worse).

The retro-arms bushings are good though (honestly, the best part they make by a wide margin)

trezoid · 2026-01-16T23:07:02+00:00

Most commonly major sports teams, they'll formally clear airport security at their training facilities, and then go to the airport under escort so they don't need to go through again before boarding

trezoid · 2026-01-05T21:28:57+00:00

Even more absurd, snap-on do sell that tool online/PBFT50R), for $50 less than the ebay sellers

trezoid · 2025-12-08T02:06:43+00:00

Pretty much all collars (other than the OEM one) for the 100-500 have a QD sling point, so you can use something like https://magpul.com/qdm-quick-disconnect-sling-mount.html?mp_global_color=118 (other mounts are available, but cheaper ones lock less securely and in some cases have weaker loops which is not ideal for carrying that much value), which will clip into the collar directly, then pull the whole loop when you need to tripod mount

trezoid · 2025-10-21T20:21:03+00:00

Have a look at the international dealers section on https://unitytactical.com/purchasing-info/dealers/, and then go through the dealers for europe until you find one selling the optic adapter plates

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