new camera purchase

[maxJ4380]

Ok in what must be in world record time. Both the card reader and the memory card arrived today. Honestly wasn't expecting them for another week or so.  You know its almost impossible to extricate items from their plastic package without totally destroying that packaging... Lord i hope i don't need to send it back...  

Not used Kingston before, but from years ago i knew they made ram chips, thought i'd take a chance. I have used Ugreen before and had no issues with their products and it was the cheapest uh2 reader.  I should probably download some kind of speed test program to see if i got my moneys worth. 

The sirui has been living on the e-m1 at the moment. I take both with me when i go out in the car, it sits on the front seat with a towel thrown over it. Hopefully no one works out there's $2000 worth of camera and lens just sitting there. I must be some kind of optimist as the amount of moisture that keeps falling from the sky is impressive. 

Theres a busker that sits out the front of the local supermarket some days. I'm guessing he has done some living as i think he'd make a suitable candidate for some black and white photography. He has a dog as well and i reckon i can squeeze everything into a photo with 24mm sirui. I then plan to steal, adopt, modify some ideas Mercer mentioned in the lens thread and see where that leads.  

Turns out i have crystal disk mark on the comp already. Formatted the card and a quick test gives me this. which is slightly better than advertised on the packaging. Thats with the ugreen card reader into a c port on the top of the computer.

 Its turning into a bit of a blog isnt it ? Next challenge is to shoot some video. 

[maxJ4380]

Question for the members. I'm looking at a Sachtler S2170-0001 Ace XL MK II Fluid Head. I know i know, i said no more buying in another thread. However my tripod and its head is proving to be better at photography and less good for panning and tilting in video.  Reading some threads on here, Sachtler seem to be the bees knees and pretty much the same thing is said on youtube. Anyone one using the Ace  XL MK II Fluid Head ?  Kinda looking for some in house confirmation before i do anything rash... I can get the head at a reasonable price at the moment. How long that lasts is anyone's guess. It should fit my tripod which I'd like to continue using until i can save for a better tripod. Thats my thinking anyway.

Visiting some waterfalls tomorrow, so that will be interesting.  

 

[Al Dolega]

I have the Ace L, two of them actually, am very happy with them for the price I paid used. Only change I would wish for is drop-in loading instead of having to slide in from the end. Not sure what the differences are with the mkII but the mkI's were one of the best choices for a "cheap" fluid head.

[maxJ4380]

On 4/22/2025 at 9:13 PM, Al Dolega said:

I have the Ace L, two of them actually, am very happy with them for the price I paid used. Only change I would wish for is drop-in loading instead of having to slide in from the end. Not sure what the differences are with the mkII but the mkI's were one of the best choices for a "cheap" fluid head.

Thanks for chiming in. I'll probably grab one in the next two weeks.

Got some video and a Bunch of photos today, so i watched some youtube tutorials on resolve and made a slideshow. I used the e-m1 iii with the 24mm sirui anamorphic. Not entirely convinced i did the carpet snake justice with the focus peaking but  i reckon i got better as i progressed through the day. There's probably a million things i done wrong. i did watch a youtube on desqueezing and i'm not convinced that going  though the clip attributes and changing the ratio from square to anamorphic is the best way to desqueeze footage, something seems a little off to me. I didn't use log just the standard video setting.  i didnt do much to the colour apart from clicking on the @ symbol in the colour page.  

If you have 2.30 or so to waste...