u/a_chimken_nuget

Hi all, I’m new to rockhounding & crystals and super excited to explore the hobby! I went to Jade cove last weekend to hunt for some jade and found a bunch of cool looking specimens… to find out they were all serpentine! Thankfully a kind person at the beach showed me an example of the Jade and I was able to find 3 more pieces. I’m not great at figuring out what is what yet and seeing and feeling a real one is really helpful. I plan to hunt for some garnets and whatever other gemstone/crystal related rocks in my area soon and was looking to buy a few raw pieces online so I can have an example when I’m out and about. Do you guys have any recs where I buy a few pieces of real raw gemstones online? And hopfully not too expensive?

Right now I’m primary looking for garnets and I know not much else exists in California. But I’m always willing to travel outside my area to hunt for rocks in the future so some examples of aquamarine, emerald, amethyst etc would be cool to get too.

Hey yall, I’m flying to La fortuna in Costa Rica tomorrow and trying to figure out what lenses to bring. I’ll be in fortuna for 2 days, and Monteverde for 2 days. I have a guided tour at arenal observatory lodge and a night walk and a self guided walk through the sloth trail in fortuna. I’m planning to go to the cloud forest and hanging bridges in Monteverde.

I’m debating bringing the following:

1.4x teleconverter
70-300mm
150-600mm
80mm macro
16-80mm

Is this too much? I’m mostly aiming for birds and larger wild life but would be interested in frogs and insects if I have time. I was thinking the 150-600 would be good at the AOL and morning self guided walk and cloud forest. And the macro or 70-300 for night time walk. And the 16-80 for general landscape.

Hi all, I’m looking for a new system to help carry my camera around when I travel. Right now, I use an Osprey manta 34 backpack with peak designs capture clip to hold my camera + a few other items (water, sunscreen, fan, battery bank etc). My camera is a Fuji XT5 and either a 16-80 or the 70-300. The current set up works but i find that throughout the day, my back gets tired with carrying all the weight. The backpack is amazing but not the best solution.

I recently switched to using a tenba 9L insert with some peak design anchors and peak design slide and that surprisingly fits most of my gear and is very comfortable. Not sure why it feels so much better than my McKinnon sling but it is what it is I guess lol.

After using the sling, I did some research and learned about PD’s pro pad and how I can holster jt around my hip. I plan on giving it a try soon and seeing how it fits but also heard good things about the cotton carrier belt sling.

What do you guys recommend? Or are there other alternatives to these 2 set ups? I don’t like using the PD slide + camera all day, I find the camera to bounce around and hit my side a lot. I’m looking towards a belt holster set up since it’ll take all the weight off my body while still being assessable and hands free. I was also thinking towards the cotton carrier since I can get the extra bag attachment and store my water, battery and fan in there as well.

And I’ll be using this while I travel, walking around a lot (20-30k steps a day +)

Hi all, I’m looking for a new system to help carry my camera around when I travel. Right now, I use an Osprey manta 34 backpack with peak designs capture clip to hold my camera + a few other items (water, sunscreen, fan, battery bank etc). My camera is a Fuji XT5 and either a 16-80 or the 70-300. The current set up works but i find that throughout the day, my back gets tired with carrying all the weight. The backpack is amazing but not the best solution.

I recently switched to using a tenba 9L insert with some peak design anchors and peak design slide and that surprisingly fits most of my gear and is very comfortable. Not sure why it feels so much better than my McKinnon sling but it is what it is I guess lol.

After using the sling, I did some research and learned about PD’s pro pad and how I can holster jt around my hip. I plan on giving it a try soon and seeing how it fits but also heard good things about the cotton carrier belt sling.

What do you guys recommend? Or are there other alternatives to these 2 set ups? I don’t like using the PD slide + camera all day, I find the camera to bounce around and hit my side a lot. I’m looking towards a belt holster set up since it’ll take all the weight off my body while still being assessable and hands free. I was also thinking towards the cotton carrier since I can get the extra bag attachment and store my water, battery and fan in there as well.

And I’ll be using this while I travel, walking around a lot (20-30k steps a day +)

Hey all, I’m thinking of getting the BOA PRE card for priority pass + restaurant credit but can’t figure out if the PP gives restaurant credit still. I saw posts from 1 year ago that confirmed it but not sure if that’s still the case. The BOA website is vague about it as well.

Hey all, bought a custom ordered 240 back in 2024. About half a year in I noticed a rattling noise coming from the back of the car. I understand the 240’s have noise issues but this is excessive, it’s a loud rattling and does not stop and creaks really loud when I go over a speed bump or side walk entrance. I’ve brought my car into my local dealership ~12 times now and they’ve replaced the rear parcel and a few other things in the car but can never seem to fully fix the noise. Sometimes the car will rattle a little less after I bring it in but will go back to the full loud noise a few days later. Do you guys think the bmw shop is bad or is my car just cursed? I talked to a few other 240 owners and test drove some 240is where I bought mine and none of them have this noise. The bmw mechanic says the noise is normal but it seems way too loud and often for that to be true… I think they’re just tired of working in my car lol, but I also want to resolve this while I have warranty