u/minimal-camera

I've been playing Stray with my daughter, which is a video game in which you play as a cat in a cyberpunk future. Great game, highly recommended. We just got to Clementine's apartment, and it was fun to see lava lamps throughout.

Kinda sorta... the shape is right, but none of them have wax, they are more like modified glitter lamps, the bright dots swirl around like a vortex. Sort of like a night sky effect. Quite pretty! It would be cool if someone figured out how to build this in real life, I'm not sure what the approach would be. Maybe something like UV reactive dots suspended in a gel, with a spinner magnet.

I like to swap around the globes on my lamps, and thought it might be a fun challenge to try to identify the original lamps these globes came from. I edited the photo to try to get the colors to render as close as possible to what I actually see in person, but its tough to get it just right, so these probably won't match the marketing photos exactly.

I've got a series of 3 hints prepared, I'll share one hint per day if no one gets it. It's also fine to guess on just one of them.

Hint 1: to be published Monday July 6th

Hint 2: to be published Tuesday July 7th

Hint 3: to be published Wednesday July 8th

If you get all 3 correct, you get to spin the Wheel of Fish!

Seen downtown last night, 10/10 for style

I recently got the TTartisan 17mm f1.4, and I've been really enjoying it. Then the TTartisan 23mm f1.4 and 25mm f2.0 both went on sale, so I figured I would just buy both and compare them, and keep whichever I preferred. I'm still in that comparison phase as I haven't had a lot of time to go out shooting lately.

These photos are from just two outings, one at golden hour, and the other in twilight. Part of my goals with these lenses are to do more low light shooting, so I wanted to test that capability first. Sharing some highlights with this post, and there's a full album here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCYmTS

All of these are straight out of camera except the flower photo, which I edited a bit in lightroom (because it was underexposed). In the album, all the edited photos are indicated in the file name, the rest are SOOC. I primarily used the Natural and Vivid profiles for these.

1. A demonstration of the color rendition, nothing to complain about here. I believe I shot this on the 'Vivid' profile, so there's a lot of saturation added by the camera.
2. So far I've been happy with the ability to capture night scenes like this handheld, and with a reasonable depth of field. ISO-800 for this one, which I find to be quite usable on the GX85.
3. The edited photo in the bunch. This was probably shot around f2.0. I'm mostly impressed with the sharpness and detail in the foreground white flower, and I find the background softness / bokeh quite pleasing. The lens flare is great too, I've gotten a good bit of variability in flare performance, so it seems like a good lens for experimenting with flare.
4. Chock this one up to perfect lighting, I think pretty much any lens would give good results here. Of note is the sun star, and the 3D pop of the image in general, those are aspects other lenses would render differently. I'm guessing I shot this around f5.6.
5. I'm pretty sure this one was wide open at f1.4, and on the Natural profile (much tamer colors). Happy with the detail and soft focus fall off.
6. Another at ISO-800, and on the Natural profile. Bit of motion blur to the image.
7. Didn't have much time to prepare for this shot, so I'm happy enough with how it turned out. Most likely wide open at f1.4, ISO-800 again, and a bit of shutter drag. What a whip!
8. I shot this one intentionally out of focus, and just love the result. Very painterly forms and colors, and the warm flare really adds a lot.

My general thoughts at this point are that I quite like the lens. Looks good and feel nice to use, the controls are pleasantly dampened. The ~46mm FFE field of view is quite familiar to me, as it feels about the same as shooting my vintage 24mm lenses, and the results are in the same ballpark as well. If I had just bought this one without comparing it to the 25mm f2.0 I think I would be quite happy with it. At present I'm leaning towards keeping the 23mm f1.4 and returning the 25mm f2.0, but I need to spend more time with the later before committing to that decision.

One thing I really don't like about both lenses - they jump from f8 to f16. A lot of my photography is shot in harsh midday sun, and for those sessions I'm frequently switching between f8 and f11, which is not an option here. Maybe that's something I'll get used to, maybe not, time will tell.

I present for your approval my 42" Samsung 720p Plasma, with the subtle red strip across the bottom, which I bought new sometime back in the late 2000s, and I've moved it countless times since. Even though I also now have a technically superior TV (Samsung The Frame 4K), I still prefer the colors from my plasma, there's a depth and richness that was lost somewhere along the way. The phone camera did not do a great job of showing the colors here, I may try to reshoot it with a better camera in the future. Also featured, my DIY sound bar that sits above the screen. I have it on swivel mount, so I wanted the speakers to always face in the same direction of the screen, and this was my solution for that.

I've been using it with modern media, mostly through my Xbox Series X. I've been playing action games like RE9, RE4R, and RDR2, all look fantastic on this screen. Second photo is from Spider Noir, also a fun watch, and I'm looking forward to a re-watch in black and white. Also, if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the show Ripley, those deep blacks and high contrast look amazing on a plasma screen. My overall favorite scene to show off why I love plasma so much is the paint scene from What Dreams May Come:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlkntWH6T0w

That movie is hard watch, very sad, but this scene is just gorgeous, and well worth giving your plasma the workout to test it.

Now for some questions:

1. The screen will often display 1080p picture, but my understanding is that it's a 720p max resolution. Does this mean it is auto downscaling a 1080p input to 720p? Or is it actually capable of playing 1080p in some way?
2. In certain games / scenes I'll see this ghosting effect, a bit like onion skinning. In action games like the RE series I'll often see it when sweeping the image from side to side. Last night we watched Gattaca (excellent film), and the opening scene with the fingernails falling showed it pretty obviously as well. I don't remember this being an issue before, is this a sign that the screen is starting to fail?

I've had this lens for about a week now, and I'm quite enjoying it. Thank you to everyone who advised me on my previous 'what should I buy' post, it was a very helpful process in making my decision. I bought this lens used from KEH for $95 plus shipping/tax, and I'm quite happy with the value for money that I've seen thus far.

I'm primarily a telephoto prime shooter (100+mm), so this wide 35mm full frame equivalent is a good bit out of my comfort zone. I've also never had a lens this wide with an f1.4 aperture, so there's lots of new ground to explore.

I selected these 5 images as what I think is representative of the lens performance. All of these are straight-out-of-camera JPEG from the GX85, using either the Natural or L.Monochrome profiles. For L.Monochrome I also add a digital orange filter, which I've found helps darken blue skies a bit. If you want to see the full set, they are here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCXLyQ

1. You buy an f1.4 lens to shoot at f1.4, at least some of the time, so of course I had see what that was like. I think the transition from crisp focus to out of focus areas is quite soft and gentle, which I appreciate.
2. I have zero complaints with the color rendition of this lens. It can be vibrant and beautiful if you want it to be. I'm honestly a bit surprised that this photo came out of the 'natural' profile, as I tend to associate it with more muted colors, but I double checked and indeed 'natural' it was.
3. Another example of the soft transition between crisp focus and a blurred background with f1.4. Zooming in on this one I can see that my focus was a bit off, but I still think it looks great. There may be a slight bit of vignetting from the lens, and I think that works in favor of photos like this one.
4. This is the look I associate with the 'natural' profile - muted, subdued, yet still with strong contrast. The wide focal length makes it possible to get a wide building to mostly fill up the frame.
5. Added in this image as a mild critique of the lens. In some cases, shooting wide open creates a bokeh that's very busy. It can be attention-grabbing, but I get a sense of dizziness looking at something like this for too long.

I did set a new high score on Castle with Wesker though, so that's cool. I love how each character has such a unique fighting style, it really makes you relearn your muscle memory.

Yongnuo 17mm f1.7

https://th.hkyongnuo.com/products/yn17mm-f17m

Olympus 17mm f1.8 II

https://explore.omsystem.com/us/en/m-zuiko-17mm-f1-8-ii-black

Olympus 17mm f1.8

https://explore.omsystem.com/us/en/m-zuiko-17mm-f1-8-silver

Lumix Leica 15mm f1.7

https://shop.panasonic.com/products/g-series-15mm-f1-7-asph-leica-lens

DJI 15mm f1.7

https://store.dji.com/product/dji-mft-15mm-f-1-7-asph-prime-lens

Official links above, though I would likely buy used for any of these except the Yongnuo, which I haven't seen available on the used market, but is cheap enough to just buy new.

I'm considering all of these lenses, and looking for input as to which one to get. I'm not really a wide angle shooter, I'm more into telephoto primes (and I've got plenty of those), so I'm really just looking at these lenses as a utility purchase to fill in a weak spot in my kit: building interiors, especially with low light (e.g. cathedral, museum).

Whatever I get, I would use them on the Panasonic GX85, G85, and Olympus EPL2.

I'm most attracted to the Olympus 17mm f1.8 (gen 1) for the focus clutch, I've always wanted a lens with that feature as I shoot with manual focus the majority of the time. I'm also very attracted to the aperture ring on the Lumix Leica 15mm f1.7, as I shoot in aperture priority mode the majority of the time, but I'm sad to learn that it won't work on Olympus cameras (not really an issue for the EPL2, but I figure I might get a fancier Oly body at some point in the future).

Give that this is unlikely to become my new favorite lens and it's primary purpose is to round out a weak spot, I'm also quite attracted to the Yongnuo 17mm f1.7 for being lightweight (at the expense of size and build quality), and the cheapest option available.

For context, the rest of the kit this lens would supplement is:

Panasonic 14mm f2.5 (pretty much lives on the EPL2, great pairing)

Minolta Celtic 28mm f2.8

Brightenstar 35mm f1.7 (fun and tiny)

Minolta Rokkor 50mm f1.4

Panasonic 14-140mm Power OIS II (the catchall travel lens)

If you aren't familiar with it: https://oldbloodnoise.com/pedals/p/excess-v2

This is my first OBNE pedal, I've wanted one for quite a while. Build quality, graphics, and sound are all excellent, so starting off on good footing there.

I'm a sucker for 'shoegaze in a box' type pedals, and that's what caught my eye (and ears) with the Excess. I'm currently in the stage of comparing it to my other favorite shoegaze pedal, the Walrus Audio Melee (which is also pink, ironically, though I have the black version). Both have the concept of pairing distortion with something else (reverb for the Melee, and Chorus/Delay/Fifths for the Excess). Both can dial in a giant wall of sound, or be more subtle, and both have the option of using them as a simple single effect pedal as well, by disabling one of the circuits.

If you also have the Excess (V1 or V2) and have stories to tell about it, favorite pedal pairings, songs you've written or like that it's been used on, etc... I would love to hear it all!

Got this new pedal in yesterday, the OBNE Excess V2. I wanted to test it head to head against the Melee, so hooked it up with my bedroom soundscape pedalboard (temporarily kicking the Afterneath off the end of the chain). Sound source is the Reface DX.

Overall I'm enjoying the Excess quite a bit, it sounds great, and has the similar 'shoegaze in a box' thing as the Melee, though with a different sound and different options. Ultimately I think they are probably destined for different boards. It was interesting to compare their distortion circuits head to head. I think overall I still somewhat prefer the sound of the Melee distortion, but the Excess can match it with certain settings, and offers a different flavor overall, so I won't outright say that one is better than the other, they are both good.

This is an 11" lava lamp (15W bulb), just a little guy. Purchased from CCmusic and it was very cloudy on arrival, didn't clear up after a few weeks of use. I filtered it with the Saywer mini filter, fluid looks great now. However, after filtering the fluid level was a bit low (below the bottom of the cap), so I topped it off with some distilled water. I accidentally added too much, to the point where there was almost no air space left. I then poured some of the fluid back out into a separate bottle, botching the process and spilling a bit on the table. I then switched to using the 'finger on a straw method' to remove fluid in a more controlled manner. I'm guessing that I've diluted the master fluid by adding too much distilled water, throwing off the balance. I still have a bit of the master fluid stored in that plastic bottle in the background that I could add back into the lamp if that would help.

The current fluid level is about as low as I can get it while still being covered by the cap. The lamp will heat up just like in the photo and sit like that, it won't flow anymore. I have not yet reattached the cap, it's just sitting on top to keep dust out.

What's my next step to try to get the flow back?

Hopefully this panoramic view makes sense, if not I can re-post with individual shots.

https://imgur.com/a/tZvWRXJ

This is the first time I've been able to dedicate a whole room to my hobbies (music, photography, and video). It's a rectangular room, but the windows and 3 doors put some limitations on furniture placement. There's also a ducting chase along the right wall that brings the ceiling height lower on that side.

My goals in a general sense are:

• learn Reaper (primarily for arrangement, mixing, and mastering)
• add a comfortable chair / loveseat to build a hifi listening station (vinyl, tape, CD), something like this: https://imgur.com/a/SKtzHfT
• replace temp keyboard stands with actual furniture, at least some of which I hope to build myself
• I would love to add more plants, and there's some decent natural light that comes in through the rear window in the late afternoon. Currently I have just a single succulent, really the bare minimum for a studio. I gotta pump those numbers up.

The current arrangement of synth stations is this:

• (left wall center) Digitone Keys setup, includes Minilogue XD module, effects, and Bluebox. That case was meant to become a portable thing, but I haven't found an arrangement that really works in a portable sense, so I'm ready to tear that station apart and start over.
• (left wall back corner) Percussion station, based around the Tascam M-06 mixer for individual drum sound processing. Currently using the Blackbox as a sound source, but I would prefer to get a drum synth with individual outs (something like the Drumbrute, Drumlogue, or Analog Rytm).
• (right wall back corner) KORG Triton LE plus effects
• (right wall center) PianOP6 (digital piano plus Opsix)

One of the things I haven't quite figured out is how to arrange speakers in the room. Currently I've got two nearfield monitors around the computer, studio monitors around the big keyboards (right wall), and a cobbled together speaker system around the digitone keys setup (left wall). There's also a sub in the back right corner. I thought just putting one speaker in each corner might be the best setup, but I'm unsure if that's true.

The door that is slightly ajar leads to a closet area where I currently keep my cello. I plan to build some shelving in there that will allow me to clear out some of the storage in this room.

In terms of audio routing, I've currently got the left and right walls of the room fully separate. Each has it's own mixer, speakers, and Bluebox for multitrack recording. I've thought about adding 'one big mixer to rule them all' near the computer somewhere, but currently I haven't needed it, because I'm not trying to play all of these instruments at once. I want to shift into a workflow in which I record parts and layers, instead of everything at once. I'm still open to getting a big mixer, but only if there's a good reason for it.

I do also like to stand a lot while writing music, which is why several of these stations are at standing height. The stand with the pedals in the middle of the room was meant to be temporary, but I've been using it quite a bit, so it would be nice to figure out a more permanent place for a skinny standing height table, specifically for pedals.

I've also considered combining the Digitone Keys station with one of the big keyboards, the idea being that I could use the smaller Digitone Keys keyboard above a larger keyboard to have the best of both worlds, and two handed playing on separate patches. So combining two stations into one would help free up wall space.

I understand acoustic treatment will become a concern, but I need to figure out all of the listening positions before I can address that I think.

I'll also add that I'm not particularly into the Jaspers stands, I don't really like the way they look, and the ergonomics seem off to me. I prefer the approach of individual stations with just a small number of instruments for focused work, versus connecting everything at once and feeling overwhelmed with choices.