u/plastic_toast

My mum has MS, and while she can largely cope she does occasionally have falls. The past few months have made her feel drained and last night she got over-confident and took a nasty sideways fall over her walking frame.

Hospital say she's not broken ribs or done any damage, just nasty bruising, which is good. She's just started doing some strength training with my help, and says this has been a real motivator for her to get stronger and help prevent falls. So every cloud and all that.

But the paramedics who attended, what a pair. Like a comedy double act but not in an annoying way like students quoting Peep Show and thinking they're being hilarious and original. They put my mum totally at ease, and me and the Mrs. Total pros too, really handled it quickly and professionally, obviously a great team who got on well together.

Problem is I obviously didn't take their contact details, and can't remember their names. Normally the only way to contact the ambulance service is 999, but this is obviously not the way to go about this!

I know most ambulance services are often farmed out to private companies like Spark, but didn't even see what company this was, it was just generic emergency ambulance.

I want to basically send a thank you note, and give their superiors a heads up that they're a fantastic asset to the service. It's a hard job, so I'm hoping some kind words will give them a little boost.

Any ideas on who I should be contacting?

Two questions in one on this one as I've been meaning to ask -

1. The footwell is constantly lit up at night on my ID3 (2026) and I'd like to turn these lights off. I've got very good peripheral vision (apparently, especially for a man so my optician told me on my last eye test) and tend to wear white trainers. Even if working where I wear black boots, I wear my super comfortable cheap white trainers when driving home, and they keep coming into my eyeline. Never known this before, there is zero need for a footwell to be lit unless the door is open and you're looking for something you've dropped. Is there any way to disable them?

2. The LED trim lights are cool and it's great to pick a colour. But it was a month "free" when I got the car and while tempted by the £12 lifetime purchase to keep the option, I didn't bother, and they're still working just fine. Can choose the colour, split them, the lot. Am I missing something here or is this a bug? I've put no payment details into the VW app and nothing has come out of my account on the off chance Google Pay did it automatically.

Working Creamfields at the end of August. Site build started, so it has started to rain, of course.

It's the one weekend of the year I love more than anything else, childhood Christmas and birthday rolled into one. Puts a real downer on it when it's raining and muddy.

We've been quite lucky in recent years, contrary to the myth, it's actually less rainy and muddy than Tomorrowland, but given it's farmland not a town park, it gets nasty.

Is there anything that can give me some hope yet?

Off to Ibiza next week for the eclipse, 10 years in the making. And of course some forecasts are now predicting cloud. Ruined.

Even wild predictions or outlier models just to give me some energy and positivity will help.

Shooting on a Sony FX3 (and sometimes using my A7RV as a B-cam) mainly shooting DJs.

It's something I've pretty much cracked, and I'm normally in 24fps, 180deg shutter, adjust base ISO and ND filter to suit. Once done, edit clips, quick colour grade using a preset node tree (nodes for WB, minor exposure adjust, saturation, etc, then through a Phantom LUT) and it all looks good, nice and "cinematic". Clients are happy anyway.

Issue now is I've got someone asking me to do "UGC" (user-generated content) type videos that take things back to basics.

For some reason in the dance music world, over the past 18 months or so, DJs have become obsessed with the idea of multi-cam shoots with a cinematic look, perfect sound (directly recorded from the decks) all synced up. Me and the person in question (who is a social media ace in the dance music world) are in full agreement that this isn't ideal for audience engagement - it's like watching a professional film production or aftermovie, not an "in the moment clip".

So we're looking to buck the trend and make short "phone style" clips in-vouge again, but using a pro camera, because even a top end phone isn't as good as a "proper" camera.

Basically I'm wanting advice on settings for my FX3, to get straight-out-of-camera clips that can just be uploaded to social media right after, or possibly even during, a DJ's set.

So -

Resolution - obviously still 4k, though I'm open to hearing arguments in favour of 1080p.

Frame rate - what are we thinking is best here? 24fps is too "cinematic" so I'm thinking 30fps? 50/60fps even, or is that too far in the opposite direction?

Shutter speed - I'm guessing faster than 180deg/double-the-frame-rate? Advice needed there!

Picture Profile - normally I'm shooting in CineEI, slog3, 10bit 4:2:2, so not even using Picture Profiles. This is the big one I'm wanting tips on. Basically wants to be crisp, colourful but not too saturated, deep blacks, crisp whites, etc. As close to my normal colour grades without having to spend time grading, and instead getting decent results SOOC.

Sound - got this sorted but just mentioning it as someone will, quite rightly, say "remember for DJs, sound is the most important thing". Rode Videomic Pro on camera, and have a Zoom H4E that does 32bit float if I have the time to sync up audio, but even then we mainly want crowd/atmosphere/FX and pyro noise in there too. Again, we're moving away from clean productions and perfection. We want people to feel "in the moment" like they're on the stage with the DJ, or down in the crowd watching them.

Then I just need to nail my camera movement as I'm very much locked into the "DJ's videographer" style and again that's something we're trying to move away from, but that one is all on me!

Shooting on a Sony FX3 (and sometimes using my A7RV as a B-cam) mainly shooting DJs.

It's something I've pretty much cracked, and I'm normally in 24fps, 180deg shutter, adjust base ISO and ND filter to suit. Once done, edit clips, quick colour grade using a preset node tree (nodes for WB, minor exposure adjust, saturation, etc, then through a Phantom LUT) and it all looks good, nice and "cinematic" clients are happy anyway.

Issue now is I've got someone asking me to do "UGC" (user-generated content) type videos that take things back to basics.

For some reason in the dance music world, over the past 18 months or so, DJs have become obsessed with the idea of multi-cam shoots with a cinematic look, perfect sound (directly recorded from the decks) all synced up. Me and the person in question (who is a social media ace in the dance music world) are in full agreement that this isn't ideal for audience engagement - it's like watching a professional film production or aftermovie, not an "in the moment clip".

So we're looking to buck the trend and make short "phone style" clips in-vouge again, but using a pro camera, because even a top end phone isn't as good as a "proper" camera.

Basically I'm wanting advice on settings for my FX3, to get straight-out-of-camera clips that can just be uploaded to social media right after, or possibly even during, a DJ's set.

So -

Resolution - obviously still 4k, though I'm open to hearing arguments in favour of 1080p.

Frame rate - what are we thinking is best here? 24fps is too "cinematic" so I'm thinking 30fps? 50/60fps even, or is that too far in the opposite direction?

Shutter speed - I'm guessing faster than 180deg/double-the-frame-rate? Advice needed there!

Picture Profile - normally I'm shooting in CineEI, slog3, 10bit 4:2:2, so not even using Picture Profiles. This is the big one I'm wanting tips on. Basically wants to be crisp, colourful but not too saturated, deep blacks, crisp whites, etc. As close to my normal colour grades without having to spend time grading, and instead getting decent results SOOC.

Sound - got this sorted but just mentioning it as someone will, quite rightly, say "remember for DJs, sound is the most important thing". Rode Videomic Pro on camera, and have a Zoom H4E that does 32bit float if I have the time to sync up audio, but even then we mainly want crowd/atmosphere/FX and pyro noise in there too. Again, we're moving away from clean productions and perfection. We want people to feel "in the moment" like they're on the stage with the DJ, or down in the crowd watching them.

Then I just need to nail my camera movement as I'm very much locked into the "DJ's videographer" style and again that's something we're trying to move away from, but that one is all on me!

Did a search, almost didn't need to because I already kind of knew this kind of thing likely hasn't been asked before.

On Aug 12th a total eclipse will happen, which will end at sunset in Ibiza. I take photos of DJ's mainly so have been there a good several times (wish it was more regular!) and have been planning this one for nearly 10 years since I first found out about it.

Issue is that while all total eclipses start somewhere at sunrise and end somewhere else at sunset, most of the Earth is either ocean or uninhabited, so no photo of a total eclipse at sunrise/sunset seems to exist.

I know most of the advice for taking photos in broad daylight is using a solar filter (can remove it during totality) but I've taken loads of photos of the sunset in Ibiza without any filters and it's fine,

Is this just the same thing here? No need for filters? Take a photo like any other sunset photo?

What about totality? Ibiza isn't quite bang on the centre (that's Mallorca) and as it's so near to sunset it only lasts about a minute. Is there anything I should be doing for totality specifically? Kind of want to preset it on the M1/2 settings on my A7RV so I don't need to be fumbling during it!

It's wife's visa time again, and as ever a slew of problems crop up. Pleasingly this time a new one has occurred, the fucking printer is running out of toner and there's no time to order more and no one else I know owns one. Yay...

Appointment is tomorrow - BLS Manchester for a Spain visa. I'm British, she's Vietnamese and living here on a Spouse Visa, just renewed. Next one in two years is her ILR and citizenship so we can say goodbye to this shit forever.

We're going to Ibiza on Aug 11th and while I won't bore people with the details, this is vitally important. This is 10 years in the making, from before I even met my wife, so I really really want to avoid any issues.

Most documents are fine, and all are totally legible, but on the bank statements (and P60 and marriage certificate, not required but we thought we'd bundle them in just to be safe) there's a faded line vertically down the pages. Is this going to be an issue?

(reposting this as the usual characters downvoted it so no replies. I realise posting an example photo of the documents would be ideal, but with such people monitoring this sub, probably not a good idea)

It's wife's visa time again, and as ever a slew of problems crop up. Pleasingly this time a new one has occurred, the fucking printer is running out of toner and there's no time to order more and no one else I know owns one. Yay...

Appointment is tomorrow - BLS Manchester for a Spain visa. I'm British, she's Vietnamese and living here on a Spouse Visa, just renewed. Next one in two years is her ILR and citizenship so we can say goodbye to this shit forever.

We're going to Ibiza on Aug 11th and while I won't bore people with the details, this is vitally important. This is 10 years in the making, from before I even met my wife, so I really really want to avoid any issues.

Most documents are fine, and all are totally legible, but on the bank statements (and P60 and marriage certificate, not required but we thought we'd bundle them in just to be safe) there's a faded line vertically down the pages. Is this going to be an issue?

I assume as long as someone can read it, they'll accept it?

I ask this because it keeps coming up day to day, and having done a search of this sub (as one should before making a topic) I've not seen this come up before - lots of worry about it taking jobs and hypothetical future scenarios, but not much about what it is doing NOW in people's lives.

So I'm basically just interested in hearing about areas it has genuinely made a difference for the good, and areas it has become really really annoying.

Some of my own examples so you know I'm not some bot (I'm not) nor doing this for some academic study (I'm also not) -

Pros:

- AI Denoise in Adobe Lightroom is a lifesaver for my photography work, often in very dark nightclubs/festival arenas. See my website (not linking to it as I don't think that's allowed, but it's my username) - most of that would have been noisy horrible rubbish without denoise. It isn't "fake", it's just the same image without a load of red and green spots all over it.

Cons:

- SD cards, which are vital to my work, are now insanely expensive. A twin pack of 128gb Lexar v60 SD cards was £89 when I bought them in early 2025. Same cards, same shop, now £275. Same for GPUs, RAM, SSD drives, the lot. All because of AI data centres.

- The Google AI answer is almost always wrong, which I'm not actually arsed about as you can ignore it, but I increasingly find people blindly believing it, to the point "hold on there, did you get that from the Google AI answer?" is now a go-to when someone says something totally wrong, normally my wife. Best one today was "heated seats will damage your balls".

- Just got a VW ID3 and the speed AI stuff doesn't work properly, because it's AI. Constantly showing the wrong limits, which is annoying because it sets off an audible sound and the active cruise control relies on it.

I could go on. But I'll hand over to you guys!

I quite like the speed limit warnings on the ID3. I've had two speeding fines in my life, both for what is very minor speeding. Firstly doing 35mph leaving the Mersey Tunnel (a four lane dual carriageway set to 30 for no good reason) and a road near mine which is straight, flat, and all my driving life was 50 and was changed to a 40 because of boring middle class bastards with nothing better to do, and in fairness I held my hands up, I was doing 46.

But even with no points currently on licence I do like the visual speed limit reminder and the audible warning isn't bad either. Both times I've had a speeding fine it was totally on me, and warning is welcome. But around me they're all wrong.

Loads of country lanes near me, think Delamere Forest area if anyone is familiar. Know them like the back of my hand. Most are 60 but you'd have to be insane to do 60 on most of them, but the ID3 thinks they're all 20 which is just madness.

Then there's the A5117 past Elton, and the A556 past Northwich, both of which I've driven on today and both of which are dual carriageway (separated by median) so are 70mph. The ID3 thinks they're 60 or even 50 when they aren't.

Then further afield there's the M56 coming out of Manchester on Princess Road. Goes from 30 once you leave the city up to 40. Then 50. Then becomes the M56 at which point it becomes 70mph, being a motorway, but the ID3 thinks it is 50mph right up until after the Manchester Airport junction a few miles up the motorway.

I assume this is not just limited to my general area, and I know you can turn off the audible warning, but need to redo this every time you get into the car. I get that it's a "safety feature" and can't be permanently disabled, but if if the database is wrong then it's simply not working, a total no no for a safety feature.

Any suggestions?

Just got an ID3 today, love it already, absolutely amazing. I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about how good it is. Long been meaning to join the electric vehicle club and finally have, and the ID3 is a stunningly good car. The drive, the performance, the feature, the build quality, the comfort, everything. Just fantastic.

But I have some issues I wanted to ask people about, as I suspect as is often the case in these situations this is largely user-error and easily fixed.

1. The brakes. Now I've looked this up and I know it is normal for the brakes to feel "spongy" and after just 60ish miles today I'm already used to them. I also quickly got used to "B" mode, absolutely love it. Barely need to use the brake pedal and gives a bit of power back to the battery. What's not to like, it's fantastic. But on a long straight wide and barely used country lane near me, I cranked it up to 60mph (which is the speed limit before anyone asks) and slammed on. Full emergency stop. I noticed that while once you go foot to the floor, again accounting for that "spongy" pedal, it doesn't seem to have ABS? My previous Golf and after that a T-Roc would do the full "durrrrrrr" with the ABS. The ID3 does anchor-on, but it doesn't seem to stop as quickly in an emergency and most worryingly it did snatch a brake - a very distinct "screech" as I felt the left front wheel lock up for a split second until I came off the brakes a bit. Is this normal?
2. Android Auto is already misbehaving. I don't know if it's VW or Android or both, but it has NEVER worked properly via bluetooth. It's always basically a coin toss whether it's going to connect. This is across six phones and four VW cars. The solution was always a cable, but in the ID3 plugging in a USB cable seems to make no difference. Is that right, or can I do a wired connection instead of bluetooth? I tried both ports in the centre cubbyhole but it didn't register.
3. A whistle from the driver's side wing mirror. I'm no aerodynamics expert but I think it's where airflow is separating over the sharp cover edge on top of the mirror. It's a really annoying whistle that once you hear you can't not hear. I know electric cars are not silent and have long pointed out 99% of noise from any car over about 10mph is tyre roar and airflow, and the T-Roc had annoying mirror noise too at motorway speeds. But on the ID3 much above 40mph ish this constant "weeewweeeeewwweeeewwew" from the mirror is doing my head in. Could this be a covering not clipped in properly or something?
4. The Ohme app and VW app not talking to each other properly. This is 100% on me I know that, but looking for tips as I thought I was charging just as a test earlier, then the Ohme app said I wasn't, then it turned out it was. Just wondering what people do best for "workflow"?

But that's about it for now. Only other disappointment is the soundsystem is fairly lacklustre, but makes sense as you don't want to be draining charge on a banging amp and speaker setup, and it's good enough. Nothing compared to the many many many many things I love about this car!

Quick question - my and my wife have been sorting out her Spouse Visa renewal, everything going well, all in hand. The first time applying initially was a frankly joyous experience it was so easy to submit all the documentation, so we expected the same this time, and so far, so good.

But for joint correspondence we've hit an issue, and her appointment is on Thursday.

We have a joint bank account but we barely use it. We're currently living with my mum (I help care for her and we can't afford a place of our own just yet) so all bills are in her name and we just give her a third each of the money every month.

To NOT have joint correspondence we need six items each, which my wife can possibly do but I can't - I've been paperless for a long long time and we now don't have enough time to get people (bank, doctors, dentist, etc) to issue us something in either my our both our names.

Is this going to be a real issue or are they not that bothered? Everything else is more than above board so we're 100% confident there'll be zero questions about us living together.

Wife is renewing her Spouse Visa. Everything above board and we expect it to be a simple formality.

Application all completed via the .gov website, everything paid up, all evidence and the like ready to go, appointment at the Liverpool contact centre booked via the TLS website.

The question is basically - do we need to bring printed copies of everything to said appointment, or is simply uploading it via the website (as we're now being requested to) all they're expecting?

Printer is on the blink and I'd rather avoid paying £80 for a new one if I can help it, but more than happy to if printed copies are needed.

If they now refuse any printed documentation and expect it all to be uploaded via the website only, then happy days, printer is a waste of money.

Thinking of upgrading my very old and tired RS2 gimbal to the RS5. But my main issue with gimbals is I film DJs a fair bit and with more energetic stuff, fast snap zooms on the drop are common, so I prefer handheld.

It would be ideal in some situations to have both though - smooth gimbal movement and fast zoom outs, which would mean controlling the zoom via the wheel on the gimbal.

Obviously a DJI Focus Pro motor is perfect for this, mounted on the zoom ring rather than the focus ring, but is it possible to set it up to be very "snappy" on operation? If it's just slow and cinematic then it's no good for me and a waste of money.

I use Sigma Contemporary lenses so the zoom ring is very light with a short throw, which I assume helps matters here?