u/xxMalVeauXxx

Hi all,

I waited for the sale and finally found myself picking up D4+both expansions. Been playing Diablo since the first game release. D1 was great, played it online until D2 released, then played that forever. Played D3 on release, didn't like it as much until the expansion and huge updates changed the game completely, and now I like D3 for what it is (seasonal gift and just blast through the game a while then feel ok to stop playing and do something else). D4 released and I ignored it largely since I didn't wanna have the D3 experience again. D2R releases and I get that because why not do another 10,000 hours in D2 right? Got the RotW expansion next and I love the current state of D2R RotW ladder and non-ladder with the changes to end game (terrorized zones, etc). Now D4. I finally get D4 + expansions.

D4+expansions was honestly the best campaign of all the Diablo series to me. Great story, writing, pacing. It wasn't painfully predictable. I did a full playthrough and I'm level 70 and some paragon levels. Really enjoyed the plot and twists and the way it played out. The stories were seamless to me. Truly the best diablo story experience so far, which I did not expect, at least, for me.

So now... going from here on D4. What next? There's a lot of stuff that isn't intuitive to me and I'm not sure what comes next. It seems to play a lot like an MMO online after the campaign. I started with a seasonal character just to get that experience, but it seems to have come with extra things I didn't expect or know about. I'm trying to gear up so I can do Torment and finally start working on gear. But, unlocking Torment has been... annoying. I'm struggling to stay interested with all these check points to just raise the difficulty of the game. I can't even do the Pits. Everything locked behind season rank walls which is super annoying. I can't just hit level 70 and start torment grinding out pits and stuff. Apparently, I have to completely rank 2 in seasonal achievements, be level 70, etc, to even unlock Torment difficulty. What the heck is this? I don't even wanna do the dumb tasks in the seasonal objectives. So I did rank 1, which was annoying, but I did it to even unlock some other areas and tasks. Then went to do Torment pits and undercity and nope... locked. I have to complete rank 2 seasonal objectives. I don't want to keep doing seasonal objectives (dumb tasks) just to unlock play areas and difficulties. So I'm struggling to stay interested because I want to play pits and undercity and all that on torment so the rewards are worth a damn. But I don't want to do these dumb season tasks to unlock ranks in season just to even unlock torment. This seems so annoying to me.

Am I missing something or is this just it? I should have just made a non-season character and this is my dumb fault?

I'm wanting to try it, but the mountain tasks of doing stupid kill X, stop Y, 1000 times, just to unlock Torment difficulty and get access to Pits is a huge put off. And instead it makes me want to just go back to D2R RotW and start Ladder this Friday instead. :(

How do yall deal with this MMO tasking mess? Or am I just missing something? I'm stupid? Filthy Casual?

The smell and tactile feel of a good old book, particularly with a nice slightly flexible material hardback. Like a well fitting old shoe. It's the little things in life.

I'm a clunky tactile person. I vastly prefer a real book in my hands and I like well made semi-hardback covers. I'm also fairly frugal so I only buy the ones I want to see and hold more than once. I'm not opposed to paperback for the casual read.

I've been using my phone to test the waters. ReadEra and a few EPUBs just to get a feel. So far, I dislike the swipe gestures, lack of visual buttons, no physical buttons obviously, etc. Also the phone screen is... harsh. I've tried to dim it and change things, but it just feels so harsh and high contrast to look at especially in terrible artificial light when I'm not at home.

So I'm considering... the e-reader. I know, yet another first e-reader post. However, I'm trying to be true to myself in that I don't want to just get whatever a search result gives me and buy based on price. I really would like to find something that suits my preferences. So I'm looking for inspiration from end-users that have already made this journey and maybe have an opinion from that perspective. Thank you for following along this far by the way.

I'm very clunky and tactile with things. It's hard for me to even consider using a phone, table or e-reader concept. But, I am willing to try it. I'm really interested in something in the 4~7" size range, slim is ideal, e-ink (I think?) but I really dislike touch screens or at least full operation touch screens and would vastly prefer something with at least a few physical buttons so I can turn pages with a tactile button press and go to home/settings/etc with a button, rather than touch screen gestures and swipes. I'm not opposed to black and white, I am considering color (mostly for graphic novels and comics but these are low on my list). I mostly prefer EPUB so far from what I've experienced and I would rather buy from online somewhere and not be locked into someone's service so I can put them on whatever device I wish without all the extra fuss. Does such an e-reader exist?

I almost fell on the Xteink x4 (a friend at work has one and I liked how it felt), but then I find myself flirting with a Kobo Color...

I'm at a loss and seek inspiration.

Respectfully yours,

Hi all,

I think most of us doing this kind of photography know that some lenses are just no good for IR while others seems fine, with some theories behind it being relative to the anti-reflective coatings mostly. I have a few lenses that have pretty terrible aberrations in IR and show hot spots or rings or flares. Not usable at all for IR basically.

I have a few lenses that I've experimented with and found them to work great in IR.

The native lens of the Fuji X100S (23mm F2 pancake) works great in IR, no aberrations, no weird artifacts, slight vignetting only. I use this one the most since its a simple all in one solution camera for my daily carry and works great in IR, so a win-win for me despite its age.

I have the recently released TTArtisan 14mm F3.5 pancake, they're so inexpensive like all of the TT/Artisan lenses that recently released with autofocus and they're all pretty great for the cost. But they do not all do well in IR. I'm happy to report the TTArtisan 14mm F3.5 pancake does fine in IR, no weird aberrations, just some vignetting as expected, but its totally usable in IR.

The Fuji XF 18-55 kit zoom lens (a great lens for cost) sadly is no good for IR, it has aberrations and hot spots and stuff.

I have a Rokinon/Samyang 21mm F1.4 manual lens from years ago. Great lens, but sadly, no good in IR, it shows rings and a central spot.

I have a Samyang 14mm F2 that is great, but sadly, no good in IR, it shows aberrations and flares.

I'm curious about a few other lenses to use some other cameras other than my X100S. I have some more telephoto oriented lenses, but I don't really use them IR since they're longer and I don't tend to use longer focal lengths and longer exposures in IR, at least for now. I'll test them soon regardless just to know (Rokinon 85mm F1.4, Samyang 50mm F1.2, Fuji XF 55-200, TTartisan 56mm F1.8).

I'm curious about the inexpensive TTArtisan 27mm F2.8 pancake. I'm curious since the TTArtisan 14mm F3.5 pancake did fine in IR, so if they're similar and have similar coatings, maybe it will be an ok lens for IR. I'm curious if anyone has tried this lens since its made for most of the common mirrorless bodies? I'm also curious about the TTartisan 23mm F1.8. I have the 56mm version but I haven't tried it yet, maybe I can get a test in tomorrow to know how it handles IR and if it might be similar. Curious if anyone has this lens for IR?

Any 3rd party lenses, manual lenses are fine, that people are using that are known to be great for IR? Share any good for IR lenses for any platform, I'm curious, and maybe it will be helpful to others too.