Wednesday, March 20, 2019

5G

We are getting 5G in 2019.  The We just means some people.  I think maybe in the second half or late 2019 there will be some 5G rollout in New York City.  I am not sure what carrier though.  Verizon seems to have 5G plan for home internet connection ready to roll out some a handful of cities.  The speed is roughly around 300Mbps which is still fast.  With 5G, 4K is more pervasive and realistic.  Verizon would bundle either Apple TV or Chromecast Ultra for their 5G customers.  5G really gives people an excuse to upgrade their hardware.

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Internet Pricing and Related Rants

Loyalty doesn't give you any benefit.  FIOS just likes to screw their loyal customers with ever increasing bills.  If you are an existing customer with autopay you are like the best customer that FIOS loves to screw.  Don't bother trying to talk down the bill because there is nothing they can do.  Just cancel and move on and let them get back to you and offer you new customer pricing  For existing customer out of contract, a 75/75mbps I was quoted $69.99 with 2 year contract.  For new customer, 100/100mbps, the price is $39.99.  As far as I know, FIOS is the only provider that gives symmetrical download and upload speed.  Cable ISP has big download and upload differentials.  If you don't care about upload speed then it makes no or very little difference.  If you routinely upload media then I am afraid it makes a difference who your provider is.

Internet pricing is similar to medical billing, nobody knows what is going on.  What's worse than medical billing is Internet companies love to screw their existing customers.   I yearn for pricing like your neighborhood deli where items are sold as priced, a can of Coke is 99 cents and a loaf of bread is $2.99, period.


Fall and Winter

Nothing lasts forever.  I can't wait for the next winter to come along.  The dreaded spring and summer are on their way.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Different From and Every Day

If I hear somebody says "different from" or I read people write "every day" when he means daily,  I immediately think highly about that person.


Fixed Length Lenses

Not all lenses are made the same.  We all know that.  But let me point out the obvious.

I do not like variable lens length much the same I don't like variable f/stop in zooms.  That is lens protrudes or retracts externally when zooming out or in or even simply changing focus distance*.  I much appreciate the lens elements move internally and the overall lens length remains fixed during focusing and zooming.

* the oldie manual focus lenses actually do that, they protrude from a few mm to cm when focusing close, I actually don't get bothered by it.  The AF 135 f/2 DC is truly fixed length no matter what focusing distance.


Sunday, March 10, 2019

Auto WB

Auto White Balance.

In the days of film, white balance is something you don't think much about or you think too much about it, like before you shoot anything.  This is the realm of professional, serious amateur or self important photographer I suppose.  White Balance is baked in the film, the only way you can change the white balance is by adding filters to color correct during the shoot or change the film back.

Digital changes that.  One can change the white balance from picture to picture on the fly.

The old filter or gel still apply as photography is still photography.

I have little concern on white balance if I shoot outdoor during the day.  The Auto white balance pretty much nails color temperature.

On the other hand if I shoot indoor with mixed lightning or with lighting I have no idea what temperature it is then I got into problem with auto WB.  If you add flash then you might even have bigger problem.  If I have absolute control like in a studio environment (not that I would find out), like able to shut off all the ambient lighting then problem solved:  just shoot whatever light white balance you using probably in the proximity of 5500K.  Back to shooting indoor event with flash and mixed lighting ... auto white balance just couldn't cut it in my experience.  I feel like I am forced to set WB manually and gel my flash using the same K number.  It's not perfect but I find it better than leaving it to my Nikon and adjusting it post in Light Room.  That's my experience.  Just to add to the mix to complicate things a bit, you can also shoot preset or shoot a 18% grey card as reference.  But I got to the point I feel like I just set the WB at 2900 and be done with it.  No grey card no shooting preset.

Saturday, March 09, 2019

Auto ISO

I think this is genuinely a new Auto since the dawn of digital photography.

Back when I shot film, the ISO is fixed with the film unless you change the film back, change mid-roll otherwise you really can't change the ISO on the fly.

The settings of any film camera is likely to be Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program and Manual.

Digital change this by adding ISO auto.

Often times I dial my setting to Manual so I have control on my aperture and shutter speed.  It's all about the parameters you want to let go and let the camera take control.

I set my base ISO to 64, aperture f/5.6 and shutter speed at 1/250s and WB at 2900K.  Indoor, the ISO can float up to ISO 4000 which is an ISO I can accept.  If you think you cannot accept that high a high ISO, you can set a ceiling so the ISO won't go above that even it's on Auto ISO.

I seldom do Auto ISO shooting Aperture priority, some Shutter priority if I shoot cycling races.

On "newer" camera, there is even a parameter minimum shutter speed under the Auto ISO.   This would be helpful as you don't want the shutter to drop too low if you shoot handheld or unnecessarily high.  Say if you are shooting at focal length of 200mm, in order to maintain reasonable sharpness you want your shutter speed no slower than 1/250s.  Or you can set the minimum shutter speed at Auto in which case the camera would decide what is the lowest shutter speed you can go.  There you can still tweak if you want it biased Slower (to favor slower shutter speed) or Faster or dead in the middle, I left it in the middle.

Shooting Auto ISO doesn't mean that the exposure would always be kind of correct.  If you shoot in bright daylight and set your base ISO100, Manual at f/2.8 and 1/60s, chances are your picture will be overexposed as the ISO will be out of range in the low side anyway.  The correct exposure combination is more likely to be f/16 and 1/100 at ISO100.

Auto ISO still under the "there is no free lunch rule."  Something got to give.

There are three parameters, ISO, aperture and shutter.  You can fix one, let the other two float, or you can fix two and let one float.  Or you fix all three manually.  White balance affects the color temperature which affects the color but I don't consider it part of the exposure.  Some people don't even consider ISO part of the exposure but that's up for debate...


ImageMagick

 I don't remember if I installed that via Homebrew or MacPort. I might have installed using MacPort.  But it's kind of messed up as ...