Nikon 20-35 f/2.8

It still pains me that the lens is broken and can't be repaired because the necessary parts aren't available anymore and even if they are I suspect it makes more sense to buy another copy as the repair costs at least an upward of $300 plus dollars, which is what an "ugly" copy costs on eBay.  Of course by repairing you save the lens.

This is my excuse to buy some nerdy, dad harness so as to hold my gears on my shoulder securely.  It's going to look ridiculous but hopefully my camera won't be sliding down my shoulder anymore.

I swear the camera only slid down from my shoulder and along the way, I was able to absorb part of the fall with my hand and leg ...  But still bad enough to crack the filter and worse ruined the focus and zoom mechanisms all together.  I think I paid more than $600 for it from KEH years ago when I shot a dinner party.

Zero Halliburton

I try to find more information about the cases.  But there isn't much to be found.  Then again, if you just try a bit harder you may be able to find something to connect the dots.

I own a couple of Halliburton cases, they are called camera cases.  And since they have Zero as part of the name so they aren't exactly old or prior to the acquisition by the Zero Japanese company.  I am just writing from memory which isn't very good.(Edit:  This proves my memory is really unreliable.  The Japanese company that bought Zero Halliburton is called ACE and it was done in 2006.  ZERO bought Halliburton in 1952)

You would think that a company with this legacy would have more information about old models and their dimensions and what accessories go with them.  Alas, that isn't really the case.  When I first got those cases a few years back, I searched online and I found the Zero Halliburton website just terrible, I'm sure I wrote about that back then.

Halliburton is kind of falling out of flavor I think.  If people want aluminum cases, they might opt for Rimowa.  If people really want to carry the load they opt for Pelican.  Where does it leave for Halliburton, I don't know.

I tried again to find some information on the cases.

This is from Pop Photography 1981.

So my cases are 105 and 111.  At least I now got the model numbers right I think.

I always want to find foam and inserts for them.  And now I find some lead.  Though I have to say foam is not really ideal as they tend to disintegrate in a nasty way.  Hopefully the dividers last.  I barely found one store that sell new old stock for the cases ...

Godox CellsII N

This isn't even listed on Godox website.

So you know it's old.

This is based on the 433Mhz frequency as opposed to their 2.4GHz ones.

I got a pair of these so I can do hypersync on my Sunpak 120J.  I was confident that I can hook it up all right.  Alas, that didn't work out exactly I hoped.

Even my old Neewer is on the 433 frequency but they don't talk to each other.  And I can't attach the CellsII to my 120J through any cables provided.

In the end, the best I can do is to attach my Neewer transmitter to the Godox CellsII receiver and the Neewer receiver attached to the female sync cable to the 120J.  Through that I was able to sync to 1/1000 with almost no banding.

The thing is I can sync to 1/8000 of a second with no banding if I use an optical slave.

To be able to use hypersync is good when I need to shoot high speed under bright sunlight.

I ordered a Pocket wizard cable male mini 3.5mm to household plug to streamline the connection and also to hope the sync may work better.

This is a bit crazy but I can't help myself.

EDIT:
What I thought and what actually is can be vastly different.  Initially I thought I would get all the features of my Nikon branded SB-800 to work remotely (the hot shoe connector on the transceiver is only single pin so that sort of give away there is no other communication to the flash except to fire). As there is no user manual on the company's website and the one I found is for Canon ... so it's a bit difficult to confirm things.  I believe this CellsII-N would control Godox's own Wistro strobes, like the AD180 or AD360 or similar models but branded differently.  The good news is the trigger is still hypersync capable with varying degrees of success depending on how high the speed you go and the trigger connection.  Waiting for my eBay PocketWizard 3.5mm to HH to trigger the flash directly from the CellsII N

Flash

Godox is stirring up the market place the past 5 years that you can't help but notice them.

Profoto is, I heard, threatens to sue Godox for something something.  We will see.

I got a set of 433Mhz trigger from Neewer which is I think just another name from Godox.  It comes with a transmitter and 2 receiver.  After years of very occasional use, I changed the little battery inside the transmitter.  The set has been quite good, it's not like well built or 100% fool proof but it works.  The battery door is not so well closed so sometimes there is bad connection.  But other than that I am happy with the purchase.  Now most of what Godox makes are 2.4Ghz so I don't think I can use the existing cheapo 433Mhz receivers.  The price of those running of 433Mhz is definitely cheaper but then you feel like you are not future proofing your purchase.

My SB-800 can do high speed sync, that's the trick sync by pulsating the flash above the sync speed of the camera.  Then of course I have a pair of Sunpak 120J, which can't do no Nikon high speed sync.

The question is can they all do hypersync, that's by timing the flashing output and make sure of the long duration assuming they are long duration of the manual flash full output?

It seems to be there is a high chance that they can IF the trigger supports high speed sync.

That's if the trigger supports high speed sync then it will probably most likely can do higher sync when the flash is set at manual and full power.

I haven't got the change to test it on my gears as of now, my set of trigger is just a pure trigger, there is not other magic.

For the past five years of so, Godox has been cranking out models after models and it certainly gaining traction in the market place.  Consumers are happy but not so much from the big name strobe manufacturers.

I am interested to see if I can break the x-sync barrier by using hypersync or high speed sync by using remote radio trigger.

macOS 10.14.5 and APFS

Previously my macOS was on the older file system.  Finally I got the OS updated to 10.14.5 and then moved it to APFS.  I had to put back the old video card so I can access the boot up option menu.

I actually updated it to 10.14.5 first so I could have left it alone but then I felt like to update the file system to APFS as chances are the next subsequent update may also work against me if I am on the old file system.  The software update from macOS simple won't find update on the old file system.

The macpro3,1 2008 is on it very last leg and I don't know how long it can last.  The next OS can be in the offing and totally obliterates this model.  I mean this is on borrowed life already as Apple's Mojave officially doesn't support this old model.

iPhone for Video

I usually carry dual DLSRs with 16-35 and 70-200 for events.  I seldom take video.

Then sometimes without any warning I got asked to take some video.  I could have used my D810 for video but then number one it would screw up my setting for stills even I have another camera.

So my video equipment of choice is whatever iPhone I am carrying and shoot it using Filmic pro which gives me some controls I feel I need.  Would I invest in Beastgrip, I absolutely, because I am such a sucker.  I would buy the anamorphic lens and whatnot.  But then I don't have any more money.  So I have to put everything on hold.  I even have problems getting some hard drive.

Youtube Ad Remover ad

I couldn't think of any ad that's more meta more ironic in an earnestly non ironic way.

I am a some what believer of the free market in the sense that I don't necessarily object to junk mails whether those put through your front door or your electronic inbox.  Sometimes I even voluntarily subscribe to some mailing lists.  But there should be a fine line between spam and scam.  I draw the line on scam.

For Youtube video, I just click skip or if sometimes when that's not available you just have to sit through it.  I totally get if it's free you are the product kind of thing that's the business model of Youtube and Facebook.  Ad is a business model that feeds a sizable workforce.

4K 60fps Youtube

You have fast Internet connection and you think you can play some UHD 4K from Youtube with no problem.  Wrong.

I don't have the very specifics but I can't really play Youtube 4K on my Mac in most or all cases I tried.  (I know I should say all cases but let's keep it not scientific)*

The video just stutters.  It has nothing to do with my connection speed.

I think it's because Youtube uses the V9 codec or something something that Apple doesn't support.

If you run the Safari browser it doesn't even try, the video just gives you 1080p as the best option.  When uses Chrome, it lets you play with 2160p with stutter every 2 seconds or so.  1440p is fine though.

So that's the state of Youtube 4K on a Mac.

I no longer have any "convenient" access to a PC to test it out.

*The only uploader whose 4k video can play smoothly is Filmic Box, so I don't understand, I don't think they lie as the Settings does show it's 4K 2160p.  So I don't understand.  But all else plays stuttering.  This only applies to using the Chrome browser; Safari still falls back to 1080p and doesn't bother with 4K not even try.

update:  I think using Chrome on Mac, I can play 2160p (probably at 30fps) but it stutters at 2160p60fps.

update: I got the chance to play 2160p60fps on my 2012 MBP and it plays flawlessly.  So I stand corrected.  It "must" be something else.  I was playing it on a 2008 MACPRO3,1 with the GTX 770 GPU, the rig isn't meant to be running the latest greatest OS X so this defect of playing the 2160p60fps maybe a small price to pay.  Safari does still lower the playback to 1080p60fps.

Streaming News from Youtube

Perhaps when they do the news they don't have streaming in mind.

I don't see any of those Youtube video from CNN are date stamped.  CNN has a habit of running the BREAKING NEWS on its crawler so almost all the news material is breaking news and you just don't know how current they are by looking at the screen and the screen alone.  I just wish they would date stamp all the material on screen.  Without live TV, streaming is the next best alternative.  Though I lose the sense of how current the material I am watching.

No matter, I think making perviously broadcast material available on Youtube for streaming on Youtube is great as it's a free service.

Chromecast Ultra

I splurged.

I have no 4K TV and yet I got a Chromecast Ultra via the trustworthy eBay.  I lowballed the seller and we met in the middle.  That's the only way to go.

Officially the Chromecast is selling for $35 and the Chromecast Ultra is fetching $69.

I don't know much about the technology, I think that kind of goes without saying as I am going through life without knowing anything basically.

I have tried that with Vudu watching what else America Ultra.  Both the video and audio are very good indeed.  Youtube casting is equally impressive.  I cast Youtube from my Mac desktop/Chrome browser as well as via iPhone's YouTube app.

Casting is a no brainer.

But setting up the Chromecast hardware needs a bit of work as I needed to install the Google Home App first.  I didn't know about it as I thought it was 100% plug and play.  Not so.  I can't remember exactly but a year ago, my LG was able to do casting without nothing installed both from Youtube and Netflix.  Then kind of all of a sudden the cast doesn't work at all.  So I always got the impression the cast just works.  So when I plugged in the CU into the HDMI, I thought it just works but neither the iPhone nor the Chrome on desktop would see the device.  I thought the seller sent me a dud, which is actually quite rare.  Knowing that I don't know nothing so I looked up the Chromecast hardware and bang installing the Home app.  I must have read it before when I did my research but since my experience before I just thought it would just work.  Oh well something something happened, which I didn't know better.

The video and audio exceed my expectation.

Haughty

I appear haughty and disdainful as I get older.  I always tilt my head when I talk to people as I need to look through the bottom of my trifocal lenses.

macOS Mojave 10.14.4 MacPro3,1 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2 GB

They work!

After a year, I finally got myself the GTX 770 2 GB card.  The display is much better now.  I am no gamer but I can appreciate some fluid browsing.

It's a little bit of a hassle, yes, anything involves any slight extra effort I consider it a hassle.

I got to order 2 power PCIe power cable for the card, mini 6-pin to 8-pin.  The card is a MSI branded one, it's very quiet "even" it has two big fans.  I don't think they are running but if they are they are awfully quiet.

The GPU is not a Mac specific graphic card but it boots up just without the boot screen which I can live with.  If I need it I can use the old card for this purpose.

Now this 2008 Mac Pro is more alive than before.

UPDATE:  I also have to live with the "fact" that the HDMI won't be outputting audio in this macpro3,1.  Oh well.  Let me return this card.  Just kidding.  I am happy this eBay dumpster diving found works.

How Long to Marinate

How long do you marinate?  Does anyone ever do any scientific study on this subject?  On poultry, red meat or even fish?

Would it plateau off or even suffer from diminishing return over time?

When I prepare a steak, I only season it instead of marinate it.

If I were to marinade any meat or poultry, I say probably one to three hours the least, if you are prepared, over night won't hurt, like brining an entire turkey overnight.

Hotpot via my iPhone

I meant to write hotspot but I guess subconsciously I love hotpot too much.

My FIOS connection used to be 75/75 and in most days the speed is up or exceed spec.  Linking my laptop through hotspot is not terribly bad actually.  Even when it is around 10Mbps download.

The screen capture is from Google's speed test.  So according to Google at 20Mbps it's already good for HD streaming.  When I am on hotspot via my iPhone's T Mobile data plan I don't watch YouTube.

UPDATE:  When you reached some cap it then limit your speed.  Oh well.

GTX 770

Latest distraction:

The GTX 680 is pricier and harder to come by.  So GTX 770 is.  The version I got is by MSI with I think 2 8-pin power interface.  Sometimes you asked the seller it takes them forever to respond or not respond at all.

Judging from the manufacturer's web site, it should be a 2 8-pin power interface.  As such I ordered 2 of those cables that enable than connect from the Mac3,1 motherboard to the GTX 770.  It should be a mini 6-pin to the 8-pin.  The thing with this is I don't know if 6-pin is considered mini 6-pin already, or 6-pin and mini 6-pin are two different standards all together.  That's the word mini is just an additional descriptor.  I do see some cable just marked as 6-pin to 8-pin without the word mini.

I hope this combo works as I expect.  It would work, just without the Apple bootup screen, which I can live without.

Probably in three days I'd find out.

Netgear AC750 EX3700

I bought this many years ago and left it alone and almost forgot about it except seeing its wifi id or ssid.

I never needed to power it down.  I just downloaded and installed the firmware to give it an update.

This thing just works.

MacPro3,1 macOS 10.14.4 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

This is a passable combination.

My complaint is the graphics is lacking or lagging in some cases.  I am not talking about editing 4K or any video editing at all.  I am talking about typing an URL at the address bar on Chrome.  It's slow.  And when I hit eBay to do some dumpster diving or rummaging, the page can look a bit torn toward the bottom, I don't know if it's some sort of script there that causes it.  My mid 2012 MBP doesn't exhibit these problems at all.  I understand this hack to put Mojave on unsupported Mac hardware has some graphics shortcoming, like dark mode or some sort doesn't play well.

I don't know if it's also because of the 256MB VRAM that's causing the general sluggishness.  This is the stock GPU that originally came with the MacPro3,1 or early 2008 machine.

The most popular GPU upgrade for this kind of Frankensteinish upgrade is the GTX 680 which still commands a some what high price on eBay "even" higher than the similar GTX 770 which supposedly is a marginally higher performance card.  But then again the GTX 680 is said to have a more consistent design across manufacturers making it more flash-able, which is what cheapskates do: buying PC GPU and flashing it to Mac using some ROM or firmware.  GTX 680 is considered very flashable whereas not so much for the GTX 770, unless you are some wizard.

GT630 has a 2GB version and I don't know if it would perform better.  It should be a simple install.
GTX680 or GTX770, more powerful GPUs for sure but you pay a higher price and you need to buy additional power cables to run from the MacPro motherboard to the card.

These cards designed for Windows will boot on a Mac but will not display the Apple boot up screen as they don't have the Mac firmware unless you flash the ROM to make them Mac if they're flashable at all.

MacOS 10.14.4 on MacPro3,1

I need to install this thing on my old machine again, almost from scratch but not quite.

I am not sure if it's worth the effort, not that I have something else better to do, but still.

The graphics card I have only has 256MB of RAM and it shows.  I need to upgrade that if possible.  There is an overwhelming amount of information out there regarding this but for the most part they are pretty confusing especially for somebody who isn't savvy enough.  I can hardly find information that can elucidate the issue somewhat.

Mojave or MacOS 14:
MacPro3,1 is not officially supported but with the right hack from dosdude1.com, it's doable
nVidia is the card that doesn't give problem
The equivalent GPU PC version card may work

I don't need any fancy 4K support, my display is only 2560x1080

Swollen Battery Apple A1382

The sign of a swollen battery was I couldn't press down the touchpad like I could before.  I have been using a separate keyboard and a touchpad for quite some time so I didn't notice that until I used the built-in touchpad.  I almost forgot if it's supposed to be that way.

An online search on the touchpad anomaly returns me the result that it may be caused by a swollen battery.  And as it turned out it was really the battery.

I removed the battery and the touchpad worked just like before.

I could work without the internal battery but anytime if the power cable knocked loose, the system will just shut down.

I went to the usual source like macsales but the third party battery is asking for almost $100.  I even went so far as to chat with them in order to get a discount coupon code.  Alas there was none for me.

After much deliberation, I ended up ordering from eBay.

The battery came as real as it can be except the serial number on the sticker doesn't match what's reported by the MacOS.  Battery health is Normal and has 2 cycle counts.  The manufacturer reported is SMP, same as the original battery that came with the MBP.

macsales still have video suggesting to calibrate the battery or the power management system of the MacBook ... On the other hand, there seems some consensus that the Li-ion battery doesn't need that or draining it to zero percent does harm to the battery actually.  I am a bit confused.  So I didn't do that calibration at least not intentionally.

The original battery is supposed to last for seven hours on a full charge.  It seems like the battery depletes on a linear fashion up to when it's 30% then before I knew it it dropped to 7% which stays there for more than 30 minutes and still going unchanged ...  I guess I am waiting for the system to shut down itself.  It's about 5 hours now.  I don't think it lasts 7 hours but definitely more than 5 hours and it's still going at 7%.  Maybe that's why it needs calibration, not so much on the battery but for the system PMS to know the battery better so it can accurately report the battery power as it depletes?  I really don't know.

100% Battery power began at 8:06 AM
7% at 1:34PM (It has been 7% for a long time)
7% at 1:51PM
2% at 2PM, also message to plug in
shutdown at 2:10PM
so it's 6 hours.

UPDATE: 4/6/2019
The replacement battery seems performing just fine.  So I am happy I didn't buy the more expensive one, most of the time the MBP is powered with an A/C adapter anyway.  Plus this is an old machine I don't want to invest more than I need or afford.  In a year or two I hope I can afford a better machine down the road.

Apple notebook butterfly keyboard debacle

This has been pretty much well documented.  From 2016 till 2018, the butterfly keyboard has nothing but trouble.  The latest being a Wall Street journalist did a piece on the keyboard and Apple acknowledged that there is a small number of keyboards that exhibit problems.

I was burned once by an iBook screen many years ago.  After that it took me like maybe a decade or so to buy another laptop from Apple.

Can you imagine people, well I can, or can I imagine myself spending $2,000 or $1,000 to buy a MacBook and ends up having problems with the keyboard all the time?  The keyboard is the major interface between the machine and the user, how can you screw it up?

Nobody ever asked for a new keyboard design.  Apple, come on, do better.  Fix that keyboard once and for all.