It strikes me that the resolution statistic nowadays is somewhat analogous to the way CPU speeds were talked about back in the 80's and 90's, when microcomputers were taking off. I'm sure many recall how manufactures touted their newer faster CPUs (10MHz! 50Mhz!!) as a way to attract new buyers.

However, once CPUs hit a certain speed - let's just say 1GHz (though in truth a lot less) and it turned out no matter how fast one types the CPU spent 90%+ of its cycles waiting for your next keystroke, that this metric became somewhat pointless. Of course, in the case of computer CPUs, with software demanding ever more cycles the speed war is still on, and does make some sense.

But for sensors, if one were to realize that, say, 24MP is more than adequate for 99+% of issues, the ever-higher resolutions of imaging chips becomes just a number without any real meaning - other than requiring additional storage capaciy to keep all those award winning photos of course.

First, Einstein, DEI is not about race - it's about filling positions with less capable people who check whatever the box du jour is.

Second, seems as though there has been quite an uptick in incidents of late, dontcha' think? Or, dontcha'? Now I know correlation does not mean causation, but it does bring up the concept.

Agreed, and that makes one wonder if it was a DEI hire who screwed the pooch.

"humble"? Somehow I don't think you know the meaning of that word, sir.

I am not trying to raise money - I have nothing to do with the product, nor do I plan to attempt to get one. But as a piece of photo gear with a brand name many recognize, I thought it might be of general interest to some on this forum.

Well, pardon me all to pieces for offending your sensibilities - as this is neither a resource nor a link to some techniques, but rather an attempt at creating an entirely new camera using a once respected brand name (Yashica), and given the proclivity of so many members evidently liking to opine on such things, it seemed general discussion was more appropriate.

I am not a fan of this camera and have no intent on "investing", but I imagine at least a few of the members will find in intersting or amusing or pathetic or whatever. So it's a stab at opening horizons, i guess you could say.

Here is the Kickstarter page describing it

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samellos/micro-mirrorless-yashica-im-back?ref=vnu6pg&mc_cid=ad9c2dbe1b&mc_eid=da81c7cd6b

I do not see any technical specifications, but if an 8.6 MM lens is "normal" I am going to guess it uses a cell phone's camera chip.

Well, let the fun begin - looking ofrward to endless pages of debate and pontificating on this new device looking for some crowd funding

Against my better judgement, I will offer some thoughts:

First, the notion of shooting in raw format (no need to capitalize that - it is not an acronym) is a good one - this will afford you a much greater latitude in post processing.

Second, know that a huge difference between digital and wet works photography is the need to keep track of what can easily turn into hundreds, thousands or more digital images. So while there are a gaggle of post processing programs out here that enable all kinds of miraculous stuff, you really should consider how you want to organize the images as well as create a "workflow" that delineates the steps you take once you copy the images from the camera(s) to your computer.
You may want to rename the files, because when you have 4000 files that all start with "DCS-" or whatever it can be a daunting task to find the shots of Aunt Sally or Fiji or whatever. This can be done with various utilities, and Lightroom Classic (no doubt others) offer this function as well.
Part of being able to retrieve given image files without papal dispensation will also involve what kind of folder setup you want to create. Some folks create a folder for each year, and within that folders for each month. Others like to create folders for events ("Australia cruise", "Aunt Sally's 90th", etc.) As with renaming - there is no one God given answer - everyone has their preferences - but if you start out doing something that makes sense to you in the beginning it can save a lot of heartache and time a few years down the line.
And while you should already be making backups of your computer regularly, they may become more important when you start storing what might be important (to you at least) images on it. Again, various folks will no doubt be happy to regale you with why their preferred system is best, but my point here is to get you to cogitate on the concept.

On a not-quite-tangential note - that thing about being able to retrieve photos long after they were taken can be dealt with quite nicely with metadata like "keywords". Lightroom has (and again, perhaps DxO ProLab, OnOne, and others do as well) has some powerful keywording capabilities - including facial recognition. So once I have confirmed (or taught it) that this and that and that other photo contains Aunt Sally's face, I can at any time create a virtual folder containing all the photos with her in them regardless of what year or sub-sub folder or whatever I might have stored them in. Again, my goal is to acquaint you with the concept, and not sell you on a particular program.

As you might glean, digital brings with it a whole flotilla of new challenges - all of which can be dealt with but step one is recognizing they are there.

I hope that helps, at least a little.

On the iPhone (though this might depend on your carrier) - go into Settings-->Phone-->and scroll down a bit until you find "Silence Unknown Callers" - tap that and turn the function On.

Note that what this does is cause the phone not to ring at all if a call comes in from a number not already in your contacts list - including Aunt Sally if she has a new number. So the vast majority of spam calls don't even ring. However, callers (including Aunt Sally) can still leave a message.

One warning - I discovered I need to turn off this feature when I place a call to an office or business and the automated system will call me back - because inevitably the number they call from is t=not the one I called to reach them.

note SIlence Unknown Callers is just below "Live Voicemail"

Now that's a nice shot! Question - did you remove the 16 stop ND filter since the sun was totally coveres, or was this taken with the ND filter in place?

Whichever lens for which you have the proper sized 17 stop ND filter will do.

I too am a big fan of B&H, but to answer the actual question you actually asked:

It might be a question of logistics and efficiency in the warehouse (of which B&H has more than one). That is, while to you or me it might seem like overkill to wrap a couple of memory cards in a shoebox sized package, for the sake of efficiency in handling the warehouse in question might only carry a few sizes of packaging and as it happened, for your order that box was the smallest (or perhaps they were just out of padded envelopes and would not delay your shipment).

Perhaps you would consider using a monopod? I carry my heavy lens/camera clamped to my monopod which I just carry on my shoulder. It is also more than enough to keep the rig stable when I amm holding for the right moment to shoot. Just a thought.

Seems to me nowadays it is more PC to blame Boeing (which obviously cannot be responsible for wheels falling off or pilots driving off the tarmac) instead of perhaps looking at the vaunted DEI hiring practices, where inferior workers are hired when they check the appropriate boxes.

Did nobody see the story about Tyler Perry deciding to hold off on a $900 million investment in expanding his studio in Atlanta after seeing Sora - that happened about 2 weeks ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/23/tyler-perry-halts-800m-studio-expansion-after-being-shocked-by-ai