Lexar was owned by Micron and is no longer in the SD business. Samsung is still a major supplier of memory chips. I'm not sure if Toshiba is still in the business. I've not heard that they have left the business so perhaps they are. I was never aware of SanDisk manufacturing their own chips. If they do, this is news to me.

Can't buy any better glass than the L Series lenses that he says he's using.

I did limited research on the reliability of SD cards and I was surprised at the numbers. Most distributors claim the MTBF of >3,000,000 hours. What that means is that on average there will be one failure every 3,000,000 hours. That probably explains why I've never had an SD card failure. I've always wondered about the obsession of having two cards in a camera for backup when in reality, the SD card is the most reliable component in the chain of possible camera failures. It is my firm belief that the principal cause of SD failure is mishandling. The contacts are exposed and it's very easy to grab the SD card by its contacts. This may result in static electricity being introduced to the card. Static electricity is the number one killer of electronic components. Furthermore, there are a limited number of actual chip manufacturers. Samsung is one of those and until recently, Micron in Idaho. Micron has gotten out of the chip business. The various names seen on SD cards are resellers that buy their chips from the chip manufacturer then have them packaged with their name on the SD card. Resellers such as SanDisk and others are not in the chip manufacturing business. They only package chips and it's not likely they actually do this themselves. They most likely go to a packaging house that packages for other resellers as well. I hope that I have not confused the UHH community.

I live in southern California and I buy them at one of our many local produce stands that are adjacent to the fields.

And Adobe Bridge is a free download.

I hope nobody thinks that I'm trying to hijack this post but I'm posting an image of my own of strawberries. My objective is to test the theory that thumbnails will show colors differently that downloading the original. Any feedback is appreciated.

(Download)

Year's ago I saw crystals photographed using cross-polarized light. This required the use of two linear polarizers and incandescent lamps as a light source. One of the linear polarizers was a sheet polarizer and it was placed between the lamp and crystals. The second linear polarizer was placed on the camera lens and rotated to be 90 degrees to the polarizer on the lamp. This produced an effect where the crystals were brilliantly lit while making the background go completely dark (almost black). It made the crystals t appear as though they were floating above the background. This technique may work on gems as well. I attempted to do some research on this subject but with what limited time I had to devote to the search, I didn't come up with any concrete information. If you decide to try this technique, you may want to consider using LED lights instead of the incandescent lamps since they will run much cooler. I wish I could provide you with more information.

Try this site:

https://letsenhance.io/

#3 is particularly stunning. I would be proud to showcase that image on my wall.

I assume that the 18-135mm is the IS STM lens. If that is the case, I will highly recommend it since it makes a terrific walk around lens. Some people might opine that it is too short on the long end but it works for me.

Thanks for the explanation.

Welheim,

I'm not sure I understand your response to my original comment. I stated that many European counties have mandatory v****g and are subject to stiff fines if they don't participate. I don't know how your response to my post applies. I'm not criticizing, I'm just looking for clarification.

I use the Canon 18-135mm IS STM as my walk around lens. A lot of people like the Tamron 18-400mm lens. Don't know how the two compare optically but I do like the Canon lens.

If you're willing to accept the limitations of a catadioptric (mirror) lens, you can easily find one for several hundred dollars or less. You will be stuck with a single focal length, manual focusing, and a fixed aperture.

In many European countries, v****g is mandatory and non-v**ers are subject to stiff fines. Perhaps........