Posts for: Desert Gecko
Aug 23, 2023 19:34:54 #
Longshadow wrote:
Shakespeare warned about believing things on the internet.....
I think it was Abe Lincoln who said that.
Aug 23, 2023 19:20:48 #
bcheary wrote:
Going the e-mail rounds! br img src="https://s... (show quote)
All are clever and good. #2 reminds me that the word queue is just the letter q followed by four silent letters.
Aug 23, 2023 17:23:15 #
W7MEV wrote:
I attempted to use my ZWO ASI178MC camera with its... (show quote)
My non-technical advice is to try the Lyrids in April. I've shot both the Perseids and the Lyrids several times, and I've always caught far more meteors during the Lyrids. Brighter ones, too.
My tech advice is to shoot with a narrower view. With a fisheye, you'll notice only the brightest of the bright meteors. Also, you might not notice any in a RAW file, so rough batch-processing your shots to brighten them will help you when you scan them for meteors.
As I've sat watching the stars and daydreaming while letting my camera snap pic after ~20-second pic, I sometimes made note of any meteors I saw, jotting down the approximate time to make sure I wouldn't overlook them later when looking through hundreds of images.
And finally, shooting meteors is like fishing. You should've seen the one that got away. I'll never forget the intensely bright flash above me while I was setting up one night. Had I been just five minutes earlier...
I'll attach the only meteor image I have handy, one of my favorites I caught near dawn on a bad night. The sky was on-and-off overcast, but I let my camera keep shooting since I was already out there and set up. A break in the clouds caught a bright Lyrid on the right and with the Milky Way's core on the left. Notice it's streaking upward, as they do shortly before dawn.
Aug 23, 2023 15:25:34 #
johnpolizzi wrote:
I shot a video with my Sony A77mk2 in format AVCHD.I have windows 10 and Lightroom Classic. My stills load, but the video clip does not. How do I get my laptop & Lightroom to recognize the format? Anyone know about this proble? Thanks.
Timely. I used to make minor video edits in Lightroom but hadn't done it for a few years. Last week I tried to import a video just to trim a tad off the end and got an error from Lightroom telling me it doesn't support video editing.
I ended up using a free online editor. And the version of Lightroom was Classic.
Aug 23, 2023 15:20:27 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Tony showed pictures of the upcoming Nikon ZF last night - pictures from Nikon Rumors. He thought it was a big mistake for Nikon to be offering it in black and only black. This was designed to be a retro camera, so it should be available in silver. Maybe that will happen. After all, it's not like they would have to change the mechanics or electronics to offer it in silver. I might buy a silver one, but I certainly wouldn't buy a black one.
I'd never admit that Phony Tony and I agreed on anything, much less announce it to the world.
Aug 21, 2023 11:51:38 #
AzPicLady wrote:
Good to know. In the description they didn't mention "event driven" or "motion detection," but only constant and that a card would last about 2 days (obviously continual).
If this was about Wyze Cams, I get about six days of continuous recording with a 64GB card, sometimes less and sometimes more. I think it has to do with how dynamic the scenes are.
Wyze Cams v2 and v3 say they'll accept a maximum 32GB card, but if you format a 64GB in FAT32, it works just fine. That's what I do, using a third-party app to format in FAT32 instead of exFAT (I've ordered and am awaiting the arrival of a 128GB micro-SD card to see if I can go larger).
Event recording is an option with Wyze's cloud service, but I've read that this is -- and is not -- an option for internal recording. I've not tried it because I don't need it.
Wyze does have a solar-powered option, and the later models have weatherproofing. And because they're powered with a USB-micro connection, you can even power them with a portable charger (power bank), although I'm not sure how long they'll run on, say, a 20,000mAh power bank.
What I do know is Wyze Cam v3 sensors are the best in the industry, IMHO. The color night-vision is outstanding.
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The way I see it, a solar-powered and hidden recording device would work if you have someone around who would be able to swap the memory card after an incident. He'd have around six days to notice. The card can be downloaded to a computer and the files uploaded to cloud storage for you to retrieve and view. Wyze cams record in a continuous string of one-minute chunks that play seamlessly with any PC video player.
Another option is to turn on the electricity and use whatever security camera you want, and you can then even add an internet provider and Wi-Fi. With my Wyze cams, which are connected to my router, I can view my house from anywhere, anytime, using a simple mobile app.
Aug 21, 2023 11:14:54 #
welshgypsy wrote:
Looking to buy a new camera, can't decide between ... (show quote)
Hard to beat the Sony RX10iv, but it might be a bit above your price limit. Perhaps a used one.
Aug 20, 2023 13:41:16 #
jerryc41 wrote:
You can recover files on a disc after formatting it. I didn't know this was possible, but I'm not going to try it.
Get Wondershare Recoverit. Now I see what I never tried it. It costs $99 a year.
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/data-recovery-win.html
Get Wondershare Recoverit. Now I see what I never tried it. It costs $99 a year.
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/data-recovery-win.html
Experts can go back several formats even if everything has been overwritten. That's why we have bleach bit, and politicians destroying devices.
Aug 20, 2023 13:38:39 #
Dannj wrote:
This lifeguard was shooting a drill her colleagues were running and I wanted to ask her about her equipment but she didn’t have time to chat. Any comments?
Nice, although I generally prefer a woman with larger flotation devices.
Aug 20, 2023 13:34:17 #
Scruples wrote:
Now, this is a strange thought. Perhaps you are in... (show quote)
Such a response is a cultural thing. I usually say "salud" (Spanish for health, not just a toast), but I'm a fluent-Spanish white boy living in the southwest with tons of Latinos. To my kids, I sometimes say, "Covid sneeze?"
I've lived in Japan, where nothing is said after someone sneezes -- and no one complains. There, culturally, a sneeze is ignored to spare the sneezer any embarrassment.
Aug 20, 2023 13:01:45 #
TriX wrote:
Be sure to run it as administrator (type in “command prompt”, right click and choose “run as administrator”) and get the syntax (including spaces) exactly right. Once in diskpart, I would use the clean and convert mbr commands.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/diskpart
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/diskpart
Bingo! Now I remember. This is exactly what I did when I faced this problem: first clean then convert (after list and select). It's exceedingly easy, Jerry, so easy that even you can't mess it up. Well, unless your naughty gremlins pay a visit.
I should have expected that TriX would have the answer.
Aug 19, 2023 14:45:52 #
jerryc41 wrote:
I thought I'd do something with this WD RED 8TB drive, so I put it into an external case, and below is what I got. It's "Disk 1" that's the problem. I tried two different cases and two different computers. When I right-click on it, the only option is "Help," and that's not much help. When I click on This PC, it doesn't show up at all. For an 8TB drive, it's showing a lot of GB available. Using Diskpart, it shows 7452 GB available. Any ideas?
I had this happen once on a drive I moved from one PC to a new build. Thought I'd just move the drive and all its data, and since I always have at least two boot drives on any build, there's a chance my offending drive was a boot drive with the MBR -- I just don't remember (but that might easily explain it).
Micro$oft, in all its infinite wisdom, wouldn't allow me to move the drive to a new build. Yeah, the GPT protective partition error. Seems Win10 -- and perhaps earlier versions -- "protects" us from ourselves by not allowing us to move our data by simply moving a drive to a different machine.
Do you have wanted data on the drive? Do you have access to the machine you previously used the drive on? I don't remember what I did to resolve my issue, but resolve it I did -- so I know it can be done. Seems I ultimately put the drive back in the old machine and did something in Disk Management, but I'm not sure. This was a few years ago.
Google might be your friend here.
Aug 16, 2023 16:21:27 #
Basil wrote:
Yes, and that's what I do now. I just thought using a mask "might" make the process easier and more precise.
Aug 16, 2023 15:33:42 #
Basil wrote:
Yep, R5 is what I use. It's not my only camera but it's my only Interchangeable lens camera (not counting my old T-70 film camera). I used to use my old Canon R6 for Astro and it was very good for that. I went and bought a rear screen magnification loop to assist with focus, which does help some. I rock back and forth too when trying to nail focus, but it seemed that the mask might make it easier. Never tried focus peaking - I'll have to try that next time.
Doesn't the R5 have built-in focus magnification? It's quite strong on Sonys. As an alternative, you can focus, take a shot, and then review it with magnification. I'm not against using a loupe; I have one, too. But I thought I'd use it more than I do. For me, built-in magnification is easier and usually good enough.
Aug 16, 2023 11:32:50 #
Basil wrote:
That's how I do it now but never feel sure how good I have the focus.
I too thought of the SharpStar2 when I read your initial post. But I must confess to never having used it despite reading very good things about it not just on Lonely Speck, but elsewhere. I should add that there are alternatives, as well. I've seen them on Amazon, if memory serves.
I see you have a Canon R5. Is that what you use for astro? I shoot with Sony, and I take advantage of mirrorless capabilities. "Live view" is inherent, so there's that. I use focus magnification and pick a bright star (or better, a planet) to focus on -- even if it won't be in my composition. And I use focus peaking. Finally, I rock focus back and forth, narrowing until it's spot-on. A star not in focus will be larger and softer, while in focus it'll be smaller and more of a pinpoint. Faint stars can disappear completely when not in focus.
I know, I could avoid all this with a mask. Maybe I'll finally get one.