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Dec 31, 2023 10:09:23   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Tipping etiquette for photo workshop leaders
DavidPine wrote:
You don't tip the instructor. If you have talent you should tip them because they are usually not paid.


======================

Dave.......

You said: "Because they are usually not paid." .......

I would "guess" that is an assumption... and you know what that does...

Before you "Tip" on an assumption... Ask, and be knowledgable


Just saying

Cheers
GoldStar46
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Dec 31, 2023 10:04:18   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Tipping etiquette for photo workshop leaders
Real Nikon Lover wrote:

........... The drink packages use to be inclusive now they are stifling.,,,


==========================================

Real Nikon Lover...

You said: The drink packages used to be inclusive now they are stifling....

You are "correct" to a great degree, but in history, alcoholic drinks, as a general rule, have usually been a 'paid-for item'....... I am currently 77 and cruised since I was 15 YOA...

Me, Personally, I have "no problem" with an add-on TIP for something 'delivered' to me by a server...

What I have a problem with is the fact the cruise company adds $ 16/day per person, for each and every guest... as a "NON-Specific" dollar amount to your room charge and labels it "Crew Appreciation" with absolutely NO details as to WHO the Crew is... What the amount to each Crew is... and if.. In Fact, the crew actually gets the dollar amount.....

We, my wife and I, just did a 67-day cruise in the Baltic, and around into the Mediterranean Sea... Our Total dollar amount for "Crew Appreciation" was going to be about $2,150 bucks... and then... You felt 'guilty' if you did not leave a 'little something extra' for certain employees...... Just saying...

Sooooo, As a long-time cruiser on this specific company, I went to the front desk, and told them to 'take the charges off...' I told the staff, and wrote on my 'waiver form'.. that I was going to "handle crew appreciation' on a case-by-case basis' and I would pick and choose to whom I gave my money to, and I would choose how much I would give them......

That "Worked" and the staff never disagreed with me... They just had me 'sign the waiver' form.

In fact... I explained to one of the staff members, "I have already paid for my cruise" and I have "No written and/or contractual obligation to pay anymore"...... "Crew Appreciation" was not in my 'purchased agreement'

We, my wife, and I have sailed over 500 nights in the last 7 years with this one company and, in fact, I actually own stock in this company...... and that is the way it works for us.


IMHO.

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Dec 31, 2023 08:16:45   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Tipping etiquette for photo workshop leaders
IzzyKap wrote:
I noticed that some photo workshops suggest specific tipping for their leaders while others don’t mention it. What is a general etiquette regarding tipping? Thank you.


======

Izzy and others here...

The history of "Tipping" is below...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratuity#:~:text=The%20practice%20of%20tipping%20began,for%20having%20performed%20superbly%20well.


In the above... It says.. "The practice of tipping began in Tudor England.[14] In medieval times, tipping was a master-serf custom wherein a servant would receive extra money for having performed superbly well
....

Tipping historically is NOT part of a"Salary"

Tipping is something "Extra" ..
...... for "performance" beyond "normal duties"

Tipping is a "Voluntary Act" of the consumer

Tipping should. NOT.. be "Expected"
.... AND, should NOT be a "Mandatory" requirement

LASTLY-- there is no "Magical Formula"
..... and should be determined by the giver, not some arbitrary input formula

Tipping has translated in America to a mandatory act, in Europe. It is unexpected to receive a tip. I have traveled the world extensively, and what I have said is a fact.

In America, it has become a way of life for the business to supplement the salary and wages of an employee when the business owner is not willing to pay the employee the correct amount and include it in the cost of the product...

In addition to the above, in America, it has also become a "Manipulation principle".. by employees who want to increase their salary above what is expected from their employer...

In closing
... T.I.P.S. should mean " To Insure Prompt Service "
..... Tipping is "Purely Discretionary" ...

I.M.H.O. --- That is my 2¢ for what it is worth......

Cheers 🍻 👏 & Happy New Year
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Dec 24, 2023 08:55:31   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Photographing Gem Stones with Focus Stacking
Robertl594 wrote:
Yes, my Z9 has built in focus stacking. I prefer my stack shot as I can better control the distance between shots much better.


===========

I would "respectfully" disagree and much, much more laborious...
.. but if it works for you, and you have that much time on your hand... Enjoy

Geo.
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Dec 24, 2023 07:29:37   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Photographing Gem Stones with Focus Stacking
Robertl594 wrote:
I was asked by a photographer friend to photograph some gems stones. Been working diligently at it, trying to get good photos. I have been focus stacking them up to 450 images. Biggest challenge is holding the stones so the holder does not show up or change the lighting. My last iteration is getting closer to satisfactory, but not quite there yet. Here is what I have done and photos.
I have built various different holders and light diffusion methods. I took a lucite box which sits on top of a mirror to reflect light up, made a vellum cover with cut outs that would allow the stones to sit in the holes. Then illuminated them with 3 StellaPro Reflex lights (love those!) and other lights.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Thank you and happy holidays.
I was asked by a photographer friend to photograph... (show quote)


=======

Robertl594

Your operation is way overcomplicated

Consider looking at a few YouTube videos about how to do "image stacking" using the Canon R5 and it's automated function for that feature... then rent the camera for a short period of time to do the work.

You can reduce all of that to less than an hour's worth of work with the Canon R5.

PS... Yes, other brands have "focus stacking" built into them also..

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Dec 14, 2023 09:15:17   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Purging LRC catalog and hard drives of unwanted photos
bzh1949 wrote:
Quickest and easiest way to clean up MAC of duplicate and unwanted or unneeded photos.

Please- My Mac is a mess.

==========================================

Quickest...

My I suggest that you consider & review a program known as: Duplicate Cleaner Pro. (See below)

https://www.duplicatecleaner.com/

Several Cautions up front:
1) This works 'outside' of the Lightroom Classic Catalog, so 'any changes' will impact the LRCAT file
......This would be or will be true of any outside program which you use
...... And, when I do use this, I know the above and then just Synchronize the at the most top-level folder of my LR Catalog after any changes, and this will delete LRCAT information which relates to deleted images...

2) This is a 'very powerful' piece of software, so... "Caution Ghost Rider"
....... Be sure you 'know' how this program is working and exactly what it does before you 'delete'

3) It does offer an option to 'copy' and 'tag' files so that you can delete, or copy over to an isolated location which will give you a 'safehave' for a while before you do a 'delete'...


I am currently doing the same as you, and I am working on a collection of over 12 years, and pulling together images from over 8-10 different hard drives, with maybe over 600K of images when all is said and done. But, my long-range goal is to have everything in three locations... 1) Historical RAW files, 2) More recent RAW files, and then a separate location (hard drive) for NON-RAW images...

To that end, for the above, I have an 18TB HD for history RAW, a 4TB HD for Recent RAW works, and a 4TB for non-Raw which would be 'produced' products from RAW images. BTW... The above drives on my local computer will be 'labeled' as Drive H:, I: & J:... for "History", "Interim" and "JPG".. as I am working /// ha ha ha

FYI: For those other than the O.P. reading this response... yes, two drives and two LRCAT, and here is why... My Desktop system is designed for production... with the C: drive and the I: drive being very fast M.2 SSD Drives... for current working conditions... and the "Interim" drive will have the last 3,4, or so years of images which will be quickly available... The H: drive is an internal IDE drive for historical data... with years 'older' than what is located on the "I:" drive... Yes, it works for me... Others may want something else and that is "OK".

Note...... I am intentionally keeping 'all photo images' on drives other than the C: as another layer of insurance... with only EXE programs on the C: drive, should there be a 'failure' of the operating system... my data is completely separate... and backed up in two locations... the NAS and the Cloud.


All of the above will then live on a 'second location' for an additional backup location, which is a 25TB QNAP NAS...which is in my closet of my office and 4 ft from my desk... And, if that was not enough, I have all of the above then backed up into the cloud with an account known as "Backblaze"... which offers 'unlimited' storage for like $7/month... (cheap insurance)

One other suggestion I would offer for your review is a software (freeware) known as: WinDirStat (See Below)

https://windirstat.net/

Again........ The above is a very powerful 'substitution' for the Windows File Explorer and I would highly suggest caution in its use and be sure you are comfortable when you actually 'commit' a deletion...

Hope some of the above will be of interest and can help......

Please let me know.......

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Dec 3, 2023 05:47:11   #
(General Chit-Chat (non-photography talk))
Why is Windows 11 so bad?
jlg1000 wrote:
After a heavy computer crash, which I traced back to a motherboard failure, I decided to upgrade my main computer.

So I purchased a brand new i9-13900K CPU, a good Gigabyte B760 motherboard, a couple of 2TG SSD's, a couple of 40TB HDD's , a 4090 GPU, 128 GB DDR5 RAM and 1 KW PSU for good measure.

Because of the amount of purchase, my supplier tossed in a Windows 11 license for free.

Reluctant, after building my system and playing around with that pesky Windows 11 sticker, I decided to give it a try.

What a rubbish!

Bad, really bad user interface if you need many programs for work. No way to organize, change, customize, no nothing. I had to purchase "Start11" ap to make it almost as usable as Windows 10.

It does nasty things to the files. Without asking: for example: I copied all my photos and videos to the E: drive (the 40 TB's HDD's configured as RAID) ... the next morning I had a "no sapce left on drive" error on the C: drive. What had happened? Windows decided that photos should be backed up in OneDrive, so it moved everything to C:\Users \<my_user>\Onedrive\Pictures **without asking **

As I tried to move them back, Windows 11 refused with a stupid error message stating that it was an amovible linkl included. ** I HAD TO MANUALLY SHUT DOWN ONE DRIVE, AND PERFORM A REGISTRY TRICK TO BRING ALL THE FILES BACK TO WHERE THEY BELONG**

After that, Windows complained that there was a Backup error, every time I accessed the folder. So I killed OneDrive altogether and deleted it from disk (after another PoweShell+Registry hack)

Windows 11 came with Copilot installed and activated (It's a MS rebranding of ChatGPT ), so I asked this question to the bot: "Why is Windows 11 so bad?"

And this was it sincere answer:

Windows 11 is the latest operating system from Microsoft, released on October 5, 2021. It has been praised for its clean design and improved performance, but it has also received a lot of criticism from users who are unhappy with some of its features and limitations. Some of the reasons why Windows 11 is so bad are:

High hardware requirements: Windows 11 demands some minimum hardware requirements that many current computers do not meet, such as a 64-bit processor with at least two cores and 1 GHz of frequency, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage space, a graphics card compatible with DirectX 12 and a TPM 2.0 security module. These requirements exclude many old or low-end devices that work perfectly with Windows 10, and force users to buy a new PC or stick with the previous system12.
Performance and compatibility issues: Windows 11 has arrived with several bugs and errors that affect the performance and compatibility of the devices that install it. For example, a performance loss has been detected in AMD Ryzen processors, which is due to a problem with the power plan of Windows 112. There have also been problems with printers, which stop working or give errors when printing2. In addition, some applications and games do not work properly or simply do not run on Windows 11, such as some Android emulators3.
Changes in the interface and functions: Windows 11 has introduced some changes in the interface and functions that nobody asked for and that make the user experience worse. For example, the taskbar is less customizable and functional, the context menus are inconsistent and cluttered, the default apps settings are complicated and tedious, and the Microsoft account is mandatory to use the system124.
These are some of the main complaints that users have about Windows 11. However, there may be more issues that have not been discovered or reported yet. Windows 11 is still a new and unfinished system, and it may improve over time with updates and fixes. However, for now, many users prefer to stay with Windows 10 or look for alternatives.

*** BOTTOM LINE ***

For or those folks which are asking about upgrading to Windows 11, ** DO NOT DARE TO **

Beware, I found many more problems as the one described above.

End of the experiment. I'll be throwing Windows 11 away... together with Windows 95, Vista and Windows 8.

All in all I'm a Linux sysadmin and developer, I don't need to go through this s**t.
After a heavy computer crash, which I traced back ... (show quote)


====================================================================

Dear JLG-1000

I just recently bought a new DELL Precision 3571, with 64 RAM, and Intel Core i7 12th Gen....... for the sole purpose of using it only when I travel... Also has a Cellular Moden w/ T-moble with 5G, and 2 M.2 SSDs.....

Now, when I bought the machine from DELL via their Corp. Rep who worked with me as a PPA member (with a discount) ... I made sure it had only Windows 10 on it for that very purpose... My thought is... If it ain't broken, there is no need to 'fix it' by getting the new Windows 11..

In my research... I found that Windows 10 will be formally supported until Oct of 2025
......... Good enough for me...

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Nov 25, 2023 16:05:28   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Upgrading my Computer
Jack 13088 wrote:
If you are serious about configuring a workstation these guys are top notch. The data they provide is program specific which cuts through the generalizations that often “sell” a brand. On the other hand this assumes you are willing and able to roll your own configuration. Since for 43 years before retirement I enjoyed a fine living mostly configuring systems in defense of our country (and allies) I eat this stuff up. I have been retired almost 17 years and absolutely out of touch with the state of the art (which takes maybe six months).

I worked with them to configure and build my current machine two years ago. They are more pricey than assembling as DIY but they have an engineering and manufacturing capability I cannot reproduce. For example their parts selection includes collecting actual failure data and. they have measured cooling designs. They actually take thermal photographs of your machine and provide them in a multipage data package. That sort of thing impresses me. I chose to drop $5K on a computer I wanted but didn’t need more that a camera I don’t need. Oh, I should add the resultant computer really performs and is virtually silent except when the fans in the GPU fire up.

However, they don’t do Apple nor laptops because Macs are not an open system and don’t play in this market and laptops just can’t compete performance wise.
If you are serious about configuring a workstation... (show quote)


=========================================



Fully Agree......... but, I chose to build my own after learning soooooo much from them

My current machine is an Asrock Z370 Gaming K6, board with Intel Core i7, 64 Gigs Ram, and in hard drives..... I have two SSD, (one for OS Only) the second SSD of 'current photo' data... and then an 18TB, IDE drive with much older images.....

YES...... All of the above is backed up to a 'local NAS' and then also, to the Cloud

I learned a long time ago, that you cannot have toooooo much backup protection...



Cheers my friend

Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Nov 25, 2023 10:51:58   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Upgrading my Computer
GSP77 wrote:
I’m upgrading my 7 year old iMac to a newer model. I’m thinking that I will go the route of a MacBook Pro and an external monitor. I love having a large screen 24-27 inch. My biggest use for the computer is using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to edit my photos. I’m looking for the following information

1. Any advice on monitors to consider as an alternative to the Apple Studio Display

2. Any recommendations for processing power and ram to best use Adobe tools.


=====================================================

GSP --

Below is an article that you may wish to read...

TITLE: Hardware Recommendations for Adobe Lightroom Classic

....... The Puget System company specializes in 'needs' for Lightroom and they very freely 'share' their research with anyone who wishes to build their own computer.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/photo-editing-workstations/adobe-lightroom-classic/hardware-recommendations/

Let me know if this helps in any way...

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey

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Nov 15, 2023 06:55:08   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
In which country can you buy a Nikon or Canon or Sony for lower price than the USA?
BebuLamar wrote:
In which country where the camera prices are lowest? I've been to China, Vietnam, Germany, France, and none have better prices than in the USA. In Japan some models are priced lower but not by much.


=========
Bebu..

In response to your question, I can tell you that in the last 10 weeks my wife and I have been cruising the area of the Baltic, and Norway, Iceland, The Areas of Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and throughout this region....

As a current owner of 5 different models, see can on cameras switch off in the can. An ecosystem... I have never found a price. Anywhere is cheapest in the United States.

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Nov 2, 2023 05:45:38   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
I have to pay Nikon to get an answer to a problem
grandpaw wrote:
I have been shooting Nikon cameras since 1971 and have a question about my Nikon Z6ii camera and have been informed that I have to pay a fee to get an answer or any help. This is utterly ridiculous, un acceptable, and SORRY CUSTOMER SUPPORT!!!!! Very disappointed in Nikon.


============================================================

GrandPaw...

In your post, you wrote: "This is utterly ridiculous, unacceptable, and SORRY CUSTOMER SUPPORT!!!!!"

My question is...... "Are you a 'Bonified Customer'??? Is your question in relation to a recently purchased product and/or are you a 'Subscriber" to some "form of Service" that Nikon offers??

If this is the case... I can see your point for personal dissatisfaction -- BUT, if you have "NO Formal" relationship with Nikon, and are just a "passerby" of someone who has a XXX-year-old Nikon, what is the difference between you and others who ask "general question" in "open forum media" such as Facebook or maybe here...

If Nikon makes it a policy to answer any and/all questions for anybody who just wants to "drive by" and "pick their professional brain" and they have 'no relationship' they are actually adding to the burden of their overall company cost... without then consideration of "return" for their efforts of answering your question...

Example: Kind of like, just sticking your head in the door or a "car repair shop" and asking the question... can you tell me how to repair my XYZ car engine???

That is my humble 2¢ in the matter......

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey

Just saying....
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Sep 28, 2023 16:23:42   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Photo backup question
Hooman wrote:
Greetings Hedgehogers
I have about 40000 photos in several folders on my computer, what is the best way for back up? I want to keep them as same folder system.


===================================
Greetings Hooman...

May I offer your my current "system" for consideration...

I am currently traveling via cruise ship in the Med. and Aegean Sea. I shoot with Canon, R5, which has a "dual card system"...

My current configuration is a 1-TB CFexpress card for slot one, and a 128 or 256 GB SD for Card Slot #2... and I shoot "dual/duplicate" identical images parallel to both cards...

At the end of the day, I 'offload' my images from the SD card onto my "traveling laptop" which has a 1/2 TB C-Drive for OS Only and EXE programs... AND, data and lightroom images are transferred onto the D-Drive of my laptop which is a 2-TB SSD... BUT, I will never touch my CFexpress, and that "serves" as a "1-Step" back for "all images" as I travel... The CFexpress never gets "cleared" or "erased"...

NEXT....... as time and duty permits and/or at the end of each "editing session"... I use a backup software which is from by the name of "Free File Sync"... see the below URL

https://freefilesync.org/

This software will make a 1-for-1, "exact" copy of all designated files from by "D-Drive" and onto an attached External 4-TB "SSD" via a USB-C connection... Because I am using Gen4 SSD drives... the overall operation for this backup system is really quite fast, and never takes over 1,2, or 3 min for 500-1000 files for a backup session............. AND, the said backup system is an "exact" copy of the originals which are in my Lightroom catalog...

FYI: The SSD for the above can be found on Amazon at the below link... but many others will do
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C3CX2VZK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The SSD External Enclosure for the above is listed below and can also be bought on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RVC6F9Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

And.......... of Course... You don't have to use the 1-TB CFexpress like I did... but it is a good back when I travel...... btw... I actually have two of the 1-TB CFexpress and a total of 8 SDs either 128 and/or 256 when I travel... My current Cruis is a total of 10 weeks long, and I take that much just as a precaution...

Hope of the of above help......

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Sep 13, 2023 04:43:44   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Just a thought.
CHG_CANON wrote:
You're quite right, Canon is not seen as equal to Nikon, nor any other brand. Not by the market, not by the industry. Canon is seen as far, far superior, commanding 50% of the global market for more than 20 years, since the mid 1990s. As recently as 2022 numbers, 5 of every 10 cameras sold worldwide were Canon EOS technology, followed by just over 2 for Sony and 1 for Nikon.


=============

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Sep 13, 2023 04:06:33   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Use a "Real" Camera, Not a Phone
jerryc41 wrote:
Yes, controversial, but I saw these reasons online from Peta Pixel.

1. Handling is not very good on a phone, but a camera is easy to hold, and it has controls that let you make changes easily.
2. The view. The viewfinder of new, mirrorless cameras shows you how changes in settings will affect the final picture. The flip-screen lets you get up or down shots more easily than when using a phone.
3. The flash. Although new cameras seem to be omitting the pop-up flash, it is possible to add a flash unit to the camera. That flash can also be used off-camera to put the light at a different angle. The best you can do with a phone is a small, weak flash.
4. The lens. A modern cell phone might have three separate lenses, but the quality and control aren't as good as what's available for cameras.
5. DOF and bokeh are also lacking in phones, compared with cameras. Selecting a different lens or aperture changes the results you get in the image. That amount of control isn't available with a phone.
6. Movement. The cell phone camera likes to be held steady because it takes multiple shots when you push the button. It's also difficult to follow fast action with a phone, especially considering the multiple shots it takes each time.
7. Selfies. Using the phone for a selfie means using the phone's forward-facing camera, the one with the lowest quality.

The narrator concludes by saying that cell phones are great for quick, casual shots that are going to be shared online, but a real camera will generally give better results.

I've said here many times, that I don't like using a phone as a camera because of the steadiness required while holding the phone away from my body. Holding it steady while taping the button is tricky. I don't always know if the picture has actually been taken. I have to keep my fingers away from the lens. Yes, these are all shortcomings on my part, but they don't apply to a real camera.

I suspect that some of you might disagree with this entire post. That's okay.
Yes, controversial, but I saw these reasons online... (show quote)

=======

Agreed 👍 Jerry

... Cell phone photos are for Facebook.
.... Real camera are for important images.

IMHO

Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
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Sep 11, 2023 04:09:50   #
(Main Photography Discussion)
Why have not camera manufactures keep up with technology
OwlHarbor wrote:
I asked the question this evening, "Why do phones have more advanced technology than cameras" and part of the answer, "One reason why phones may have more advanced technology than commercial cameras is that phones have a larger and more diverse user base than cameras. According to a report by Statista1, there were about 5.22 billion unique mobile phone users in the world as of January 2021, compared to about 1.43 billion digital camera users in 2022. This means that phone manufacturers have more potential customers and more incentive to invest in research and development of new features and technologies for their devices"

Phones keep getting better and many are cheaper, the flagship phones continue to be the most expensive. I'm not getting rid of my Canon 90D and lenses but I'm very hesitant to change when really our newest cameras all brands are living in old technology compared to phones. In 1980 cell phones were a huge brick, with no text, no camera and they were dumb as a brick but they were a mobile phone. I read that the first shared cell phone pic was in 1997. Maybe the dates and info are off but the cameras we know and love/hate are falling behind and it doesn't appear that the big companies care or have a plan to meet the challenge. What are your thoughts?
I asked the question this evening, "Why do ph... (show quote)


==============$

Owl Harbor...

My response:
... Cell phone for, Facebook.
..... Real camera's for "Important Stuff"

I just recently purchased the Samsung Galaxy. Yes, 23 ultra for a long 10 week to Europe and I am amazed at the 50 mega camera....

... But, It can in no way compare to the 45 megapixel images I get from the Canon R5... Which I also carry on the same trip.


Cheers
Goldstar46
George Veazey
Xxx
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