Hi, Carol.

First, a word about terminology. The word "bale" with regard to cotton ordinarily refers to the end product of the ginning process, which essentially separates the seed from the fibers of the raw cotton. The "bale" contained the fiber compressed into a compact rectangular bale which was about 6'x4'x3'. In the "old days", the bale was wrapped on the ends and sides with burlap and secured by metal strapping, which produced the iconic appearance often seen in tiny souvenir bales sold in souvenir shops, etc. The average or standard weight of a "bale" was, and still is, about 480 lbs per bale. In today's modern gins, the burlap wrapping is no longer used; the bale is compressed into a volume about half the size of the old burlap bales, being perhaps 6'x4'x1.5'; it is secured by wire rather than straps, and enclosed in a plastic bag for warehouse storage until it can be shipped to a mill.

The seed is of secondary value to the fiber. When processed it yields an oil which can be used much like soybean oil. The hulls and other solids separated from the oil can be processed into livestock feed and perhaps other products.

The items shown in your pictures are referred to as "modules". They contain raw cotton (with the seed un-separated from the fiber) just as it comes from the field. The colorful round modules are the latest evolution in picking/harvesting technology. Roughly speaking, each round module can hold about 5000 to 6000 pounds of raw cotton, or enough to make 3.5 to 4 ginned bales. The wrapping is a plastic material, probably polyethylene. It can be purchased in various colors as seen in your pictures. It is very thin and several layers are used on each module to provide the protection desired. Happily, it is recyclable. It is sold in rolls on tubes similar to rolls of paper towels or waxed paper, etc and installed in place on the machine prior to beginning the picking operation. When the machine has picked a sufficient amount of cotton for a module, the operator initiates the wrapping process, all of which can be done on the move while the machine continues to pick cotton.

I am not aware of any specific purpose for the colors. Growers spray identifying numbers and letters on their modules. The colors might be useful to help truckers identify modules in the field that they are supposed to pick up, or to help the ginner quickly identify a specific lot of cotton which is to be processed for a specific grower. The ginners would tend to process and entire lot for one grower before switching over to another grower's group or lot of modules.

So far as I know, only John Deere makes the pickers that make the round modules. It takes a very large, strong, and powerful machine to both perform the picking operation and carry a fully formed module at the same time.

The long, rectangular modules shown in your pictures are the older form of modules. I am only estimating, but these modules, fully formed, are about 30' long, 8' high and 7' wide. They are made with a module builder which is essentially a strong metal box having the aforementioned inside dimensions, an open bottom, a gate or door at the rear end, and a hydraulic ram on top which moves on tracks along the sides of the machine. The machine, with its transport wheels raised is set up to build the module directly on the ground. The cotton is dumped over the sides directly from a basket on the picking machine or from a large cart into which the pickers have dumped cotton from their on-board baskets. The builder is powered by hydraulics attached to a tractor, and an operator packs the cotton down into the builder by use of the ram which he can move from front to rear along the length of the builder. When the builder is full, the rear door is opened, the transport wheels are lowered, and the builder is pulled forward, leaving the module in place on the ground. A cover, sort of like a fitted sheet, is placed over the top of the module.

This kind of module can hold enough raw cotton to produce 13 to 17 ginned bales of cotton. It can only be moved by a specially designed truck of the type shown in your pictures. One module completely fills the truck. Such trucks can also pick up and move the smaller round modules, with four of the round modules making a load. A nice aspect of the round modules is that they can also be picked up and moved about with front-end loaders equipped with a specially designed spear. Approximately eight round modules can be stacked on a low-boy or flat-bed trailer to be transported on an eighteen-wheeler truck rig.

The history of cotton production is interesting to me in and of itself. My father and his father grew cotton in West Tennessee. The technical innovations, especially the cotton gin and the steam engine, are directly intertwined in the Industrial Revolution. The spread of the cotton industry was a major part of the growth and development of our nation. It was related to the advent of the Civil War and the cultural and social
developments which we continue to experience today. Too many people today are being made to feel ashamed of their history and heritage. For my part, I believe that accurate knowledge and truth are invaluable and that we should not shy away from such things.

Best regards,

Larry Hardister

Thank you, a6k. That info was very helpful.

I am thinking of upgrading my venerable Sony a6000 to the a6500 (or even possibly the a6600 when it becomes available). One of the goals would be to obtain faster autofocus of "adapted" third-party lenses (primarily Canon ef/efs lenses). I tend to think that the later models, with their greatly increased number of focus points, would/should focus faster, but nothing that I have read seems to directly address this issue. Unless the a6500 is appreciably faster--much more than a few milli-seconds or so--I would be much less interested in making a change. I would appreciate your thoughts, and especially the experiences of any who have worked with both models using third-party lenses.

Best regards,

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what a filmstrip preview is/does. Could you give me a very brief explanation/description of this feature in Lightroom?

Thanks for your quick reply.

Best regards,

Thanks, Rongnongno. I think that's what I need. I have downloaded the application and will try it soon.

Best regards,

For various reasons, I have a number of duplicate images, especially family photos, scattered throughout the drives and folders on my computer. I would like to be able to locate and delete the superfluous duplicates as quickly and easily as possible. Any advice or recommendations on appropriate software would be greatly appreciated. My computer is a Dell desktop with Windows 10.

Best regards,

I definitely agree with all of the above. Arches N.P. and Moab are just too far away from your starting point to be encompassed within a one-week trip. I find that a trip is more enjoyable if one plans so as to have a little more time, and therefore a little more flexibility, in visits to scenic locations. I would plan to spend the entire time in Arizona seeing and enjoying the many attractions there.

Wherever you go, have a great trip!

The OP asked, as part of his post, what other UHH members use bridge for. After reading the learned responses to his post, I still don't know the answer to his question.

My wife and I have been to Alaska three times, the last being about a month ago. Each time I went on at least one whale watching tour, and each time we saw whales and had some opportunity for photographs. I used a Canon dslr with 100-400 zoom lens, and got a few decent shots, though nothing like what was possible if I had been a more experienced and accomplished photographer. Looking back from my present point of view, I think I would opt for using a camera that allows shooting 4k video with the option of snipping 8mp stills from sections of video. I understand that Panasonic has several well regarded cameras which will do this--the models zs60, FZ100, and FZ1000 and FZ2500 come to mind. I also believe that the SonyRX10iv will do this (it can do just about everything, it seems).

If you should decide to go that route, you don't have much time to prepare. You definitely wouldn't want your first experience with such a camera and procedure to be when whales are breaching around your boat.

If you have not already booked your whale tour(s), I would recommend going with a small boat that takes only a very limited number of persons, say, not more than 12 persons. On the larger boats (I have been on both types) that carry several dozen, up to perhaps 100 or more, you can be sure that people will get in your way, whether intentionally or not. While the larger boats can likely find the whales--my impression is that they all share information, or listen in on the traffic of other boats that have spotted whales-- your shooting can be limited by the larger numbers of people.

Also, keep in mind that you have limited "time-on-target". The average duration of a tour is on the order of 2 or 3 hours, with much of that time spent in "going out" and "coming back". The time spent in the vicinity where the whales can be expected may actually be only 45 minutes or less.

Also, the speed of the whales must be factored into your planning--they are deceptively fast. A particular sighting which is photo-worthy may last only about three seconds, if that much. When photo opportunities are presented, one must seize them, because second-chance opportunities are very limited. I think this factor makes for an argument in favor of continuous recording via video.

In any event, you will no doubt have a great trip. Best of luck!

Glad to hear that. It makes me feel better about my "bargain" purchase, even if I may not be able to use it with ef-s lenses!

Best regards,

Thanks for your reply, Will. I have a couple of other Canon-to-Sony-e-mount adapters that I can use with ef-s lenses, one of which is a Viltrox that does reasonably well. I picked up this mc-11 at something of a bargain on ebay hoping that it would work faster and smoother than the adapters that I already had on hand. I have not yet used it enough to form any opinions about its performance with regard to the FF Canon lenses that I have.

Best regards,

Thanks, gessman. That is really nice information to know, particularly since I happen to have a Canon ef-s 10-22 and a Canon FF 6Dmkii.

I recently bought on e-bay a Sigma MC-11 mount converter to adapt Canon lenses to my Sony e mount (a6000) camera. To my chagrin, I discovered that it would only accept Canon EF lenses; my Canon ef-s lenses would not "fit up" or mount to the adapter. I have since read some comments online to the effect that one could remove the four small screws securing the lens mounting plate, remove the mounting plate, and find a plastic or rubber spacer/bumper held by another set of four small screws. Supposedly, one could remove these four screws, remove the plastic/rubber spacer, then replace the mounting plate, and EF-s lenses could then be mounted to the device. I have not had the nerve to try it. Does anyone have any experience or information on this procedure--or indeed, on any practical way to "fit-up" EF-s lenses to an MC-11?

The short answer to your question is "yes", Clear Image Zoom on Sony a6000 does work with adapters. Or, perhaps, that should be qualified to say that the use of an adapter does not per se disable the CIZ function on that camera.

As a6k pointed out, the image quality should be set to JPEG; the CIZ function will not work with RAW. Since your Sony 55-210 worked in CIZ, you must have had the quality set to JPEG.

It is not clear what you meant by simply saying that the borrowed Canon 70-300 lens "did not work" when you used an adapter to attach it to your a6000. I have a Canon 70-300 "nano" version, and it did "work" in CIZ on my a6000 to render an image, actually a pretty decent one, at focal length of 300mm and 2x magnification in CIZ. However, I was indoors, using standard indoor lighting, and the combination would not autofocus--so I had to resort to manual focus.

The failure/inability to achieve autofocus with lenses attached via an adapter is a common problem with such combinations. The use of a "faster" lens, that is, one with a larger aperture opening when capturing the image, or shooting in relatively bright light would increase the probability that autofocus would work. If you can obtain or borrow, say, a Canon 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 lens and attach it with your adapter, it should work. If not, then perhaps there is a fault with the camera or the adapter.

Best regards,

[quote=tnste]I know this has been talked to death but I have for a few months considered getting the 6D II....

Hi, tnste,

I have both the 7Dii and the 6Dii. I obtained the latter about a year ago mostly as an experiment or trial with full-frame photography. Certainly I could "get by" with only the 7Dii, but I like having the pair. The 6Dii is amazing in low-light situations; also, the flip-out touch screen LCD is nice. I am happy with the purchase--I would think that you could shop around and find some good prices, perhaps even with Canon Refurbished.

Best wishes,