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October as it comes

Posted by ellisaurus on October 21, 2018

So after I got licensed officially, I celebrated another round at McBains Camera’s used inventory- I did end up with the 70-300 G SAL SSM II – although it doesn’t have the box , lens hood and case, it was a mere 100 bucks more than the Mark I, and it comes with much improved AF speed, my primary concern shooting with the Mark 1 A99 body and my kid. It ends up balancing really well on the a99 body; despite being a G lense and not G master or Zeiss, the build quality is quite good, and the IQ is fantastic wide open. I did end up trying the 70-400 G SAL Mark I as well and could have had that one for a significant discount. The 70-400 is much better build quality and is a sturdy metal alloy. Reviews indicate better sharpness despite the bigger focal length. It does look weird though with its silver paint job, one of the few monster telephotos that come in non black or white paint jobs; the mark II was painted in white due to the unhappiness of owners. It is unfortunately much larger than the 70-300 and not really a lens I can just throw in a bag. I do see how IQ could be better due to the monster size of the glass. The killer part was the AF speed though. Watching the Mark I and Mark II side by side doing AF acquisition is painful, and terrible for telephoto shoot needs. Even with the discount, it also was more than I was willing to spend on a lens I won’t shoot with as much, so alas, it went back into the glass display, while the excellent 70-300 G SAL SSM II came home with me.

We went to visit Blanche Nuit Edmonton 2018- it was alright. There were a few really interesting set ups, and finding the setups was fun on its own. The was one of the better set ups, a rain cloud made of light bulbs and chain switches you could turn on and off. Ironically, my a99 Zeiss 24 f2 struggled here while the iPhone 8 Plus was able to grab more dynamic range- of course it only looks good in a thumbnail, but still. There were lots of people out and about, and it was nice to see crowds in what traditionally are Edmonton’s derelict areas downtown.

So this happened; we were at a full stop in a parking lot when a girl full speed rammed up backing out; she totally missed us checking her surroundings. We are now going through insurance and having the time of our lives navigating collision damage. So that’s cool. On the plus side, I am getting the damage I did to our car after trying to wedge into a tight spot on Whyte Ave (which killed my happiness for a long time). Update; the other party has accepted fault and we are now going ahead with repairs- that’s good. Hopefully no other headaches from here on out.

I got to try the WH1000X Mark III yesterday; it was remarkably lighter than the Mark II that I have; far more plastic in build, yet the build doesn’t seem cheap. Sony stopped trying to make it pretend leather ear cups; its matte plastic. The bent headband design also means it sticks out less and has a lower profile on the head which I really like; the Mark II sticks out like crazy on my big head. I didn’t notice the difference in noise canceling, which is supposed to be this headphones big deal- it has a separate circuit just for noise canceling, as opposed to one circuit doing both DAC/amp/Noise canceling. Sound quality is supposed to be improved as well; I didn’t notice a difference either, but I did like the sound coming out of it; very balanced without being too biased to the low/mid/high areas. The lightness is the biggest thing for me- its as comfy as the Bose QC35. Overall a nice improvement in comfort in particular. I likely will skip out on this one, as I mostly use the WI-1000x.

Dominos after a night of push ups; tried to do some chest work despite W being ill; ended up having some fun with the variety of push ups and have a new chest workout I can use while traveling w/o access to equipment. The pizza was as good as ever, although I am itching to try a different pan pizza.

So this happened- I got a Sony tie clip and now wear ties to work. Haha. I have never owned a tie clip before and finding a Sony branded one was pretty sweet.

Its a deep yellow gold and it looks great. It also looks like I am a try hard, but that’s ok. I really love repping my fave brand.

I have developed a fascination with socks. They are one article of clothing I can kind of go nuts on and not be shamed in the work environment. They do not match gym attire though.

Shooting wide open on the 70-300 G SSM II; its more than sharp enough for me; I have a gut feel the stabilization in body of the a99 isn’t doing it justice ; I’ve read generally in lens stabilization is more effective than sensor stabilization, and its generally just rated at 2 stops of effectiveness on the a99. Likely its not good enough for a telephoto lens. I shot this on tripod with stabilizer off. The a99 II seems to be better with stabilization and test suggest maybe 4 stop advantage. Down the road, I will likely procure an a99 ii. I do like my primes are stabilized with the body, so its still a plus.

Thanksgiving dinner; made a honey garlic ham; this time I cut the ham up and cooked the garlic/honey mixture and soaked the ham in the mixture, as the garlic did not cook last time. It turned out really well.

Here is my ham in all its glory. I quite enjoyed cooking it, and I am thinking it might be my next focus, as my life has been a little bit empty since finishing up my licensing exam (although it shouldn’t be as I should be working on my dissertation!)

H is obsessed with all the new Halloween decorations; this haunted infinity mirror freaked me out a bit, and was the one thing that seemed to freak H out too; we sat down and did some exposure therapy analyzing the mirror’s LEDs and how infinity mirrors work.

H prefers to try the most gruesome of the Halloween decor. She takes on dad I guess.

Had a fairly good dinner at Wokkery Restaurant; service was good, portions not bad, and flavor pretty great overall.

Really great food over here; had chou hou beef stew, fried fish with corn sauce, and sweet and sour pork.

Checking out the new Royal Alberta Museum; lots of interesting exhibits particularly in the humanities section. I really enjoyed the fresh look the museum had on its old exhibits and some of its newer exhibits.

The bug room was smaller overall it seems compared to the old bug room, but it looked pretty fresh inside; one of my favorites was the velvet ant cage; just knowing how painful their sting was and seeing them crawl so busily inside the cage was pretty fascinating.

I also really enjoyed the wasp cage; seeing the dozens of stinging wasps swarming around was neat; they have food trays of plants and animals based foods ready to go for them.

One of the more fearsome looing spiders in the exhibit.

Overall the atmosphere was really nice in the bug room

Plenty of people out and about- I didn’t enjoy the animal exhibit as much; I was surprised about this, as I typically find human culture less interesting. The RAM did a great job with human culture apparently.

Looking at rocks; while interesting to look at, I was not as enamored with this section.

I really loved all these giant posters that were backlit; lots of interesting things that I did not know about, including persecution of Chinese Canadians over disease fears in the early 1900s in Calgary. Quite surprising to me.

Looking at the aboriginal exhibit.

Buffalo!

By far one of my fave exhibits; these monster sized backlit posters of the Alberta landscape really felt like you were in the field; the lighting was perfect and emulated the white balance perfectly. In addition the posters filled your peripheral vision so much that you could disappear in the posters; I grew up with much of this landscape and it felt like home starting into the scenes.

Really disappointing night at Red Robin’s Gourmet Burgers; I have been spoiled by my fave joints like The Burger’s Priest; the burgers were dry and unflavorful- I didn’t even take a picture of them; the presentation was also disdainful; about one level above TV frozen dinner.

Take out with the fam from Good Buddy southside; great food, great proportions, and reasonable prices; and good times with the fam jam. Recently, a billion restaurants in Chinatown have been flagged for AHS violations, so its good to know that so far Buddy hasn’t been hit yet, although Taipan has, and its violations made me throw up- they found cockroach egg sacks. Thats just too much for me.

Fall colors. I’m trying to enjoy the outside as much as I can before winter locks me inside the house for 8 months.

Many of these exhibits did not resonate as much with me; I’m not sure what to feel about this random wolf animal raining down below. Still interesting to find what was in each exhibit and where they were. The treasure hunting made the exhibition more fun. I’m just not really into modern art I suppose.

For instance, the Hyatt is built in an area where I cant see too many Hyatt customers wanting to hang out at; development in the east side of the core has been slow, and its still a fairly sketchy looking neighbor hood. Recently, the hotel lost its right to call itself a Hyatt due to failing multiple Health Canada regulations. So its kind of downhill from here. I look forward to downtown building itself up with the ICE District really making a good push to bring more attention to the core, beyond business workers.

H enjoying a play date with her friends. The 70-300 G SSM II turned out to be perfect for this outing; I was really pleased with the AF performance here, and the sharpness was great wide open. This, despite the slow aperture. I think I will still get an f2.8 zoom at some point (thinking of the Minolta 80-200 f2.8 white version) but I am a bit apprehensive of losing the full AFD abilities of the a99 with these other lenses. Also eyeing the Zeiss 16-35 F2.8.

Having a heaping serving of food at K’s bday. Met a lovely couple at the table and had some great conversations into the night.

Looking out from the Delta hotel, the city looks bleak northwards – its a bit of an ugly city to be honest; you need to dig for the treasures like the River Valley.

You can see what a brute the 70-400 SAL Mark I is; here its side by side with my fave combo SAL 24 f2/a99. Its been a huge learning curve shooting full frame for me, and I definitely do not have the hang of it yet. It is loads rewarding though vs. shooting the glass and bodies I had for APS-C. Its also been a blast having my license. Notably, signing off on notes and being able to write letters without needing eighteen levels of approval have streamlined the process a bit. I also feel a bit more confident that my clinical work has been vetted and approved by a regulatory body, important in a field like mental health where there is a lot of complexity and uncertainty. I went back to shoot with my a6000 and fave lens 18-105 F4 G OSS; it was kind of frustrating- the a99 has spoiled me with excellent handling and control, and the bulky size is made up by just good handling period.

Watching scary movies with M; hit up Infinity War (!) finally and it was just as good as everyone said; also Luke Cage and Iron Fist were cancelled on Netflix today so I am sad. Takeout Chinese food and The Ritual afterwards; pretty solid hangout night.

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