kit

Looking ahead, not back!

mid-Nov 2024

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The new Lumix team is here: S5 + 20-60mm + Σ 70-300 Apo.

Farewell to Sony and Pentax systems.

And a G100 has taken over as custodian of the μ43 kit, with the 14-140mm, ZD70-300mm and native (10-50mm) primes. 

Pentax is well represented by its 28+40+50+70+??+135mm primes, and PK-mount  zooms from Rikenon (70-150/4) and Focal (80-200/3.5) zooms. These can be used straight up on either system - or with a Pixco 0.71x speed-booster on μ43 bodies! 

That means the Focal becomes a 56-142mm f/2.5 (112-285mm/eq)!

?? Still looking for my smc-m 85/2 - that darn lens is too small!!

a wee new thing

 Several months ago I learned of the microcomputer form factor. I was at the doctor's office and noticed the monitor cable led to a box little larger than a dollar bill. What?!? Yep, just the processor, memory, a small hard drive (likely SSD =solid state drive) Ethernet and a few USB ports. Really amazing.

Well now I have one.

The mini i5 box that I've been using is pleasantly small and can take a few cards when it's important (i.e. video) - but its size was not the problem. The i5 box just wouldn't stay wi-fi connected. I even direct-wired it to the network box, and added an antenna.. but still it was not reliable. Worse yet, its delays spilled over to the mouse, which meant I couldn't accomplish offline stuff as long as the connection was being rude. Not Good.

I decided to check the micro form to see what was available. If you already have USB items to do some of the work, it's a really cheap way to go. I picked up an old Dell with Win10 on a 500G SSD, an i7 processor and little else - for about $160. The power supply is an external brick, and it has six USB3 ports, a DP monitor and HDMI outputs, and audio in/out. Done.

The i7 chips beats an i5 in general, even more so when it's two generations newer. The SSD means no platter to spin: it's like a memory card for your camera but with massively more space. Windows loads in a hurry and every process is faster than I've experienced elsewhere. I plugged in a USB wi-fi thingy and found some issues on the 5G wi-fi, but since I connected to the slower broadcast all has worked really well. 

Now to clean up the i5 and set it free..

keeping up with the times

We bought/leased a Niro EV about four years ago. It's doing fine and serving us well, and we just put on new tires for another 40k+ miles of quiet motion. 

Right after we picked it up I bought a 220v adapter for our garage. The price was good for its time, and charging overnight is a great feature and a stupid good price compared to other fuel types. However..

We got home yesterday with 23 miles left in the tank - about 9%. I plugged it in and it's plugging along, filling at 3.7kW - taking about 18½ hours to do so.

I decided to check on my fuse boxes to determine if it was doing as quickly as it could. Nowadays these cars can charge 60% or more in an hour, but that's at AC+DC charging stations ($25 bucks to go 250 miles, instead of under $10 at home). A difference in speed and expense is reasonable - but that much of a speed difference? Hmm..

Garage #1 has two 220v plugs available, and they are fused for 50A current. Wow - but the former owner did work on old cars for a living/hobby, so he needed serious juice! Garage #2 has just 30A on the 220v for the welder. I then found the obvious choke point: my 4-yr-old EV charger draws just 16A from its 50A plug.

Looking at online options I found one that can be set from 8-32A for charging. At 1/3 or less of what I paid for the new tech four years ago. Wow!

So I'll be swapping out my old receptacle again and adding an app to my phone, and local charge times will be cut by a factor of two. Yippee!!

Lumix dream team - for now

 

Lumix S5 body, Lumix-S 20-60mm, Σ 70-300 Apo SA mount with sa21 adapter

I have a nice copy of the Σ 100-400 in L mount, but it's massive - far more bulky than the Apo above. I would prefer something smaller still, but nothing fills the xx-200mm space except the 28-200. Other than that and perhaps a few small primes, I have no incentive to move the 100-400 to fill in the kit. I like shooting birds and distant things at times, but it's clear to me that the 100-400 will sit and the 70-300 will serve, despite its lack of AF-c due to the SA21 adapter's limitations.

Damp season

The storms came in hard and fast in late Oct, pushing us from 41% to 95% of normal in the last week. We're taking a break for a few days, but the days soon after will compensate! Our 7-day total looks to be about four inches. 

Wow. 

S5: reload

My first s⁵ body was acting curiously so I sent it back, along with the 20-60mm that came with no hood. 

I have other versions of each on the way; we'll see if it makes a difference in my black-frame experience, or if it's a firmware thing.

I found two additional items that were persuasive: 

• a Sigma SA-mount USB dock and 
• a 100-400 dg dn in native L mount. 

The dock might awaken the AF on the 28-300, and the 70-300 Apo might also benefit!

The 100-400 is more of a beast than I prefer, but reviews are more consistently positive than the (few) other long options available at the moment. I suppose an L mount dock would now prove useful too.. we will get one at some point! It shares the 67mm filter size of the 20-60, which saves a whole 10 grams or so in the overall kit..🥳

I'm still hopeful that a ~50-200mm zoom designed for the s⁹ will be offered soon, but if not one of the SA options will serve as a shorter telephoto.

A few MC-21 tests

The Sigma SA->L adapter has arrived! 

I already have three lenses to try with it: 28-300 asph IF, 70-300 non Apo and 70-300 Apo DG. 

The 28-300 does not focus.. it's probably too old and Sigma won't guarantee it. Both 70-300s work all right, but step into focus slowly in poor light or at the f/5.6 max aperture. Neither will focus in AF-C, which I knew in advance.

Both the 70-300s appear to slightly back focus, so adjustments might be tried. Since I'm using DFD contrast AF, that seems odd. Once the USB dock for Sigma lenses is here, I can try to bring these lenses to a higher level of functionality. Or not.