Plumbing day. Again?

Our master shower has been running cold lately. It occurred to me that our other shower would do fine. 

I was wrong. The push-pull hot-cold part didn't provide any water of any temperature.

While looking into the magic cartridge that controls such taps I leaned that a lack of heat or cold is a possible sign of failure. How nice: they both need replacing!

I tried to visualize what the correct part would be on the local store's parts shelf, but clearly the best option was to bring a part with me - both parts, in case they differed.

The main bath cartridge didn't want to yield at first, but the master tap cartridge let go without trouble. I went back and did the same on the other and finally extracted a much smaller and incomplete part :√(

Exhibit A: 1½ cartridges

Off to the repair store again - this time with a samples! As I'd suspected the Moen 1200 was the right choice, and the specialist agreed that they were probably both the same despite what I carried. Once home I used a big drill bit and some pliers to yank out the remaining cartridge bits. Everything went smoothly after that! 

- Until I visited the water heater, where one more task waited me. While putting a light amount of pressure on the outlet post on top, the one task became two:

Exhibit B: outlet hose failure 

Off again to the store, and I decided to grab two hoses. I'm tired of digging into this closet to change out fittings!! I needed threads on one side and a slip-on clamp for the other, and it went together pretty well. All done?

Oh no - not yet. I'd totally forgotten the original reason for visiting the water heater, and it took full advantage of my forgetfulness when I restored the water pressure. All the hose work I performed had caused the suspect part to fail - so off with the water supply, again.

The problem was another fitting I had put in a year ago. The cold-water pipe had failed lower down, but a slip-on clamp solved the problem; parts for the hot side were in hand but it hadn't been updated. I knew it was a matter of time.. and that time had now come. The hard way.

After inspection I decided this last problem was in fact two, or perhaps more: two suspicious connectors (one showing it had failed, the other waiting its turn) plus poor routing of my new hoses from the water heater. One final store visit brought home a longer pipe, another slip-clamp connector and the right tools (locking pliers and pipe cutter) to see things done right.

I rerouted the heater hoses, shortened them a bit and replaced the old tubing and two connectors with a solid piece. I also marked the pipes to ensure the slip clamps were fully inserted, as a few drops along one hose weren't reassuring.

So my two-plus days of shopping drilling cutting and yanking are done, and everything is currently holding! Both showers have hot water again, toilets and dishwasher are functioning, and a bunch of wet towels are off the ground and in the laundry.

Oof.

Later - wow that was a hot shower! Perhaps the heater can be turned down a notch..

Also later - I found my pipe-cutting tool right after returning home with a new one. I look forward to all my missing lock pliers coming out of their hiding places soon!

Christmas in liquid form

 

Our hill-top forecast for Christmas looks mighty wet. It's been this way for a few days now, so it's getting harder to ignore. Christmas Eve isn't too bad, but if we head north to the in-laws neighborhood we have no decent day for the return trip. Rivers would be high and possibly dropping debris into the Puget Sound, possibly affecting ferry service. That would force us into Seattle traffic.. seldom pleasant even in a light rain, and forecasts there are 1/2 inch each day. Not ideal.

Cliff Mass blog is on it as well: 

https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2024/12/an-intense-christmas-atmospheric-river.html

enough.

I've wasted too much time and funds on adapting SA-mount lenses, so I cashed it in (Sigma 70-300, MC-21, USB dock) & will pick up a Lumix-S 70-300. 

What changes?

+  Weather seals, silent focusing, 0.5x closeups with no zoom/click clunkiness, a focus limiter and bonus OIS for Dual-IS stability. 

 -  More grams and cubic inches.. but no other lens fills the gap except truly bulky and spendy ones.

 That part is Stupid! But ..

when a smaller 50-200ish f/5ish zoom is available, I can dump this thing if it feels like the best move for me. The S9 practically demands that such a lens be made by someone, regardless of my thoughts.

Finding S users..

It's amazing how gear choices affect one's online presence. As a Pentax user I had a few very friendly groups where I could contribute chat or just blurt things out. 

When I branched out to μ43 I found more people, and learned more about diversity. Lumix/Oly, stills/video, feature sets and more - each sliced the topics in different ways! In some I had things to say, in many others not much.

Moving into Sony brought me into contact with really tech-minded folks, most of  whom clearly had larger disposable incomes than I could imagine. I could still give and take information,, but many times the easy answer (upgrade!) was nothing I could manage. 

When I shoveled nearly all my gear into one pile and shipped them away, I joined the Lumix-S crowd. Since it's a subset of the L crowd, it's been .. well, familiar and strange, both at once. 

• One L-mount site I visit is mostly Leica users; if any group can make my income look worse than Sony users it's Leicaphiles. Therefore I'm pretty quiet there.
• Another puts Panasonic mirrorless users together, so S users and G users are intermixed. I think I'm reading about a surprising S9 feature them realize it's a G9 being discussed. Oops.

So no group of S-centric users really exists. It would not be a large group: compared to other "full frame" marketers Lumix is probably a pinch above Pentax with its K-1 bodies keeping the spirit of DSLR alive. SoNiCan has its masses; Lumix-S does not.

This is not a bad thing, and does not correlate to the S5 capability and impressive feature set. It's just different, and not a surprise. If I found no one to speak with online, my photos would speak for me! : √)

kit

Looking ahead, not back

mid-Dec 2024

---

The Lumix S5 + 20-60mm + 70-300 is here! Farewell to Sony and Pentax* systems. 

OK I am looking back, a little: a silver E-M1 has once again taken over as custodian of the μ43 kit, with the 14-140mm, ZD70-300mm and native (10-50mm) primes. I tried hard to love the G100 and its fine 20Mpx sensor, but it just won't do; so much for one App to Rule Them All.. and live in-body charging with µ43.

*Pentax is still represented by its 28+40+50+70+??+135mm primes, plus PK-mount zooms from Rikenon (70-150/4) and Focal (80-200/3.5). These can be used straight up on either system - or with a 0.71x speed-booster on μ43 bodies! That means the Focal mutates into a 55-140mm f/2.5 (112-285mm/eq) - wow! Bulky though.

And I'm 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, Lumix-S 20-60mm, Σ 70-300 Apo in SA mount with sa21 adapter

At the moment, nothing fills the xx-200mm space in the L-mount system except the 28-200 and the fast and bulky 70-200s (f/2.8 and f/4). I have hopes/expectations for a reasonably compact lens to complement the 20-60 some day soon - and the new 18-40mm and the small S9 body makes such a lens even more likely! Other than that missing 'dream' lens and perhaps a few small primes, I have no incentive to fill in the kit. 

I like shooting birds and distant things at times, and the 70-300 will serve acceptably despite its lack of AF-c due to the MC-21 adapter's limitations. I had hoped a Sigma lens in its native mount plus a Sigma adapter to its new native L mount would serve my needs.. alas, no.

My Pentax lenses will also fill in until more L-mount options reach the market. I have several small primes from 28 to 135mm plus a nice Rikenon XR 70-150/4 that can do nice work. I also kept a Minolta 100-200/4.5 from my Sony time, lighter than the Rikenon but also nice to use.

 

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.

spare bits

 I did some small-time shopping today and picked up some spare parts.

Two adapters for micro-43, one for SA lenses and one for Maxxum. The SA does not appear to allow for aperture control, so its value might not be worth much; on the other hand, it didn't cost much! The mAF adapter also doesn't have much value, especially since I have only one Maxxum lens - but again, really cheap and it's the 100-200 f/4.5 lens. 

What makes that one worthy of interest? Well it's essentially the same size and weight as the Lumix 14-140 but faster at f/4.5 all the way through the range! (The adapter adds bulk, but it's still pretty small.) On days where the 70-300 4Thirds lens is a bit much, this little thing could be fun. It's not stabilized.. but that's also true of the 70-300.

L:14-140 and 100-200, (adapter below). -- R: 100-200 and Zuiko Digital 70-300.

A few S5 night tests

Why have a great camera on one's shelf when Aurora is showing off and a bright comet is doing its thing? 

I've picked up a G100 μ43 body since it also uses the Lumix Sync app to download images. It does a fine job and I'm more familiar with its workings. The S5 is similar in its Lumix-ness but massively more complex, and I haven't read every corner of the user manual yet. Still, I often learn the hard way - so off I went into the darkness to shoot the sky. 

Early images were uninspired but a bank of higher clouds left around midnight PDT on 10/11th October - and things got interesting in a hurry! I test-drove many ISO and shutter options with the 20-60mm zoom at 20mm f/3.5, and captured plenty of red and green glow in the wide field. I switched to my Pentax 28/2.8 for a while but skies were bright enough for f3.5 so the zoom got most of the action. I even tried a few videos which haven't been reviewed yet(!).

 Jpeg and Raw images compared 

Then I remembered time lapse. I'd wanted to try that in May's auroral storm but 1230am isn't my sharpest for memory. I set up about 100 shots with 10 seconds between them and off it went. Now and then I adjusted the shutter speed as the glow pulsed. When finished it asked if I wanted a video, Yes I Do!! I chose 3fps so it lasts about 33 seconds, and it's excellent!

Not bad for guessing at some features that I didn't fully know how to work yet.

Ten days later I was out seeking comet Tsuchinshan/Atlas as it receded from the neighborhood. I'd seen it a few days prior, but the G100 took that job. It did nice work, but again: why not use the Max camera for these few faint photons? 

Skies were again striped with high clouds, but after 15min things improved. I took many nice shots (oops, jpeg only!) as it dropped near the trees. The clouds returned after 20 minutes of decent clarity, so we returned home. I only brought the DA70 lens since it's bright at f/2.4.. but for a second time I missed my 85/2 lens for a night of sky records. It's around here someplace!!

A few preliminary tests

 While assembling a bare-bones S5 team, I did a few indoor tests to check on adapted lens image quality and ImgStab usefulness. I shot a calendar and some labeled jars. First shots with the Minolta 100-200 were sharp and contrast was great, and the Rikenon 70-150 had a few blurs before I became more serious about posture and technique. At that point images were quite similar to the 100-200 for color and clarity. 

Today I shot a spider-web under construction on our porch. The 20-60mm can reach 0.4x closeup images, but I stayed further back to keep the spider from worrying. Those came out nicely too, and had much more light to work with. 

I went to town at midday and tried out the fall colors at our city-central lake. It's too early for pervasive fall color but it's getting underway! I've set the S5 on 4:3 so the 21.5Mpx images were framed best around 35mm. I shot at both extremes to get a feel for the lens' great range; it's really impressive to get the lake and the entirety of the coloring tree just to its left! In landscape mode!! 

As to the camera? It feels like my old K5 reborn as a mirrorless, which is very comfortable. The heft and grip, and the upper left playback button, feel familiar. Exposure and color are about what I recall from my Pentax era. When I finally try some video, I'm sure to notice I am not in Pentax-land any more!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day I wandered about with the Pentax DA40 xs attached. It was fun -- but I did shoot two black images, both times just after powering up the camera. I'll need to watch for more of those! I already deleted them, so I can't check the EXIF to see whether any particular parameter was out of whack.. oops.

kit adjustments

After an evening of failed connections between my GX7 and its Lumix phone app, I tried the Lumix Sync app. The S5 uses that, but the GX7 cannot; only the G9 and G100 can manage that since it accesses bluetooth to facilitate connection.  That sucks!

So once again I shall let the GX7 depart, and likely find a g100. Much as I've enjoyed that camera over the years, the few frustrations aren't worth the bonus hassles.

With the G100 I lose about fifty shots per charge* from the GX7, the tilt screen and inbuilt IStab :^(  - but I do gain a few things:

• the new and improved 20Mpx sensor
• 4k imaging /video features
• a higher-resolution viewfinder
• in-body charging via USB, and 
• my spare battery will still work!

Wish it came in silver though!

* probably better battery life with rear screen than with hi-res evf..

S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S

Almost simultaneously, I found a deal on a curiously rare lens. Sigma made thousands of 70-300mm Apo zoom lenses over the decades, but finding a red-ring DG Apo in their own SA mount was tough! This Apo lens will not be a featherweight by any means (550g plus adapter weight), but it should do the job for now. Oh yes, I found a discounted MC-21 SA->L adapter also. Wow, over 200 grams?! 😕

Inevitably someone will introduce a small and light 50-200ish L-mount lens. I've no evidence for this, but it's a rather big lineup gap that some company will fill and make easy money. Every company made 70-210s and 80-200s in the film days (even more than 70-300s!) though the formulae  need to be tweaked to work with mirrorless cams' reduced lens-to-sensor distances.

S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S5S

Another update. A lightly fogged Sigma DG Macro 28-300/4-6.3 was available for cheap, so I shall give it a try. It won't compare with the Lumix-S model - but using it as a 28-200 proxy will lead to less issues and better light gathering. It is also an SA-mount lens. The choice is between a sub-$100 superzoom or none at all, as I cannot afford the Lumix-S any time soon.. so something may beat nothing, but if not I'm out very little!

S: starting fresh

The S5 has joined me here on the hill-top. One thing was clear from the start: the S1 would be too large for me to enjoy. That was a concern as several S1/1r features that appeal to me did not appear on the S5. To save 300g and extra bulk, I'm satisfied that the right-size camera for me is here. It's definitely larger than the a7r2, more a Pentax K5 in bulk. That was an excellent camera so that's a compliment.

The camera is mostly ready to shoot. I reset time zone and date (finally remembered to do it in that order!), connected cards and 20-60 lens and made a few quick setting adjustments that I've done for years (something between standard and vivid saturation, lower contrast, minimal NR). I added two clicks on the shutter in a dim room to check things out.

Let the S Era begin!

water year wrap-up

 And so much for water year 2024!

The year ended right at 56 inches of precipitation - within two inches of our 30-year average. No massively above-normal months, and July and August were typically dry. It was a damp year compared to 2023 which was our driest year at this location (43.3"). One of our dampest days was on June 2nd; we had higher totals once or twice but that was from rain after snowfall has piled atop the gage from the day before. 

Temperatures were not hugely out of alignment, and August in particular was not a hot month. We managed some 90° days in July but not a single one in August! We had a few periods of decently gusty winds but thankfully a quiet year for smoke; what we had remained high overhead. The 'chance of thunderstorms' for our location was a year-long bust; I can't recall more than one thunder-clap the entire year, while others sat underneath several exciting events.

This past week I saw how desiccated Mt. Hood has become in late summer. My views were not through clearest skies, but I spent most of my life looking at that mountain in all seasons - and the glaciers have definitely become less visible. The Reid glacier faces Portland directly, and I recall hiking above Ramona Falls to high meadows directly in front of the headwall; it would be troubling to be that close and see the retreat from my 1980 photos.

As to 2025.. the El Niño pattern has fallen into the zone of indifference between it and La Niña. That's often the wetter and more volatile signal around here. Time will reveal how the patterns play out.

a shock to the kit|iverse!

I could not afford anything in the L-mount when the S5 came out, having barely scraped up funds for an α7r². That was the best sensor I could afford, and despite the expensive E lenses I felt I could manage it with a few adapted lenses to plug any gaps.

I liked the Lumix S concept at first sight, but the S1/1r was not simply a brick - more like two bricks glued together compared to other mirrorless offerings. 

The S5 made some compromises, added a swivel screen to torment me, and showed me photos that left me amazed. Dual-gain ISO is amazing! Also, the S5 sensor (dxo) rating was a near match ..and won out in dynamic range by a nose. Better yet, it was no longer the new kid: the S5² was out with winning specs that put more S5 bodies in the used bins.

The Lumix S 20-60mm was introduced with the S5 - and I was impressed. It was the first 'normal zoom' to start at 20mm, and it sacrificed f/2.8 for smaller size and lower price. For future backpacking, a zoom beyond the old Pentax 24-50 at both ends, with wx protection and capable of decent closeups, sounds really nice!

I began reading old S5 reviews, most of which compare it to the newer, better featured S5² - and I found several points that were left unsaid about the original yet spoke to me nevertheless:

• The S5 can shoot 96Mpx super images.. but reviewers consistently skip mentioning the 48Mpx option, which I'm more likely to try. 
• The S5² can shoot 3:2 video, something I've been seeking for almost 10 years - but 4k and 6k Photo modes use the same process to do their work. It's not a Video Mode in the original but similar results can be managed 
• The original S5 sucks at video autofocus in continuous-AF mide .. which I hardly ever use. I prefer touch-AF refocus in video.
• The S5 viewfinder was noted as 'dated tech' and down-rated, but I knew that fewer evf pixels = better battery life! The s5² fixed many of the S5 'issues' and gets ~50 fewer shots per charge.

And then I counted the S5 features that Sony did not know in the Jurassic age of the α7r², like 

• 4:3 and 1:1 image ratios (like Pentax)! 
• Both 4k and 6k video>still captures! 
• A touchscreen! 
• Half again as much battery life!
•  USB3 charging! 
• It comes in red!! - oops no, that's the S9. 
• Less resolution to fill your hard drives, but with hi-res modes for times when that sounds like "fun".

So I explored the internet for a bit. Some S5 deals were visible but not quite at α7r² prices. However I found that if I dumped all my α gear I could get an S5 + the 20-60 with a few $$ to spare! In case it took a while to afford an L-mount telezoom, I kept my Minolta 100-200/4.5, ordered adapters for Minolta and Pentax, and I was set.

  On October 1st, the S5 era begins! 

Double victory!!

I finally sat down and performed two camera surgeries - and both turned out very well! A few hours of delicate work has paid off. 

First up was the Pentax K-s2. I bought this a few years back for a great price, only to find it had the dreaded Pentax mid-level body solenoid problem. For several years they put out great cameras that began failing after a few years, sooner if the camera went unused for a month or two. They put out a new body by then, but in a few years the same happened. It turned out their source for aperture-actuating solenoids, causing the camera to determine an exposure but then shooting with the lens fully closed, leading to extremely dark and diffraction-softened images. 

This problem damaged the reputation of every midrange body from K-30 to early K-70s, including the K-59 and two k-s2 models. The K-5/3/1 models did not have the problem. One could work around the issue with older lenses in Manual mode, but it wasn't ideal 

The answer has been to either scout for original cameras to steal the earlier sensor or now using the Kf solenoid. I bought the elder solenoid and .. dithered.  Maybe three years passed before I finally did the work today.

Two hours later, all my lenses are back in play. Hooray! 

I'm very grateful to those at Pentaxforums who went before me and documented the procedure for all the affected cameras, including the K-s2.

--------_-------_-------_------_-------_-------_------_-------_-------

After dinner I decided to fix the GX7, an old Lumix favorite with a bad rear control dial. That's also rather common, and the surgery is documented on several websites. This went a bit faster (no soldering needed) and thankfully it's problem is solved too! That rear dial serves many purposes, and now it controls exposure, clicks for exposure compensation and zooms in playback mode!

Now to decide between the GX7 and EM1, two very good old μ43 bodies that fit me well. The K-s2 probably won't dethrone either of them or the Sony a7r² ..but I'll keep using it a while to ensure its full recovery before deciding its fate.

smoke season arrives

The wildfires are in full summer bloom in the western USA. Another Oregon Star Party has been cancelled: the USFS has too much going on to allow for a group of 500 to show up for a week. The 2020s have not been kind, as two Covid cancellations and major road work took out three of the first four this decade.

Well north of the brown smoke shown here, the township of Jasper AB was substantially consumed by a fire yesterday. Over 25000 people were safely evacuated from town and park, but emergency crews had no chance against the swirling winds and walls of flame.

Tough times. 

the small kit, v.1

Here is the small kit I'm taking for this weekend. Plans are to shoot family indoors, a concert at a park, and hopefully a few decent landscape images. 

The camera is an e-M1 and Olympus 17/2.8 lens. For indoors and lightly cramped family the 35mm/e should do fine. A small RRS-style plate is attached to the camera.

In the small bag is the Laowa 10mm/2, Oly 14-150ii and TTArtisan 23/1.4. Those will cover any low light and long images if we're late to the concert and must hang out in back. Included in the bag are a polarizing filter, two batteries and a plug-in microphone whose mount is sticking out in the photo. I should bring the flash for extra security - luckily I have a spare pocket on one side that's doing nothing :^).

This plus a tripod or monopod should be sufficient!

firecracker weather!

 

Typically around here we begin summer on July 5-7th, whenever the last Pacific storm visits with enough strength to keep us in the upper 60s. We are starting a day early this year, and we're trying for 100° this weekend. Just 80 today, it appears - but we may not see another day in the 80s until a week from now. Thankfully the coastal cities and beaches only suffer two days of heat before the onshore flow is sufficient to bring back the 70s - so that's a daytime destination we are considering strongly!

Wrap up: well, that was unpleasant. Portland reached 100° and Salem was a few degrees warmer. We didn't visit the beach, but A/C and mist on the deck were fully employed.

Wed max was 16° cooler after a 10° drop in the morning. A decent west wind broke another 15-foot branch from a tree in our yard.. that's about the fourth of similar size to come down this year!

rose festival weather

 Here it comes again: the early-June shower pattern for areas around Portland.

Since the Rose Festival carnival rides are always on the lawn by the Willamette, it's a good bet that they will become muddy in the next two weeks. Portland itself is only in the half-inch zone at this point, so nearly not mud. Living an hour north is big though, as we are forecast to see over an inch by the 4th of June. Much of that comes on the 1st/2nd as of now, so several days of pattern mutations are still available.

I'm trying to whack down some blackberries before damp times return, and the new 62v whacker is doing nicely with its bonus torque over the 18v model. 

Don't make me get out the chainsaw!!

Another yard task is to burn the debris that has accumulated near our driveway over the past two+ years. Some showers are expected tomorrow, so that would be ideal as long as the winds are not active. Hopefully by the weekend the yard will be looking far better than it has in a long spell!

wow - best geomag storm in ~20 years!

 

That's a kP index of 9, class G5. Pretty much top of the charts! 

The yellow highlight marks the time when we were outside.

8:35 - sunset is very soon. The rest of the world is having a fine time; now our turn is coming!!

10:00 - not really dark yet, but photos already show the colors. Amazing.

11:00 - full blast, nearly all-sky coverage. Even visually we can tell green from deep red areas. Even areas around the moon are showing the glow, due west of us. To the NE it looks like an early green dawn is breaking.

We shut down about 12:20am, 8:20UTC. Two cameras taking dozens of images at different settings, in attempts to catch both colors coverage and detail in the curtains. I'd never thought such coverage would happen at 46° latitude. Photos are coming in from Florida Keys and many other southerly sites. Wow!

another dry month with a wet finish

  -- coming soon!

We've had less than 30% of our April normal, and a week to make up for it. A totally dry week ends today: tomorrow should have a bit after dark, but Thursday will bring close to an inch. Wow! We'd need 3½" to catch up, and that is not expected to happen. 

This hurts more because I now have my tool prepared for halting the blackberry invasion. I looked up how to swap the brush blade onto our string trimmer and how to actually start the beast. Tomorrow is a travel / medical day, so we'll be back with a few short hours to work before darkness arrives and the rain begins. Friday should be less wet but showers continue for several more days. 

Guess I just need to embrace the dampness and get cracking! :^)

One piece of good news though: the riding mower is functioning again! I replaced a few parts, zip-tied the front end into a reasonable approximation of its original orientation, and finally found the culprit: the fuse wiring had come loose from part of its harness and was dangling uselessly. Now to purge the ancient gas and oil from it, and forget the last two summers were such a challenge..

this just might work!

The a99 has arrived, and first tests are promising. While the size will take getting used to again, the interface fits me pretty well and the screen is plenty good enough. The multi-tip-flip screen can do much more than I'm used to as well.

The kit as it stands now is pretty convenient too! 

1. When bulk isn't called for and wide-normal shooting is all I expect to do, the 24-105 and DT 55-200 (in crop mode, 80-300 but ~10Mpix) covers the ground nicely. 
2. When 24Mpix is valuable for all shots, I can carry the 100-300Apo for telephoto imaging and pay the 250g penalty (or take the slightly lighter 70-210/3.5-4.5). 
3. And when close is best the 50/2.8 macro can do 1:1 just fine and capture more light than the zooms. At some point I'll pick up a 20/2.8 for seriously wide sky or mountain vistas (4-26: done! A 20/2.8rs is on its way). Possibly I'll spring for an 85/2.8 at some point.. 

Most of the a99 reviews tout its impressive HD video abilities; at some point I will explore that and do some comparative shots with the eM1. I sure wish I wasn't constrained to 16x9 video with my 3:2 and 4:3 sensors, but at my price point I take what's available!

urge and purge merge

 Well, the 'great' purge lasted nearly three months. I then worked myself into a corner with a few curious decisions:

1. My tech sense becomes overwhelmed  between the eM1 mk.1 and mk.2, strange but true. Newer isn't better, for me. I have no explanation for it.
2. My Minolta-af zooms didn't depart soon enough.
3. Unstabilized camera bodies are an issue for me and my collection of primes.

I decided that too much money is still locked up in camera gear. I've tried twice to embrace the em1.ii but just can't deal with it, so I looked for a camera to take its place.

 

I wandered over to the big-sensor area to check on early Z and L-mount types.  Body prices aren't bad net of what I was selling .. but oh those lens prices. No savings in those deals. 

Oh wait, my Maxxum lenses are still here! Bummer that no one but Sony adapts them to modern mirrorless bodies.. except Sony. And how are prices on an a7xx and ea4 adapter? Tempting - but my last attempt (a7ii+ea4) was a decisive failure.

Hmm.. so what about a body that needs no adapter?

And so an a99 Sony is on its way. The penultimate 36x24 A-mount body with SLT hybrid features, bonuses like the multi-tilt screen, no-crop video scaled to HD, an in-body AF range limit (like the eM1.ii) and decent battery life. The 24Mpx sensor specs don't match today's stacked/BSI models but DR and color depth scores are great at DxÖ.

Yes, it will do nicely!

But..

I realized my native μ43 and Pentax primes now had no IS-within body to perch upon!! The G100 has many nice features but stabilization is not among them. Not ideal.

Welcome back my friend, to a kit that never ends!

 

Yes, an eM1.1 (a silver one!) has returned to the fold! I'll return the G100, whose price matches the eM1 ±$5. Too bad, but the eM1 will be fine as the Little Camera. Money back, another possible 36×24 companion and my favorite μ43 body. Done, and DONE.

---

So the kit is changed.
Again.

What point in claiming any justification for these changes? 

None that I see. All explanations are weak. 

OK 🤔 here I go anyway: the larger sensor will be nice, occasionally; it will be interesting to compare a99 +24-105 to my old D600 +28-105 shots. The eM1 is a proven commodity in my hands and it doesn't bring me the same feature overdose as its 2nd edition. That's all the excuses, and it's enough.

Here's the latest list. 

Why a DT lens? Well, it's half the weight of either the 100-300 or the 70-210, and owner ratings are excellent. On days that 105mm should be enough, a 10Mpx raw will suffice in an unexpected situation. Definitely beats no shot if the 105mm image is too small. 

Oops I'm justifying again!!

welcome to March!

 

The cold, somewhat messy March lion has arrived!

After a five-day rally to make February into an above-average month (105%), March cones in chilly. The 7-day forecast is for about 1½" of wet snowflakes; we have a solid trace on our deck and in our grass as I type, and a snowy mix is falling.

It seems that our groundhog lied. Break out the pitchforks and torches!!

Update. The early forecast was for perhaps 2" total snowfall, at best an inch each night and gone the next afternoon. Reality was more exuberant: over 9" on the ground at maximum, and today (3/8) still ,shows three inches on deck and driveway! 

Exuberant indeed. 

late-month rally

 With five days to go, February was 39% of normal for precipitation. That's asking a lot of five days.

And then it began to rain.

As of this morning we're at 60% - and forecasts add about 2½" more (thanks to having a 29th  day this year!). If this pans out we'll have (a) two really wet days, and (b) 105% of normal!

Let's find out..

Update, 28 Feb. Now just 0.8" short of average (87%) -- and the cold front is making its appearance at the coast! We never used to have such detail, but the somewhat recent addition of a radar near Aberdeen really improved the up-wind view.

The next seven days are quite damp, showing that the first few days of March 

will come in like a lion - and not just for us!!

California takes a turn

February has been less damp than recent months, as the rapidly weakening el Niño sends moisture south of us for a while. We're around 30% of normal halfway through the month.

Our coming week has perhaps an inch of rain, but several recent forecasts have been too enthusiastic about amounts. We even flirted with a snow forecast this week, but in the end the cold vs. moist boundary ended up closer to Olympia. Oh look; our forecast now has a 900-foot snow level tonight..

Next fall looks like we're back to La Niña - but many climate folks are now wondering if enough global change has been wrought to break our conditioned expectations. It's always been clear how things settle out in Niña and Niño years.. but last year's California weather was not typical at all. Lake Manly (aka Badwater / Death Valley) formed after Hurricane Hilary and it's been replenished by recent storms; Tulare Lake reformed and hasn't vanished either. Perhaps we need to watch a few more cycles before throwing out all our experience; we'll find out!

Back to normal

 Version 1: temperature is now above 45° and snow is down to tiny patches. A half inch of rain has fallen today so it may all be gone by sunrise. The melt plus rain was nearly 2"!

Version 2: with a week to go, January should end up at least an inch above normal (OK, 2½" above as of the 27th!). That means our water deficit since October will be a surplus.. for a little while, at least. 

a first glance at winter

Our moisture has come from the south so far this rainy season, so ski resorts and winter-focused events have not fared well. Many storms near California will do that, and el Niño often leaves its mark to our south, pushing warmer air our way to limit snowpack. It does not make us immune to winter weather though!

Today's Wx-Underground forecasts have turned toward snow about a week from now, which is surprising. Many models have made this shift, however; shown here is the well-regarded European model's view on Friday morning 1/12. This is pretty much the classic pattern for white weather down low, with cold air just onshore and marine moisture willing to be pulled in just to its south!

This could change in six hours with the next model runs, and in the course of a week's modeling the timing and location will likely revise a few more times. Still, it's notable. 

We'll be watching..

7Jan update: the forecast has twisted several times as to depth of cold air and accumulation, but the 12-13th remains white at our 750' elevation. Values have varied from 3½ to 12 inches from run to run!

7-16 recap?

Curiously enough, winter weather began abruptly on Tuesday the 9th, with over 6" on the ground on Tuesday morning. It was a strong suspicion but nothing more on Monday night as we drove back from Anacortes in downpours.

That settled down to 4" by Friday 1/12, when we topped off the crunchy old snow with 4" of fresh true powder. The arctic front dropped us to 16° at night through Monday the 15th. Today the cold air was overrun by a front coming from the SW; only a pinch of fz/rain has fallen so far, and the forecast has us above freezing by sunrise. It will take a day or two for the snow to vamish, but the wild times will return to normal in 36 hours or so.

7-17 - It was a good try, but it took until 10am to reach freezing, and 2pm to reach 35. 

Time to start shoveling the driveway!