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Re: Apple Event: Very disappointed... - 2 months ago

Quotejonny Quotejdc QuoteBillybob Currently, my M1Max MBP sings while processing image files. I think that I'll be happier, and less poor, by going with the lower-tier CPU with 64GB of ram and upping the memory to at least 4TB. I would add 4 TB externally every day and twice on Sunday over internal. Less than half as much $$$. Okay, I won't buy Apple's memory. I have to remember it's not

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Apple Event: Very disappointed... - 2 months ago

I need to wait for benchmarks, but I suspect that the M1 Max will be sufficient for my uses. I'm actually happy that Apple did away with the monitor. I suspect that producing an All-in-One with the rumored 32" monitor probably would have started at $5k. I still have a couple of 30" monitors around the house that will do me fine. Currently, my M1Max MBP sings while processing im

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: 25 years ago today: bought my first computer: Power Mac 7300/180 - 3 months ago

My 1st computer was a no-name PC clone fall 1984. I got my employer to purchase a Mac for me in 1989. It's been mostly Apple since.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Canon: $17K 800mm F5.6, $20K 1200mm F8 lenses RF mount - 3 months ago

I'm holding out for the1600mm f/8.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: B&H, ya fail me now. - 5 months ago

The whole PayBoo "we pay your taxes" program is just a way for for B&H to circumvent the no-discounts rule. Most of their vendors mandate a specific price for products sold on their website, and our extraordinarily consumer-friendly Supreme Court (where's the sarcasm emoji?) said, hey, "what's a little price fixing among friends?" However, by offering to pay our taxes, B&a

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: What's the highest frequency you can hear? - 5 months ago

Quotedeckeda Keep in mind that lossy YouTube files "helpfully" delete everything at the frequency extremes, favoring those closer to 1000 to 1500Hz (voices) because evolution. The lowest lows and highest highs just never get encoded to begin with. It's part of how huge swaths of an original file simply get tossed away so that the file can be made much, much smaller. The other is the

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: SLR Camera seller reminds potential buyers that SLRs are yesterday's news - 5 months ago

Honesty is often the best policy. I have a few old cameras that I want to get rid of including a lightly used Nikon D850 to partially defray the costs of a Z9 and associated gear. So happy that I dumped sold my D5 last year before Nikon announced the Z9. I shutter to think how much less I would have gotten if I had delayed.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: “ I Used an M1 Max MacBook Pro for 2 Months and It Was Amazing. Why I'm Getting Rid of It “ - 5 months ago

QuoteAcer I have an M1 pro 16 on order. But mainly for the big screen. If there were a 16" or even 15" M1 Vanilla, I would have gone there. Otherwise, yes, it is absolutely overkill for me. But I'm gonna enjoy the heck out if it. I'd order a 17" or 18" if available. I'm a heavy Lightroom user, so I suspect that I will get some benefit from it, but clearly the biggest gain

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: The Expanse is back, baby! - 5 months ago

Quotegabester Don't forget the ultimate book in the series, Leviathan Falls, also just came out at the end of November. I'm struggling to NOT read it before I can unwrap it as a Christmas present. Watched episode 1 of season 6 last night. I have a friend who absolutely hates most of the casting choices, but I quite enjoy how the show diverges from the book in some subtle - and now, significan

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: If I don't do Video or Graphics Do I Really Need a M1X Max? - 7 months ago

Okay, so not really needed but good for future proofing. I'm generally a desktop guy, so I'm really looking forward to the iteration of the old 27" iMac (32"?). But I'm increasingly doing work on the road under deadline, so an upgraded laptop makes sense.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

If I don't do Video or Graphics Do I Really Need a M1X Max? - 7 months ago

The real question is whether I'll see any time-saving over a M1X Pro if I am strictly a stills editor? I use Lightroom, Photoshop, and Capture 1 and do final image tweaks with Topaz DeNoise AI, Topaz Sharpen AI, and Nik Viveza. Viveza is generally fast enough, but Topaz, especially Sharpen, can be dog slow. My biggest slowdowns with Light room are IO (that fast SSD will be a big help), photo

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Sony to supply stacked sensor tech to 4/3 sensor format? - 7 months ago

Fascinating. So micro 4/3gets stacked sensors before Sony APS-C cameras. Now I'm wondering whether Sony or Nikon (or even Canon) will be first to put a stacked sensor into a cropped-sensor camera. Wildlife shooters who value "reach" have been yearning for a fast APS-C camera for quite some time. I think that Nikon might be first out of the gate since they have a history of cat

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: AAPL down near $20 from most recent high - time to buy - 7 months ago

Depends on whether you are a trader or investor. I have no advice for traders, but if investing and you have some cash on hand, sure. I might put in a limit order for $135-139, but even at $140 AAPL is a good buy. Unless the economy totally craters, AAPL will reach a new high (probably in 2022 if not sooner). I'd consider buying, but I'm already way overweight in AAPL. I managed to tra

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: deep 6'd?!.....Apple discontinues 'Apple Watch 6' as preorders for Series 7 begin.... - 7 months ago

So does that mean there's not enough difference between the 6 and 7 to sell them both? I upgraded my 5 to the 6. I'll pass on the 7.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Canon rolls out $6k 24mp 30fps mirrorless camera and I have mixed feelings - 8 months ago

QuotepRICE cUBE ... I had day dreamed about going back to Canon someday but I don’t think there is enough wow factor for me to jump. I think I will wait for the Nikon Z9, whenever Nikon gets around to actually announcing and shipping it. Well, I actually went back to Canon and absolutely love my R5. However, I wanted the improved AF/no lag/no blackout made possible by a backside sensor (a

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Man Riding in Driverless Tesla Is Arrested in California - 1 year ago

Did I say 4B? I meant 1.4B (what's a couple of 100M between friends?). Not trying to change your mind, just disagreeing with you.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Man Riding in Driverless Tesla Is Arrested in California - 1 year ago

QuoteS. Pupp A number of these people seem to have family roots in the Indian subcontinent. My Indian father has been known to jump out of a moving car to go do something he wants to do, when it doesn't suit the rest of us. In other words, in my experience, stubbornness is a real problem with this demographic. With nearly 4B people in India and probably hundreds of million more members of t

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Appears that the $2800 Leica 24-70 2.8 is a rebranded Sigma with $1700 higher price tag - 1 year ago

I like to think of it as having acquired my $1200 Sigma 24-70 (I bought it when it first came out) for a $1600 discount. I love the lens. It's probably my most used lens with my Sony MIL body.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: So... Apple TV versus Roku... Any reason other than staying in Apple Ecosystem? - 1 year ago

Quotesekker QuoteBillybob Interesting thread to read. I have no real opinion other than I kind of fell into the Amazon FireTV realm when I decided to cut the cord about 5 years ago. I use the FTV primarily to connect to a live stream service--currently YouTubeTV but previously SonyVue before they gave up the ghost. I also view movies, Amazon original content, and I connect to Disney (part

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: So... Apple TV versus Roku... Any reason other than staying in Apple Ecosystem? - 1 year ago

Interesting thread to read. I have no real opinion other than I kind of fell into the Amazon FireTV realm when I decided to cut the cord about 5 years ago. I use the FTV primarily to connect to a live stream service--currently YouTubeTV but previously SonyVue before they gave up the ghost. I also view movies, Amazon original content, and I connect to Disney (part of my Verizon bundle) and

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: One processor to run them all! - 1 year ago

I've done little research as well, but from what my photoshop friends have been saying, I definitely want one. We've been used to incremental improvements that could only be measured by a stopwatch. With these M1 machines, you can feel the improvements. Now, I'm not worried about how many cores or how much ram it has, I just want to know when the 32" iMac will be released.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: It is 4/20, Roll Call and make your Apple announcement predictions here - 1 year ago

QuoteSpeedy Quotejonny 24 is the new 27!! 24 is the new 21.5. So, what can we expect to be the new 27: 30"? 32"? 27 was never big enough, but I compensated with a Dell 38", so I'm not sure I have room on my desk for a 32".

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: It is 4/20, Roll Call and make your Apple announcement predictions here - 1 year ago

Where is the 27-30" "Big" iMac? I also missed the keyboard with integrated numeric keypad. Okay, obviously not targeted at me.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Canon R3: stacked sensor ... and that return of Eye-AF - 1 year ago

Quotedeckeda The cost will be, Sony A1 + X. Although actually it’s still supposed to be positioned under the “1DX” Whatever model, because of course 1 is better than 3. And if they start adding even numbered models that’s gonna be a hoot. You mean like the 6D and R6? The 6D was probably better left unused (or at least stopped after one iteration), but I hear pretty good things

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Hare today, gone tomorrow? It was the best of times, it was the Worcestershire of times? - 1 year ago

Quotetestcase Does rabbit taste like chicken? Of course! But at that size, it's probably a bit tough.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Canon 5D & Nikon D4 w/ Adobe Super Resolution vs. Canon R5 & Sony A1 - 1 year ago

QuotepRICE cUBE You can set for cameras as well as Super Resolution and move to a specific area in the image you are interested in the detail. I was looking at this comparison on my 30" ADC and you can tell the R5 and A1 have more fine detail. If you take a step or two back from the screen...gets much more difficult to tell the differences. It looks really good when looking at the te

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Canon R3: stacked sensor ... and that return of Eye-AF - 1 year ago

QuotepRICE cUBE I may be riding a wave of nostalgia but this R3 announcement and knowing that the EF adapters work great, is making me itch to use EOS camera again. Go for it! I'm slowly giving up my Nikon gear (alas, I may ride my D850/500mm pf kit until they fail) and moving to RF-mount bodies. The R3 looks very intriguing. My main hesitation (besides the insane price it's likel

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff dies in prison - 1 year ago

Quotepdq Only tangentially related; in my experience, there are two kinds of financial advisors out there: those that are largely disinterested in you (or incompetent) once they have your money, and thus underperform the average market index fund, and those that significantly over-perform the market, that your friend/BIL/etc hooks you up with. It’s those last ones that you really need to avo

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: UCLA - Gonzaga going into overtime... - 1 year ago

Turned it off last night at the end of regulation. I wanted to sleep and watching that kind of action gets my adrenaline flowing hard. I watched the conclusion this morning (how did we leave before without automatic recording?). It has to be one of the greatest games ever. Kudos to both programs. Both teams were on amazing, once-in-a-generation runs. One of them had to end.

by Billybob - Tips and Deals

Re: Womens Final 4 action going on now - 1 year ago

Quotevision63 A lot of time spent on the floor. The refs will call anything a jump ball. Yes, the held-ball call is very different from the men's game. How does a player jump on someone, or put both arms around their body to get to the ball and get a jump ball call? I also hate the reticence to call fouls in March and April for men and women. I know they don't want to foul out key players w

by Billybob - Tips and Deals