That product you can't even

is there a photography-related product that you just can’t get comfortable in? If so, why?

In?

I can’t get comfortable holding the Sony A7’s, either the old or new versions. Something about those particular grips gets me.

Not a product as such, but I’ve never been successful focus stacking with Magic Lantern. My issues include

  • Figuring out how to set start and end points for the stack in ML (most of the tutorials are for the 5D III and my 600D has very different controls)
  • Getting the combination of camera + lens + tripod to cooperate, especially when the lens points downwards (the front end of the lens lifts with each refocus, causing alignment issues)
  • Trying to get Hugin to work on Windows (hit or miss, mostly miss)
  • Resorting to the command line with align_image_stack. This worked in the sense that I had output, but calling it aligned is being very generous
  • Tried to align with Image Registration in Gimp. Best results, but still not good enough

Gave up after this as it was taking too much time, decided to try again when I have more knowledge of the various tools involved. Luckily I mostly photograph food and can manage with small aperture settings. I tried this only out of curiosity.

For the most part, Magic Lantern has been a bit of a challenge to use (perhaps because I’m a Windows user). The intervalometer is the only feature I’ve managed to use reliably.

For me, it’s the Gimp. I can’t put my finger on the reason, but the way it’s organized is somehow just orthogonal to my brain. I am actually better off using the wrong tool (e,g., Inkscape with a JPEG) than using the Gimp.

Magic Lantern is difficult, but adds some fantastic features to my 350D (or maybe its CHDK), but yeah, not the easiest thing to use; I am grateful for their efforts though