Just wanted to drop in and check in to see how folks are doing here…I hope all is going well enough for everyone, and that the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere isn’t too much of a downer for those of us that have to experience it.
I’ve come through here quite often to see the photos that have been posted but have refrained from reading much of the more technical threads that have been happening such as the ongoing AGX thread and the new Capture Sharpening feature as the truth is, I just don’t quite understand the technical side of darktable…but I am looking forward to trying new modules.
I’ll keep trying to contribute what I can and look forward to reconnecting with you all again at some point.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it in October.
Hey Adam,
happy to read you. Autumn is proceeding in Bavaria, trees turning colorful these weeks. The temperatures are still mild, but this may change quite soon.
Regarding the tech stuff - I think you will receive a nice Christmas parcel from the devs, setting workflow to scene referred AgX after unboxing, define a little Capture Sharpening preset and simply enjoy all the gifts dropping out of the export pipeline
Have a good time
Today ends my Scotland trip. It was amazing apart from a giant stressor, my Fairphone 6 completely died in the middle of it. I was charging it at night, wake up at 1AM, go to check the time, and it doesn’t turn on. So… RIP the phone photos and videos I had from those days in the highlands.
I am sure I am a victim of the bathtub curve and this isn’t normal, but it’s a giant letdown… If my friend hadn’t given me his old Pixel 6, I wouldn’t have been able to return home without buying a new phone.
Add to that, my carrier decided I had reached my limit of eSIMs (I had only activated it once) and had to buy data eSIMs from revolut.
Thankfully the rest went well and the weather (mostly) cooperated.
So… New life lesson, bring a spare phone and use a physical SIM, if your only way of returning home is by relying on it.
I can feel your pain… some airlines (eg Ryanair) are now switching to an “app only” boarding, no longer accepting a printed boarding pass. Phones do die from one moment to another.
In any case, please post photos when you have processed them. And do that soon, I am curious
I just came back from my trip to Greece. The sailing was somewhat hamstrung by the constant storms, rain, and hail. But the Fairphone 6, at least, worked well. I still haven’t found a truly satisfactory camera app, but the raw files look good, and actually match my big camera almost perfectly. That’s a huge bonus over the Pixel 6a I had before.
There was one short scare where a software update somehow broke the phone’s ability to connect to the cell network. But thankfully, a reboot into safe mode fixed it. Did you know Android phones can boot into a safe mode? I didn’t.
Otherwise, this time I was traveling with a photographer friend who shoots Sony. Boy was I glad to have that smaller system. My entire Fuji 10-24/16-80/70-300 fit into a small sling bag, where his 12-24/70-200 filled his entire backpack. To say nothing of weight. I’ll be very interested in comparing our photos.
It was fun comparing our approaches. One time we rounded a corner to a beautiful monastery, and I instinctively took a step back to fit it into my 16mm, while he immediately stepped forward for his wide-angle. Our habits were quite different in that way. I daresay he brought me over to use my wide zoom a bit more, and he actually considers adding a normal prime to his kit.
I will begin the selecting/processing shortly. I hope I got a few good shots out of the trip, it was quite difficult sometimes and during the highlands bit I didn’t get much opportunities to take photos sadly, we’ll see soon what I got
One thing that I realized from this trip is that zooms really are great for travelling and while my kit worked (mostly used the X100V), zooms only would make everything easier. I also traveled “light”, only a sling during the day.
Belatedly reading this thread. Thanks for this brave post, Steven. I must’ve caught a little dust in my eyes while reading it, though.
I have been feeling the blues on and off for some years and have often tried to bury it for fear of the reaction of people around me. It’s really therapeutic to read your comments. Thank you
Well… Seems to be a widespread issue. I am starting to regret my purchase. A repairable phone means nothing if it can be totally killed out of nowhere.
Phones suddenly dying: I have not had good luck with my phones; I have not used a phone past its last security update.
Taking photos: I have snapped some photos but have not found the time to share.
Job search: Looks like the City initiated a hiring freeze around 2-3 weeks ago. I received multiple notifications that my applications are on hold and I do not see any new postings (usually, there is a dozen or so on a daily basis). To be fair, the number of divisions and hires skyrocketed over the past few years. Of course, I did not enter any of those positions.
That may be, but reading the topic linked above, Fairphone support seems really sketchy. No response to e-mails, a 2-hour chat window, etc. I would expect more from a company selling 500–600€ devices.
I like the idea of being able to open the device and repair it, but if it takes a month for warranty repairs to happen, I will pass (that topic has been going on for a month). Especially since you can get decent android phones for around €150.
In their defense, this has been the summer vacation period, so it’s normal for things to take a little longer. Either way, we will see how long mine takes… I sent it last monday(10-20), arrived thursday in France. It entered their system yesterday. Btw, some people in that thread bought their phone through Murena, it doesn’t apply for Europeans since we buy straight from the source, should improve timings a bit.
I agree with your message though. I could’ve gotten a phone with the same specs for 300€(Besides MicroSD slot). I bought it more for the mission of fair wages for all their production line and ethically sourced materials. But nowadays even Apple is sourcing their cobalt and so on ethically, and the new iPhones are more repairable than the last, they even sell parts direct to consumers.
Of course this was not without fight from Right to Repair advocates, and Apple is very much still evil, but the overall scene has “changed”.
Sorry, that’s not an excuse I would accept from a company. They should figure it out.
I am now resigned to laptop mail-in repairs taking at least 2 weeks with the shipping time, but that is fine since I have spare laptops and just put the SSD in another one. But unfortunately phones are not so flexible.
