Itai

general recent conversations

Discussion on question by Hilmar: How…

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Itai

Feb 7, 2024 05:29

@Hilmar - Indeed, I also observed that it is not evenly distributed between cards. The most reliable so far has been HSBC MasterCard which is the only one of my 4 cards that worked in Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. Even in Iceland, when some of my other cards worked, HSBC was the only one that was accepted at automated gaz stations. Sadly HSBC Canada just folded and will be needing to find another reliable option for Canadians.

Itai

Feb 7, 2024 05:29

Fantastic question! Me too, I have been suffering more and more from this as credit card companies have been forcefully trying to validate transactions this way even if one did not sign up for 2FA! There is no way I would be roaming my number due to cost and rarely have a local SIM, which would not be cleared either.

Discussion on answer by Itai: Is it a…

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Itai

Jun 10, 2021 00:18

@Christian - Excellent suggestion!

Discussion on question by Greek - Are…

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Itai

May 31, 2018 12:04

I have a really nice pen to use and I also carry a spare generic one for people to borrow. It doesn't answer your question but it avoids me feeling uncomfortable saying no.

Discussion on question by JonathanRee…

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Itai

Apr 13, 2018 02:04

Was asking myself the same thing. You have to fill on to enter most South American countries too and they barely look at it now that they have passport scanners.

Discussion between Warren Young and Itai

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Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:25

Got to go soon. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:19

Going through a reevaluation is fair but it's also high impact, so it will certainly take me a while to change the way everything works around here :)

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:19

Great! I just just going through the list and it seemed like a lot to sift through.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:14

Well, sounds like I have to check that magical plugin. Cloud backups are a bit of the long way out for me. It's not the problem of finding out what to backup, I can do that with rsync, but it is that I avoid copying the same files just to make another backup. My system is divided into a relatively small set of disks that get backup repeatedly (things that change), plus large disks that only get incremental backups (things that get created but never change, aka images).

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:08

That sounds reasonable. It is extremely rare for me to edit back files once I did it after importing. It did happen this year when I went through a dust-busting phase on old photos :)

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:05

Ah, yes, OK. I do something similar, exporting all JPEGs at full-res for 3* and up and that one goes into one of the writable directories which gets backed up periodically. It keeps size manageable. I would not periodically backup all the photos, only incremental, which is why it would trouble me to have XMPs appearing there and changing from time to time. Any chance there is a way to tell LR where to put XMPs, in a parallel structure?

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:03

Yes, you export full-res JPEG of everything just to be safe?

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:02

That's what I thought. I don't see a way another app could interpret this, maybe a coarse approximation.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 20:01

I would really like to have a contingency plan for LR too. I don't think its possible right now. If LR stopped working or became too expensive, how would I get to my processed images? Would XMP even help for that?

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:59

Well, that's how I consider my images with LR! All my metadata is in there.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:58

Also been using LR for quite a while, not sure if it was 1.x or 2 but it has always worked for me using the readonly partition for source. This ties in to how I started doing backups in that old directories for media do not get revisited, so if new files were to appear there or change, it would be a serious problem. This has nothing to do with LR of course.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:54

@WarrenYoung Hi Warren. You're right the XMP in themselves would be fine since obviously they are external to the original.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:50

To me LR being non-destructive is exactly why I would never expect it to change the files but if there are software that work better that way, I don't know which but I will investigate!

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:50

OK. Is there anyway to know what LR is complaining about? I could try to have a script run over everything and set the date properly if that is what happened.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:50

Specifically, I am worried about changing my files, not just the metadata. I have a workflow that has been working very well so far, although it might not be perfect, it fits very will with how I do backups and other tasks. This time I did do something different and that was travelling with a laptop, so I moved the files from the external drive to the internal drive after doing a Export As Catalog and then Import From Catalog. Essentially I almost did what you describe in the 3 last steps, except for not exporting the negatives. Maybe that would have avoided the problem.

Itai

Jul 26, 2017 19:50

There couldn't be changes. I make sure of that by mounting the drive as read-only, so that LR cannot ever change any file or even add stuff to the source directories, so no XMP is possible either. This time I moved files from an external drive to an internal drive and when relocating the files in LR, it put up all the warnings. Changing originals on disk, even if it only supposedly the metadata, is wrong. File dates change, the metadata will have the software name and they won't even look like files that camera from a digital camera anymore. On top of the risk of a change being harmful.

Discussion on question by Fattie: Did…

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Itai

Jul 3, 2017 14:03

OK. That's fair. I was looking at it from a it can't help anyone with travel but history could be interesting.

Itai

Jul 3, 2017 14:03

Unless you can time-travel, I don't think this is relevant here.

Discussion on question by Janus Bahs …

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Itai

Jun 10, 2017 11:03

It's the same problem with lactose-intolerance. When I used to ask a special meal, I got a vegan one. So, I stopped asking and just don't eat the part (or all) where there are dairy products. It's not like missing out on airplane food is a big deal!

Discussion on question by Itai: Are t…

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Itai

Mar 16, 2017 05:44

Any device that serves only as GPS. Most of them are designed for cars I guess but I'm sure someone can come up with a different example, maybe portable to be usable without a car.

Itai

Mar 16, 2017 05:44

@flith - That is the question! I know why a DSLR is better than a phone... but I don't know why a GPS is better than a phone (if it is).

Discussion on question by gerrit: Is …

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Itai

Mar 6, 2017 13:19

This is something I have seen before in the Caribbean but I'm not sure which countries. I do remember that landing in one airport from Canada, the luggage was so accessible that taxi drivers already had grabbed all of it and people had to look for which driver had their luggage!

Discussion on question by JonathanRee…

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Itai

Oct 5, 2016 14:37

Learned the hard way to buy unusually colored suitcases. Never lost one yet and they are easy to spot from afar. Fewer thieves are likely to grab the sunshine yellow suitcase. There is rarely more than 2 or 3 on a flight I noticed. Also have lime-green ones too. We lost 3 black suitcases over the years.

Discussion on question by Emma-louise…

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Itai

Sep 28, 2015 14:54

Sorry to hear that. We have often been assigned separate seats and have ALWAYS been able to sit together by asking a flight attendant on quite a few different airlines. Honestly, I would simply complain and avoid flying with them in the future.

Photography Chat

All-things photography related discussion.

Itai

Jan 12, 2013 15:28

@user133466 - Regarding the Nikon 1 J1 vs Sony F3. Not sure how to ping you but I'll be around for an hour or two and later this evening (EST).

Discussion between JavaCake and Itai

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Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:29

Hopefully I've done a good job at addressing your concerns about this particular trip.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:29

Good. Have a fun trip. I have to go right now but I usually log in every 2 days or so in case you have more questions.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:25

Thanks! My UV polarizer is also a Hoya but the non-HD version (Multi-Coated). There is no reason the HD would not be better but it did not exist when I bought mine. Since you will be shooting in bright light, I recommend you use lens hoods too and buy one filter that fits each lens exactly.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:20

UV/Glass should be used to protect the lens from flying dangers. In your case, that would be salt-water splashing. They also add unwated reflections and flare, particularly around bright light, so I would advise to remove it as soon as your lens is away from splashing sea water.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:17

No. There is no such filter. All filters have an impact and you put it on when you want that and take it off when you dont. Polarizers change the amount of light that enter the lens but also filter out rays outside of the polarization direction. They are the only filters whose effect cannot be reproduced my image processing.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:14

Yeah and I paid much more for that stuff! Sorry, what do you mean multi-purpose?

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:13

When you put a polarizer, everything gets darker. With every other filer, it is by 2 1/3 stops. With Hoya HD it is only 1 1/3 stops. Also they work just right, boosting saturation but they do not screw around with colors. The B+W was terrible it make everything brownish :(

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:12

They are the best ones among over a dozen I tried. I own the entire lineup of Hoya filers, plus had some B+W, Tiffen and Kenko. I sold all of them except the Hoya!

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:09

Reviews do one thing well: Let you know what the quality of something is. They do one thing poorly: Let you know what you need! My site (www.neocamera.com) corrects this about cameras but I do not have the bandwidth to do the same for lenses. They are too many lenses (over 500!) and plenty of factors, plus you have to consider combinations of lenses too.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:07

Galapagos are a fantastic awe-inspiring experience! It is also harsh environment and not much you can do if things go wrong, particularly if you are island-hoping from a boat.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:03

Glad it does :) It is great that you asked about equipment before going on this trip because the right equipment makes a huge difference.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 18:00

Shutter-speed has to be selected in terms of your subjects movements and yours. What IS does is change the point at which shutter-speeds are too slow to be handheld but you still have to pay attention to get a fast enough speed to freeze your subject and not get too low of IS not to work when you are shooting still subjects.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 17:59

All the time. Shutter-speed is one of the variables of photography. IS or no IS you have to pay attention to shutter-speeds.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 17:58

The 24-105mm F/4L is another excellent value in the Canon lineup. The top of the line 24-70mm F/2.8 is quit expensive, so by losing one stop of light and gaining a bit of reach for a good discount, they made a very popular lens.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 17:52

@JavaCake [Cont'd] Towards the 70mm end, you only need about 1/100s to get a crisp shot without IS, which is low if you want to take a crisp picture of anything that moves. The pricebreak as you call it was absolutely worth for my use, plus there are less moving parts and no risk of the IS system adding extra blur (as it sometimes occurs).

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 17:50

@JavaCake The principle is that stabilization helps who shoot using a slower shutter-speed than without. This only matters if you actually WANT to shoot at those shutter-speeds. At 200mm, you need to shoot around 1/250 to get a crisp shot without IS. With IS, you can shoot at around 1/60s. Mine 70-200mm F/4 is used for sports, so I have to use 1/500s at the very LEAST to freeze action. The same is true of animals in motion, just like people moving too.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 14:52

@JavaCake - Mostly because IS is of little use to you and will save you money. Stabilization compensates for photographers movements never subjects. You will be in very bright light with almost no shade in sight except on Isabella. For a similar reason, I own the non-IS version for sports photography.

Itai

Jun 17, 2012 14:52

The 70-200mm particularly is an excellent value and Canon made it nice to offer 4 versions. Specifically, the L4 non-IS is at a very reasonable price.