Grant Robertson

Well, there's not really much to "investigate." It's kind of a well known thing that everyone just doesn't think about or talk about. Everyone kinda "knows" that none of the water around here is safe to actually get in. (One lake is literally nicknamed "Lake Nastywater.") I see posts on Facebook where people ask, "Is there any clean water nearby that my kids can swim in?" And the answer is always 50-100 miles away. I guess it's just the continued facade in the face of global warming that is "interesting" to me. The richest people in town still have their houses all along the far side of that "river." It makes me wonder if it was always nothing but a trickle. Or, was there really a river there, in the far distant past, and they started damming it up as the flow rate dropped. That's the direction where any research would go. But I'm sure the nice people at the library could answer my questions in an afternoon. Though, I'd rather not trouble them until I know I am actually going to do something with all of that. Interestingly, all of this is actual good for wildlife. I've seen two Great Blue Herons on one walk. A lot more water plants get a lot more use out of that water than they would if it was just a trickle in a ditch all the way along. And, as I said, that treated sewage water is "safe" for regular wildlife purposes. I just wouldn't want to swim in it. But... I've never made even the the simplest edited video before. And I've got LOTS of other things on my plate right now. Right now, I'm working on figuring out color management, and RawTherapee, Photools IMatch (DAM software), Davinci Resolve Studio, and the Affinity suite (all because I refuse to rent software), plus some of the more esoteric aspects of setting up and using my A7R2. Not to mention saving up for that a6700 that I am now salivating over. (That would be the first camera that I could truly use for video, because of the new, extended, 13-hour limit.) I'm retired now, and I have "all the time in the world." But, even though (or perhaps because) I'm a former network manager and former technical writer, I've grown very weary of slogging my way through terrible documentation. And, I kind of feel as if I have landed myself in a photogenic desert. Compared to Kansas City, MO, where I grew up, this town is exceedingly ugly. If I forced myself to do a photo-essay about this place, the title would have to be "Dessication." Plus, it's hot as hell down here in West Texas. So, I am focusing on learning what I need to learn, maybe writing a book or two, and saving up for that a6700, while I wait for my lease to be up and try to move to some place with real water. While I appreciate your encouragement, the best way people can help me right now will be to help answer all the insanely detailed questions that I will be asking in the coming months. Thanks for listening...

I'm poor. So, my wishlist is/was rather simple. I have been wishing that Sony would come out with a successor to the a6600, so that the used price of the a6600 would finally start coming down. I wanted to get the a6600 as a second camera to shoot multi-cam videos for some simple YouTube training type videos. My A7R2 and my old Olympus TG-4 only have 30 minute limits, and that would be a pain to constantly keep stopping and restarting both cameras. The a6600 was going to be the camera that I could just set up and have it keep running through an entire filming session, using my other cameras for close-ups or special angles. BUT..... Sony went and released the a6700! Damn them! It's too freaking good! Now I want to get one of those instead of a used a6600! I would end up using the a6700 as my primary camera and then treat my A7R2 as if it were a "large format" camera, using it for my "special photography." While being able to carry the a6700 around with me all the time. Now, I have to save up for a few more months. I will never forgive them! 😂

In the small, West Texas town that I have found myself in, there is a "river" that runs through just north of downtown. However, it is actually merely a tiny trickle of a stream with over a dozen strategically placed dams to make it into a series of very long, wide "ponds." Here is a tiny YouTube video showing said trickle. Then... they literally release their treated sewage water into this "river-pond" via a series of "fountain-ish" waterfalls, along their version of a "River Walk." The flow rate of the treated water is about four times the flow rate of said trickle. This means that the water in these "river ponds" is about 80% treated sewage water. Now, I used to literally work at a water treatment plant, so I recognized the smell of the treated water immediately. Usually, it is perfectly safe, but still smells, let's just say, "Off." And, you never know when something will go wrong and the treatment plant will let more bacteria get through than it should. So, that would be my documentary. Probably not quite what you were expecting, i'm guessing. I guess, one of the reasons I'm a little cynical about this issue, is that part of what sold me on this town was that they, supposedly, have water, when most of West Texas does not. The pictures look great. But they hide a rather lame secret.

As a former technical writer, I had to clock the link to figure out that you weren't just talking about really tiny documents. Doh! Maybe I need to start drinking coffee again. But, yeah. Mini-documentaries would be a very interesting thing to try.

I would have the same question for the new a6700. It has focus bracketing, but will that only work for natural light or, perhaps, continuous lighting?

First of all, you haven't told us what camera you have. Secondly, what you are referring to as the "Multifunction Dial" is actually referred to as the "Multifunction Wheel" in most of the Sony documentation that I have seen. That may sound overly pedantic, but this kind of miscommunication confuses people all the time. I remember it this way: You can see all of the wheel, just like a steering wheel, or the wheel of a car or bicycle. The "dials" are more like the dials on an old AM radio: You can only see one edge. On my A7R2, there is no such setting. There is Custom Settings (gear), Page 7, Dial Setup, but that only switches which dial controls aperture or shutter speed. However, perhaps you are simply thinking about it "backwards" (differently from the engineers who designed it). I think of the direction of the wheel like this: Clockwise makes the setting go "up." If you make the ISO go up, you get a brighter image. Or, you could think about what the top of the wheel is doing, instead of the right side of the wheel. For the wheel and both dials, "going" to the right increases the value of the setting. This works when you consider the top of the wheel and whichever edge you can touch of whichever dial you are adjusting. For me, this makes it more consistent in my mind. This even corresponds to which direction the appropriate marker moves in the on-screen display. When I move the front dial to the right (the edge of it that I can touch), the shutter speed numeric value (that we think about) goes up, and the marker in the on-screen display moves right. (Yes, I know, shutter speed and aperture are fractions and the actual value goes down as the denominator goes up. But literally no one thinks or talks about it that way. 1/125 of a second is faster than 1/60. f/1.4 is technically wider than f/22, but everyone thinks and talks about f/1.4 as a "lower f-stop." Don't think yourself into a hole trying to be too technical.) Also, don't think about the dials and wheel "making the picture brighter or darker." With three controls, changing three settings, and those settings sometimes working in opposition, and with auto and program modes taking over sometimes, "up" may not always equal "brighter." It's better to get a slightly better idea of what each major exposure setting does to the overall picture considering what mode you have the camera set to.

After decades of doing without a viewfinder, I will never buy a camera without one again. I carefully compared all the Sony e-mount cameras that are anywhere near my price range, and the a6600 is the best fit for me. I wish it had the side-flip screen (for recording myself) but the top-flip screen will do. I've been watching the prices of used a6600s and waiting for them to drop below $1,000. MPB is down to $999 now. But, of course, I've gotta fix my car now, so...

I don't really see a reason for a separate mobile app. I am using the web site through the browser on my Android tablet right now, and it seems to work just fine.

Where might I find that?

I gave up analog back in the 90s, when I got tired of it costing me $0.50 - $1.00 every time I pressed the shutter release. (I've always been relatively poor.) I spent years waiting till digital cameras both had a high enough resolution to match film and had come down in price enough for me to afford it. (Not everyone can afford $4,000 for a camera.) I made due with phone cameras, an Olympus TG-4 (because it is waterproof), and even the 256x256 pixel camera in my old Sony Clie, back in the day. Once I got to where I was close to being able to afford a "real" camera, I shopped around and agonized for a couple of years. I finally settled on the A7R2 because of the dynamic range, the electronic viewfinder, the exposure compensation dial, and the 42 megapixels. But mostly the 14 frikkin' stops of dynamic range. I knew the menus would suck, and it has slow continuous shooting, but I don't shoot a lot of action, and I don't need to change a lot of "deep" settings all the time. It was also at the forefront of mirrorless cameras at the time. I was finally able to afford a used A7R2 in the fall of 2020, after working as a Census enumerator in the hot Texas sun for several months in the summer of 2020. I found one used, at Precision Camera, in Austin. The body and a new Tamron 28-200mm lens set me back $2,000, which was actually a little more than I could afford. I have even had times when I was really short on cash. But I have never regretted that purchase. It is finally the camera that I always wanted these past 30 years.

I bought a used A7R2 with a Tamron 28-200mm at Precision Camera in Austin, with some of the money I made doing the Census in 2020. I am seriously considering getting an A6600 with the original E PZ 16-50mm kit lens as a combination, video/vlogging/compact camera in the next few months.

I bought my A7R2 for the dynamic range. I do most of my shooting either in the middle of the desert or in deep forests. Both are very high-contrast areas.

I have an A7R2, so the most important thing in my camera bag is the battery charger!

I am an absolute Ziplock junkie! I keep spare Ziplocks of various sizes all over the place. I especially love the Jumbo size. I noticed lots of people talking about keeping food in their camera bags. My first thought was always, I hope you put all that in a Ziplock too. I, for one, would not like to get melted Gummy Bears all over my camera.

Which bags are those? I tried looking all over the Tenba website but couldn't find that style of bag. (Their website is a pain to look through, so I just gave up.) And, I can't even read the brand name on that other bag, on the right.