Show your new toys Topic

tinyitx

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 25, 2018
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2,338
Seeing those camera pics reminds me of my very very old friends (a Nikon FM2 and a Leica M6) who are now well kept in storage. One of these days I need to summon them up. These days I do not even touch my point-and-shoot camera. My phone is my camera.?
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
Seeing those camera pics reminds me of my very very old friends (a Nikon FM2 and a Leica M6) who are now well kept in storage. One of these days I need to summon them up. These days I do not even touch my point-and-shoot camera. My phone is my camera.?
Yeah, the DSLR gets brought out either when I want good quality photos of something or when I need capabilites it has that my phone lacks (such as fast shutter speeds, good manual controls, tolerable low light performance even at high ISO, color reproduction, etc). My phone is still by far my main camera, and after I got my Moto One Zoom I'm a multi sensor/lens phone camera convert. Especially for the price, it delivers amazing quality. Even the "telephoto" is highly usable (81mm equivalent optically, but it goes to ~260mm with digital zoom, which while pretty bad for stills is surprisingly tolerable for video), which I wouldn't really have believed before I tried it. The telephoto option has probably increased the amount of phone pictures I take by 5-10x. IMO the standard phone wide angle ~23-28mm focal length is about the most boring focal length possible - not wide enough to be wide, nowhere near normal, and absolutely useless for capturing anything but landscapes if it's more than 3m away. Good for capturing daily life and all-round use, but nothing beyond that. Still, things like animal or bird photography on a phone is still a complete pipe dream, and while current phones do a lot of good stuff with computational photography there's still far more headroom to get a good landscape or street photo out of something with a sensor with higher native dynamic range. Which is why I can't see myself leaving the DSLR behind any time soon.
 

MultiDoc

Airflow Optimizer
Feb 2, 2018
304
197
Finally i got around setting up my SHIIT HEL tonight. Got it a few weeks ago to pair it up with the Audeze headphones. And man what a nice difference it makes! Very pleased. I also plugged in the speakers on the HEL too.
Now I can hear details I couldn’t previously with my Audeze.
 
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AlexTSG

Master of Cramming
Jun 17, 2018
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Got some tax money back, so I finally ordered that telephoto lens I've been drooling over ever since it launched - Pentax HD DA 55-300mm ED PLM WR RE (yes, the camera world might be the only place you'll find even more abbreviations than in the PC world). Love how compact it is, and the range is exceptional for the size - 450mm equivalent at the long end (K-70 has an APS-C sensor with 1.5x crop factor). The PLM focus motor is lightning fast, which will make this excellent for birds and animals, and the weather resistance is a big plus too. It's pretty sad how Pentax seems to be fading out of the DSLR market, their gear always has some unique selling points that their competitors never come close to. But at least I've got an excellent camera for the next decade or so (K-70) and now almost all the glass I could want for it too. Just "need" a replacement for my rather poor wide-angle, but given that the only option is ~$1500 that'll have to wait a while.

That's an amazingly compact lens for an APS-C sensor. I have the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk2 which has a M43 sensor, and the F2.8 40-150mm I've had on my wish list for a while is bigger than that, with less effective zoom. However, I may not buy more lenses for my Olympus now that there's news of them selling their imaging business before the end of the year. :(

Finally i got around setting up my SHIIT HEL tonight. Got it a few weeks ago to pair it up with the Audeze headphones. And man what a nice difference it makes! Very pleased. I also plugged in the speakers on the HEL too.
Now I can hear details I couldn’t previously with my Audeze.

Really nice DAC/AMP! I saw a review of it on Joshua Valour's channel a few months ago and he had great things to say about it, in fact I think he uses one himself now. Here's the video if you haven't seen it.

 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
Got some parts for the upcoming HTPC build.



Got a good deal on the SSD, and while the RAM was more expensive than if I'd ordered it back when I first started looking at those DIMMs, it was still fine. Hopefully I'll be able to get it up to 3600 or even higher without sacrificing too much in terms of timings. It is Micron "E-die" at least.

I've been sitting on the Lazer3D HT5, ArchDaemon and EPS-200-12C since September last year, so it's about time. Now I just need AMD to get around to launching Renoir for the desktop. A self-designed mounting bracket for using an Arctic Accelero S1 as a CPU cooler is on the way, courtesy of @aquelito (massively grateful for that). Only missing the APU and motherboard, currently leaning towards the cheap ASRock option, though I'm a bit wary of how well it will handle a mild iGPU overclock. That's also the least likely board to get any amount of reviews, so that's annoying, but prices here in Norway are really high at the moment and I don't really see much benefit of splurging on a more expensive board for this build. The Gigabyte is the next cheapest option and looks better in pretty much every regard, but the price jump is noticeable, and the CPU socket is closer to the board edge, meaning my cooler will overhang more. I'll have to check if it will interfere too much with other things, but sadly I think so.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
@Valantar what's your plan for input? I have a Logitech K400+ that's pretty good for a HTPC, but not if you plan to play any games. Unless touchpad gaming is a thing, and I'm just really bad at it...
We've got a Microsoft Wedge Keyboard and some small Logitech mouse (M330 Silent IIRC) for the current setup, and they'll both likely carry over. Having the mouse separate is useful as the keyboard is only used sporadically (it's not like a HTPC sees much writing, chat, or other typing). The M330 tracks great on the couch (pretty rough fabric) or living room table. Whenever the living room gaming urge strikes I'll either plug in a controller (Rocket League is likely to be one of the main games here) or just bring in my gaming mouse and keyboard from the office. The only real drawback is that the keyboard is BT and doesn't work in the BIOS of the current setup, though I've heard that some modern BT chipsets save the connected devices and allow them to connect before the OS loads - that would definitely be a nice thing to have if true, though it's by no means a deal breaker.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
Guess these might also qualify as toys: got some new DSA-profile retro-colored PBT keycaps for the Masterkeys Pro S. Kind of wish they were doubleshot for backlighting, but us Norwegians can't be very picky when it comes to keycaps - finding a nice kit in ISO is difficult enough, Nordic or Norwegian ISO is next to impossible. The feel and texture of the caps is great, and the look too. Typing on DSA-profile keys? A dream. The rounded profile makes the fingers glide across the keys. Typing noise is comparable to the old keys, though the spacebar is a bit loud - too much empty space for reverberations inside of it I guess. Might stick some foam in there or something. Backlighting looks okay around the keys, though anything with color predictably looks like ass.

The only real regret is that the frame is a bit too much of a contrast for my liking. Might paint it at some point, though losing the soft-touch finish would be a shame.
 
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AlexTSG

Master of Cramming
Jun 17, 2018
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I clearly haven't spend enough time on these forums as I wasn't even aware of the Lone L5. It looks fantastic, and prompted me to go and find the thread for it. Now I want one! Sadly, I don't actually have a requirement for anything that small, but I still want it!
 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
2,702
I clearly haven't spend enough time on these forums as I wasn't even aware of the Lone L5. It looks fantastic, and prompted me to go and find the thread for it. Now I want one! Sadly, I don't actually have a requirement for anything that small, but I still want it!
Surprised you missed it. It is a super cool case but like you I just don't need anything that small. I wish he would make one that supported full height GPU.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
Surprised you missed it. It is a super cool case but like you I just don't need anything that small. I wish he would make one that supported full height GPU.
Yeah, that's a big limitation. Also looks to absolutely require an external power brick, which makes me sad.
 
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GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
SFFn Staff
LOSIAS
Jun 29, 2015
2,967
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guilleacoustic.wordpress.com
Yeah, that's a big limitation.

I won't use a dGPU, so no issue.

Also looks to absolutely require an external power brick, which makes me sad.

I don't understand the hate for external PSU. Since your computer will likely require a power cord ... having a small black box inline with it, laying on the floor, hidden by your furniture, ain't a real issue. It allows for way smaller chassis that won't eat all your desk space, allows for front chassis fans (which many SFF chassis lack).
 
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MultiDoc

Airflow Optimizer
Feb 2, 2018
304
197
I have a Wooting One keyboard that also suffers from noise related to its empty base.
I’m planning a complete tear down at some point, involving tape, foam, O-rings, and grease for the stems.
This Imgur gallery is a guide for dampening the base.

Nice to see another fellow Wooting user! I’m waiting for the Lekker a few months now but I love the Wooting, I might devote some time and make it more silent as you say. For now I’m using prints and different key caps that did made things much better.
Let us know how you did the dampening process when you do it!