what photography related item did you buy this week?

[Erich_H]

I use that its very good even if tests take a good while.

It just works. There's no shortcut in testing these things...

 

[agentlossing]

Bought a 28mm manual prime for Pentax K.

 

[John M Flores]

I've been itching to get a Ricoh GR but I'm traveling so little during the pandemic that I really can't justify it. Last year, I bought stuff that isn't getting used much. But I just bought Apurture LED lights. Plan on shooting more video this year and I can use them to up my Zoom game.

 

[MiguelATF]

This is my 2nd Lumix 20mm pancake. The first was v.1 and lived more or less full time first on my old GM5, and then on the GM1 which replaced it. Then both the camera and the lens were gifted to a fellow photographer... and I found myself missing the lens. This new version is the v.2 iteration - and I suspect it may wind up 'living' on my Pen F for the foreseeable future ---

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[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

Leave it over night on your backup PC!

Babysitting H2testw when testing my fake 1 TB USB sticks would have given me even more hairloss than I have already...

And you know that watching the computer do something makes it take a lot longer!

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[jhawk1000]

I've been itching to get a Ricoh GR but I'm traveling so little during the pandemic that I really can't justify it. Last year, I bought stuff that isn't getting used much. But I just bought Apurture LED lights. Plan on shooting more video this year and I can use them to up my Zoom game.

My wife loves the Aputure LED lights for the light painting of cars.

 

[Erich_H]

View attachment 870809

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This test I would rely upon. Good buy. At least these two.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

Does this count?

I've had a Nokia 9 PureView for the past 18 months. I've liked it but haven't loved it. Battery life's getting worse and the charging port's becoming flakey. I called around to get quotes on a repair, one place said 8 weeks IF they could get parts (but won't know until they've ordered them after I've paid a deposit) and two other places laughed at me, so decided I was due for an upgrade.

Personally I don't care about phones or consumer tech (outside cameras) but camera reviewers love smart phone cameras, so it counts.

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[John King]

When my phone kept running out of memory due to Google updates of apps I never use, and cannot remove, I bought a new one last year. Old phone was 5.5 y.o., a ZTE T83. Still works excellently as a phone.

My new phone is a ZTE T86 (Telstra Tough Max 3). Battery lasts 6-7 days. It's IP68 rated, has fabulous reception, and is all but indestructible. Even the camera is quite good.

Pretty fast WiFi at around ~500 Mbps.

Fortunately, ZTE learned their lesson, and it comes with the bare minimum of Google bloatware apps.

It just upgraded from Android 9.x to 10.x with no particular issues.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

Fortunately, ZTE learned their lesson, and it comes with the bare minimum of Google bloatware apps.

Got I hate Android bloatware. That's why I went with a Pixel.

Nokias are part of the Android One program, which is good in theory, it's basically pure Android, no bloat, but they're still slow with OS updates. There's still no Nokia phones on the market that are running Android 11, and the Nokia 9 replacement has been delayed until later this year (if it comes at all, Light were making the camera before they exited the smart phone market).

The Android One website also shows really old phones, so I'm guessing in typical Google fashion it's been abandonned, like the Nexus and Google Play Edition programs they came before it.

 

[John King]

@Angus Gibbins The ZTE T86 comes with a 256GB micro-SD slot + 64GB internal. Something to spend several years worth of accumulated gift cards on!

Does Google still not provide an external memory slot, Angus? Or have they finally decided to allow users to choose how to use their own phones ...

Most third party s/w will happily run from the card these days.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

Does Google still not provide an external memory slot, Angus?

Don't know, don't care. I'm using >50GB so the 128GB internal memory is more than enough for me.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

Got I hate Android bloatware. That's why I went with a Pixel.

Nokias are part of the Android One program, which is good in theory, it's basically pure Android, no bloat, but they're still slow with OS updates. There's still no Nokia phones on the market that are running Android 11, and the Nokia 9 replacement has been delayed until later this year (if it comes at all, Light were making the camera before they exited the smart phone market).

The Android One website also shows really old phones, so I'm guessing in typical Google fashion it's been abandonned, like the Nexus and Google Play Edition programs they came before it.

It's pretty much the same with hardware as well ... it's like Google got hit by amnesia after they said: Don't be evil

 

[Angus Gibbins]

It's pretty much the same with hardware as well ... it's like Google got hit by amnesia after they said: Don't be evil

What gives me the shits is when they replace a perfectly good product with an inferior product.

I was happily using Google Play Music for years, which they replaced with YouTube Music last year.

This is fine, however YouTube Music has a few problems. Uploaded music and music added from the YouTube Music library are completely segregated with no way of combining them in a single view.

I can live with that though, but what is far and away more annoying than anything else, is when you're casting to ChromeCast or Google Home speakers (I have a few Google Home Maxes setup in my house which I bought before the migration to YouTube Music, they were great for cranking music through during the first COVID lockdown), YouTube Music puts a 2-3 second gap between songs which is extremely jarring. I listen to music in albums, and the albums I listen to are written to be listened to as a full, complete album and not a selection of tracks. Google Play Music didn't do this, so it's a perfectly feasible problem to solve.

It's also 2021 FFS. There's no excuse for having a music player that puts a gap between songs.

Also, don't get me started on Google Home/Nest. Home/Nest feels like a product that Google so they can say they're in the same market as Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit. There's so many problems with it it's not funny.

Also don't get me started about how limited Google Gsuite (now Workspace) Google Accounts compared to free Google Account. I ended up ditching G Suite for my email last year, got a $20 a year mailbox from my domain provider and connected it to a free Gmail account using their POP/SMTP connectors. It's a bit messy, but it works and it's not arbitrarily limited.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

What gives me the shits is when they replace a perfectly good product with an inferior product.

I was happily using Google Play Music for years, which they replaced with YouTube Music last year.

This is fine, however YouTube Music has a few problems. Uploaded music and music added from the YouTube Music library are completely segregated with no way of combining them in a single view.

I can live with that though, but what is far and away more annoying than anything else, is when you're casting to ChromeCast or Google Home speakers (I have a few Google Home Maxes setup in my house which I bought before the migration to YouTube Music, they were great for cranking music through during the first COVID lockdown), YouTube Music puts a 2-3 second gap between songs which is extremely jarring. I listen to music in albums, and the albums I listen to are written to be listened to as a full, complete album and not a selection of tracks. Google Play Music didn't do this, so it's a perfectly feasible problem to solve.

It's also 2021 FFS. There's no excuse for having a music player that puts a gap between songs.

Also, don't get me started on Google Home/Nest. Home/Nest feels like a product that Google so they can say they're in the same market as Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit. There's so many problems with it it's not funny.

Also don't get me started about how limited Google Gsuite (now Workspace) Google Accounts compared to free Google Account. I ended up ditching G Suite for my email last year, got a $20 a year mailbox from my domain provider and connected it to a free Gmail account using their POP/SMTP connectors. It's a bit messy, but it works and it's not arbitrarily limited.

I feel your pain, I had/still have plenty of problems with Google myself ... not as many as Microsoft but I will keep that bunny slaughter for when I'm about to go nu-chi-lar on the next Windows update

Funny enough right now I am in the market for a new phone because my old Samsung Note 8 got smashed last September (my the client I used to work for) and I lived with a gaping hole in the screen but yesterday got another shard jumping out of the phone and now it's sharp as hell. I would love to get another Samsung Note but Samsung decided to kill that line permanently and slap the new S21 series with a pen in an external case that you need to buy both together ... and I still hate the geniuses who came up with slapping a black hole in the middle of your screen and call it a technological improvement, I hate all the notched phones that have come so far ... but alas I have no choice but to get one because I dislike rapid aging phones and medium performance that lasts 6-12 months after a few updates. And blessed be Google for the genius move to put a mid-range chip in their new Pixel 5 that performers at best with the cheaper Pixel 4a and has features that are basically downgrade compared to Pixel 4 and 4 XL or that even the cheaper 4a has ... all your for the mindboggling price of 600 £ ... no thanks.

And it came to this, for as much as I dislike Apple and their arrogant attitude and shady lockdown practices ... to end up think of buying an iPhone 12.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

old Samsung Note 8 got smashed last September (my the client I used to work for)

Sounds like there's a good story here

I haven't used them in a while but I hate Samsung phones. Their interface used to look like a clown vomited on it.

I loved my iPhone (and Mac) back in the day but I just couldn't justify the price any more. Computers and phones are now very utilitarian for me. I have no interest in hacking, endless customisation or whatever the cool kids are doing with them these days.

Once I've installed Lightroom, Photoshop and a few other apps I'm pretty much done.

 

[John King]

A phone is, well, a phone, first and foremost!

My requirements are straightforward:

Must have excellent reception, everywhere

Must have excellent battery life >5 days of 'normal' use

Must be nearly indestructible, waterproof to at least IP68 standard.

Must have decent internal RAM

Must have a card slot

Preferably have a decent camera, but not critical.

Must not have every imaginable Google app installed, and not uninstallable without rooting the phone.

My ZTE T86 does all these things, and well.

It cost me nothing to upgrade, as recompense for Telstra stuffing up the phone's WiFi until they upgraded the firmware in their modems, which took a couple of months.

 

[Brownie]

A phone is, well, a phone, first and foremost!

My requirements are straightforward:

Must have excellent reception, everywhere

Must have excellent battery life >5 days of 'normal' use

Must be nearly indestructible, waterproof to at least IP68 standard.

Must have decent internal RAM

Must have a card slot

Preferably have a decent camera, but not critical.

Must not have every imaginable Google app installed, and not uninstallable without rooting the phone.

My ZTE T86 does all these things, and well.

It cost me nothing to upgrade, as recompense for Telstra stuffing up the phone's WiFi until they upgraded the firmware in their modems, which took a couple of months.

My requirements are far more straight forward. My phone must make calls, receive calls, and cost me nothing for the phone or the service. Since my company pays for it, I have accomplished all of those.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

A Lumix cap for my 25mm 1.7, and clear UV filters for my PL duo. Can't believe I still qualified for free shipping, but maybe B&H has me on their high-roller list.

 

[Erich_H]

^^^^^^ phone troubles and tribulations:

Basically my UMiDIGI A5Pro for $70 sounds pretty good after reading all about your problems.

The only one of you that seems to have it in hand is @John King! Of course, I'm only on A9, but it's clean, and my firewall still autostarts. And I have a pretty good Sony camera sensor. Also, when I do need to root it, it's easy peasy.

My Nokia Android One (now on A10) disabled the autostart of my firewall. And I'm with @Angus Gibbins totally on the Samsung Android shell! Samsung OneUI gives me an itch where the sun don't shine. My Samsung Note 10 Plus made me happiest when I sold it off.

And iPhone make me sick just pronouncing the word.