Actually my life-changing upgrade has been the purchase of a used Olympus TG6. I intended to use it for insect macros (which I do), but since it is water resistant, I thought I try it out. And it is amazing what you can find snorkeling even in the center of Málaga at a so-called family -beach. There are stone dikes in the water (presumably to catch sand) and they are full of life - a whole new world! Next upgrade was a mask combined with tube, which is a lot better than what I got in the chinese junk shop.
My favourite from last year: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94748660
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Getting a camera with GPS was a life changer, all right! Cuts down the observation fiddling a lot and gives me a smaller radius of uncertainty about the location, should I want to go there again.
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…I’m in a place where people are fortunate to make $2 a day, I don’t need an $80 headlamp to show kids the bugs or snakes they can find in their comuna.
There’s enough people with $12,000 USD camera rigs prairie stomping (and often doing much worse when they’re not on a bird tour or doing field work here) in impoverished communities in this country and other places like it, that’s simply not my style…
I am strongly opposed to conspicuous consumption and the current capitalist system in general and I am not going to hide that, if my politics offend you, that’s your own business.
@sunguramy is a freaking boss, an incredibly talented naturalist with a wealth of experience, on paper, in/out of the field as well as in communities like iNat, and much more of an accomplished naturalist than I would ever dream of me. They’re an adult and can hang, and also capable of flagging me or let me know if I’ve been offensive, or abusive, she doesn’t need a savior to retort every reply to every comment on this forum.
This forum is properly moderated, if I’m out of line, there are plenty of committed people reading countless posts who have been entrusted to let me or other’s know if that occurs.
Cheers!
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Good for you speaking up.
After my most recent (cheap) pair of binoculars went kaput, at first I felt nearsighted. But as the years went on, I adapted to going without. I can’t ID every bird, but I can ID a lot of them “with the naked eye.” Not having binoculars taught me to look differently at birds; and it also means that I can spend more time watching what the bird is doing rather than trying to figure out where to point my binoculars to find it.
Not to put too fine a point on it, one of the major barriers between “citizen” and “science” is the expense of equipment. Most of us don’t have access to a laboratory to do gel electrophoresis or gas chromatography; and we certainly are never going to be operating an undersea ROV over the continental slope. Scientific research that uses such equipment can only be done by scientists who have the academic clout to obtain sufficient funding. If the point of iNaturalist is to connect ordinary people with nature, it is counterproductive to suggest that expensive equipment is needed.
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I would then start with stopping suggesting iPhones when they cost like 20 other smartphones.)
From my experience, buying a headlamp was a huge upgrade, I see several pluses: easy to spot insects that reflect light, easy to spot serial killer in the bushes, can work a week on lowlight so no need to spare batteries in remote places, hopefully will work longer than cheaper ones (I hope for many years and on), so I see it as buying a pair of good boots, you save on not buying a new pair each year. If someone goes alone at night, I would recommend finding something with bigger light just to not get insane from all the noises, otherwise anything fits that just generates enough light that is comfortable for your eyes, or you can get them very tired.
But, I’m also pretty sure that blinking on photos comes from light exposure setting, not from a quality of light source.
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I suspect your values and mine are very close together. I am also strongly opposed to conspicuous consumption. I try to live as simply as possible. I’m not offended by your politics. I don’t know you, your circumstances, or @sunguramy, nor was I trying to be a saviour or police comments. The comment just sounded a little snarky, so I offered a reminder. That’s all. If you wish to take offense at that it is also your business. I do apologise, however, if it came across in the wrong way.
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I think I have a tendency to oversimplify some of my comments in the name of expedience. I don’t think I articulated my original comment about my issues with lighting very, well, I have a background in audio production and I still often use cross-industry jargon or slang that doesn’t always come across perfectly, and can lead to confusion, sometimes my english sucks as bad the other languages I butcher on the daily…
You’re completely right, iphones are super expensive to purchase standalone, a lot of folks in the US have the cost of a new phone integrated into their monthly bill so the pain of buying an $800 dollar phone is spread out over a year…
I’m prone to over-generalize and assume I’m speaking to a western audience with ample fiscal flexibility, this is my mistake. However, I believe a used or refurbished iphone 6 can be acquired for about the cost of the cheapest models Samsung offers (like my bottom of the line A02!) There’s no magic to the lenses, and I hate Apple and corporations of the same ilk, but for some applications, it just works, also a lot of their hardware has some degree of water resistance, which even if you don’t plan on dropping your phone in a creek, is extremely important for long term use in an around damp environments like coastal, insular or inter tidal areas.
My intent was to remind users that they may already have an awesome camera that excels in various applications, without the need to purchase additional hardware, some folks upgrade their phones regularly and keep the old one(s) around the house for a “rainy day”… again, my assumption based on my experience, I think having a “field device” is game changer, especially for birders or folks that utilize other database apps that utilize a lot of memory on the device (the full version of Merlin’s Ecuador database is almost 4 GB!) but having a fast phone that can load an audio recording app super quick can be a gamechanger for folks trying to learn bird calls, or figure out whatever weird bird is waking them up at 5:30a every day…
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I apologize. I’m a little crabby towards any sort of authority right now, (and in general) and have a tendency to resist it at all costs, despite how arbitrary that may be on my part.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Batteries and how the brightness of the light is regulated make the largest difference. Flickering is caused by pulse with modulation rather than current regulation. Battery choice tells a lot about the actual quality of the light and what the true lumens and runtime are actually gonna be. Light manufacturers like to promise huge things on bad tech (looking at u major outdoor brands found in any european or US outdoor shop >_>….petzl, black diamond, etc).
To me; a way to combat consumerism is to
- try to support local business that are not huge chains; and if not possible, buy from the company direct instead of thru amazon or such (ex most light manufacturers are actually small business with internet presence)
- buy quality whenever one can - for lights this doesn’t mean more, just different. It usually doesnt mean more $$ if you can afford the research time (which yes i know time can be an access barrier in and of itself). It also means less throw away waste - quality doesnt have to be costly it can also mean a good deal that is cared for. Ex i got my main daypack on clearance from camelbak in 2011. Still using it. The holes that have developed over the more than a decade i put patches on it I bought from indigenous artists to fix them. The quality base meant i was able to patch to keep using!
I didnt really touch on battery type so I will…
Simply putting it: AAA batteries have very little energy. Approx four AAA are the power of a single AA. In addition, cell chemistry matters. Alkalines yes look like they have a higher voltage but thats not measured under load. As soon as they are under load (like, in a headlamp!) they fall off very quickly, their loss curve is emmense, and most Popular In Store brands are gonna be at best 50% of their listed brightness within a half hour (despite those long runtimes ;) ). Switching to a quality rechargable cell like eneloops actually provides more under load, and has a very slow mostly flat drop off curve that means your light stays the rated brightness for the stated time. Eneloops are a low self discharge rechargable. Initially they will set you back for two sets and a good charger but over the life of the cell you save a LOT of money and you arent throwing away a ton of batteries in the process. Cheaper in your pocket, better for the enviornment, and far better light even without a light upgrade. I can post an article my partner wrote that is more technical if people want.
(BTW Most issues with rechargables that have people scared of them, or worried about performance, are from early days before low self discharge technology.)
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@lordcaravan @mamestraconfigurata
I was slightly put off by lords one comment cause this thread is for ideas but figured it was a bad day and moved on and it is a good reminder that not everyone who has internet has the same access to physical things. We are all just trying to help each other. I bet our politics if you can call it that rather align quite well on whole, and what I try to remember is there are many kinds of barriers - both to gear, and to being a naturalist at all - and so as long as we share knowledge and ideas without judgement of the choices other make its all good :) im queer in the US south for example and I have plenty of access issues to contend with; but not like my bipoc friends who want to get into biology, and none of our struggles look identical to someones who is in a different country. :)
Tldr: im fine and was shocked to be tagged so much today xD im glad this is a diverse caring community and have no problems here :)
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All is good. I also tend to resist any sort of authority, so we are probably more alike than not!
Queremos paz.
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That is also what I like about this group - we really do want to help each other.
I did a MSc in Development Practice about a decade ago (I could not find work, but that is another matter) so am fairly cognizant of the barriers faced by people in the non-rich world. I am not queer, but have a sense of the problems you and others may face. I know, an like, a lot of queer people on iNat. It must be hard for you in the US south right now.
I have a little background in power electronics, so there’s a little more to it than just PWM. Most flashlights use some kind of on/off regulation, even the ones that flicker.
I’m assuming most flashlights that are discussed are LED. For most of these, the battery is 3.0 to 4.5V, depending on the battery type: Lithium or Alkaline. The emitter (LED) usually has a voltage drop of 2.7 to 4.2V, depending on manufacturer, etc. Historically, this forward voltage (VF) has been dropping as technology improves, meaning longer battery life.
This means that the power regulator has to drop a higher voltage from the battery to a lower voltage on the emitter.
PWM (pulse width modulation) is used to do this by connecting the battery to emitter for less than 100% of the time. For example if the battery is 4.0V and the emitter needs 3.0V, this means PWM is on 75% of the time. This is called the duty cycle.
When PWM is used, it’s typically done at a fixed frequency. For example, if it’s running at 100Hz to connect/disconnect the battery, it does it 100 times/second.
Not all flashlights use PWM, some connect the battery to emitter for a fixed period of time and disconnect for a variable amount of time or vice-versa. For example connect for 30 ms and disconnect for 10 ms means 30 ms/40 ms duty cycle of 75% as above.
A popular strategy in low power/low quality flashlights is to avoid on/off regulation by putting a resistor between the battery and emitter, no flicker but wastes power and can be a fire hazard for higher power emitters.
Most good quality flashlights use closed-loop regulation, where they monitor the current that’s being put into the emitter since most LED manufacturers recommend powering LEDs with a constant current.
The one problem with on/off regulation is that the emitter is literally being turned on and off very quickly. Lower quality flashlights try to hide this by increasing the frequency to a high enough rate that most people don’t notice.
The technically correct way to do this is to use a component called an inductor, which can be used to smooth out the on/off into a steady current. Because it costs more money to include one, some manufacturers don’t.
The other big benefit to smoothing out the current is that the emitter sees lower peak current so it doesn’t wear out and age as quickly.
TLDR:
More expensive flashlight lasts longer and has higher quality power regulation.
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Theres a reason i have a cave specific light build on my helmet 
set me back a bit but light is everything underground; and a decade later Im still using it because its robust and solid and I get four to six hours before needing a battery change out (2 x 18650 cells in the battery pack) depending on my usage (large passage = brighter setting). Its actually getting the point i need to make myself a new battery pack because the cells are old and there are better ones now with higher capacity as well.
But it was before the Zebralight era which are now kinda the standard in caving to get a spot and a flood (one 18650 in each, i think its their H600 series can pick color temp and get high cri if desired) to mount on front of helmet and run on desired mix. For caves, having spot and flood is super helpful because of passage differences; often running a mix of the two gives the right balance of forward throw and good view at ones feet! Personally though; i dont like the forward weight, and prefer my build that has battery pack in back so my helmet is balanced. Im really picky that way though. My backup is a Zebralight though!
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Check your cameras for back/front focus, it’s a known issue, but can be overlooked, I thought I had shake hands, apparently it was 10 steps from being at least decent, so do some tests and change it if needed.
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Is this when focus is on background and subject is blurred, or something specific to DSLR cameras?
Yes, it’s when you focus on one thing and see it clearly in a viewfinder, but a result photo has focus either closer or further from that spot, I don’t think it’s specific to DSLR, but not all cameras have settings to adjust that.
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It’s mostly (or only?) DSLRs. Basically, the camera focuses via the mirror that’s in front of the sensor, then compensates for the difference between the mirror and the actual sensor plane. Because the camera body and lenses are not perfect but are built within certain tolerances, they might slightly differ than the standard difference between the mirror and sensor. Thus, you can dial in an offset to make up for this. There are a ton of YouTube videos for how to pick the right offset number.
Because mirrorless cameras focus directly on the sensor, theoretically this shouldn’t be an issue, and it hasn’t been for me, although some companies still provide a calibration offset for their mirrorless cameras.
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But there’re non-DSLRs with changing lenses, so I expect them to have this problem too, it happens because of connection of camera and lens, as cameras operate differently with different lenses and can work ideally with one and not with another.
For my camelbak (love it) I place bladder on a Plastic Bag and Bottle Dryer (Amazon) sop up any water that collects on bottom lip till dry. I separate the tube, hold the mouthpiece open to drain and Spin around in a centrifuge style till most water spins out. Store both in gallon freezer bag in the freezer.
Works great, if I use it a few days or forget to clean right away I use a tiny amount of dishwashing soap and rinse really, really well. They sell a camelbak cleaning kit with super long brush for tubing and also cleaning tabs.
I originally bought my camelbak for use during the City Nature Challenge. If you put a bunch of ice in it it keeps the water wonderfully cold for the day.
When my phone overheats I drop it next to the cool bladder for a while.
I usually have water to spare and can freshen dried out mosses or lichens with a splash for a better photo. (I use filtered water)
I bought the biggest one, don’t fill for shorter hikes, nice extra storage for necessities and if you iced it up is cooling on the back. Keeps hands free.
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