So much stuff in this thing. What are all the buttons and knobs? What are they
called? What can you do with them?
At the top of the camera
Function 1 button to the right of the On/Off switch. (The un-labeled one.) It
turns face detection on and off.
The exposure compensation dial is right next to it. This is for when you want
to over-expose or under-expose your photos.
The big dial towards the center is the shutter speed, and ISO dial. More on
this soon … because I admit that I have a lot to learn.
The “hot shoe” is where you can place your external flash (The light. Not the
memory.)
At the front of the camera
Front command dial.
The “function two” button which brings up a menu that allows you to loop
through common settings with the control ring while you are shooting. Eg:
cycling through different “film simulations” you can choose (sepia, black and
white, etc).
An example of the utility of “function two” is providing fast access to
“tele-conv” (or “teleconverter”). To go from “off” to 70mm or 50mm:
Press function two on the front of the camera
Cycle through the options to “tele-conv”
Now when you’re ready to shoot, turn the control ring to zoom in with 50mm
to 70mm modes.
Around the function two button is a little toggle where you can switch
between your optical viewfinder and your electrical viewfinder.
Between the control ring and the body is the aperture ring.
At the very front is where you can attach filters by unscrewing the very tip,
or front of the lense, and placing your filter attachment and filter. Like
the Moment Cinebloom filter, as mentioned in the video.
To the left of the camera
The focus mode switch where you can select “manual focus”, which turns your
control ring on to focus your shot, well … manually. Clicking on the dial in
the back of the camera, at the top and on the right, to zoom in.
“Continuous” is great for when you’re shooting moving objects.
“Single” is better for shooting things like portraits.
The back of the camera
The viewfinder and the diopter immediately to the left where you can adjust the
focus of the viewfinder. Immediately to the right is the sensor that will turn
the screen off if you’re placing your eye up to the viewfinder.
The “Drive/Delete” button which will display the menu to switch between
different shooting modes - most common for selecting whether you’re in “Still
Image” or “Movie” modes.
“AEL / AFL” button, is the exposure and focus lock button.
The rear command dial to the furthest right at the top controls the shutter
speed.
The little “Q” button on the edge of the back, on the right side, is the “quick
menu button”. This gives you quick access to different settings so you don’t
have to dig through all the different deep menu settings. You use the little
joystick to move around to the different quick menu items and then cycle
through each of them with the rear command dial.
Earlier in the year there were a glut of videos on social media about this new
Fujifilm X100VI camera that people were freaking out about. I fell down into
the rabbit hole, read many reviews, and watched my fair share of videos. Having
walked around a little bit with a Nikon DSLR many years ago, something about
the size of this little camera paired with the features struck a chord. At that
time I thought, “I must have this”. The issue upon completing said thought was
that this camera, unless you pre-ordered at the moment of its announcement,
would remain on back-order for months.
Undeterred, I placed my order. And I waited.
That was 7 months ago.
…
Last weekend it came in.
Ok. How do I use this thing?
Because, the answer to which, is - I haven’t the foggiest.
Buttons, knobs, dials, switches, gestures. Derp?
I guess I’ll have to figure it out the same way everyone else figures
anything out - by watching YouTube videos. Oh - and for me - by taking
notes. So, here’s where I’ll be posting some associated YouTube videos, along
with anything I find noteworthy enough (for me) for future recall. If you find
this helpful, that’s great. If not, that’s also great.
Stills or Video
Changing the context of how you’re shooting. Always change the settings for
still shots by turning the camera on, pressing Drive/Delete and scrolling and
selecting “Still Image”, versus scrolling all the way down to the bottom and
selecting “Movie”.
You are able to change video settings while still in “Still Image” mode, but
there are different options and settings within the “still image” context that
you can change or further update in the “Movie” context.
As a result, always change the settings for either where it is best applied.
Still Images: Miscellaneous Settings
When going through all of the configuration options, there are some things I
found to be unintuitive. For example:
Under “AF/MF” (Auto-focus / Manual Focus) there are some things that will be
grayed out, or unable to be changed. This may be depending on the focus mode
setting on the left side of the camera body - “M, C, S”. You will have some
things available if you are in “Manual”, or “Continuous”, or “Single” focus
modes.
“AF+MF” - when turned on, will auto-focus first, then allow you to manually
focus after the auto-focus is done.
“MF Assist”, set it to “peak”, with “focus peak highlight” set to
“RED(HIGH)”. This will highlight the areas of the subject in focus within
the lcd with red, well, highlight. When using the manual focus dial this will
provide you a better idea of what is being focused on.
Videos: Miscellaneous Settings
“Movie Settings” / “IS Mode Boost”: Good to turn this “On” if you are
shooting video, and holding the camera still in your hands. If you don’t
have a tripod and it is being held perfectly still, turn this setting on.
Items for Future Research
Film Simulation - the different “looks” and styles you can choose, when
you’re shooting
To say that I’m interested in or curious about object storage in the cloud is an understatement. I work on an app in my spare time that acts as an abstraction layer on top of Amazon S3 (Shubox - go check it out). So, yes, I enjoy looking into anything and everything in that space.
Something that’s been on my radar for a long while now, are the self-hosted S3 clones that have popped up over the last several years. The bigger one of them would have to be Minio. They’ve been around for about 10 years now and have grown themselves into a proper enterprise software solution. Good for them. Being the “on-prem S3 company” is nothing to scoff at.
But I am not of that scale. I am of the … hobbyiest at home … scale. I wouldn’t even register on a scale. Anywho …
The point here, is - you could host an “S3-LIKE” on your home machine(s) and play with it however you like. I’m currently playing with it as an object store for screenshots and images. And so far, so good.
So, how do you run it? Docker’s probably the easiest way.
Where 9001 is the console / “web admin” port, and 9000 is the REST api port
The username and password are admin and password
And the container’s /data directory is mounted in /tmp/data on your machine.
This will get it up and running. You can visit http://localhost:9001 and log into the console with said username and password.
That’s the easiest way to play with it - create buckets, upload files, etc.
Awesome. Now what about working with it from a client machine, with their mc “minio client” utility?
# Let's assume you're on a mac with homebrew
brew install minio-mc
# alias "minio" in the `mc` config to your localhost REST api port, with that username and password
mc alias set minio http://localhost:9000 admin password
# show information about the running instance
mc admin info minio
# make a bucket called `berkit`
mc mb minio/berkit
# copy a file into `berkit`
mc cp photo.jpg minio/berkit
# list files in `berkit`
mc ls minio/berkit
Pretty straightforward. There isn’t much you can’t figure out by running mc --help.
s3cmd ls s3://berkit
s3cmd put index.html s3://berkit
Of course there’s more, but that will give you a sense of how easy it is to tinker with it and see what’s available. If you’d like to look a little further into it, I recommend the “MinIO for Developers” YouTube playlist. There’s quite a bit there.
One thing I’ll mention before closing this out - testing with your favorite FTP, or S3 object storage client. Something like Transmit from Panic. I spent a good bit of time banging my head against the wall trying to get Transmit to connect to my instance of MinIO. Turns out, Transmit will not connect to an “S3-Like” unless it’s got an SSL cert in front of it. There’s no way to tell it to not care (like you can in s3cmd or the native mc client). Once I put port [ip address]:9000 behind a LetsEncrypt cert with a hostname, I was able to point Transmit at it, and it worked out A-OK.
Well, it’s about that time. We are careening to the end of another year, and in addition to the natural impulse to reflect whilst relaxing during the quietest time of the work year, everyone is also publishing their “year in review” blog posts. With how much I enjoy reading these posts from people that are, to be quite honest, perfect strangers - I figure I should contribute, do the same, and give folks a peek into what 2023 looked like for me.
Health
I started the year with no resolutions. No concrete goals. The best I could (would?) do was commit to doing the most, and the best, that I could to keep me and my family healthy. In March, on my birthday, I saw my primary physician for the first time since before the pandemic. From that visit came: full blood work, scheduling the colonoscopy (I am of that age), several visits with a psychiatrist, some therapy (which everyone, I posit, could use more of). Additionally, in March I kicked off working with Form Health as a patient/customer.
The good:
After 20+ years of neglecting a previous diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (no “hyperactive”) I got back on proper medication and was able to operate as – what I imagine to be – a normal human being. Something about writing code for most of my career worked with and through my “quirks”, but the switch to management, all of its meetings, and high-interrupt requirements, did not pair well with the parts of my brain that are off. The lesson here: do the research, recognize the patterns, and don’t make the mistake of considering proper medication a moral failure.
Last winter saw my activity take a dip, and some weight I’d previously lost, was found! The decision to double down on weight-lifting and engaging with Form Health righted the ship. I’m down my lowest number since the turn of the decade, which I’m pleased with. On a similar note to the one above, proper medication contributed to my being able to live a more “normal” human life. I will write more about this in the future as it deserves its own post.
The bad:
For most of the year we battled through a cancer scare in our family. (I won’t get into specifics as some things deserve the privacy 🙂.) I won’t bury the lede, but everyone is ok and we are on the other side of the worst of it. Several procedures and many trips to the doctor have put us in a place where the risk is approaching zero. We’re not there yet, but almost. Needless to say the ordeal was … a lot. As a result I ended up taking some time away from work when everything just got to be too much. I am grateful to work somewhere that views their employees as people with lives both rich and complicated and sometimes rocky, bumpy, overwhelming.
(Of course) our dogs are a large part of our family. In the spring we lost Pearl. She was 12 and had lived a long and wonderful life. To this day we miss her terribly.
This past month my last 2 wisdom teeth were finally pulled. Folks. Do it all when you’re a young’n. Get them ALL pulled. Don’t weight until you’re in your 40’s. Trust me when I say it’s a bad bad bad bad idea to wait.
On the Shubox front, I made the pivot from “bring your own bucket” to “buy a bucket w/Shubox” and finally turned the feature flag to 100%. I continue to work on it, but admit that, with some hindsight, I would have done some things very differently when I first started out. This coming year will be my put-up-or-shut-up year. Who knows how things will look in December of 2024.
Fun
Made it to Terrificon and met some childhood heroes. Will absolutely do it again in ‘24. (Jim Lee?!? OKAY!)
Took G to several Boston Celtics games. Some W’s. Most L’s. But that’s okay because each experience was a blast.
Watched G perform in a breakdance recital, and his first after-school play. He’s a born showman, this kid.
Set up my home office, permanently, as a combo standing and treadmill desk. My 13 year old Herman Miller Aeron chair now belongs to a new home, thanks to CraigsList.
Welcomed a new family member, our 4th English Bulldog - Ruth, or Ruthie, or “Rudabega”, or “Luda-Bega”, or “Ru-Ru Cakes”. There is still an abundance of puppy energy but she’s as sweet as she is crazy.
Met friends at as many Treehouse brewery locations as possible. I miss my friends. I talk to many of them every day, but I miss them.
It wasn’t the greatest year. It was also not the worst. As with many things, the key to sanity is not allowing yourself to get too high, or too low. I look back on the last 365 with many things I can smile at, and as a result I consider myself extremely fortunate, privileged, and grateful. Let’s hope that 2024 brings us more adventures, more laughs, and more triumphs.
T’is the season and all that. The most wonderful time of the year where we feed
capitalism until it’s forced to loosen 2 notches on its belt. Your national and
local news are just now sending their reporters out to local malls for “person
on the street” interviews about people and their spending habits this year.
LFG, consumer spending! 📈 Buy, buy, buy!
Of course, I am not exempt. A trip to Newbury Comics last night ended with
me walking out with new kitschy socks, 2 records, a comic book, and for my son,
a manga book and a single pack of Pokemon cards. Retail therapy is real. While
my tone may be sarcastic and somewhat (read: entirely) cynical, I am
self-aware. I admit: I enjoy giving and receiving gifts. At the same time,
maybe there’s an opportunity to stem the tide of further dumping cheap plastics
into our landfills? (I promise. I can be fun at parties.)
So here’s a thought: make a few trips around your home, grab anything and
everything taking up space, anything you no longer need or want or have given
thought to in months, if not years, and ask yourself “would someone else want
or use this”. If the answer is “yes”, then put that thing up on CraigsList,
Facebook Marketplace, or Ebay. Or all three. Get it in the hands of someone who
wants it, for less money than on Amazon, and get it out of your house. You make
some money in the process, and make some further space in your home. Win, win,
and win.
For the past month I’ve gotten rid of unused video games, comic books,
electronics, toys, and sneakers. Somewhere there’s someone receiving those
packages in the mail, happy to have them, while I’m happy to NOT have them. The
funds from these sales have gone towards my ability to purchase a new iPad,
something I use every single day for entertainment and productivity. No wasted
space or unused utility there.
Seriously, there’s just so much crap everywhere! 😩
Last thought: selling on eBay has improved considerably over the years. I’m
genuinely surprised at how quick and easy it is these days to get something up
there and ready to go. The “use AI to write a description” feature, while
obvious and transparent as to the results’ origins, is SUPER helpful. I always
disliked that step in the process, but also did not want to lazily write “just
look at the damn photos” for all listings. I consider this generated content a
reasonable middle ground.
Hello, I'm Joel. Hi! 👋
An engineering manager in Boston.
"Tooter" on Mastodon @jayroh.
Here I write about my family, my (bull)dogs, code and technology, and working on a little passion project named
shubox.