You Chose Poorly S03E04 - Face Stuff

Just a little bit, but yeah, okay How's it going? How are you man? Are we honest? It's it?

I mean it could be it. I think it should be it because I would ask how you are and how like specific things were but there's so many things I should ask you about well this is what happens when we go more than two weeks in between episodes Right. Yeah, how long is it like two months two months now right at least a month at least yeah? Yeah, I don't know Yeah, let me go to go to you chose you chose poorly Hmm, you know we should switch over to notion I mean that's I don't know that's our show for today with that we should switch over to you by notion Yeah, I don't think that's it, but I think we should talk about like the this is the we should talk about like the climax of the Season I think so even last this is season three now right yes last run.

Yeah, so yeah So season two was all about everything leading up to the thing that just happened and the thing that just happened to be in the Middle of season three, which is your trip to Italy which you've been talking about for a year now at least saving up for several years Yeah, yeah, no trips house money. Yeah, so Yes, they do so so you went to Italy congratulations and welcome back. Yes, thank you. Thank you I it's funny every now and then when you're when you're on a trip and you're like buying lunch or whatever you're like you know things are Roughly the same cost as they are in the city you live so you sort of trick yourself into thinking well I'm not spending any more money than I normally would know that's very wrong You were when you're on a trip you always have like Like in an RPG where you've been poisoned and your HP is just slowly draining Right, that's what's happening when you're on a trip is your your bank account is never actually sitting still right?

Right, right. No for sure for sure. The last trip I took was just before the pandemic. I'm not so bad like oh, yeah, you notice it Yeah, no one of my one of my favorite things that I purchased not I Was I went I went to the Apple store in Rome And they it's very pretty store But it is it's one of those things.

I don't know do you ever get this advice about like don't buy tech while you travel? No, never heard this one's ever said that I mean it probably depends on like how expensive tech is where one lives Right, but like I live fairly close to the United States where tech is generally the cheapest and especially from our friends at the Apple Corporation and So I found the farther I go away from America the more expensive Apple stuff gets That's true. Yeah, so I I found myself in the Apple store in Rome in need of a dingus and the dingus absolutely cost me I think Twice But it's okay because the dingus enabled the whole trip basically Okay, so this is not get ahead of ourselves. Yeah, so it's very very exciting I hope you don't mind that like we did plan this beforehand.

We do have show notes So everybody knows like we don't often talk about what we're gonna talk about before we talk about it But I'm just gonna take over here because this should be about you So okay, so There are I guess we should divide into two sections here We should talk about all the all the utos worthy dingus and devices and gadgets and tech We've been talking about for the past year and a half now sure leading up to this trip and how they worked out in this trip And then we should talk about everything you bought during the trip. Okay, we should do that later. Sure. All right, so Okay, so let's go through this really well.

There's two things really two things I want to ask you about specifically So we dedicated a whole show and maybe some parts of several shows to the whole camera situation camera Yes, which yeah, which was really primarily about this trip. So absolutely in the in the previous episode We talked about all about your camera Let's see let's the Canon and camera Canon M50 yes, that was yes shows ago. I think yeah And and how did it work out for you? What's your post-italy review of the Canon mark and Canon M50?

Yeah, the Canon M50 mark two so you're right about that the mark two is actually like a little part of it It's like it's like an iPhone 3GS. You know, it's one of those Right, well, that's important. Yeah, it's what's not But it's like it's a really tiny upgrade from the mark one. I guess anyways, that's the one they sold me I loved it.

It was great It did it did exactly what I wanted it to which was take better pictures than my phone at least my current phone I you know you could argue that the pictures taken from a 2022 phone might be just as good But all the 2022 phones came out in September when I was already gone Right, so it took great photos and it left my phone open to Be used for other things like communication and maps Right, so I would maps of course Sometimes on my trip I would literally have my camera in one hand and my maps open in the other hand and like what is it unpleasant? No, no my my my the Canon camera is so small. It is basically a handheld point and shoot camera, especially with the lens I chose so I chose a 22 millimeter pancake lens a really really small lens and I used it for the whole trip I brought two other lenses. I didn't use them at all I just I just stuck with this tiny little pancake lens that gave me really nice wide shots of everything Didn't really zoom in if I wanted to close up of something I got really close to it.

That's it Nice. I saw the photos you posted and they were beautiful. Thank you. Thank you Yeah, I took a lot of photos.

I think I posted 10 I took 1400 nice That should be and I've edited it down to about 800. Yeah, I'm keeping Nice and I have no idea how to share that any photos I don't think I should But I'll probably share a few more now that I've sort of like organized them and be like okay. These are actually the good ones, you know right So this work of I say work right of taking like like a thousand or more photos and then doing more work of looking at them And then deciding which ones are worth keeping. Yeah, you enjoy this I love that little bit of a so you're you're a pervert.

How's that working out for you? You Like this work You know you like the good it's like the good copper team, right? So you're you're into photographs, huh? Because it's not like that's not what being into photographs means now.

It's like a step above that Yeah, but there are enough of you that I guess it's still normal sounding But there are enough of people like me to make people like you sound like perverts I mean you're not wrong in a certain way. You're not wrong at all This is this is very much and what I've said in many times. This is a this is a fetish activity Is but that isn't it isn't great. It's not because like your that that world is that becoming more exotic or anything like that It's just because there's you know like there's more of us dummies now who can take decent photos and no don't need to know About any of that stuff.

So yeah, so so my wife who is not a photography bird like I am I guess She has a Samsung s22 phone like she's got a 2022 Samsung phone It takes fantastic photos And she would be standing next to me taking a very similar photo to the one I'm taking and her photo looks just as good Really, you know, I can't really argue with the quality of it. It's a those the brand new Samsung stick great photos brand new iPhones take great photos And on top of that once she's taken the photo. It's already on her phone She can post it to Instagram or wherever in like two seconds. It's already been organized into a photo app It already has things like metadata and stuff and in the background, you know, it's already working on AI stuff It's already figuring out is this a landscape is there a person in this photo can I tag the person?

It's already doing all that work for her But that all these massive modern conveniences that my still my brand new point and shoot can and can interchangeable lens camera doesn't do it Doesn't do face stuff. It's a Jesus Christ. It doesn't prefer it Doesn't do face stuff I have to do it myself it doesn't take a computer and do like it like an animal It doesn't do GPS, right? That's that can be a big one if you really care about Exactly where the photo is like there's no GPS stuff on it on this camera Right, it's funny.

It has a feature where you can connect it to the phone in order to get the GPS data But then that connection has to stay persistent the whole time and that sucks I tried it was a while using it. Yes, like oh Okay, so that makes your camera a smart camera connecting to the phone at all times It does but at the cost of draining your phone which honestly that was one of the reasons I wanted the camera So that my phone could stay free to do what it's good at And then so yeah, once I've taken the photo now. I have to dump this photo this raw photograph I have to dump it into a raw photograph editor edit the photo save the photo Upload the photo and then I can share it right now, there's ways I can make that a little bit faster, but that's sort of the proper way to do it and The real proper way to do it is to plug it into a real computer, which I did not bring with me Because I have a desktop computer and it's 20 pounds and I'm not bringing that right right so I would do that I brought my phone my information phone and I brought my information pad never my iPad mini Oh wait, there should be a gas like we should add like a gas you're what? Your information pad mini my information But you said I said I didn't need one didn't I know yeah, didn't we have this what yeah?

I know we had this whole conversation. I had I welcome to you to his poorly guys sometimes Here we are yeah Okay, so just to recap a bit just a little bit yes So we last year not even like this season like last year last year that had many six was announced yes And we had a whole conversation whole conversation because it was like I was the minute it was announced I was like that is the iPad I've always wanted that is the shape and weight and size of an iPad I've always wanted and it looks perfect and I said oh yeah And then and then you bought it immediately Right I bought it yeah, and you did it and I didn't because you did at the time I convinced myself I still have you know the big one was I still kind of had like a Microsoft surface that was working it wasn't great, but it was working and And then we had a show this season yes I have been six months or so since I had it and I could then really review it and you were still like oh That's interesting, but you know, I'm into the like I'd like me like yes It's a nice like dream iPad thing, but whatever really want is this surface duo fully Furrier or whatever thing it was and honestly I spent like a month on eBay trying to like get one And because I sort of had a price cap that I didn't want to go past and I just couldn't quite get one at that price cap And right I sort of had the adults conversation with myself. That was like dude. I know you think you want this But it's not a good thing.

So just go get a thing. That's good Like you're okay. You can do this. It's fine Yeah, how long after like our show did you realize and decide and eventually decide to get one like what was the process from then to finally buying one?

Yeah, I think there was there was a moment at like two in the morning on eBay And that's a real clarifying moment for tech losers like me being like it's way too late and I should not be awake and I should definitely not be looking at this specific website and I'm just gonna tomorrow I'm gonna go to the Apple store and I'm gonna solve this problem because you know what makes a really great surface duo is an iPad mini It does it does all the stuff and I surface do it does and it works really really well And it's a very high quality device and it doesn't It doesn't fold that's fine. It's not a phone. That's fine But those are the only two notches against it. Otherwise, it does everything much much better Right.

I'm so happy that you realize this after realizing it and then forgetting it It's true. Yeah, I'm Okay, so where we're at now is so you have an iPad mini now I just wanna I guess we want from the camera thing I'm gonna plug the camera right into the iPad in a minute here and we'll get right back to it. Right. Yes We're gonna have to because ultimately I'm gonna ask you if you felt like it shows poorly with a camera But it seems like it didn't it sounds like you didn't and their stories to tell that with how you used it Which are very much related or literally connected to the iPad mini yeah Which again just a recap when we talked about the iPad mini we talked about how I I very much love it for it not being a computer Yeah, it does not feel computer-y Yeah, that's really nice Yes, exactly and it doesn't even have the features that would make it more computer-y or would make iPads more computer-y this year Like the iPad mini is not gonna get any of them and so you're in Italy and you didn't bring your computer But then very much needed to do computer-y things.

I did need to do one extremely computer-y thing which is take So what happened which is take raw photos which are large photos right a raw photo is in the case of my camera a raw photo is 35 to 40 megabytes per photo and But I also took slightly larger raw photos than that later. I'll get to that. That's a treat so At first I brought the lightning to SD card dongle that Apple sells and I bought this a few months ago knowing I would need it for this trip So I plugged the lightning thing into my phone and I was importing photos In my phone and I thought this is my workflow. I'm gonna take photos from the camera to the phone I'm gonna post photos from the phone to social media or whatever and while I'm asleep The phone will back up photos using Wi-Fi and I'll be fine right that was my plan And that plan was working until about day six or seven of the trip when my phone got full And I ran out of space Don't you have like a cloud thing on your phone?

Yes. Yes, I do the Wi-Fi in Italy isn't very good. Oh No Oh, no, so it kept like all the full rest stuff and didn't upload it quick enough for something Yeah, so I would I would sort of set it to back up overnight and overnight even back up like five ten percent of it and And I was like well, I can I can clear up some space on my phone I can delete a bunch of things and so over breakfast at one point I was like, okay, what can I get rid of and I freed up maybe 1520 gigs of stuff, but it just wasn't enough. I could tell by the end of the trip was a 17 day trip I could tell by the end I was I was gonna be running out of space again, and so I thought well, okay What can I do here?

I can't guarantee that anywhere I go will have enough bandwidth to back all this stuff up properly And it's I Italy itself might have great Wi-Fi the Airbnb is we were staying and did not have great Wi-Fi Or it maybe had good like download Wi-Fi for like streaming TV and stuff, but it did not have great upload You know what I mean, right? Oh, which is fine. I understand that but I thought well I did bring my my iPad mini And it's brand new I've had it for like a month. I haven't put anything on this thing So I've had many did you buy what about the 256 Wi-Fi model?

So no LTE but as much space as they could get me And I was immediately happy that I did because I thought okay, what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna walk over to the Apple store in Rome I'm gonna see if they have the SD card to USB-C dingus because the iPad mini does not have lightning Right, and I'm gonna this is the over price. This is the over price thing. This is the over price thing is and I gave them 50 euros The problem the biggest solve the problem right so I was able to back up all the photos to the iPad So I was happy with that and that was good. It also made editing the photos Way better because the iPad is a bigger screen.

You can look at a photo better in the the app I was using to edit photos and process these raw photos Worked so much better on the iPad than it does on the iPhone just because there's more real estate, right? Turns out a phone with a way bigger screen is awesome You know there's something to that Not that I don't still kind of want a small phone to carry around when I'm going or you know like like I mean I still think the iPhone 13 mini might be my next phone even though it's gone now Yeah Yeah, I got that it makes sense right, but yeah, so So I would plug this thing in I would import all the photos into Adobe Lightroom And I would edit all the photos there process them and sort of keep them for later before I could get to my real computer at home Give them a proper look through, you know But like for for looking through the photos and just doing a basic like this one's good. This one's not good approve reject Doing a basic one of those the iPad was awesome You know What is your workflow with the iPad with the photos import the photos into Lightroom Lightrooms biggest feature in my mind is the fact that it lets you filter by rating so I set up a filter and I'm like show me all the photos I have not yet rated and It has this just cute little gesture swipe on the left where you Slowly swipe your thumb on the screen and Star ratings slowly show up so swipe a little bit gives it one star keep swiping and it goes up to five and Every time you read a photo it disappears gives you the next one until you're not you've talked about this I vaguely remember that you've talked about this with me multiple times now like that's or was it like music or something like this is The thing you enjoy doing like reading the things you own and have I really like yeah Well, I guess you know, I'm one of the many sons of Dave Meltzer. I guess I don't know I was gonna say like exactly, but it's also like this is not an exclusively photography thing No, right, so this is a Sawyer thing you like doing this I guess I was what I was raised on iTunes You know, that's what I think what it is, you know Did you know that you can pretty much rate any file on the Macintosh operating system?

No, I didn't like somewhere somewhere. It's like a fine. Yeah somewhere. You can turn on a rating for everything right I Who knows where it is now?

I mean I'm thinking back in the tiger world, but Yeah, but but you used to be able to write everything or maybe it was tags. I don't know but Yeah, like iTunes taught me to write stuff iTunes taught me to write stuff and then sort and filter by ratings and Yeah, well Melts are taught me about the like 88 point rating system where you do quarter stars and bullshit You Love you like bump in the there we don't have a date set but the idea would be in a couple years, Japan Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, we'd love to do that to you. I will keep that in mind. Okay.

Ask you when you're going and maybe bump into you there We go to a restaurant and politely clap That's right. That's right. It's about now. Okay, so We're doing the so now you've got your iPad mini it worked out for you And I guess like the iPad wasn't Italy's centric purchase.

No, no not at all Yeah, but it ended up being like essential to your trip. It really did So what so what what is your Italy review for the mini like what was it? What was now? I mean you already have it like I guess let's it's you already have it and you already love it And you're not like a iPad frether like I am I get the sense that you were just sure you were gonna enjoy the iPad when you bought it I was a hundred percent sure I love it and I really do love it and it I want to say it's maybe my favorite Apple device in 10 years like it's incredible I think it's I think it's perfect for what I want to do what I recommend it to anybody I don't know the iPad world is really weird and complicated And it's weirdly expensive for the size right the iPad mini's always been in this weird place where it's slightly more expensive than the other iPads So but no I for what I wanted to do which is being a lighter computer than my real computer That's it's doing that better than anything.

I think So it's it's as a computer that you're really enjoying it actually yes as a computer doing computing things That's hilarious like Like my most used app is Adobe Lightroom. That's a computer app man. That's Like that is like far away. I've used that more than any other app like Lightroom see notion Which is a computer app, you know, that's that's a great computer.

Yeah Microsoft to do This is evidence what no, you know This is proof Microsoft authenticator Sucking in This is more and like a huge list of why we don't know what we're talking about man Like what is the show even what do I suppose sorry what is the normal use case for that? Is it not my We do two hour episodes About how it's great for not being those things Like I want to apologize to people who listen we're like, yeah, you guys make so much sense. It's not like anyone actually said that You know, I'm so recorded I do like that you can do like Apple fitness workouts on the iPad that's great Okay, that's cool. Um, but I don't know what do you use yours for is it not getting stuff done in your world?

I don't know We talked about this right we're mostly consuming. Yes. I okay. I left I left one out Which is absolutely an iPad thing which is that um my RSS reader reader with two Es that's really the app I use the most Okay, yeah Like as a so we're a little bit consistent.

So that's good. Yeah as I do you use an RSS reader? No, I don't never got into it. Mm.

You just go to the website. You do go to website or do you go to twitter? No, no, no, I go to the website. I have a bookmarks and everything you would put that have been mostly the same for 12 years now You're keeping bookmarks Yep.

Yep. That's why this move for a safari and apple to like get rid of bookmarks is weird to me like no I need bookmarks. That's what I do I yeah, I do both I keep I keep all the websites bookmarked and the websites that I've bookmarked that I want updates from I throw into the RSS reader nice. Yeah Um, so we're not we didn't waste we didn't really waste any one's time with the I think I think bookmarks and RSS readers are perfect on tablets honestly better than on a computer frankly All right, but I am very happy though Like that this new this use case is a thing that's becoming truly valuable to you Especially in something as as expensive as a trip like a 17 18 day long trip I it was it was also just tremendous to like watch videos and stuff on to like it's a really good like train television, you know, oh, yeah, right Um, it's so easy to hold too like it's so light Um, yeah, oh and I love the pen so oh I love the pencil Is the pencil part of your like photography workkeeping?

When you did it anytime I'm sitting down with the iPad I'm using the pencil as like the primary input device Nice. Yeah, so like a stylist. Yes. That's what it is I don't know.

I don't know how I convince people that it was to stylist. It's a stylist It's a really good one. Mm. My stylist broke my apple pencil.

I need to have it. Uh, you think it is a shop What what what part of yeah? What part of it broke? It's just like it connects it charges and the double tap works But it just doesn't right and I had to buy like an I use my old pencil tips and they Bought another brand new pencil tip none of them work, but the new pencil tip work on my old apple pencil I'm getting two things from that.

Um, one is that the nib can break Well, no, that's what I'm learning is that the nib didn't break Oh, it didn't break. It's the connector is the connector to the nib that seems to be broken Because the new nibs work with other apple pencils So and even I guess my current nib which I thought was broken worked with other apple pencils like other people's pencils So but yes, since you can't replace the nib you one can assume that the nibs can break I just haven't ever broken mine in like seven years. I um, I'm just I'm just now realizing that you can Um unscrew it. I'm doing this for the very first time is I'm screwing my nib Mm.

Yeah, and the older pencils had an extra nib but the apple pencil too the one you have Yeah, they don't have an extra nib. No, the thing is more expensive. No, no extra nib for me I mean, but it's for the environment. So don't feel bad.

Okay, and then sorry. There was one other thing you said. Um, the double tap works Oh, okay. Okay, so uh open like the notes app or something Opening opening the notes app or something and like draw something on it with a pencil Okay, and then with your finger double tap the pencil with my finger On the pencil.

Yeah, did you hear my audible gasp? Yes, I did I didn't know you could do this No, it's amazing coming from a pencil one. It was such an upgrade. It's amazing.

Okay, so just double tap And it doesn't matter where you double tap it Nope doesn't matter. You can double tap it. You can pretty much double tap it anywhere On the like the top the top half of the pencil. It sort of recognizes that.

Oh, oh, that's some slick That's some slick apple magic right there You can set like you can set me like what the behavior is for a load that we could go back to the previous tool or eraser only or something Oh Well, thank you. You've taught me something here Well, you're welcome. That's what we do on the show. I didn't know I was wrong.

I was missing frankly I was missing the button that's on the microsoft, um, pen Ah, right does that do the same thing like it makes it an eraser or something? That's one of the things you can have it do. Yeah Right That's great. That is great.

That is great. Thank you for telling me about your dying pencil I feel like this would not have come up otherwise. I'm sorry about your dying pencil. Is there what is there anything you can do or is apple just like Just buy a new one.

It's under it's under warranty But the service person I spoke with said but we'll have to check for damage Let's see what do you mean? Like if you dropped it we can't fix it like I would I know if that's what caused it Like it's just it was working one day and then it's not working, you know, so I I'm just the skeptical right here in the Philippines. Nothing's free. You know, it's like it's almost like they're already making excuses for why they can't repair it Yes before I pick it in but I am gonna pick it in something next week.

Okay. Okay. It is under warranty. It should be replaced.

Thank you so much I will update everybody update everyone on the show But you listen because it's it's an important part of the each of us poorly lore now. Yeah Um, okay, so Oh, so I want to say one or two more things about the camera. That's okay, but I've just remembered. Yes, sure sure because I was gonna ask about the camera So yeah, you go.

Um, I mostly took photos using the the feature that's called like raw plus jpeg So they so when you take the photo it takes a raw photo and it takes like what can and thinks is a good jpeg of the photo Um, and this is where me being an amateur photographer Um is actually really helpful because I can work on the raw photo and I can make it look the way I want it to look And then I can compare that to the jpeg that can't make and I can go Okay, which one of these is actually better And sometimes the cannon one was better and that's the one I would keep um over the over the raw um My plan is to not keep the raw photos is to like because the idea is you use the raw photo and then you export out A nice jpeg of that of what you've done basically Um, and so I'm doing that. I'm not done though. Like I'm still working on the photos Um, I've done three of the four cities we went to um, but I haven't done Venice yet. I'm still working on Venice Um, but once I'm done Venice, I will Probably delete the raw photos or put them on a portal hard drive keep them backed up maybe um, but like they'll be off my computer They won't be in my lightroom catalog.

Um, and I'll just have the nice jpeg Um What else every now and then I would try a different mode on the camera like the camera has a night mode or it has like a sports mode or You know for different types of shooting. Um, and Every now and then it would be okay, but I've found that if you use any of the modes, you do not get the raw photo you only get the jpeg Oh, no, that's weird. It is weird. So like, can't you send it through?

I don't know. That's weird. I don't know. So like the like the night mode It tells you that it takes four Photos in quick succession with different exposures.

Um, but then it turns into a jpeg and you don't get those four photos, you know Um, it's funny that I do have a few photos where I took the night mode But there are people in the scene and those people are slightly ghosty because it's taken four photos of them So it's a little like when you take a panorama on your iPhone Yeah, you get that you get that ghost person effect sometimes Yeah, that's right I'm like the because neither of our phones have the night mode on our iPhones But like my wife does and that happens on her night mode thing to like a ghostie And there were honestly a couple times I just took my phone out and took a photo because it was just like it was already in my hand or Or importantly, I wanted to take a panorama because there's a couple of places in Italy where the panorama Is just the way to go Like there's some lookout points and there's some valleys and mountains that you simply can't grab You just want to grab as much of it as you can in the photo So My camera does not take panoramas on any kind I don't think and so I used I used my phone to take some panoramas Um, and I love the panorama feature on the iPhone so one of my favorite gimmicks still on the iPhone is is how it does panoramas Okay, so uh first I'd love to see them. That sounds really nice. Mm. Um, and So, okay, is there Was there a so you said it already there was a scenario where you simply cut your phone?

Yeah, the photo Where are their times like was there like a dissonance or like a moment of hesitation or like where your brain just went? What do I do? Like a paralysis thing where you have two cameras now and you need to choose what to do or is it like a split second thing for you? I think it was a split second thing for you because I'm I've I've trained myself with this can and camera and I already know what it kind of isn't good for no camera is good for all purposes Um, but I already know like when it's really really dark.

It doesn't take great night photos You know the iPhone actually even my iPhone 10 are takes a better night photo sometimes Oh, yeah, that's a lens thing right. That's a matter of the lens. No, I think it's software I think it's all software at this point. Oh, yeah Yeah, so no lens on that you brought on the Canon would have taken a better night photo in some scenarios than your iPhone 10 are It may be You know like like I could have switched it over to night mode and I maybe would have gotten a better shot but that all takes time, you know so But so I just keep going back to like I feel like your your use of the camera isn't done yet Like you're still you're still quote using the camera Because you have to go through this whole workflow of like filtering your photos and anything anything them and throwing away The ones that you don't like and this whole thing and which is why I was asking you like the whole perfect question This is this is the fun for you, right?

Like this is the part you enjoy or is this like a chore? It becomes a chore over time Okay, because the number of photos is so much that it's it's a project that's taken me almost a month And I'm still working right right right like I'm yeah, I'm employed and busy I don't have all data work on these things so like I get a couple hours a week to work on this It's taking up all my free time. So the first half an hour working on it I'm having a blast and then and then that enthusiasm goes down over time where I'm like I've been working on this for an hour and a half And I'm just gonna start rating these lower Right But that's actually a little bit of sort of wisdom that I've learned from like rating music or rating wrestling matches or rating anything Is you can't rate too many things in a row your own Like fatigue yeah your fatigue will set in and you will just start enjoying things less over time right so naturally right So that's you know that that happens so So generally like see even even like your awareness of like your your own internal metric This is this is home after years and years and years of raping things like that's a thing you really like doing Yeah, I guess so yeah Yeah, so like I guess what I'm getting at is it doesn't I guess in the moment that it feels like a chore it's a chore and no matter what you do it feels like a chore But on the whole you you don't regret using this camera and buying this camera and taking it to the trip with you Not at all not at all not even a little bit not even a little bit I thought I felt it was the right thing for me to do Um because the downsides would have been that downsides would have been so much greater Either I would have had just my iPhone X R take photos with and I would have found most of the photos to be not as good as I'd like them to be Um, well that wouldn't that wouldn't have been the alternative right you were choosing between the whole g1 on the cameras Oh, yeah, something else had one in that g1 of yours, right? But but then ultimately I think the choice in the g1 What the story was about whether you should get a real camera or a phone?

Yes So getting this real camera specifically for this trip including this current month plus plus project of yours Yes is a thing that you you you you'd rather have this than not have the project but have Possibly some better but mostly worse photos and a bigger newer phone, right? Yeah, I mean if if the iPhone 14 had come out in like May of this year I might have gone with that instead, but it didn't You know 13 was just not good enough. Yeah, I mean it might have been but it was still a $2,000 purchase if I'd wanted Yeah, yeah, right, so that's that's kind of it It was I went with at least the lesser expense of choice and I went I'm so glad I went with a small camera Then a big camera Because it was just able to fit my bag easier, you know, I kept I kept a little crossbody bag the whole time and the camera took up Less than a quarter of the bag And when you're traveling, going light is is great So So that made a big difference and I'm so glad I went with this little lens because that ended up taking up less room than a bigger lens So you didn't bring the other lenses with you when you were out. You just left the other room.

Yes. Just left the room. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, right, right So see you're I keep having to ask because I guess there are people I keep I don't want to act as if there are no other people like you, you know So other people listen to this and do it again.

It doesn't make sense But I keep having to go back to like be honest about my bias here where I'm like that sounds like crazy To me like working on photos that does sound like work unless it's like a hobby unless it's like building legos, you know Or like mechanical keyboards or whatever Right, but if it isn't because the Lego people in the mechanical keyboard people those people are saying the normal I bit my toe in both. I guess yeah They're there. They're just as perverted as you are But ultimately it comes back to like what someone like me would say is but these are photos, you know like like the Alego a lego house or or her keyboards are Weird unnecessary things, but I guess the very appily person in me is thinking like no man photos are like part of life And they shouldn't be they shouldn't be a chore But to you and to I guess many other people like you it is part of the fun of photos to work on them for another month after taking them Well, I've never done this before this is the first time I've had this much work to do But this is the trip where I've taken the most photos the last big trip I was on I took half as many photos, you know Um, this is also the first camera where I'm shooting in raw all the time, you know, I don't have to do that But it it and you you get better photos at it at the end of the day. I just sent you a panorama Beautiful, so that's that's from the iPhone.

That's from the iPhone You know, I'll put this in show notes too for people Yeah, so there's one other there's one other thing which was that I went on a tour in Rome Where I so I signed up for this thing. It was two hours. It was free I went to the likea store in Rome and they hand you they hand you a like a Q2 and a like a q2 monochrome and they say what do you mean they hand it? Okay, it's it's like a test drive It's like so they hand you this camera.

They put it around your neck and they say oh man. Let's go around town And so for two hours. I got to play with these two likea cameras Um, yeah, and I got to take photos with these cameras And so I took it so the idea was you take your SD card out of your camera and just pop it into their camera and you take photos And then at the end of it you take your SD card out and you keep the photos And so for people who don't know the likea camera company makes extremely good extremely expensive cameras That's right. So like the q2 that I was using retails for like 11,000 to Canadian with no lens Like that's just a no less right.

I think these are proprietary lenses. I'm guessing right? Of course they're using any lens. No So I had a kit cost 15,000 that I was using And so like So I took photos with this color camera and they were amazing And then they handed me their monochrome camera and here's where we get real fetishy is this camera only takes black and white photos I'm monochrome.

Yes. It only takes digital black and white photos. That's crazy. That's sick Like they've done some crazy shit with the sensor that like because you don't have to do any RGB stuff at all The the black and white values are like perfect like they're like Yeah, it's this is real fetishy stuff.

And so I got to take a couple of hundred photos with these cameras And there's some of the best photos of ever taking my life and maybe maybe will be the best photos of ever taking my life um And I could not have done that if I just brought my phone That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so you don't regret buying a camera because it allowed you to use another camera that you're never gonna own Because when you put it like that, but so I thought about this actually we you and I were talking about this about records And how you and I should totally do an episode on records.

Um, right? But having a record player Is is is fun and cool by itself and has advantages by itself But one thing it really allows you to do is go into record shops Because if you don't own a record player, there's not really all that reason to go into a record shop Right, like what are you doing? You're not gonna get anything. Don't go in there.

Right? But if you have a record player You can shop for records in cool record stores And that honestly I feel like that's half of why I own one Um, and I found a really cool record store in florence and it was one it was one of our favorite moments in florence And we got this incredible view from their windows and it had a cool bar and um And I bought a record for there, but that's like secondary to just like the experience of it But we wouldn't have gone in if we if I didn't own a record player at home, you know And I sort of feel like that about the like a store if I didn't own a camera I wouldn't walk into the like a store and I probably wouldn't have done that tour if I just bought like an iPhone or a Samsung phone I wouldn't have done that tour because I would have been like yeah I'm not a camera person. You know, I have no business in here. Yeah, so I think that would be me Yeah, that's part of it Is that having a fetish object like that having just be a little nerdier Opens up rooms that you'd otherwise not go into like I'm not into Lego I don't go into the Lego store, but if you like let go you go into every Lego store in every city you travel to That's right.

Right. I'm guessing you do if you like Lego Right, just I just want to check what they got, you know Right See, this is true. That's absolutely true like even like to some extent like apple things are like that Like that's the most commercial version of this there was a moment Am I really gonna go into the apple store and roam but like of course I did and it was nice Is it one of those like old building apple stores that they turned into a store? Yes, like a historical site.

Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, that's amazing. I'd love to do that See right, but like if you didn't know any apple stuff or didn't care about apple that building would have no interest to you Yeah, absolutely. So that's that's why I like that about the camera, you know, that's great I wasn't like making fun of you, but I mean it's a funny sounding sentence, but yeah, it's no but definitely Sometimes you do things just to open up yourself to other experiences, you know Yeah, no, this is true, but I was thinking about like especially like even I would know enough that the like is a desirable Like makes products that are desirable, you know, like I know nothing about photography But if I would know what it meant if someone handed me a like or if I got the opportunity to buy one Um and afford one, but I'm just thinking of ethics of it It's like going to a like a pet shop and then handing you a puppy Take it for a spin.

This is not How do you expect me to not fall in love with it and feel bad if I don't buy it if I don't take it with me Right, but that must be but I can imagine the thrill so like, you know what? I totally get it Even if I don't get the like the the specifics of the of the perversion, you know The literal the literal work of plotting through photos I've taken a month ago It's not a thing that it will I can't imagine that appealing to me But like the universal thing there of the nerdery and the hobbyism and the feeling like your world opens up to you That's amazing coming coming from buying a camera like this whole experience like It's not just the photos you took clearly like the value of the kind of that thing that you bought Was not just the photos you know, although the photos themselves are like immensely valuable I could imagine right? But the the trip itself the trip itself benefited from the camera from having that camera I think that's amazing. I'm 100 percent on board now despite me not being a camera person.

That's amazing Yeah, I mean I still don't know if I'd recommend it to people who don't have That particular perversion. I think you're right. I think it does come down to that same with like records I totally think the record thing is is a solid analog you know, you know, put aside for analog but The closest thing I can think of that I can relate to is Is not Lego or or mechanical keyboards but coffee like coffee is oh my god You drink it, you know, you drink it to work. Like that's not a thing anyone thinks about Okay, so sorry.

Sorry. Sorry. You're just sent me while I was talking He just sent me a photo a monochrome photo and I'm looking at it and it's beautiful But I have to admit it's like I think I can take this with my iPhone I just like I felt around it. I don't see the monochrome thing I don't get like the Leica as a device and maybe like the experience of taking photos I get the end result though It's like I don't understand 1515 $15,000, right?

That's what you said $2,000 Canadian stupidly expensive. Yeah. Yeah For a thing that only takes a black and white photos is that's a bit much for me But I guess going back to the coffee thing. It's the same like I can imagine the conversations being exactly the same like right now I am dipping my toe into being in the market for an espresso routine Yeah, and I'm I feel the same hesitation that sounds awfully similar to the hesitation Into buying a camera because I know that espresso is not just the end result of that isn't just that I get a different way to brew coffee It's like an entire world of a hobby that I'm a little like I'm a little scared and excited to get into You know, it's like it's it's not just yet another like the fourth way I get to brew coffee at home now But I know that I'm gonna be looking at like dampers and like porta filters and and mods and this whole thing That that results into something as common as coffee the same way photos are common to everybody who doesn't need to know about Leica Like you know coffee is just as universal, but I get the excitement of Of a fetish object like it is a fetish object You know getting the right grinder and then getting the right machine that will last me the longest To get the right kind of brew and then finding the bean and then like you know a normal person But then you know they'd have instant coffee or Starbucks or something But you will inevitably inevitably you will serve some on a cup of your fancy Extremely finicky coffee and they'll go I kind of prefer the stuff from the store Do you have like a white mocha Something I slaved over for years just dialing in my grinder and The same way I look at the photo and it's lovely and it's like that's a filter on my phone Sometimes I mean sure yeah I might not be the best for whatever I will say This has to do with my eye the same way that person presumably unless I'm like a bad brewer Like a bad breeze or something like this is the this is the this is what you get from that world See it's not the diminished any enjoyment uto from taking that photo and empirically it is a beautiful photo It's just that I don't understand the difference You know in the same way someone would be like yeah just like Starbucks like I broke off At my classroom every like I have a grinder at this whole thing I do a whole port over thing I have a scale and a timer and everything and I do it in the more at lunch time because It's like my morning coffee runs up and my students come in and they're like it smells like Starbucks Shut up, Starbucks excuse me But it's that's the same thing like I didn't mean sorry I didn't mean to diminish your photo You're not at all You're not at all But and what did I say like half an hour ago?

I was like I'm pretty sure my wife took just as good of a shot as I did with her phone Right, you know totally No, not at all. You're right. I've done that with coffee. I've made someone a really fancy cup of coffee and they go I kind of just prefer Tim Hortons, you know Right, yeah, but it's it's the same as vinyl you'll play someone a really nice I just thought you went on like a night shot You'll play someone a really nice sounding record and they go Yeah, I kind of just like Spotify whatever Yeah, you know what's the difference?

I'm playing on my home bod thing. Yeah. Yeah, right? I've got my amazon echo dot That's fine.

That's good enough for me. Right. I like I prefer how it sounds honestly, you know Yeah, it's that it's that for everything. It's that for everything there isn't There isn't a single thing in this world that you can get into and enjoy that doesn't have an Bodyless well of nerdery that you can you can find yourself like fathoms deep And you look up and you and you talk to somebody that's up on the surface and you go isn't this cool and they're like What are you doing in that hole?

No, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the parallels are frustratingly like they're just too similar to But I But I would not I would not have traded that to her for anything. I love that tour Um, even though I probably will never buy that camera Um because it actually sort of disqualifies it from being just too heavy like those cameras were really heavy I would not want to carry that around all the time, you know, um, so the tour wasn't like a tour. Yes.

Yes Wow. Yeah, wow So I think I think they do this in any place that has a like a store. I think it's just something they offer That's pretty cool. See I get it and also I'm looking at this photo right now this night shot and it's beautiful Like I I don't think an iPhone can do this but see that's not how I should be looking at a photo But I can't help but think of that.

Sure empirically the photo is really nice I looked for one. I was like what's one that actually like I think would impress them a little bit That one does Um, yeah, like there's there's no way my phone can take this. I think well, I don't know I could be wrong I haven't seen the 14 and the s 22 But you know the new Here's the thing the new iPhone does the trick that my old lumea windows phone used to do Which is that you can open it up and shoot 48 megapixel photos in raw and then do this whole thing You can do you want to be this nerdy about it? You could take those kind of photos with the new iPhone Yeah, that's why I heard that's why I heard I just didn't understand it then either but yeah But I get it.

Yeah, but anyways, did you have any other like One other super nerdy thing I'm doing is I'm writing a blog post about the trip Yes, that'll be yes, it'll be up in the next few weeks probably But I don't know we know this but I love when you do that. Oh really make a blog post. Yeah, all right Why are friends? I'll give that it will have lots of images and it will have links to google map Like like places we went things we did all links to google maps so people can click it and they can see how it map where that stuff was Um, I say people it'll mostly be for me like all blogs.

You're mostly running for yourself But it'll be nice just to have that like as a what did we do again? Oh, we were there because it's been six months. We've forgotten Um last thing honestly, that's why I like looking at my photos is that it helps me. It sounds dumb It helps me remember what I just did No, it doesn't it sounds dumb, but I know exactly what you mean and yeah And uh, like this is what we were talking about with my wife when like we took max to Japan and Singapore and Thinking of some trips that we know that he's not gonna remember But what we were saying was uh, max's generation is gonna have the benefit that even Hours did it which is just like thousands and thousands of hours of video and thousands and thousands of photos Yeah, that even like he's that's not like eventually I can't distinguish sometimes between a real memory and like a story Someone like my mom told me, you know, I don't know if I remember doing something but my mom has told the story dozens of times Like I imagine that times a hundred for photos and videos So like even now like max has already forgotten Some of our trips but except for some moments that I know we're not from his memory But from the video that we watch because our phones tell us every year that we took those trips and did those things And uh, and I think there is something to be said about like how memory works culturally now just because everybody has a camera So I think for you have you have a leg up on like not just having better photos But like some quality of your memory, especially since you do go back to it.

It is a project like there is a There is a a quality difference in like your memory, which is really what life is made of Um, just because of the camera you have and I think that's remarkable Like that's that's a thing that makes the whole thing worth it Uh, it makes it distinctly not a thing you chose poorly Like this is like looking at the shot and looking at the statue and like the spineramic shot Like this whole experience you have with photography is a thing I don't think I'll ever experience Even if at some point in the future with some device I will take Comparable photos or maybe better even depending on whatever these companies do I'm guessing whatever your next iPhone is will totally pull this off. Yeah Um, something like that, but it's not going to be the same experience at all as what you have But you have the I I think you do something really remarkable too is that you actually post a lot You know, I don't post very often Um, and I almost never take like little videos something that you're doing that all day long. Sorry my voice is going Um, you're doing that all day long like you're like you're like one of the top people in my instagram Stories at almost every day, you know, you and char Like combined. That's so funny.

That's why I was compared to like many people in our world We don't really post that much either. So I guess it's all relative. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I do Get what you mean like I just find myself sometimes it sounds weird and it sounds weirdly masturbatory But it really isn't and that I just look at my own feed sometimes not not for any sort of self-satisfaction about posting and people's response But just because like I like this memory. This is fun You know like with my own feed is a place that like brings me joy So, you know, I imagine that times like a hundred for you looking at folders upon folders upon folders of photos that you took Like this is not like, you know, there's not some less photos like you took the piece So I get it and uh and actually I must confess that part of me is a little envious because I know that the difference Isn't that that you have this camera and I have this one. It's that you are that specific kind of pervert You know, that's that's not a kinkel ever.

I can't imagine having I wish I was weird and unlikable like that guy Like it's a quality of life thing. It's amazing. I think we should end it there. That's perfect.

Thank you Yeah, I suppose this is probably a season I suppose this is probably a season finale. Thank you for doing the show with me This is fun. I don't know. Sorry.

This is one of the most unique experiences. I love it I think so too, man. It's it's so great. I don't want to stop.

So this is a finale I'd love to do this again eventually Whenever we have time and whenever we have something to go. Oh, did I just do the weird thing? Well, I still there's still like a list of topics. I'm gonna add door shown or notes for anyway.

Yes, you know, so there's still stuff Well, and this Italy thing Italy thing was the perfect thing to do. It felt very climatic in my life for sure Um, yeah, well, thank you and uh, I'll see you around Alright, I'll see you around so here. Have a good race. Bye