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This is huge, congrats to the lichess team.

hijacking the thread to ask: under 200€ DSLR to get started?


You can get a Canon 5D II or a Canon 6D for that. Older cameras for sure, but full frame with excellent sensors. And there are a ton of inexpensive used EF lenses available.

Compared to moderns systems the main difference is the autofocus and video capabilities. Modern mirrorless have cosmically better tracking, eye detect etc.


Also speaking of older models I think it is important to repeat that the pixel count is not what define the quality of the image but mereley only how cropable the end result will be and it is only really useful if the higher pixel count isn't made of garbage. Accutance of the end result is in most cases much more important.

For instance, human eyes can't perceive the difference between a 12MP and a 50MP image printed in a poster format from a typical 1.5-2meters viewing distance and 8MP is usually good enough for most large prints.

So I would advise choosing a second hand model taking shutter count, general state, lenses quality, autofocus speed and image stabilisation efficiency as more prioritary parameters than sensor pixel count.


I had a 5D and have a 5D mk3.

(The mk is the version number)

Both take excellent photos, especially in low light. I reprinted some of the original 5D photos 11”x17” and even though they have fewer pixels the quality was fine.

Canons are pretty cheap on the used market because they have a new mirrorless R series cameras/lenses so the older ones value dropped a lot.

A good lens helps a lot. Someone on the thread suggested a 50mm 1.8 “plastic fantastic”. It’s a great choice. Really sharp, lets a lot of light in, feels kind of cheap. I always liked the 24-105mm f4 zoom, but it’s pricier.


Cannons are no longer pretty cheap. If so then they have huge mileage on them, shutter count might kill your camera soon. I think the window closed two years ago and now they are becoming very cool again.

Besides the 50mm nifty fifty. There is "middle" range of "ultrasonic" zooms that are actually pretty capable and underrated/cheap. I have few for canon film cameras and their secret huge advantage is weight, optics wise they are pretty good (i have them converted on lumix full frame). I would also mention sigma 35mm art which can be get for less than 300eur and is THE lens if you know you like 35mm (person i ended up being).


Two tricky things when it comes to pixel count...

On one hand, you have to remember that huge MP doesnt do much if the glass can't resolve well enough.

On the flipside, I have to note that switching to high MP full frame makes it a lot easier to do good, clean crops. Sometimes I might care about a small portion of the frame but for composition reasons (e.x. can't get closer for one reason or another) I at least can lean on cropping more.


To add: Hit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_5D_Mark_II and scroll down to the very end, then click "show" to expand the "Canon EOS digital SLR timeline". This is an incredible collection of information that I can't figure out how to link directly.


The direct link is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Canon_EOS_digital_cam... You can get to it by pressing the `V` in `V T E` at the top left of any tmeplate


Direct link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Canon_EOS_digital_cam...

Not sure why it is a "template".


Because it's transcluded in (into?) a lot of those cameras' pages.


Full frame sensor = full frame lenses = heavy and expensive. You need something light that you want to carry with you. Otherwise what's the point of having the best medium format camera + lens that you have at home, collecting dust.

That means a camera APS-C or micro four thirds sensor might suit better to someone who is new to photography.


I've always thought i am that APSC person and I ended up not taking the camera that much with me because it was small difference to compact camera i was carrying in my pocket. I thought it was skill issue because my photos just didn't have that bite/detail/look. The moment i got older full frame i realized that "look" has so much to do with the sensor size. In beginning i only had cheap 30euro manual soviet lens and even with that the quality of the photos just shot up.

Full frame is heavy yes but it can be pretty affordable (lenses from china are becoming extremely competitive).


Full frame DSLRs are heavy because of the big mirror box. Mirrorless full frame cameras are a lot lighter. An APS-C Canon R7 is bigger than my full frame Canon RP. Coupled with a light prime it's almost indistinguishable from a compact camera and delivers better image quality than most of those.


Since TFA is talking about focus points and you are suggesting a 5Dii, I'd have to put out a strong bit of caution as the 9 focal points of the 5Dii are a huge pain point. More modern cameras have many many more points that make shooting so much less of of a pain. With the 9 points, I routinely find myself framing the image to get focus only to have to reframe before releasing the shutter. It was a huge factor on why I switched focusing from half-press shutter to the button on the back of the body.


The 5D mkii (or mkIV) are fantastic cameras - the Mkii when coupled with magic lantern is a fantastic camera still in my opinion.

Glass is of course important, but I’ve taken nearly all of the digital shots I’m proud of on a mkii.

(Most of the images I’ve captured that I’m truly proud of were on tmax or ektar… various camera bodies usually coupled to decent lenses )


I recently finally got my first fullframe (i've always used apsc crop sensors). I would say you want fullframe - to me it's really major difference in the look of photos. I would get apsc only if you really need portability. But for 200eur even old fullframe is tough.

I've tried to get Canon 5D/6D but they are becoming pretty sought after (because of the availability of lenses). Another problem is when they are sold cheap they have huge shutter counts often way after their spec lifetime. Not sure about Nikon maybe there are some cheaps. You can probably get 6D mark I with pretty high shutter count for around 200e.

Best usable 5D mark III deals i could find were around 450eur (thats camera from 2012). I ended up getting Lumix S5 (mark 1, from 2020) for like 500eur that is very different beast of a camera while having L-mount which is becoming only "open" camera mount (third party lenses are being "disallowed" by most manufacturers now).


Get a used 6D or 70D and a 50mm f1.8 lens.


With the 200eur budget you wont make the 6D but you might 70D maybe even most of the lens. I would pay a bit more and get 6D though.


I got a 6D from facebook marketplace for ~125 USD, but it was in the US, which has a more 'liquid' second hand electronics market in my experience.


I've been hunting 6D for a while in eu for 200eur you get like 400 000 shutter count. But 6D is also in that range where people don't care about it and often sell it as some junk. So one might get lucky.


Go to your equivalent of estate sales.


Is the SLR part a requirement? Would a mirrorless camera work for you?


Tangential, sort of: in the early days of mobile phones for the masses, when there was no WiFi/3G in the underground, I will often enable Bluetooth in my phone, look for nearby devices and try to match names and looks.

That was before everyone had their "John's IPhone" or "Samsung A55" boring names everywhere and some of us cared to personalise our device's name.

Anyone else played this game?


hmmmmm...

2006, sat in a job interview. Interviewer says he'll Bluetooth over a file to me - what's by phone's name?

2006, the year that Tool's 10,000 Days had been released, which I was enjoying and, being a bit of an Edge Lord, I'd named my device after a lyric from Vicarious - which, IIRC fit perfectly into the name space and made me very happy:

> ILikeToWatchThingsDie

Excellent. Still got the job though!


Hah, I change my device name and wifi hotspot all the time...

"[Agency-acronym] Surveillance Van #43/44/etc.."


I do the reverse. I set my wifi hotspot or bluetooth to "MetPoliceUnit355" and I look for people making faces or looking around.


What I remember is that you could push OBEX calendar objects without much refusal from the phones and make people have alarms ringing at 3am, fun times!


Yeah, but it stopped pretty soon stores figured out that they could flood you with advertisements over Bluetooth. In some places it was bad enough that I had to turn off Bluetooth.


How did this play out? Were the ads from an app from the store that you had installed? Or did they spam you over SMS because they associated your bluetooth info with an account you have with the store, or contact info they bought from a third party?


> Were the ads from an app from the store that you had installed?

This is my main concern over installing apps in general but specifically store apps. I've noticed that grocery stores are moving past existing loyalty cards and want you to use their apps for exclusively available digital coupons. The prices I'm seeing are very compelling and are on top of existing loyalty card discounts, and I could see lots of people using the app because of it. The assumed amount of abuse keeps me from lemminging my way through the store.


Kroger here has done that with their app. The loyalty card/phone number still works for many of the specials, but the "digital deals" thing by using the app and scanning a QR code on the price sticker gives BIGGER discounts. Its not the most convenient way to shop, but I am willing to save 15-20% more usually.


Neither. They used to discover your device and then send a Bluetooth push. "Would you like to receive a file from …"

It was usually an image, movie, or audio file.


Wow that is wild. Thanks for explaining.

I've never seen a prompt like that on my phone and would not have guessed this.


As someone explained it below in this thread, walk into a mall with Bluetooth turned on and phone starts chiming with multiple "... wants to send you a media/audio/image etc." Not just ads, some bad actors would try to infect the phone with malware. Luckily never happened to me, but I heard from my acquaintances.


Did you ever try to communicate with them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluejacking


When I set up my iPhone and it asked who's iPhone it is, I thought it would be funny to put in Kim Jong Un. Now it shows up as "Kim Jong Un's iPhone" when I enable my hotspot. Or even better, it says it out loud when I connect to some Bluetooth speakers.


Yep 100% did the same.

It was interesting to see what people named stuff as even back then I figured you could use that metadata for tracking devices...but even more interesting was looking at the Mac address to see the manufacturer and try and find some rare or cool device.


Also he became a father[0] around that time. Everything adds.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Nakamura#Personal_life


Sadly, looking through the code, doesn't show up any "GARBAGE" file easter egg to be found.

Amazing stuff, nevertheless!


Awhile I made something really dumb: https://www.warpstream.com/etc/terminal you can enter a 'gibson' command.


Nice touch with the IP :D


Thanks, I've been looking for 5 minutes and was about to rewatch the movie to see where it's supposed to be !


I mean, you should totally go and rewatch it, don't let me stop you from enjoying again the movie!


Too little too late, already ditched the whole ecosystem after so many years and devices.


Same here.

Switched to a Boox, installed koreader, set up sync thing. It's insane how much better a reading experience this is


The only previous option was not paying for books. This change at least creates the potential for a path to pay for books, if publishers accept it.


No, these publishers were already available DRM-free from other stores.


Same. I'm done.


Yep, never again. I tried to take a pragmatic position with the DRM, and it is just not possible. I buy the crap out of DRM free stuff, but if it's not DRM free, it's not for me


Well, they have this list in their repo: https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock/blob/main/Adblock_Compariso...

Only one I can see is (slightly) less RAM use.


Sanding and polishing, likely.


Nah, it just came out like that (i printed it :D)

We experimented with ironing, but you can't see it in those views. The A1 is a pretty good printer OOTB. There were a few iterations on the case design though to optimise the edges.


@admin, we need the 10 at the end of the title.


Added then deleted, but git remembers.


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