Tag: photography
Tom’s World – 02MAR2026 – Photo
Tom’s World – 11FEB2026 – Red Planet Blues
Getting to and from Mars is easy as long as you have Delta V. You need a velocity of approx. 7 mile/second to break earth orbit and around 20m/s to get to mars and more to match mars orbit. And that’s minimum energy, you’d probably want to double that at minimum to get the total ET down to something humans could handle.
I’ll leave it up to you to calculate the total energy requirement in joules or whatever to accelerate that much mass and fuel to a total Delta V of around 50-60 miles/second and how to do that with chemical reactions.
We got Voyager out of the solar system and up to 25-30 miles/second total energy but that’s when you have years to hop from planet to planet sling shotting around each to gain velocity.
Practical Mars will have to wait on fission at minimum or fusion and you still need reaction mass.
The moon is cool.
Back in the Apollo days of the early 70’s, I met a couple of students from U of Wisconsin on sabbatical traveling around the country and working odd jobs for cash. They were only here (Atlanta) for a couple of months before moving on and we got along save several heated debates on the Apollo program. It was their position that Apollo and all similar projects be immediately defunded until human perfection was achieved, though they didn’t state it in such stark terms, the implication was such had they the desire and ability to extrapolate. Even at the time I knew that was absurd and the purest fairyland fantasy because that condition would never be met and the net effect would be to condemn the planet to the darkness. It was my 1st exposure to hard-hard idealistic leftism. I had already left the Marine Corps but that train of thought and logic not common there then or now, I suspect.
Tom’s World – 07FEB2026 – For the Birds
Tom’s World – 05FEB2026 – Bald Eagles
Tom’s World – 04FEB2026 – Photo
Here’s a shot I got of a contented looking gull trolling the beach a few years ago.
Tom’s World – 13JAN2026 – Sony Photo Fails
The A7IV Sony camera is glitching again, at least to the extent of displaying the “not compatible with camera” message that started the whole thing. I’m pretty sure Sony originated the whole thing in an effort to stop the aftermarket purchase of 2nd party batteries. After all, Sony wants close to $90 for a NP FZ100 battery whereas you can get a compatible battery on Amazon with a charger (which sony does not give you) for $24. I’ll just bet that my glitch originates from a piece of Sony 2nd party battery detection software gone astray.
In the “Adding coals to Newcastle” department, my E mount 90mm f2.8 macro has totally failed. It makes a horrible mechanical razzing noise along with a coarse vibration and, of course, does not function. I sent it to a Sony “authorized” repair center who just received and inspected the camera and concluded that it needs a “4th group assembly”, $576. I’ve had the lens for a number of years but macro represents <5% of my shooting, so it has only maybe 2000-4000 snaps in its lifespan, a small fraction of what I shot with its A mount 100mm macro predecessor. When I called them about it, the Indian sounding service rep assured me the problem will not reoccur because it is/was a common problem with recent Sony lenses and that particular magnetic focusing mechanism is common to a lot of lenses and has since gone through total redesign. Do you know what Sony lenses cost?
In my history with Minolta/Sony cameras/lenses over a number of decades, my previous defect-failure rate is 0.00%
it may be just me but doesn’t that constitute a tacit admission on Sony’s part that the commonly failing mechanism should have been a recall/warranty issue. Sounds like grounds for a class action.
Oh yeah, and on top, when you attempt to prepay for the repair, the Sony Authorized Service Center wants a tip and makes it quite hard to pay the invoice without paying one. And they haven’t done s*** for me so far save irritating me.
Tom’s World – 13DEC2025 – Sony Trouble
My A7IV is glitching badly on me. The nature of the glitch seems to change but the camera has approached unusability and times and exceeded it at times. Right now, I’m using my backup A6600..
The glitches started by ID’ing my Sony battery incorrectly as an aftermarket battery. Then the warning wouldn’t turn off and the camera was unusable. Right now, it starts taking pictures continuously on startup and won’t stop.
I talked to the shop where I bought it and they recommended a firmware update. I checked and found that since I downloaded 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0 have been issued. But then noticed that 6.0 was bricking cameras left and right and Sony had pulled it a couple of days after the intro. I figured that I could still update to 5.0 only to find that Sony has pulled ALL firmware updates until further notice which could be at least several weeks.
I wonder how long I can go without a main camera? And I especially wonder whether a firmware update will fix it. Logic tells me probably so.
I’ve noticed that the A7V has been issued at “only” $3,000 but I’ve also noticed that my photography level hasn’t increased apace with new and more sophisticated (and expensive) bodies. One big caveat to that, eye autofocus is now a MUST HAVE to me.
I’ve had Sony Alpha cameras since the A100 I bought 21-22 years ago and this is the 1st problem of any description from any of them. With my lenses, I’m irrevocably married to Sony now. If my IV model is screwed, it’s not a given that I’ll buy a V. A large percentage of my best shots were with the A850 but I couldn’t go back to that horrible high ISO performance and the autofocus performance would probably feel antediluvian.
Tom’s World – 06DEC2025 – Car Photo
Tom’s World – 29NOV2025 – Boat Show
WARNING: Never launch your wife’s Escalade without first inserting the drain plug.
Actually, that is his wife’s Escalade he’s standing on to keep other boats from running into while docking.
BTW- That’s salt water, no chance of renovating that.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
My brother in the foreground and Pensacola Beach about 10 miles to the north.We were apparently bottom fishing on top of one of the 100’s of wrecks and reefs scattered everywhere in this part of the Gulf.
