davidd’s A DOLL A DAY 2021

[Elfy]

Prairie dogs have plague? Snoopy will be devastated.

[Lejays17]

That’s rather scary about the Plague! I think I’ll take our poisonous spiders & snakes over that any day.

Carly has taken up fossil hunting? Look forward to seeing what exciting thing she has discovered soon.

[Loona]

Ohhh kayyyy, so... wasn't Plague... eliminated? Extinct? Whatever you call a virus that is no longer found on Earth? I thought I heard this, but I guess I was just naively thinking that was the case. Plague is a scary thing, because fleas, being its spreaders, provide a pretty easy way of transmission - you don't even have to eat, touch, or even be close to the originally affected animal to get the disease, a flea can just get on your dog or cat, and then to you. Eek! I wonder what is being done (if there's anything they can do) to heal your rodent population. A quick Google search told me at least the thing isn't as bad as it sounds: nowadays we already have treatment for the bubonic plague, but it still sucks... 
At first I found it funny how the staple on the ad is placed where the rodent's mouth is, giving it a displeased smirk, but the more I think of it, the more morbid I feel about finding something connected to such a topic funny :/

Come on out! Once international travel restrictions are lifted, anyway. I think Alliecat will be here during the epic solar eclipse in October 2023. We can have a science-intensive Dolly Market meet-up!

Oh man, that would be awesome!  However, with all the restrictions and "rules" and "requirements" coming into effect for travel, some of us aren't feeling very optimistic  Could things possibly be "back to normal" by then...?? ....????  

Now that would be awesome indeed! And maybe, just maybe (knocking on wood) 2023 is too far ahead for the world to finally get back to a state that is closer to normal. I really wish this'd be the case. Sadly, travel restrictions aren't yet fully lifted around here either, and while I personally could travel, my sister, having received a different vaccine that the EU mostly doesn't accept (don't ask me why the government thought it's a good idea to buy tons of that to vaccinate people with  ), can only travel to a very limited number of countries, so the sister trip to the UK we've been planning since before this crap hit, will have to be postponed further, for who-knows-how-long...

[davidd]

Whaaat. ... Holy crap.

However, with all the restrictions and "rules" and "requirements" coming into effect for travel, some of us aren't feeling very optimistic.

I know, right? New one on me!

Yeah, the federal administration here is pressuring the state governments to re-implement lockdowns and mask requirements even as the vaccine rolls out and cases and deaths continue to decline.

Prairie dogs have plague? Snoopy will be devastated.

Imagine all the little monsters scampering about, foaming at the mouth, sinking their fangs in to anything that moves!

Carly has taken up fossil hunting?  Look forward to seeing what exciting thing she has discovered soon.

I was hoping to post Carly's interesting discovery today, but... busy etcetera... the usual story.

Ohhh kayyyy, so... wasn't Plague... eliminated? Extinct? Whatever you call a virus that is no longer found on Earth?

At first I found it funny how the staple on the ad is placed where the rodent's mouth is, giving it a displeased smirk, but the more I think of it, the more morbid I feel about finding something connected to such a topic funny :/

... so the sister trip to the UK we've been planning since before this crap hit, will have to be postponed further, for who-knows-how-long...

Apparently not. 

I still found the staple amusing even after reading the sign. In fact, the staple placement makes it hard to take the sign seriously.

Who knows how long – that's an ongoing question with a lot of conflicting answers, isn't it?

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14 July - A Doll A Day 2021:

14 July - Dolly Stuffs in da Mail!

All this showed up today. Most of it is doll related... somehow... I think.

I'm not sure why my recent photos all seem to be blurry. Of course, my first thought is degenerative neurological disease. But if I can still type "degenerative neurological disease" (in only three tries) that's probably not the case. Could be a mechanical issue with my camera. Or perhaps it's a result of poor lighting and being in a hurry, and thus the slow shutter speed (real camera, you know) necessitates holding the camera much steadier than I'm able to do one-handed and rushing.

Relatives were visiting recently. One has the latest Google Pixel phone, and one has the iPhone 12, and the image quality of the photos they take is amazing. I think the days of dedicated cameras are well and truly done. Except that... the cost of those phones! 

P.S.: This pic doesn't even show the two larger boxes that arrived!  

[Alliecat]

Yay, lots of interesting mail to open! Looking forward to seeing your haul.
What's your focal length and shutter speed? One is supposed to be able to hand-hold down to 1/f (so, like no slower than 1/50 for a 50mm lens) (maybe you knew that already).... if the low light is requiring slower speeds that could be the problem. Or maybe the autofocus is malfunctioning?

I think the days of dedicated cameras are well and truly done.

NOOOO. Heck, I still dream of being somewhere where film developing is still accessible. I miss my K1000
The phone prices are stupid. I can't see spending hundreds on something like that and then you only need to drop it once to burn up all that money. I would only ever buy second-hand (and older models). Cheap cheap!

[davidd]

What's your focal length and shutter speed?   One is supposed to be able to hand-hold down to 1/f (so, like no slower than 1/50 for a 50mm lens) (maybe you knew that already).... 

What I have long heard is that most people can hand-hold at 1/60, if you're careful you can hand-hold at 1/50, and with practice most photographers can usually hand-hold at 1/30.

I was using a point-n-shoot camera, so I'm not sure how those numbers translate. EXIF data indicates a focal length of 4.9mm at an aperture of f/3.3 at an eosure of 1/20.

A twentieth of a second is pretty long to hold a camera steady by hand, so I suspect that the eosure time is the primary factor in the less than sharp image. Which, I'll admit, comes as a bit of a relief.

The 1/f rule is, I believe, based on a "standard" film plane or sensor size; that is, a standard 35mm film frame. The math gets tricky when the sensor size changes.

The phone cams have digital stabilizing and other cool features to reduce "operator incompetence."

It looks like both the iPhone 12 Max is one of the highest-rated camera phones today, at around $1100 USD.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra rates just a highly. Depends on if you prefer Android or Apple operating system. Also around $1100 USD.

A company I've never heard of offers the OnePlus 9 Pro with optics designed by Hasselblad! That's pretty cool! Also... $1100 USD.

Reviews suggest that the Google Pixel 5, at around $700, does not quite measure up to the others in all-around image quality, but it excels at low-light and astrophotography. A Pixel 6 is due to be released soon.

Of course, they're phones, so unlike a stand-along camera, there's also the monthly service fee. I honestly don't know if you can continue using the non-phone functions of a mobile phone if you discontinue your phone service. (And an admittedly brief search online reveals no simple or direct answer to that question.)

[Alliecat]

What I have long heard is that most people can hand-hold at 1/60, if you're careful you can hand-hold at 1/50, and with practice most photographers can usually hand-hold at 1/30.

Yeah, but your focal length is still a factor. If you are using a long lens, any movement is magnified because the area in view is smaller. A little wobble at 1/50 would have much more effect on the small part of the scene in a 200 mm or 300 mm lens than with a 50 mm lens.
Don’t know how that translates to point and shoot, but 1/20 is rather slow to hand-hold anyway.
Also 3.3 is not much DOF… Maybe try zooming in and examining all parts of the image to see if the whole thing is blurry (you moved) or whether some part other than your intended target is actually in focus (you or the autofocus missed).
Those prices are ridiculous!! I don’t know if Orchard sells phones to the states, I think they do, but that is where I got both mine and they were very good.
Yes, you can use all the functions, at least on an iPhone. I don’t have a SIM in mine; I just use it for Wi-Fi. In a different world, I could put a SIM in it for travel.

[Alliecat]

Also, if you think it’s movement at slow shutter speed, you could put the timer on and just hold it; there might be a little less wobble since you don’t have to press the button. I’ve done that on rare occasions.

[davidd]

Yes, you can use all the functions, at least on an iPhone. I don’t have a SIM in mine; I just use it for Wi-Fi. In a different world, I could put a SIM in it for travel.

 You have an iPhone 12 Max and you don't use it as a phone?

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15 July - A Doll A Day 2021:

15 July - Da Boxes


Da Contents

Two 1/6 scale heads
Three 1/6 scale costumes
One 1/6 scale beret
One pair 1/3 scale shoes (and how cool are those shoes!)

[Alliecat]

Those shoes look enormous next to the heads!!

You have an iPhone 12 Max and you don't use it as a phone?

Wut
I have a 6S. Did I mention I wouldn’t pay those stupid prices??
Got it secondhand to replace the 4S which I got to have some Internet access while traveling, since my “actual“ phone is a little old fashioned flip one for emergencies only. (Obviously I am not a big mobile phone user. ) I could put that SIM in it, but since I’m not going anywhere, I just use it for quick Internet around the house when I don’t want to take time to start up the computer.
PTFCO is not a bastion of high tech!

[davidd]

Those shoes look enormous next to the heads!!

I have a 6S.  Did I mention I wouldn’t pay those stupid prices?

PTFCO is not a bastion of high tech!

 I thought perhaps the phone was cheaper without the SIM card.

I didn't know phones still had SIM cards! There was a time when swapping (or stealing) SIM cards was considered the cutting edge of tech savvy.

Yes, the 1/3 scale shoes look enormous next to 1/6 scale stuff. Do you have any 1/3 figures in your collection yet?

[Alliecat]

What do they have if they don’t have SIM cards...? I mean, anybody can buy a phone and then put a card in it...? Or can you only get phones through carriers there? It’s all ridiculously complicated, and in my ex-perience there was no such thing as the easy “burner phone” you see on TV. I looked, and I guess Orchard doesn’t sell to the states. Too bad.

Yes, Annie is 1/3 scale.

[Loona]

We, too, have phones (and SIM cards) sold separately here - you can totally get them on their own, without carriers, SIMs and contracts. That's how I bought mine too - and I needed it like that: I cannot have a device that is fixed to just one carrier because I use two SIM cards simultaneously (my work requires a company mobile, so I use a dual SIM mobile that is capable of having 2 SIMs in at the same time - as much as I hear good things about iPhones, their refusal to make dual SIM devices is something that will forever keep me away from getting one - there's no way I'm going to carry 2 mobile phones around, I did that for a few months when I started working here - never again! At least this gave me the final kick to replace my then already very slow and buggy mobile). I tried to do a quick search yesterday, but apparently it's also about the model and the brand: I read some models will have a "no SIM detected" message up all the time, blocking you from being able to use certain functions, while others are fully usable for everything BUT calls. I think it's worth checking this specifically before you settle on a model. I, too, have seen some great photos made with iPhones in the past (for instance, I remember someone on the since closed Monster High Arena, using an iPhone for their photos in a photo contest, and the photos were always sharp, lively and just overall very good-looking. And this was sometime in... 2015, so you don't even need a very new model).

I have pretty much abandoned my point&shoot, to the point that just a few weeks ago I was actually thinking of selling it - then I decided to keep it, because that would mean no (working) point&shoot in the household, and who knows when it would come handy. But the truth is, if I really think about it, I cannot think of an occasion when it would come handy. For quick photos on the go, or when I want to share something, I always use my mobile, and have been for the past approx. 3 years; and for "actual" photos there's the DSLR. The point&shoot is from before I got the DSLR, and I actually find it too fiddly. There are many settings, which could be good, but if I don't use them, I easily end up with a bad photo - but if -I do use the settings, well, then it's better to just use the DSLR with the same settings, and with the lens that fits whatever I'd like to photograph best. For years I've been longing for my previous point&shoot, which really worked like its name implies and produced good photos without fiddling with the settings, but it died (most likely of the small sediment particles getting into it) when I once took it with me to a mammoth excavation from loess. He was a good and trusty boy - and even on that excavation waited until the last afternoon before it went. We tried to repair it, but didn't succeed, and we decided it wasn't worth actually paying for the repair because it wasn't very young, and the resolution of its built-in lens was getting too little and outdated).

Yeah, that is a cool pair of boots, I love how realistic it looks! I have a love&hate relationship with 1/3 doll merchandise: 1/3 is a scale that is already big enough to make it easier to work with (compared to e.g. 1/6), resulting in amazingly realistic and detailed shoes&outfits - but it's also a scale that is already way too big for my taste, and it would also be weird to buy a doll in this size just so that I can get this-sized stuff for them, so yeah, no 1/3 merch for me. The "hate" part of the relationship comes from when I browse for doll clothing something online: it often happens that I come across something I love, and for a relatively good price - and it usually turns out to be 1/3 size... and the same thing (if it even exists) in 1/6 size looks much less realistic, has less details, and costs more...

[davidd]

What do they have if they don’t have SIM cards...? 

Yes, Annie is 1/3 scale.

I was under the impression that SIM cards had been largely phased out, and that you had to purchase a phone from a carrier. But I don't follow mobile phone stuff all that closely, so I am very likely mistaken in that regard.

That's right, your oh-so-pretty... and enormous... Annie! How is she doing? We haven't seen her in a while.

We, too, have phones (and SIM cards) ....

Those former Soviet Bloc countries are really catching up to the West, aren't they?     Just kidding! Thank you for the interesting and extensive mobile phone info and the other comments. I shall attempt to respond at more length sooner rather than later, but at the moment... you know how it is!

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16 July - A Doll A Day 2021:

16 July - Bearded Man Got His New Body

He's on a TBLeague (Phicen) body now, which offers a greater range of motion and substantially more heft, so he stands and balances quite solidly. Added bonus(es): his previous clothing still fits and his arms no longer randomly fall off.

[Elfy]

What is the glowy thing in his hand? It’s not part of a crystal skull is it?