[simulcast not simul, today; this seems to be the new normal]

We have a plot! It’s thickening! Our Hot Killer Detective is on the case! And even the characters are moving! Okay, sometimes; there’s still a lot of “nighttime is dreamy so lets pan stills and cover them with effects”, and some moments that stood out for finding ways not to animate lip flaps.

Verdict: the story is advancing, with Our Bite-Seeking Hero spending some quality time with His Jealous Best Girl, while all the other local vamps react to an existential threat.

Way overdue for a photo-oriented trip…

Not around here at the moment, given the near-constant rain, humidity, and highs above 90° American (32° French). It’s just that thinking about being on my own in Tokyo next Spring for a week led me to check over my camera gear, which meant finding my camera gear.

I’ve “tidied the house” so many times since I moved in that it took me nearly two hours to find my good cameras and almost all of their accessories (still a few little bits to find, like the power hose for one of the chargers). The upside of the search is that I finally located the boxes containing the rest of my marudai, which were cleverly concealed under a bunch of books in a box at the back of one of the closets.

Finding the cameras led me to finally follow up on an email from B&H Photo letting me know that there was a major firmware update for the A7SIII (the big full-frame camera with insanely good low-light capability). The email was for version 3.0.1, but when I clicked the link, 4.0 was also available, and I was all the way back at 2.11.

First, I had to upgrade from 2.11 to 2.15, which required installing a kernel extension on my Mac. Which required allowing kernel extensions. Which required rebooting while holding down the power button and navigating through the maintenance menus (this, admittedly, is better than the old system of memorizing half a dozen magic key combinations). Two more reboots later, and I could run the updater. Then the other updater to get it to 3.01.

Going to 4.0 was trivial by comparison: copy a file onto an SD card and tell it to update itself. So, kudos to Sony for removing a bunch of useless pain from the process, although they really want you to switch to their new Cloud app with bonus subscription AI features…

The downside of getting everything checked out and charged up was that I discovered that Sony recently released what may be their sexiest lens ever: FE 50-150mm F2 GM.

Okay, so it’s 8 inches long, 4 inches thick, and weighs 3 pounds (coughcough). And costs $3,900. But it’s pro-grade glass with reach-out-and-touch-someone range at f/2! Combined with the A7SIII’s ISO 102,400 (or 409,600 when you’re short on candles), it would be perfect for dimly-lit temples, museums, etc.

I lust for it, but I think I can hold out until early Spring. I definitely don’t need it right now.

Speaking of lust…

Baiser hits the beach:

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