41–49 of 49 posts
Does ski matter to beginners? Say, for a Ski beginner who can cruise light blue runs with ugly movement when carving? Should I just pick a pair in a certain price range, or pay close attention to all kinds of parameters.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest thing that matters besides comfy boots is what type of skis (length and width). I personally use all-mountain skis which are, well, good in most conditions because I typically ski in the Midwest with trips out west. If you frequently hit powder and/or live near a mountain a pair of powder skis may suit you well either alone or as a compliment - don’t over think it too much. I highly highly highly highly r…
Speaking of lessons, I envy the kids who can join teams in those ski resorts, and the team coaches are usually regional or national medalists, who know how to drill fundamentals into kids. Adults are not so lucky. I tried many coaches or lessons offered by either ski resorts or by some ski schools. The coaches somehow could not convey exactly how one can go from pizza to parallel ski then to carving and finally to sh…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest thing that matters besides comfy boots is what type of skis (length and width). I personally use all-mountain skis which are, well, good in most conditions because I typically ski in the Midwest with trips out west. If you frequently hit powder and/or live near a mountain a pair of powder skis may suit you well either alone or as a compliment - don’t over think it too much. I highly highly highly highly r…
Speaking of lessons, I envy the kids who can join teams in those ski resorts, and the team coaches are usually regional or national medalists, who know how to drill fundamentals into kids. Adults are not so lucky. I tried many coaches or lessons offered by either ski resorts or by some ski schools. The coaches somehow could not convey exactly how one can go from pizza to parallel ski then to carving and finally to sh…
https://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-New-Skis-Goodbye-Interme...
Does ski matter to beginners? Say, for a Ski beginner who can cruise light blue runs with ugly movement when carving? Should I just pick a pair in a certain price range, or pay close attention to all kinds of parameters.
Also don't forget about boots. They can be hard to fit and find a good pair but the effort is worth it. You might not care immediately and skis are more exciting to buy, but your boots are how you use the skis and bad boots can make it hard to get better.
It seems like after a decent period of experimentation many skis currently are just good, especially in the intermediate range. I don't know much about beginner skis but depending on what you learn on the next step up from rental skis will feel like a significant improvement.
After that, there is a lot of feel and style that determines the skis you might use. I have probably 10-15 pairs because I hold on to my worn out, broken skis instead of throwing them away. I figured out what characteristics I like for where I ski and a couple common conditions. Some people like long, straight skis, some are happy with shorter noodles, part of that is style and part of that is where the skis are used. Some people care a lot about weight.
The latter take better photos, generally. But as soon as they get money, they buy the gear they need and make even better photos. Professional photographers tend to really obsess about their gear.
I got myself a canon dslr about 12 years ago. Nothing special. Just the entry level model (550D). I used it until about 2020 and I replaced it with a Fuji XT-30. Also an entry level camera. Does it take better photos? Yes and no. It's certainly more capable in low light situations. And the photos have a bit less noise and more dynamic range, which is nice. But neither of those things were much of an issue with the Canon in daylight situations. And I'm still the same person with the same amateur skills. So, there hasn't been a massive improvement in the quality of the photos I take. I do shoot a bit more at night now. Because I can with this thing.
But what I do appreciate most with Fuji is the controls. I mostly shoot manual now because this is very easy with this camera and was very fiddly with the Canon. I have one dial for aperture on the lens, one dedicated dial for shutter speed and I control the iso with one of the programmable dials. As it turns out, forcing yourself to shoot manual all the time puts you on a learning curve where you start analyzing what you shoot and how to set the shot up correctly. Shooting in half automated mode with the Canon was easier but you get lazy about it as well. I mostly shot in AV mode with that and thus ended up with a lot of shots that were either not well exposed, noisy (high iso), or with the wrong aperture for the situation.
Fuji makes some fantastically expensive cameras that cost thousands of dollars that you typically pair with lenses that are even more expensive. Clearly way out of my budget. Would I like owning one. Oh yes. But would it probably wouldn't make a huge difference.
IDK about photography, but my kitchen skills drastically increased when I bought proper chef's knife and device to make it sharp.
I dunno, in my case it just made it faster. Shitty knife can be made sharp, just not for long. For me it's mostly "the better thing makes it quicker". Sure there is some minimum that makes stuff below impossible, but outside of that it's mostly convenience
As an extreme example, if you want to take high resolution pictures of distant planets, you are going to need a telescope.
You are going to have more flexibility with gear choice if you are flexible with the photos you want to take.
If I stuck to kit lens and no photoshop, I may have given up on photography pretty soon.
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I think this is tied in with Adam Savage's observation that practice alone gets you 80% of the way to mastery. Talent is what gets you the the other 20%. Gear strikes me as being similar. High-end gear won't really improve the work of someone who is much below the 80% mastery mark, but it can make all the difference in the world to someone above it. I also really like his approach to buying gear: if it's the first of…
> if it's the first of a particular kind of equipment, buy the cheapest version you can get. Use that, and you'll learn if it's actually helpful to you and, if it is, what qualities are really important. Only then go out and buy the best version you can afford. I call this the Harbor Freight tool philosophy! If you need a tool that you do not have, buy it from Harbor Freight (the store sells very cheep but still func…
Phase detect autofocus is amazing stuff. I never had autofocus problems after that.