2022 Here We Come - General update

Planning for a Nikon Z9 ;)

I'm an amateur and just bought my first drone, a DJI mini 2. They are amazing. I was wondering if a drone would help in your videos, or if it would be blown away and limit your mobility. I like the drone reviews by Casey Neistat (in case you don't know him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsycuxfou6Q)

I am looking forward for the release of your new album. Do you have a Discography

I made the mistake of picking Astronomy over Meteorology. I’m a Tornado fanatic, and have been so since I first heard about them. I was born and raised in Fort Worth

Howdy P. Hank, where did you get your Meteorology education (No malice intended)?

The canon is interesting but it seems like you’d be in a similar situation as the A7S3. Supposed to start shipping out late March as of now but there’s no telling when you’d actually get it. The Sonys have a recording mode for 4k120 that’s easier to edit, but you’d need a v90 sd card or CFexpress type A and a ton of storage. If you don’t have an M1 Mac the Sony 8k will probably be a problem and you might have to use Proxy files or something. I’ve never used proxy’s before so I don’t know how much more work that would be. Or get the Canon and shoot RAW and use even more storage. As expensive as these camera bodies are now it’s just the start. Plus for the price of the Sony A1 you could get a 6k global shutter cinema body (Red Komodo and Zcam e2-s6g). Sometimes choosing camera gear feels like a second job

I might have to roll with the that 8k Sony. Then again, cannon just released an impressive 8k body. Both also shoot 4K 120. No idea if my iMac can even process those files.

Pecos Hank

Yikes! Glad to hear everyone's still kicking. Pneumonia and sepsis are no joke, and I hope your daughter makes a full recovery. I lost both Christmas and New Year's to "other people's Rona" and have lost count of the people I know who caught it, caught something else that resembled it, or were exposed to it. Sometimes I feel like we're all just dominoes waiting for our inevitable turn to fall.

Wendy Jay

Hank, I will be praying that ya’ll don’t get it. Shoot I’m praying for everyone and telling random people I meet on the street that they are not allowed to get it ;)

Paula Miller

I know right! My brother and my uncle both nearly died of it over the holidays. My daughter was very sick and in the hospital the week before Christmas but not because of Rona. We had a random respiratory virus (they do still exist apparently) come through the house. She has bad asthma that is viral triggered for the most part. It’s like her body just skipped the whole “fight the infection” part. She had pneumonia (nothing new for us, she is 20 and I’ve lost count how many times she’s had it over the years) and Sepsis HC (That one is new to us!). Needless to say the holidays kinda sucked this year. Christmas Eve & Christmas Day we made the absolute best we could of it. The heaviness of why we were not having a family celebration put our hearts in the right place I think and made us grateful for what we did have in that very moment. I HATE Rona!!!!! We have lost multiple family members to it and several friends. My brother and uncle is WAY too close to home though! Y’all be careful! Don’t get the Rona! You’re not allowed to because I said so!!! 😜

Paula Miller

All of that gear sounds like Greek to me for the most part. Except I love the idea of you being able to capture lightening in video. Would that work in nearly the same quality as what you shoot in still photography ? I am the YouTuber that shoots totally on my phone and edits on my iPad Pro. It works for historical true crime though. I absolutely love the fact that you are so real and buy used and look for deals. This something I do. Most of my furniture is used. Sometimes I’d love to walk into the furniture store and buy all the matchy, matchy stuff but really I LOVE the search! I love making old things look new again. I love giving them a second life and I love not wasting a perfectly good piece. I do the same with pretty much everything I buy. As far as camera gear, I just got an iPad Pro for my birthday so I will probably not be upgrading anything any time soon, if I did it would be my iPhone 8 Plus to something with the better camera. I love the camera on this iPad Pro so much that I’m Jonesing for an iPhone 13 Pro but probably not till 14 comes out :) LOVE the picture above! I hope ya’ll had an amazing Christmas time!

Paula Miller

At the end of the day all supercells are is giant heat engines in the atmosphere that are being pushed around by wind shear. IR cameras are really good at seeing differences in heat (Most things emit in the IR spectrum) I'd be curious to see how to storm looks in the IR, I suspect we could probably see how the storm is releasing energy in real time and at what locations. (I'm assuming it probably looks similar to the skew-T Profile but still worth a shot).

Celton

I have nothing to add to the camera discussion. Just glad you and Nat are back and managed to avoid the big C.

Wendy Jay

I looked at some cool stuff used on fires. You could see a water drop from a helicopter that was awesome. 10 microns is the general emissivity of earth (0.3-0.6) in the visible from the sun. And IR picks up water (latent heat) and heat really well. So with new equipment I bet one could see the temps of air masses as they change. The problems they had in the previous study was it needed to be 3km away and TIR doesn't see through dust well. Specs I saw on an imaging device was 12 km now. And the resolution looks amazing...for fire and liquid water. I so want to do this and have been thinking about it for months. And after the imagery I saw this morning makes me think this is doable.

Brent

The A7S3 is probably worth the upgrade over the 2 at this point, especially if you want to shoot s-log3 and max out the dynamic range. Sony sort of put themselves in a bad position where had to release the A7iv in the fall and that cut in to their A7S3 production. In your position i would definitely try to order it or the FX3 (same sensor, cine body) backordered on B&H ASAP and hopefully it’ll get to you before the tornadoes. There’s really no way to know right now when you’ll get it but getting on the list now will probably work out for you better than waiting to see if you can find it elsewhere or something.

Thanks so much Barbara. We've been able to avoid Covid so far. Easy to do in Thailand. Here, not so much and Nat has to go back to work at the office tomorrow. With the crazy spike ongoing here I suspect it's just a matter of time. We're both boosted though. Stay safe and keep on keeping' on.

Pecos Hank

I'd love to point anything that sees different at storms. Not sure where to begin on the IR waves, however coincidentally I've scheduled a discussion with an atmospheric scientist this Friday who also mentioned pointing IR at storms.

Pecos Hank

Welcome home, Hank. I hope you had a chance to relax and hang out with Nat.I too am looking forward to seeing your new videos. I wish YOU a fantastic, stormy and safe 2022 with no virus attaching itself to you or anyone you love.

Barbara Jeffries

I keep thinking the distance/resolution of Thermal IR imaging systems may have improved enough or some FLIR system just fun to attempt getting some imagery. Does anyone know of recent thermal IR ground truth studies done? I was thinking maybe 8-11 micrometers. It would be cool to see how air masses change temps as mesos form. It would be a cool visual aid for learning imho...kids like me would love to see the warm air rise in red and turn blue. Just thinking way outside the box at 4AM.

Brent