Opinion: EOS-M transition that never was

[neuroanatomist]

I'll try to remember this for my next international trip. I know the currency exchange companies seem to take more than is necessary, but I don't remember how much more.

Larger banks and AAA will exchange currency for you, at better rates than you'll find at airports or other exchange counters. But be sure to spend it all, else you'll lose substantially converting it back to USD.

Personally, when I travel abroad I buy a fair bit of foreign currency. I spend the first few days of the trip using it sparingly and instead paying with plastic (an account with no foreign transaction fees), then toward the end of the trip I start paying for everything with local currency to use it up.

 

[David - Sydney]

Larger banks and AAA will exchange currency for you, at better rates than you'll find at airports or other exchange counters. But be sure to spend it all, else you'll lose substantially converting it back to USD.

Personally, when I travel abroad I buy a fair bit of foreign currency. I spend the first few days of the trip using it sparingly and instead paying with plastic (an account with no foreign transaction fees), then toward the end of the trip I start paying for everything with local currency to use it up.

Going to 7 countries (UK/FR/DK/NO/SE/SG/JP) over Christmas so 7 currencies all up... planning to go without cash (or maybe a tiny amount)
Gone are the days of travellers cheques!
Just don't lose your phone (2FA etc)!! I will get a dual/eSim with Vodafone for global data roaming for that month.

Were we talking about EF-M discontinuation?.... seems to be less interesting than travel tips and anecdotes

 

[vikingar]

Most mainstream hotels don't even have bellhops, etc. anymore. The very high end ones are still full service and I have no idea how the folks that are willing to pay $1k to 20k per night treat the help. For those prices, everything should be included.

Counterintuitively, it's the exact opposite. The high end ones nickel and dime their guests even more. Surcharges for everything. But none of the money goes to the employees.

I've heard it can be worse to work at these places as they're not allowed to ask for tips.

 

[koenkooi]

Counterintuitively, it's the exact opposite. The high end ones nickel and dime their guests even more. Surcharges for everything. But none of the money goes to the employees. [...]

When I was an FAE I had to travel a lot, both to customers and conferences where you couldn't always pick a more affordable variant, and it amazed me how expensive things like in-room wifi were, like $50 a day for rooms that were already more then $300/night. But I do appreciate that breakfast tends to open at 06:00 in those hotels, not at 08:00 like the more family oriented hotels.

For all the bad things that happened thanks to the 2008 financial crisis, I do miss being able to get a decent room for $160/night in downtown San Francisco during high season.

 

[Del Paso]

Same, except I haven’t had to sign for a transaction in a couple of years. Credit cards, no PIN. Debit cards have a PIN, but at checkout you can use it or not (in the latter case, it’s processed as a credit transaction that really only matters to the merchant since they pay a higher rate for credit than for debit transactions).

Personally, I use my Apple Watch to pay with either type of card. In some US states (not mine), a driver’s license can be stored on a phone/watch meaning a wallet/purse is no longer needed.

I remember paying with these:

View attachment 212434

"These" were nicknamed "crack-crack" in France.
I also remember when friends of mine spent a few days in Germany, in the seventies. They wanted to take home some specialties for their friends. To put it in a nutshell, the shopping cart was overfilled wit sausages, meat, cheese, beer etc...
And then cashier told them that this really big supermarket did not accept credit cards...
While in France, at that time, you could already pay your pack of cigarettes with your credit card. Germany was quite late with accepting electronic cash...

 

[Del Paso]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I do not understand that in America, waiters get such ridiculously low wages that they have to rely on tipping to earn a decent living.
I just find it humiliating.
Tipping has become an obligation, or, put differently, a part of the salary paid by the customer...
In some businesses, employees are forced into mendicity.

 

[neuroanatomist]

… I do miss being able to get a decent room for $160/night in downtown San Francisco during high season.

Well, there’s high season…then there’s JPM season. Rooms that cost $150/night in December and February go for $1500/night the 2nd week of January during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

 

[koenkooi]

Well, there’s high season…then there’s JPM season. Rooms that cost $150/night in December and February go for $1500/night the 2nd week of January during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Same thing during the annual SalesForce gathering, I'm happy that most of my travel is now to San Diego, away enough from the ComicCon location

 

[EricN]

Larger banks and AAA will exchange currency for you, at better rates than you'll find at airports or other exchange counters. But be sure to spend it all, else you'll lose substantially converting it back to USD.

Personally, when I travel abroad I buy a fair bit of foreign currency. I spend the first few days of the trip using it sparingly and instead paying with plastic (an account with no foreign transaction fees), then toward the end of the trip I start paying for everything with local currency to use it up.

I use AAA for converting.

Your stratagy seems good.
I noticed in some countries, even in the large cities, not every business accepted Visa cards. In a small city, or town, it could be only the banks. The first time I went to Thailand, most times I offered my card, it was received with a very confused look. If there was another employee, there was a short discussion before returning my card with an apology. Fortunately I had been warned that this was likely to happen and always kept enough cash.
My sisters' children like local currency so, I try to save a reasonable amount to give to them when I return, and maybe a little for myself (I liked Vietnamese currency with the little clear part).

 

[EricN]

Going to 7 countries (UK/FR/DK/NO/SE/SG/JP) over Christmas so 7 currencies all up... planning to go without cash (or maybe a tiny amount)
Gone are the days of travellers cheques!
Just don't lose your phone (2FA etc)!! I will get a dual/eSim with Vodafone for global data roaming for that month.

Were we talking about EF-M discontinuation?.... seems to be less interesting than travel tips and anecdotes

Have a nice & safe trip to all those places and don't forget to post some photos when you return.

 

[EricN]

Counterintuitively, it's the exact opposite. The high end ones nickel and dime their guests even more. Surcharges for everything. But none of the money goes to the employees.

I've heard it can be worse to work at these places as they're not allowed to ask for tips.

I had enough varying experiences and that I'm not sure if there is any correlation. I try to stay at something mid-priced, but depending on reviews or if someone I know recommends it or not, and what's available I might spend less, or more (less likely).
I've also heard they aren't allowed to ask for tips and I have never been asked for a tip. The only time I ever heard anyone ask for a tip was when I worked at a small bar. Sometimes one of my coworkers would say to a second or third time customer who she remembered didn't tip, she would take her time getting to him or her and if there was a complaint, she said something like, "I don't do this for my health. If you want good service, you know what to do. Throw a dog a bone." The owner had never mentioned not asking for tips, so I don't know...

 

[EricN]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I do not understand that in America, waiters get such ridiculously low wages that they have to rely on tipping to earn a decent living.
I just find it humiliating.
Tipping has become an obligation, or, put differently, a part of the salary paid by the customer...
In some businesses, employees are forced into mendicity.

This exactly true. On the other hand if you are an excellent bartender or waiter/waitress, customers will ask for you, and you can do ok for yourself. Around $75k (I believe US average is $45k). For myself, it helps bad servers understand they either need to learn to be a better server or find a different type of job.

 

[EricN]

About AI I can only think of integrating it into the camera itself. I think the new Google Pixel 8 phones already offer a few functions for that. I can even imagine that for pro usage. Let`s take something like documenting a trade fair with lots and lots of group pictures. Your camera recognizes that one or two people in the group had their eyes closed, so it corrects this in post.

The first version of that will have eyeballs floating in random places

 

[Del Paso]

I had enough varying experiences and that I'm not sure if there is any correlation. I try to stay at something mid-priced, but depending on reviews or if someone I know recommends it or not, and what's available I might spend less, or more (less likely).
I've also heard they aren't allowed to ask for tips and I have never been asked for a tip. The only time I ever heard anyone ask for a tip was when I worked at a small bar. Sometimes one of my coworkers would say to a second or third time customer who she remembered didn't tip, she would take her time getting to him or her and if there was a complaint, she said something like, "I don't do this for my health. If you want good service, you know what to do. Throw a dog a bone." The owner had never mentioned not asking for tips, so I don't know...

Turning employees into beggars...

 

[Dragon]

When I was an FAE I had to travel a lot, both to customers and conferences where you couldn't always pick a more affordable variant, and it amazed me how expensive things like in-room wifi were, like $50 a day for rooms that were already more then $300/night. But I do appreciate that breakfast tends to open at 06:00 in those hotels, not at 08:00 like the more family oriented hotels.

For all the bad things that happened thanks to the 2008 financial crisis, I do miss being able to get a decent room for $160/night in downtown San Francisco during high season.

Yep, now a hotel room in Northwest Nowhere is $160/night. I recently had to book a hotel in downtown LA and the room was over $700. Fortunately, the venue changed and I was able to cancel and move to something more reasonable on the periphery. Since Covid, hotels everywhere have nearly doubled in price and the service has gone down the tube as well. BTW, I took my M6 II on that trip (just staying on topic ).

 

[Del Paso]

Yep, now a hotel room in Northwest Nowhere is $160/night. I recently had to book a hotel in downtown LA and the room was over $700. Fortunately, the venue changed and I was able to cancel and move to something more reasonable on the periphery. Since Covid, hotels everywhere have nearly doubled in price and the service has gone down the tube as well. BTW, I took my M6 II on that trip (just staying on topic ).

Not only the hotels have doubled in price. The cost of car rentals has become prohibitive in most areas.

 

[EricN]

Not only the hotels have doubled in price. The cost of car rentals has become prohibitive in most areas.

And we (not everyone) complained about canon's relatively small percentage and not permanent price increases.

 

[David - Sydney]

Have a nice & safe trip to all those places and don't forget to post some photos when you return.

Family trip rather than photography focused but I should get some street/architecture shots in London while the ladies are having high tea

Just finished an outback (Broken Hill, Silverton, Menindee Lakes, Mungo national park, Lake Tyrell, Wentworth) 1000km trip for astrophotography which was amazing (and expensive!). So much to learn for scouting, shooting foregrounds and then milky way tracking and post processing.
>6k shots and since the a good portion were very long exposures (a lot of 2 minute astro tracked images), that was a lot.
Great drone shots of the salt lakes and sand dunes as well
Mostly posting on facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012315855277&mibextid=LQQJ4d
and Instagram and the best ones to Flickr over time

 

[mxwphoto]

No, but I have made the same observation and I have the same lens. It is actually a pretty cool lens for artsy portrait work as it has good low contrast detail even when wide open and the bokeh is good. You just have to be careful with lighting and too much contrast in OOF areas as there is noticeable LOCA. The chart shows the LOCA and the second photo shows that you can make decent pictures with some care in lighting and contrast.

Just don't keep the lens too close to you.

2500CPM per the device's manual translates into roughly 7.75usv/hr (100usv/hr / (32240cpm/2500cpm)).
That translates into 68msv/yr if you kept it with you 24/7.

For reference the NRC requires its licensees to limit occupational exposure to 5,000 mrem (50 mSv) per year.

 

[Del Paso]

Family trip rather than photography focused but I should get some street/architecture shots in London while the ladies are having high tea

Just finished an outback (Broken Hill, Silverton, Menindee Lakes, Mungo national park, Lake Tyrell, Wentworth) 1000km trip for astrophotography which was amazing (and expensive!). So much to learn for scouting, shooting foregrounds and then milky way tracking and post processing.
>6k shots and since the a good portion were very long exposures (a lot of 2 minute astro tracked images), that was a lot.
Great drone shots of the salt lakes and sand dunes as well
Mostly posting on facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012315855277&mibextid=LQQJ4d
and Instagram and the best ones to Flickr over time

Don't miss high tea, please!
It's a wonderful (delicious!) experience:
Enjoy your vacation!