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I’ve been using a standing desk pretty solidly since 2011 and prior to last month I could have confidently told you that I had only spent 20–30 days sitting at a desk since 2011. Sitting was a very rare thing, because when I work, I stand.

That’s just the way it is now for me.

My legs and feet rarely get tired. I don’t get annoyed by standing and anyone who has tried standing for work knows exactly the annoyance I am talking about.

I prefer standing and my life seems to not be impacted, so I stand.

From the moment that I started standing I wanted to get an adjustable height desk — a fancy one that moves up and down to preset heights with just a push of a button.

There are times, especially with young kids at home, where I just don’t get enough sleep and that makes sitting really — really — needed.

In the past I’ve always had a sitting desk I could move to, but it meant physically moving all my crap from one desk to another. That amount of annoyance always kept me standing, but meant that if I did move it was a move that would last the rest of the day.

An adjustable height desk just seemed logical, but I forbade myself from getting one for the first year to force myself to stand more. However, a month ago I got myself an adjustable height desk, apparently I finally “got around to it”.

I bought the Jarvis Desk from ErgoDesk.com, as it seemed decent looking, but more importantly it was cheaper than most other options I was considering — by about half. It was almost a no-brainer purchase.

I did consider other desks, the two top contenders I didn’t buy were:

• GeekDesk: This is probably the most well known of the lot. But I didn’t like a few things about it: the top choices were various flavors of ugly, and the legs have a large cross bar on them that I find unappealing. Additionally it was more money once shipping was factored in.
• NextDesk: I really wanted one of these. They are gorgeous and just look like art. However their starting price was double the Jarvis, and they had that bar across the legs (again).

The Jarvis was cheap, and missing a cross bar, so I pulled the trigger.

The Desk

Overall the desk is what I thought it would be. It’s very sturdy, large enough, has four presets for height control (I only use two), and just works.

It’s a desk, what more do you want?

There are some nice things about the desk:

• The top can easily be swapped out, and the width of the legs is adjustable, so you have a pretty flexible base for your desk.
• The presets work like a charm, though I keep playing with them all the time.
• Overall the desk is very stable. It’s not rock solid, but then again it adjusts over a huge range — it’s more stable than I expected.
• The movement speed and fluidity is fine. Nothing stellar, it is what it is. I can’t imagine a scenario where I would need a desk to zoom from one position to another. The wait isn’t annoyingly long, but it isn’t fast either.

There are, of course, a few issues:

• It’s pretty noisy. As in: the entire area around me knows when I am changing heights because you can’t avoid the whining sound. That’s probably the second worst issue with the desk. (But something I expected. I doubt it’s any more annoying than Shawn typing next to you.) Maybe less of a whine and more of a whine-hum.
• The top I picked is a dark grey laminate, and man does it suck. I like the look of it just fine (though it’s nothing great), but it’s a magnet for smudges. I tried seven different cleaners before finding one that would clean it streak free, and even then you can’t touch the desk without leaving a mark. It will drive an OCD person to break — I get close sometimes.

Overall then, solid value for a solid adjustable height desk. I’d pick a different top/color, but I am probably only a month away from building my own top for the desk anyways (that was the plan all along).

I recommend the desk, but I have caveats, which I detail next.

Using an Adjustable Height Desk

For the first week of owning the desk I imposed a rule: sitting is allowed at lunch only. (I eat lunch at my desk most days.) Then after the first week I changed the rule to: sitting is only allowed after noon.

In fact, today, as I write this post it’s the first time in almost three years that I came into the office and just sat down instead of standing up to work.

Where I was perfectly happy standing before, I am now prone to switch heights two to three times throughout the day. I worry that this is less healthy — having an adjustable height desk over a standing only desk — but then again I am much more comfortable and thus less cranky being able to sit down when I want.

When I don’t sleep well the night before, or when I just need to kick up my feet it’s easy to do so. I’ve built the habit of standing to work, so I feel more awkward sitting. So long as I don’t let that feeling change, I should still stand more than I sit.

My advice is to get a standing only desk for at least the first year of standing while working. If you give yourself the option to sit when you are trying to change from sitting to standing, then you will sit. Take away that option to sit for at least a year so that you can build a strong habit.

After that you will probably find you don’t need an adjustable height desk after all. I sure as heck don’t need it. It’s a nice desk, but unnecessary.

I have a serious addiction to bags, but my recent move to Fujifilm cameras necessitated another bag purchase — this time a camera bag. I never found the need for a small camera bag with the GX1 and the OM-D as they stowed well inside the GR1 Field Pocket (and inside my jacket pockets). I really only used one lens with both those cameras.

With the move to Fujifilm, however, I sold off all of my other camera gear, and thus needed a bag to at least have a central repository for my new gear at my home. This became blatantly apparent when I carried all the lenses and accessories piece meal to the hospital for my daughter’s birth.

Previously

With my Canon gear, the size alone, meant you needed bags for the gear. I had a special hiking backpack (for sale right now), a Pelican/LowePro serious storage case, and my shooting bag which is the more classic Domke F-4AF Pro.

I still have those bags, but the Domke proved too large. The camera and lenses swim around in the bag, and it is just too big now. So despite all of that, I wanted a smaller bag which better reflected the smaller size of my tools.

The Search

I really thought I would just get a smaller Domke, as they hold up really well, but I kept looking to Think Tank and Ona Bags as well.

Ultimately, the Ona Bowery in Field Tan led me to the purchase button.

Quality

I was immediately taken aback when I opened up this bag, the fit, finish, and feel of the bag is exquisite. In my opinion it is finished better, and feels better, than Hard Graft bags and at a fraction of the price.

It’s small — though others would say large — but it holds my entire Fujifilm kit just so. This bag is just something special as a bag in general.

The canvas is meant to patina, and comes a bit distressed (I don’t think purposefully). Since owning it the distress keeps coming, and I love every new mark that shows up on it, but one could wax the canvas if bothered.

There are a few really nice touches on this bag that I want to point out:

• The clasp. I am so used to velcro and zippers, that the metal clasp is a refreshing change. It’s silent to use, secures well, and is just all around better to interact with.
• The shoulder strap feels like a smoother seatbelt material. I really love it. It’s smooth, but no so slick that it slides off your shoulder. Really something nice. The DSPTCH straps always slid off my shoulder, but for some reason this strap (though smoother) stays put.
• The trimming on the bag is subtle, but so well done that sometimes I just admire it. I’m trying not to exaggerate, but it really is well trimmed.

Of course, nothing in life is perfect and especially not the accessory pockets on this bag.

At each side of the bag are little pockets to stow stuff. The rear and front pockets are adequate. They don’t secure shut, but they are tight enough that batteries, memory cards, and filters won’t come slipping out.

It’s the end pockets that are the real issue: they are tiny, obstructed by leather trim at the opening, and almost comically useless. I loathe them. They are hard to get anything out of, and not much will fit in them. I’d almost prefer they didn’t exist at all.

The bag is also missing any kind of secured pocket — I’d love to see a zippered pocket on the inside of the flap for storing memory cards, but there isn’t one. In fact aside from the foam padding and interior divider you would be hard pressed to say this is a bag specifically made for cameras. That is both good, and bad.

Overall

This is easily the best camera bag I have ever owned, and quality wise one of the best bags I have owned in any category. It isn’t perfect, and it is pricey compared to like sized bags, but I don’t think I could have made a better purchase for a small camera bag.

Something tells me I will have this bag for quite some time.

Buy It and Support the Site

• Amazon, or in Smoke.
• B&H Photo, or in Smoke.

The instant-buy micro four thirds lens has long been the excellent (if dodgy AF) Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens. It’s a pancake lens that is very compact, very sharp, and offers a nice compromise in focal length between 35mm and 50mm. It’s a good lens all around and it is a decent price.

Once you start to get more serious about micro four thirds gear, it always became apparent that you must have the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens. It’s exceedingly sharp, focuses fast, and is f/1.4. It was always the next lens you bought. It just made sense, and the 50mm focal length is one of the most popular out there. ((Rivaled only by 35mm, I would guess.))

Recently Olympus announced a 25mm f/1.8 lens — something to take on the legendary Panasonic — and just this week these lenses started making their way in to people’s hands.

I, like Shawn Blanc, have read quite a bit about the lens — and if what I am reading (and seeing) is accurate, the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 is the micro four thirds lens to buy.

It’s almost as sharp, focuses quieter, is much smaller, almost as fast (aperture wise), and costs less than the Panasonic 25mm. You get 99% of the way to the Panasonic offering with a bunch of other benefits — that’s impressive.

I previously told people to get the 20mm f/1.7 to start out with on micro four thirds because it got you a really great, but small lens — but no more because from here on out I strongly feel that you should get the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 to start out with. The focal length is better, the build is better, the AF is better, and it is likely sharper.

The biggest downside to the Olympus lens (and any of their lenses, save the 75mm) is that it is not that great looking. ((The Olympus 45mm in particular looks like a little penis attached to a camera.)) The Panasonic 25mm looks much better — much more professional — but one of the great things about the Olympus is the small size. It doesn’t look bad, but it certainly doesn’t look bad ass either.

I’d wager to bet this lens becomes very popular.

Support the Site

I only get income two ways: from memberships, and from affiliate links, so your help with either is what keeps this site going.

Buying the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 from these links will directly support the site.

• B&H Photo
• Amazon

I mentioned Threema in another post and talked about how there is a lot to do with key exchange that can make such apps insecure. In reading more about Threema in their FAQ, it appears that the app servers can either facilitate the key exchange or it can be done in person via QR codes.

Key exchange is going to be that part of any end to end encryption system. iMessage most certainly holds the keys and are thus subject to court orders, it appears Threema doesn’t hold the keys.

That alone doesn’t make it secure, as they note that they must know who to send the message to. Even though those logs are being stored, there is nothing stopping someone from forcing them to log that data and turn it over (which is what PRISM tracks), but this is where their location comes into play, and I’m not sure the Swiss laws on this stuff.

At the end of the day you have to decide who you are trying to protect your data from.