But doesn't the stacking quality depend a lot on your individual frames? I've found that if you don't nail the focus and exposure during capture, no amount of curves or levels will save a blurry or clipped image. Getting those 50 clean frames where the focus is spot on and the histogram isn't slammed to one side makes the post-processing go way smoother. Stacking just builds a solid foundation, and a shaky foundation won't hold up no matter how much you paint it.

Switched my thinking on this too honestly. I was always a 'stick to the instructions' guy with camera cleaning stuff but hearing it from someone who actually fixed Leicas for a living changes things. Gonna grab some lighter fluid and try it on an old Spotmatic that's been gathering dust.

Wait, has nobody brought up the whole "autosave vs manual save" thing yet? That's the real hidden gem in this conversation, I think. People sleep on how many crashes could be avoided just by getting into the habit of hitting Ctrl+S every few minutes, even when you don't think you need to. It's like training your brain to do it without thinking, almost like a reflex. The phone sketch saved you this time, but next time maybe a quick save before you step away for coffee or a bathroom break could be the difference between starting over or picking right back up.

Dude yes, the free-flow issue is no joke. I've seen guys try to clear a blocked vent on an Ocean Reef and it just goes into a massive free flow that drains a whole tank in like two minutes flat. Meanwhile the KM 37 just sits there and breathes with you like a patient old dog. It's not even about which one is fancier or shinier, it's about which one won't kill you when things get sideways at 100 feet with zero visibility. Some gear looks good on the surface but falls apart under pressure, plain and simple.

That pump efficiency crowd never accounts for real world conditions. Last summer we had a spot on the Kaw River where the sand was mixed with old tree roots and rocks. My pump efficiency dropped like a rock but I just slowed the swing and kept the cutter head from bouncing. The engineer on site kept yelling at me to speed up to match his calculated numbers. I told him to come down and feel the vibration in the ladder if he was so sure. A good operator knows when to ignore the theoretical numbers and just get the material moving.