Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

For instance, LTO 8 gives you 12TB native and 30TB compressed of storage. I'm thinking the compressed is for text or low-res photos. What have you found to be the case?

A correction SDD should be SSD in previous post. I always get them mixed up with HDD.

Along with HDD, I've been using Samsung SDD for years. And the rock solid, last ditch, backup effort is an optical disc library composed of M-Disc and archival Blu-ray. The dozen or so SDD's I have used are Samsung .5TB, 1TB and 2TB. Never a problem with any of them. Thought I'd try some 4TB Samsung SDD's. The 4TB Samsung portable T7 broke in the middle of the first transfer of 600GB. Computer won't recognize now, won't light up...nothing. There seems to be lots of issues with Samsung SDD. I also tried 2 internal 4TB Samsung 870 EVO with enclosures for external use. Problems there as well, but still can't say 100% as I'm trying new enclosures. But no doubt with the 4TB portable T7 that is dead. Samsung used to be top shelf, no worries. What the hell happened to them? are samsung 4TB ssd drives having problems - Google Search <><><><> VHS / Laserdisc Archive 1986 DDTJRAC Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

The flip side of the coin when it comes to returning human remains... Recently I came across an interesting book making the case for not repatriating American Indian remains. I've always been around museums / special collection libraries, not academia. All my work is with visuals, not academics, text etc. So, my thinking about the possibilities of repatriating remains was around using the remains for display purposes only. After I came across Elizabeth's book, I can see the importance for scientific study of the remains. On the Warpath: My Battles With Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors (2024) On the Warpath: My Battles With Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors: Weiss, Elizabeth: 9781680533323: Amazon.com: Books Elizabeth Weiss, PhD – Professor of Anthropology (wordpress.com) <><><><> Comanche Squaw & Papoose 1908 Hand-Tinted RPPC DDTJRAC - Digital Collection

Years ago, I would like to look at the American Indian exhibits at the L.A. County Natural History Museum. They had a mummified Indian in rawhide clothes on display in a horizontal cabinet. One day he disappeared. This was many decades ago. They also had a collection of shrunken heads that were now kept top secret. One curator told me that the museums would be hit up for the items to be given back to the tribes or whatever the origin. OK, I can see some of that for human remains such as bodies. Although not so much for shrunken heads. Those need to be preserved. But now the museums are shutting down anything related to American Indians, even if they have nothing to do with human remains. I've got a few feet of American Indian related material in storage to scan. Mainly old auction catalogs. The Indian photos are very $$ to buy, although I was able to convince some collectors to sell me decent res scans of their items. Mainly RPPC. Collectors seldom want to share good photos they have. They may have paid $150 - $250 for a photo, so they don't want to sell a scan for $15. Well, that is basically what I do, anything I get is donated to the historical record for free...I run the Peoples' Archive. When you are out and about, archive your world. I wish I had taken a photo of the old mummified Indian back in the day or some of the other exhibitions I had been to that are no more. <><><><> Group of Indians 1909 RPPC (Digital file from collector.) DDTJRAC RPPC (Digital file from collector.) DDTJRAC Photo (Digital file from collector.) DDTJRAC Sioux Chief 1898 Getty Museum DDTJRAC Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Whenever I would drive around the rural parts of MN, IL, OH & PA. I would always be fascinated with grain bins, silos, bailed hay and farms I'd see. I guess that is what spurred my interest in archiving AG material. But going back further, I developed an interest in gardening from watching Roger Swain on 'The Victory Garden' back in the 1980's. DDTJRAC Personally, I don't have much interest in gardening. Sure, I like to look at them, watch them on TV and all, but I don't want to have one unless someone else took care of it. Years ago, I tried some small gardens, container gardening and even guerrilla gardening. But to do gardening right you have to be a slave to the garden. And none of my guerilla gardening efforts every grew. You have to be of the right disposition to be a gardener. Same way you have to be of a certain disposition to be a good filmmaker...director...producer...casting agent and all the rest. Before WWII, they had victory gardens back in WWI. Here is a film on the WWII victory aka war garden. The Victory Garden 1944 D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The old seed catalogs were beautiful works of art! Illustrations were all drawn and not photographed. 1919 - DDTJRAC 1896 - DDTJRAC Works of art or not, the vintage AG material makes for fascinating time capsules to look through. Some of it is highly collectable and hard to find on the cheap. But if you look around enough you can get some deals. Vintage AG selections from DDTJRAC... Even if you are not into gardening, you can be successful growing fruit trees...if you have the land. (My guerilla trees all died from the deer shredding them.) Once established, trees find their own water and are pretty self-sufficient. (In temperate climates.) If you don't want to be a slave to your fruit trees...plant disease resistant varieties. I used to help a friend out with his orchard and picked up some pointers from him. I fantasize about getting some flat land and putting up a greenhouse...to grow some fig trees! (And maybe a warm weather persimmon or two.) Fig trees and boogie boarding in the polluted Santa Monica Bay are about the only things I miss about L.A. You can grow fig trees in cold Z6, but you have to grow them in pots. Again, they require you to be a slave to them. The cold kills fig trees to the ground or altogether out here. I was raised with fig trees in L.A., so have a special affinity for fresh figs. In the Rustbelt they are $1.49 each for crappy Brown Turkey figs...if you are lucky to even find any at the greengrocer. Even though figs don't grow well out here, we get some great peaches. Red Haven peaches are superb, and the white peaches are also fantastic. I forage a little for abandoned fruit trees out here. I found some abandoned apple and European pear trees. I also found an American persimmon and some paw-paws. The paw-paws are an interesting fruit. They are something like a tropical custard apple, but not as good. There was also a nice apricot tree I would forage from years ago, but someone cut it down when they took over the property. Apricots are iffy out here due to the late spring freezes. If you got some land...plant some fruit trees! Make use of your land. And if you want to forage for abandoned fruit trees, make sure you get a fruit hrvester! fruit harvester - Google Search <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Films airing out on cookie rack Photo: D.D.Teoli Jr. Cookie racks make a good support to ventilate your films. Or you can stack them on film cores for films to breathe. If you are clumsy, drop a dowel through the center to keep the stack intact. Make some sort of wood base with a part way hole for the dowel to fit in. Snug fit and glue dowel in place. Films stacked on cores Photo: D.D.Teoli Jr. If you want to freeze a film, you have to vacuum seal it. You can buy chest freezers pretty cheap if you have lots of film that needs to be frozen. I've found with advanced VS films; you can clean with Film Renew, reverse wind and store out in the air. They don't get any worse than their current state. But I'm talking 5 - 6 years observation. I haven't stored heavily VS films 25 years out in the air. Vacuum sealed 16mm film Photo D.D.Teoli Jr.

I'm no mod, but yes, all you can upload is super low res unless you pay $ to become a member. (I think.) Or use an image hosting service. I always found this policy kind of odd for a forum that is based on visuals. Maybe the owner has to pay for upload space. But all is not lost... You can kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Put up interesting material at the Internet Archive and use it as the hosting service. I was banned from Flickr and some other image hosting sites way, way back. So am happy I can use the I.A.. <><><><> Seed Catalog 1919 Selection from Daniel D. Teoli Jr. AG Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Signal Hill / Long Beach was one of America's big oil producers back in the day... 1932 Olympics - Long Beach, CA DDTJRAC - Oil / Gas Archive <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Or keep them cool...very cool. Acetic acid gas is released in the can when the film gets warm. The metal cans can't breathe and the gas builds up. It starts off a chain reaction that eats on itself and eventually will destroy the film. Either put the film in vented cans of burp them yearly or more. Internet Photo - Fair Use Modern film is polyester based and does not get vinegar syndrome. If you have advanced VS films, vented cans are not enough. The film needs to be removed from the can and be exposed to the air more or less constantly. I've done many tests on this over the years. Open air, no can storage works best for these films on their last leg...if you can't vacuum seal and freeze them. Photo: D.D.Teoli Jr. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

OP...yes true. If you are after a certain look, you light it for that vision. You can light something via direct light or reflected light that diffuses the light further. I have to use diffused, reflected light a lot in the Archive for copy stand work to lower reflections, hot spots and reduce silvering on old photos. Contrast can be boosted in post. You can light for detail... You can light for effect... When you are a documentary photographer / cinematographer...you make due with what you got. That is the mark of the professional...they bring home the goods in any light they are dealt. (Candid) Selections from De Wallen: Amsterdam's Red Light District (2015) D.D.Teoli Jr. Greta Garbo on the set Camille (1936) DDTJRAC Here is the score... 1) Do lightning tests...then test some more. 2) A print is viewed by reflected light...a monitor is viewed by transmitted light. They are not the same thing. <><><><> Canon PIXMA MG 2522 Dye Inkjet 6 Months Sun Test. Selection from Dye Stability Testing of Color Imaging Media II by Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Now...it just depends on the material. There is plenty of vintage photography on the market that is dirt cheap. These are usually cabinet cards or CDV's of people...the plain Janes or Joes. But anything notable in vintage photography is usually pricey. And one of the most highly prized and $$ areas to collect is occupational photography, especially daguerreotypes. I was lucky when I acquired this occupational tintype. It was somewhat affordable because it was in such poor condition and the image had to be extracted from it in post. It is a large size tintype measuring 6-3/8" x 8", so that was a bonus. Larger images offer more detail to extract. Post processed scan Raw scan, no post processing. No telling about the age. Tintypes were popular mainly from the 1860s - 1870s. Although they continued to do tintypes for little portraits much later. This tintype is almost prehistoric compared to most of the other tintypes I've seen. If you have $$, you can collect top end material for vintage photography...although these are overpriced. Early on when I first came across the Getty Museum's Open Content Collection, I saved a lot of the vintage photography I found there. Back then (the early 2010s) they offered digital JPEG files that were 45 mb+ for some of their material. And they were very nice digital copies. Nothing like the subpar 200mb TIFF files the L.O.C. offers that are just digitized low quality film copies of the item. And the Smithsonian and National Archives are no better. Sadly, the Getty Museum cut way back in their generosity. The same 45 mb JPEG may be 6mb now. I modelled my Archive after the Getty of old. Although people have to write me if they want anything super hi res. The I.A. limits uploads to 10 mb. There is a practical limit to res and file size unless you are rich. I scanned this tintype 48 bit 2400 dpi TIFF and the file was 1.8GB. Crazy! Here are the extensive bit depth tests for you to peruse. https://archive.org/search?query=bit+depth+teoli <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Maybe AI will fix it!

Ad 1957...don't miss the TV on the table! Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

I settled on the Impact lights and stands. Later I found out there were cheaper stands that are of a similar design, but they didn't look as robust. I may have been OK with them, but I could not look at them to find out. That is the case in 2024; you wanna look at something...you buy it to see. The lights are a good value for the money. They do have some areas that could be improved. For instance, the black paint on the barn doors is rough and splotchy in spots, but this varies between units. The pebbled reflector material is a thin, stick-on material and crackles when handled. It comes off easily around the corners when the barn doors are grabbed. There are no washers supplied with the lights to attach the light stand mounting head. Buy some flat washers and a lock washer to mount it properly. The lights are plenty bright for my use, which is for lighting a large copy stand in the Archive and some video. The light output is also very even with good daylight color temperature. There are 2 switches that run two of the four lights at a time for hi (4 light) / low (2 light) output. The lights were well packed, but one of the bulbs had moved away from its socket during shipment and didn't work. The rest of the bulbs had moved away from the light sockets as well, but still worked. To fix / replace bulbs, you push the red button to eject the bulb, then snap it back in. Just snap it in with the light pins pushed close to the light socket. Comes with a super long 16-foot heavy AC cord. The yoke knobs on the sides loosen up easily and have to be constantly tightened. But when the lights are left alone, they seem to hold. The light mount head that connects to the stand has a sloppy fit on my stands. When snugged up it is acceptable...more or less. These lights are about the best bang for the buck when it comes to large, bright, flat lights with barn doors. I rated them 4 stars for an online review. If there were other options in this price range for this type of light, I may have rated them 3-1/2 stars. In any case I'd rebuy them for my purpose. The stands arrived double boxed and well packed. Everything went together perfectly except for 1 wheel that I had to coax on in spots with a wrench. Wheels are similar to the wheels used on inline skates. Stands roll as smoothly as possible. Legs deploy easily and stow with a secure, spring lock. Adjustment knobs are metal with a heavy plastic cover. Everything about it is overbuilt...no screwing around. They handle the heaviest of lights rock solid. If you need more height, you can buy an extension. But these stands are fine for copy stand use as-is. Stands have built-in retractable light mounting rod for vertical or horizonal use. Again...rock solid deployment. Or you can mount your own head. I'm very happy with the stands and would buy again. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Super 8 - Wittner Cinetec - Super8 Film - S8 - 16mm - Narrow Film I was surprised they had so much stuff. Cine' film must be more popular in Germany / Europe than the USA. I think this is their earlier catalog. www.wittner-kinotechnik.de: Katalog <><><><> Early porn videotape ad from 1980 with trade in scheme. DDTJRAC / VHS - BETA Print Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

From what I gather they are more or less the cost of a LG ScanStation...but not really sure. The website, while graphically beautiful, is hard to figure out. Looks to be German made. Has anyone used one in the US of A / or anywhere? I'm still holding out for a 'sampling scanner' that spits out a fast, short synopsis of a reel. (Along with gentle film handling Perry.) An example of a .20 second sampler scan. I don't remember the space between frames, but it is important. Maybe this sampler is a frame every 1-1/2 feet. Breast Reduction Surgery Film Sampler Test .20 Sec Per Frame D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

I wonder why they make their stuff pink? Is it for visibility?

Thanks Doyle. Interesting stand.

Don't have insurance. Know nothing about the company. But the questions you asked should be directed towards the insurance company. They pay the claim...not the forum. If you can't get your questions answered, that tells you something about the company. Usually, you schedule your items for a stated value to be insured. Or they may just give you a depreciated value determined by their adjuster. Good luck with figuring it all out! <><><><> Redd Foxx Collection DDTJRAC Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photograph

The 1-year BD-R sun stress tests are done. The Ridata 25gb Blu-ray results are as follows: 2755 files on disc / 9 files failed to load. While the Ridata didn't pass perfectly, it was still pretty perfect for 1 year of sun. Here are the final results from 1 year of sun 25GB BD-R stress tests: Verbatim BD-R 25GB purchased in 2019 / Japanese manufactured - Passed Verbatim BD-R 25GB purchased in 2020-2021 / Taiwan manufactured - Passed Verbatim M-Disc BD-R 25GB purchased in 2019 / Taiwan manufactured - Passed Optical Quantum / Optodisc BD-R 25GB purchased in 2019 / Taiwan manufactured - Failed within 5 weeks of sun. Smartbuy BD-R 25GB purchased in 2019 / Taiwan manufactured - Failed within 5 weeks of sun. PlexDisc BD-R 25GB purchased in 2019 / Taiwan manufactured - Failed within 5 weeks of sun. Ridata BD-R 25GB purchased in 2023 / Taiwan manufactured - 2755 files total on disc / 9 files failed to load after 1 year of sun. Note: The Ridata inkjet printable discs have strong chemical smell when new. Whereas none of the other discs tested has this strong smell. Here is some interesting info on the history of M-Disc. Reddit (They lifetime banned me.) had a discussion on fake BD-R M-Discs. https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/yu4j1u/psa_verbatim_no_longer_sells_real_m_discs_now/ Matt_theArchivist "Hopefully this can put closure to the speculation. Our organization is a databank and is a big user of mdisc for archiving. We reached out to Verbatim last week about this Media Identification Code (MID) discrepancy. Here is their reply, in their own words ---- "The creator of the MDisc technology- Millenniata went out of business in 2017, they sold the technology to Mitsubishi, who until 2019 owned Verbatim. Due to this, the stamper ID changed, but the formula & the disc materials stayed the same. Mitsubishi sold Verbatim & all the technologies to CMC in December of 2020. Verbatim is the only company authorized to sell the original technology. Any Millenniata discs available were all produced before 2017 when the company shut down and any other brand is not the original technology." ----- So there it is, mdiscs with either the 'VERBAT' or 'MILLEN' prefix are fine. Just different production periods. Cheers." Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

I had a collection of old 16mm films I had picked up a while back. The films were all on cores and double stacked in 35mm cans. The films were wound kinda loosely and were ready to blow. You can see the separation with the arrow. These were all multiple titles ganged up on large reels. No way to get them out of the deep 35mm cans without the centers popping out. And if you ever have popped out the core of a film, you know there is no getting the toothpaste back in the tube. In such cases a pizza peel works wonders when handling the film. An old gal was visiting me from down the street. She saw the peel and asked if I liked to bake pizza. I told her yes, but I don't do much with pizza any more since my teeth are shot. And that peel was for film anyway. My pizza peel is much smaller. I got the film collection all spread out to breath. The collection was from an old 99-year-old porn director. His ex-porn star wife in her 70's sold it to me. The film was all stored in cans in a hot CA storage unit. The VS was so bad you could smell the film across the room when you opened a can. VS is developed from a combination of heat and lack of ventilation. The gas builds up in the can and it feeds on itself once it gets going. But if you catch the film in time, you can air it out for a spell, like 6 months or a year and the smell pretty much goes away. (In many cases.) Letting the film breath does not magically cure the VS, but it slows down the decomposition a lot. There is something like 80 or 90 films in the collection. But vast majority has to be broken down from cores. Too bad I don't have a lacky intern to do the work! <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Google image search I make all my own coffee. Never been to a coffee shop except to look-see a couple of times. I did get some tea one time at a tea shop in Pittsburgh. But that was because I met someone there or would never have gone. I just make all my own food and drink at home. When on the road I would use a little propane burner to brew up some tea or coffee at the rest stop. Soda fountains were a big deal back in the day. Large drug stores had them too. I don't recall going to a soda fountain as a kid either. My family didn't eat out much. I did go to a knock off of an automat a couple of times. Peoples Drug Store I looked up what a barista made for salary. Surprisingly not that much. They would do better off just working minimum wage in CA for $20 an hour at McDonalds. Seattle, WA. $19.76 per hour. 433 salaries reported. Los Angeles, CA. $18.10 per hour. 716 salaries reported. New York, NY. $17.28 per hour. 1.3k salaries reported. Portland, OR. $17.02 per hour. 176 salaries reported. Chicago, IL. $16.77 per hour. 520 salaries reported. Indeed.com You would think they would make more money. There is some skill to it, at least with the fancy milk swirls I've seen in the photos. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

If you are interested in lighting, here is a 'who's who' of film lighting dealers that may be of use to you. Dealers | Mole Richardson Co. I'm thinking of going with Impact for stands...$150. Looks like plastic knobs, but read a review that said they are metal with a rubberized coating. Guess it protects against shocks. Here... Light Stands & Grip Equipment | Impact (impactstudiolighting.com)

I only have cheap, lightweight lights, like this. I have no good lights or stands. I will have to check this all out as far as adaptability. I didn't know it was so complex. Thanks for the info!