During a talk that I gave at Wagtail Space 2024 with my colleague Chuck Sebian-Lander, Auditing Wagtail Content (slides), I introduced a library we had worked on to help us audit. It walks through StreamFields to construct Django QuerySet-like objects specifically for understanding the shape of the content you have. But two functions in that library are super useful outside the audit context, so I’ve broken them out into their own library, wagtail-traverse.
I’m a board member of the Organization for Ethical Source, a contributing software engineer at Freedom of the Press Foundation, a software engineer at the CFPB, an astrophotographer, and a photographer. I’m also a recovering grad student with an interest in the political work of algorithms. Some of the open source software I’ve written is on GitHub.
I am a huge fan of Sigma’s optics and cameras, but I recently decided to consolidate some of my camera gear and switch to a Sony E mount camera (α7R V). But I wanted to continue using some of the Sigma lenses I have and love.
For a number of years Sigma has offered a mount conversion service to convert Sigma lens you already own from one mount to another, as long as the lens is offered in the destination mount. It’s an intriguing prospect in the abstract, being able to switch systems and not rebuy all new lenses. However, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there from people who have had experience with it. I decided to give it a try, and write about my experience, breaking down the price I paid, the time it took, and to compare alternatives and provide some rationale for why I personally decided to use the service in late 2025.
Update: see below for an update based on my experience of converting another lens, my 24-70 II.
The Sigma fp L is a strange little camera. Little because it’s barely larger than the the lens mount. Strange because it has a 61MP senso and some significant drawbacksquirks that you have to work around. But maybe that’s part of its charm.
I got it because I was intrigued by the size and the relative affordability it brought to that resolution. I’ve come around to thinking the fp L is the best camera for a certain photographic niche that I find myself in. It has exceptional image quality for lightweight walking/hiking travel, landscape and environmental photography. If you can work around those quirks.