What’s on your desk, Antonio Di Benedetto?

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Antonio G. Di Benedetto has a lot of talent in a variety of specialties. He is an experienced photographer, a tech experimenter, a gaming enthusiast, and a fountain pen enthusiast.

Someone who is diverse in his interests has to be interesting. Antonio was asked to talk about his work.

Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you do at The Verge?

Along with my colleagues on the commerce team, I help hunt for deals on tech and gadgets and write about them. Our daily deal recaps, our twice-a-week Verge Deals newsletter, and write-ups on the best deals in a specific category are some of the things that come in the shape of this. I keep an eye out for new console restocks and often post about the PS5 and Xbox Series X popping up for sale in those limited windows.

I've been a fan of The Verge since I first saw the original review of the GALAXY NEXUS. Prior to joining in August, I worked in marketing with a little bit of PR for Leica Camera USA. I am a big nerd for cameras, video games, gadgets, computers, etc., and I also photograph weddings on the side.

Tell me about your desk. Where is it located in the room?

My desk is a simple setup from ikea and it is cheap. There are three Alex drawers and two legs with two Linnmon tabletops sitting on them. My wife and I decided to go big and make our office a shared desk space when we set up our office. It takes up half the room with our chairs.

My side of the desk is bowed from the weight of everything I have piled on it, but it is holding up. There are a lot of wires and dongles in our drawers, ranging from stationary to game controllers.

The desk is long. I am aware that you shared it with your wife. What was it like sharing a desk?

It is just under 10 feet long and 30 inches deep. We liked the idea of sharing it for when she is working on her projects at the same time as I am editing photos, or just for playing games together. My side has more space for my PC, and her side has a svelte laptop sitting on it. Monica Chin's review was the reason we bought that. It is a great little laptop.

We worked from home in our office for over a year after March of 2020. When we were working remotely, we would have lunch or snack breaks and have some company. I no longer have a desk partner during work hours because she had to go back to the office.

Tell me about your chair.

The Steelcase Leap V2 office chairs are the same as ours. They are just your basic black fabric models. I bought them in 2020 from someone who was selling furniture. I got two of them in like-new condition for $600, which is a lot of money for them. They are better than the spare dining room chairs we were initially using. I don't like chairs. It should be repeated ad nauseam because it must be said. Sometimes I want to be stupid around a corner and that's why my Ford Fiesta has strengthened seats. My love handles don't need bolstering when I'm playing a game.

The chair is fully adjusted.

Tell us about the tech you are using.

I will start with my computers and work my way around.

My work laptop is a 2020 MacBook Air with M1 processor. It's always impress me with how good it is for everyday use and photo editing. It has a Satechi hub plugged into it full-time because I use an external monitor and often need the card slot.

I built my desktop computer back in 2004. The 980 Ti and Intel Core i7-4770K processor have not failed me yet. I play new games at low settings. I don't think I'll upgrade soon because of the current state of availability and prices.

I use the same monitor for both machines. When I built my computer, I got a 30-inch Dell U3014 QHD monitor back. I still appreciate that it has a 16:10 aspect ratio, even though it doesn't stack up to what's out there now.

My secret weapon in bouncing between machines is ausb switcher There is a mess of cables beneath my monitor. There are four peripherals plugged into it, including the Elgato HD60 S+ capture card, the microphone, the audio interface, and the mouse receiver. I press the button on the switcher to swap my laptop for my desktop. It's handy when you're balancing work and personal duties.

The camera above my monitor is a Canon EOS R, which has been used for full-time webcam duties with the Elgato. I use the 24-105mm f/4 kit lens, but I also have a Leitz lens from the 1950s that I use for zoom calls. The microphone is connected to the H6 via a cable. My wife has a mic on her side that I used before I bought the Rode. It's connected to the H6, which is handy when we're playing games online with friends or family, and both our inputs are mixed together, so we never have to worry about our proximity.

The microphone is specifically designed for voice applications in the broadcast environment.

The Steelseries Aerox 3 mouse is lightweight but only okay on battery life when it's on, and the elago W3 stand for my Apple Watch is adorable, but it's not a big deal since it looks like an original Macintosh.

That keyboard is nice looking.

Thanks! It is fairly basic in the world of mechanical keyboards. The board that I set up with Gateron yellow linear switches is a 65 percent layout, hot swappable board. I got wind of this budget board from our deputy editor.

I fell in love with small-format keyboards when I got a secondhand Anne Pro 2 in 2020, but now even a TKL is too big for me. The amount of desk space they save is something I like.

The keycaps are from Akko, which are colorfully inspired by EVA-01 of Evangelion. I swapped the plastic volume knob for a metal one, but I still have some small modifications I want to try, such as lubricating the switches and taping the inside of the board to improve the noise profile. Click-clack!

I see you have a couple of cameras. Is that a real watch?

I spend a lot of stupid money on cameras and watches. The watch pictured here is my all-metal G-Shock in gold. I keep my modest collection of affordable watches nearby in a drawer so that I can choose what I wear for the day. I leave the G-Shock on the desk to hear it on the hour when I'm not using it.

My cameras are the Sony A9 II and the Leica Q2. The main duties of the A9 are weddings and other general things. Even though it took a hard spill on the ground, the adapted lens still works. The Q2 is my go-to for enjoying photography on the regular, and I take it along on a job as well. My M6 film camera is usually here, but it has been out of commission for a while. I might shoot a little more film in the future, but I have neglected it for a while.

If I need to quickly throw my cameras in a bag and head on my way, I like to have my cameras at the ready nearby. Sometimes you have to take a quick cat pic that is far higher quality than you need to, because we have two cats.

Do you have a sound screen against the wall? You have a mic and a light source hidden under the desk.

I really like the Ikea Symfonisk picture frame speaker that we just got, and it's on the wall. We got one of the Symfonisk bookshelf speakers with the rewards points after buying a couch from Ikea. We now have six speakers in the house, three bookshelf speakers, one picture frame, a lamp, and a Sonos Beam soundbar. I play music all day long since I am alone and too much silence makes me anxious.

I used to do a lot of livestreams and tinker with the streaming on twitch. One of the panels has a softbox and the other has two lights. The Canon camera is mounted with the C-clamp-style desktop stands. The headphones under my desk are an old pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50, plugged into the Zoom H6 so I never have to worry about charging my headphones, and I also get real-time audio monitoring of my own voice when I talk into the mic.

The Symfonisk picture frame speaker is a space-saving speaker with solid sound and unique looks. You don't need a second power outlet to daisy-chain two together.

Why do I do this? I'm a try-hard poser. I don't do live streams these days, but I always enjoy tinkering with stuff like this. Nobody is going to complain that you sound good on a microphone.

A lot of us have our share of action figures and other cool toys. Tell us about them.

I don't want to spread around too many toys and collectibles, but I have a few that I like. The dog by KC Green was a gift from a former colleague, and it is the perfect desk tchotchke. I bought the Master Chief because it was on sale, and I liked the in-game weapon skin that accompanied it. I made some 3D prints when I was experimenting in that world. The pen holder is also called a SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA.

The Nerf blaster in my pen cup is to stop would-be assassins. I need another reason to get up and walk around.

You like to leave yourself alone.

I put Post-It on my monitor to remind me. I have a penchant for some brutal self-motivation humor, so these Post-It range from Adventure Time quotes to expletive-laden self-deprecating notes.

Like many of us, you also use a notebook.

I love a good notebook because I'm obsessed with fountain pens and I mentioned in our post how we stay organized. I am not the most hardcore enthusiast or collector, but I have seven fountain pens. Most of them are cheap, and some are not worth the bother. The TWSBI Eco and the Lamy Safari are the two that I use the most. These work well for me because I write small. My Pilot Metropolitan has a medium nib.

A useful fountain pen.

It takes me a long time to get through just one of the other notebooks. It may take me multiple lifetimes to get through the five small bottles of ink I have, because I have my fountain pen ink stored here in a drawer. There is something about these geeky pens that I am into.

There is a lot of fun stuff on the left side of the desk. Is that your wife's stuff?

She is the light side to my dark side here. Her half is nice and neat and has a cute sense of humor. My side is like a cave troll's den, lit by daylight-balanced LEDs in a meager attempt to look human.

Is there anything else about your workspace that we don't cover?

My wife hid our ugly routers, modem, and bridge in the white mesh letter trays. I thought it might be like a cage for our home internet, but luckily it doesn't affect it. Our iPad is mostly used for streaming New York Rangers games when we are both hanging here in the evening.

Since I first shot photos for this article, my Leica M6 just came back from repair. My cameras are back together. I should take some pictures.