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Home >> Old News Items What's New Archives 2006 January-June June 28, 2006 - In light of Adobe's purchase of Pixmantec's intellectual property and the demise of Pixmantec's RawShooter Essentials RAW file converter, Bibble Labs is offering a $30 discount for users of RawShooter Essentials to purchase Bibble's excellent RAW converter. Full details available here. June 26, 2006 - I'm posting a little bit of an update on some of Bibble's newest features that for me, makes it the all-around best RAW converter available on the market (but the market is a moving target with new RAW converters coming out regularly and existing ones always being improved upon). Read the original review here. An update or two ago, Bibble added the Perfectly Clear plug-in by Athentech Technologies Inc. This editing feature shows up in the Basic and Advanced editing tabs and makes for a quick and easy edit that brightens the image, improves the color, increases the contrast, and sharpens the image. More often that not, Perfectly Clear is all that I need to click on, but you have to be careful of high-key images that are already or near hot for exposure.
The other significant update in Bibble 4.8 is a more powerful lens correction tool. I haven't used this tool yet, so I'm just showing the editing window at right, for now. Below is how I've setup Bibble on my desktop. Bibble's default is to have all the editing windows in one column on the far right hand side of the Bibble workarea with tabs inside the column to access all the tools, but I like seeing all the tools at once to make editing quick. However, the default is perfect for working on a notebook to conserve space. Below is a screen shot of my dual-monitor desktop with Bibble. With D2X and D200 files being so large, I had to toggle the exposure information off in order to get a large image view at 25% magnification (my preferred working magnification when editing RAW files). I wouldn't mind having the exposure information window floating like the editing windows, so that I could move it to the second monitor.
Althought the new B&W conversion plug-in isn't all powerful (yet), I do like it a lot for allowing me to add in that touch of color into a monochrome image for a bit more pop and pizzazz in my photos. The next logical addition would be for toning, as in cool, neutral, warm, and sepia, with perhaps additional toning options that mimic what can be done in the darkroom, like selenium toning. Other features I'd like to see in future versions of Bibble, a zoom window that can be detached and resized for a larger view and maybe the stacking feature from Apple's Aperture. With the Perfectly Clear, the B&W plug-in, and advanced lens correction updates, Bibble, which I already rated as highly recommened, becomes even more highly recommended. June 23, 2006 - Bibble Labs has released version 4.8 of their excellent RAW converter, the one I use most often for major jobs. This one adds in more advanced lens correction tools, as well as a new B&W mode. A friend down in LA has finally decided to get himself a second D2X camera due to the favorable price of the close-out sale of these cameras, as stores clear out old stock to make way for the replacement D2Xs. Being as greedy, materialistic and Jones'ie as the next guy, I went perusing the Canadian dealer websites to see where the D2X comes in up north. $4600 is the going price at Vistek and Camera Canada and it's certainly much better than the list price back when I was making my purchase - list price doesn't necessarily mean purchase price ;-) The gears are turning in my head and smoke is seaping out my ears trying to do some calculations...don't take this comment too seriously though :-) June 22, 2006 - A couple of people mentioned the SU-800 as another option for my future purchase to enhance my flash kit. I didn't mention the SU-800 on purpose because in Canada, the SB800 is only about $100 more than the SU-800 and based on that kind of pricing, I'd prefer to have a full flash unit for greater flexibility than just a dedicated controller module, or so I thought. In looking at the SU-800 more closely, it does seem easier to control the external flash units than through the SB800 in commander mode. As expensive as it is, it will be on my short list of items to consider for purchase as I try and sort out how my portable flash kit should evolve. Read the Luminous Landscape review of the Canon iPF5000 printer and as expected, this new printer appears to be more than a match for the Epson 4800 for print quality. But, no, I have no desire to trade in my still pretty brand new 4800 for it, because based on the review, Canon needs to do some homework for the user interface - and I thought the Epson driver seemed cryptic. I think this is great that the Canon is producing such excellent print quality, because it will force Epson to get off its duff and produce the 4800 successor that will do away with the stupidity of swapping black inks at huge costs, as well as improve upon the already excellent print quality. I'm kind of thinking that the 4800's successor will be an amalgamation of existing Epson technology, as in the extra colors from the R1800 (red and blue) added to the K3 ink sets for 11 colors total. Maybe Epson will follow Canon's lead and also add in green for 12 colors total. June 21, 2006 - I've been reading a relatively new blog about maximizing the use of on-camera flash units, like Nikon SB26, or SB28's in sometimes complex lighting scenes. Pretty interesting read and almost made me wish I wasn't selling off my old SB28's, but then the greedy bastard in me slapped me on the side of the head and I reverted back to wanting to buy another two more SB800's for a total of five to maximize on-location lighting options. One idea perculating through my mind is to use two SB800's on lightstands like Manfrotto Avengers with the Gary Fong Lightspheres attached. Set them up like I would two umbrella firing strobes for even and soft lighting on the subjects, but without the hassles of umbrellas or size and bulk of mono lights. The Avengers fit perfectly in a standard Manfrotto tripod bag and the flashes and Lightspheres can all fit easily in a largish, but still manageable Lowepro Commercial AW case (along with all the other cameras, lenses, and accessories). If I use the D2X for this type of setup (and I would over the D200 to maximize my enlargement capabilities and to extract as much detail as possible - yes, the D2X resolves more detail than the D200, but then you expected that didn't you?), I need another SB800 on-camera as my commander for TTL control of the remote flash units. But, at weddings things never stand still, even as you direct groups and people around and I like having the second camera ready to go to take some quick candid snaps when they present themselves while the other is mounted on a tripod. Hence the need for a fourth SB800 for the second camera. The fifth can be used as a background light when shooting in really dark environments, backup for any of the other four, or just as plain hubris on my part to have so many damn flash units 8^) This doesn't mean that I've purchased the fourth and fifth flash units, I'm still mulling it over and trying to decide if that's the way to go, or if I should get a portable battery and some Pocket Wizard radio transmitter/receivers to make my Multiblitz mono lights truly remote friendly. Bulkier for sure, but then isn't that why assistants were created 8^) June 19, 2006 - Continuing the Peggy's Cove theme for the image of the week, we have another shot of that famed location in the province of Nova Scotia from David Pollard. If anyone else has shots of Peggy's Cove, send them along and let's see if we can keep the theme going 8^) My look at the Epson 4800 printer is now posted. This isn't what I'd consider a technical review, as it is more a look into why I bought the 4800 and how's it's been doing so far, as short as that time is as of this writing. June 18, 2006 - I was at the all-day Vancouver session of the Epson Print Academy Track 1. Good session hosted by San Francisco-based pro Vincent Versace. A mix of introductory to mid-level Photoshop techniques, as well as how to print properly with the Epson K3 printers and of course, plugs for Epson printers and other products like the Epson 4000 digital wallet (nice, but bloody expensive for it is at almost CAN $900). The Epson digital projector used was awesome for quality and I'd love to have the same unit for presentations. A number of framed prints were available for view and they were breathtakingly good and showed how much potential there is in Epson's K3 printers that just need some creative vision to be unleashed. I was surprised at how strong Nikon and the "lowly" Wintel PC were in this session with only one token Canon and Mac using pro in the videos presented. Videos showed demos and tips from noted pros such as John Shaw, Bob Krist, Jay Maisel, Greg Gorman, and of course, Vincent Versace with a video cameo by Graham Nash of Nash Editions and most of you may know Nash as that obscure rock and roll hippie from Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young. I was also intrigued by the Wacom Cintiq LCD used by Versace for his demos. The Cintiq is a CAN $3200 21-inch LCD that allows you to edit right on the screen like with Wacom's Intuous tablets. Really sweet editing machine, but big ouch on that price though. You could get a 30-inch Dell and high-end ATI video card needed to run the Dell for that kind of price. There were some interesting comments made by Versace about third-party RIPs, as asked by one attendee. Although Versace uses the ColorBurst RIP in his studio, he says that the learning curve and expense of a RIP (i.e., ColorByte's ImagePrint) isn't justified. Further to this, Versace also stated that print longevity would not be the same as from printing within the Epson driver due to the way the inks are mixed by those third-party RIPs. Other questions asked were about color management and profiling LCDs. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from answering the question about how to amerliorate the very high brightness of LCDs (Versace's response wasn't very good and blamed the LCD), but then again, the enquirer may not have liked my answer to buy the GretagMacbeth Eye One Photo and use the laptop profiling option to lower the brightness of LCD monitors. All in all a very good session and well worth the US $60 paid to attend. Lunch, snacks and drinks were generous in amount and provided in the price paid. My only negative comment, I didn't win the 4800 given away - yah, I'm a greedy SOB, what can I say 8^) June 17, 2006 - I think I’ve hit my curmudgeonly stage of development as a photographer. I say this after reflecting on how my printing habits have changed since I bought my first printer back in 2000 or 2001. Back then with digital imaging being so new and refreshing, I was printing quite a lot, much of which was considered crap and thrown out by me in my last round of cleanup late last year. I’m a more discriminating printer these days when I print images for myself. It’s a different story when printing for review purposes wherein it seems my printers exist only to satisfy my curiosity about how good this or that paper is, or how well various color management suites fare in comparison. But, to satisfy no one else but me, I don’t find myself printing a whole lot these days. You would think that having some very capable and excellent Epson K3 printers would compel me to print everything I shoot, just as I did years ago when the Epson 1270 was new and heralded. But, it’s the experience of knowing so much of what I printed is destined for the landfill that I try and ensure that there’s a reason or purpose for today’s personal printing. Related to this is how much actual photography I do these days for myself, as opposed to shooting for reviews or bookings: not much unfortunately. Home life takes up much of my time and while I can certainly and purposely set aside some time to do some shooting when I’m really motivated, I find myself pretty gassed out by the time the weekend rolls around. When I do shoot though, I’m more inclined to consider the subject a bit and then look through the viewfinder seeking the right framing, whereas in the past, when I first started out, I’d shoot first then consider later. I’m not talented enough to get too many keepers, but I try 8^) What I think I need to do is discipline myself to shoot no matter what the weather or conditions and no matter how tired or useless I feel. Henri Cartier-Bresson was noted for shooting two rolls of film everyday before breakfast and on a different track, the late and much heralded Canadian author, Mordecai Richler, would go upstairs to his office in his house and type from about 9 am to 5 pm every weekday. It didn't matter whether Richler was on and wrote with motivation, or whether he was uninspired, but he still wrote because that was what he did. Now, I certainly do not claim even 1-percent of the talent of these two giants, but how they went about their art is instructive in what's needed to keep a wanna-be photographer going and understand that if one claims to be a photographer, then one must go out and photograph even when they're gassed by the weekend. Isn’t it always the case that when you buy something, its replacement is released the next week or month. The D2X was replaced within a few weeks of my purchase with the D2Xs, making sense of the sudden CAN $500 price drop of the “classic” version of the D2X within a week of my purchase. To complement the D2X and D200 purchase, I ordered some 8 GB Ridata 80X cards from Australia at about $400 per. A recent perusal of the same online shop revealed that Ridata has new 150X cards for less than what I paid for the 80X versions. Argh! However, the lower cost (about $300 CAN per card) makes it attractive enough to consider buying two more 8 GB cards to give me far more storage capacity than I’d ever think I would need for even the busiest full-day wedding. But, in the days of film, you always brought far more many rolls than you expected to shoot “just in case” and with digital, it’s always nice to have more storage than you need “just in case.” Having double the capacity for file storage wouldn’t dissuade me from continuing to use the Nexto digital wallet as a backup device though, especially since uploading files from the Nexto is much, much faster than with my two-year old Lexar USB 2.0 card readers. Current CF card readers are fast and cheap, so I should just upgrade, but it’s also nice to just be able to dump 15 or more GB of files in one go instead of having to swap cards. The big Lexar Professional Compact Flash Reader system used by Moose Peterson is an interesting way to gang up to four readers at once and dumping automatically one by one, but I don’t think I’ll be that hardcore ? Anyone seen the new Apple Mac ads running in Canada? Scruffy looking twentysomething as the new Intel Mac matched up with a nerdy thirtysomething business suit as the PC, with the PC guy being dissed and subjected to all the stereotypes about PCs to show how hip the Intel Macs are. I've been keeping an open mind about the new Intel Macs and even thought about getting one to see what the Mac experience would be like, but these new ads are pretty off-putting and rather than make me want to buy a new Mac, I'd just as soon put my money towards upgrading my PC now. Enough said, as going further about those ads and the whole Mac versus PC thing is a holy war I don't need to be involved in...now Nikon versus Canon, maybe...8^) June 14, 2006 - There's quite an interesting story about some Leitz/Leica history by longtime Pop Photo executive and writer, Herbert Keppler. Less about photography than about humanity and doing the right thing during an intense period of world history. There's also a short commentary on using third-party inks in prime brand printers by Pop Photo's Michael McNamara. It's not anything that I hadn't suspected for quite some time and why I eschew cheaping out by using third-party inks with my printers. I'll use third-party papers from time to time, but only those that I trust come from reputable companies. I didn't spend as much as I have on the Epson 4800 only to toss away all that R&D by Epson and compromise my quality and longevity by using third-party ink sets. June 11, 2006 - I forgot to change over the homepage photo last Sunday, so Craig Nisnewitz's Halifax photo was on for two-weeks. You're going to see the same scene again, except this time from Canadian Gord Millar, who took his photo a couple of months before Craig did in 2005. They're quite different photos in mood, as you can see by comparing Craig's photo below to Gord's above.
June 8, 2006 - Oh yes, I forgot to mention my all-day wedding shoot a couple of days ago on June 6 - for those that need a hint, it was the sixth day, of the sixth month, of the sixth year, which results in 666. No bad omens on this day for the Chinese couple that consulted a Chinese astrologist to determine which day would be the best day for them. If we were anywhere near downtown Vancouver, I would taken some photos in front of 666 Burrard Street 8^) It was a rather exhausting day starting at 9:30 am and finishing just after 11 pm at the restaurant where the banquet was held. A few hour-long breaks in-between to give me a bit of rest from working with minimal food and drink. A few lessons learned in using the new gear (non-paying family job that allowed me license to experiment) like not trusting the camera's meter in certain conditions, which affected ambient and flash exposures (thank God for Bibble - invoking the Almighty's name isn't such a bad thing given the day of this job 8^). Having to use ultra wide angle zoom lenses as "normal" lenses due to DX sized sensors gets really tiring for their quality at the edges, or rather, lack of quality at the edges. The 17-55 is an excellent lens for general purpose action and candids and I used it the most often of the lenses I brought along, but I'll have to re-think it's suitability for formal group shots when you have people being pushed right near the edges of the frame. The Gary Fong Lightsphere produced some great looking shots when used appropriately. It's a close quarter flash diffuser and of not much use when dealing with medium to long distances. I'd say any father than about 15-feet and you're better off with the traditional 45-degree bounce lighting with a white card. You'll get a farther spread of light forward and you won't waste as much of the flash lighting being spread 360-degrees around you. It also sucks up a lot of flash juice and it isn't good to use when you're doing some action shots where you want fast recycling. I'm thinking the Nikon SD-8A battery pack is going to needed to help recycle the flash faster when using the Lightsphere - and this is even with using the fifth battery chamber with my SB800 flashes. The Lightshere produced shadowless flash lighting and as mentioned already, in close quarters, it produces a very nice quality of soft, diffused light. I'll need to experiment more with the traditional methods of diffusing flash lighting before making final conclusions though. It's a big, bulky bastard to deal with for storing and handling and although one person advised me that it would be pain to deal with it falling off all the time, I only had one instance of it getting knocked off the whole day. Surprisingly, I found that I didn't use my 70-200 as much as I normally do during a wedding shoot. I almost had to force myself to use it to grab a few snaps of people from a distance. The 12-24 came in handy again during some very close quarter shooting and at times, I wished I could go even wider because I was within a couple of feet of the subjects during those close quarter environments. The Sigma 10-20 or the new Tokina 10-17 lenses are looking really interesting now - is it me or is that new Tokina lens the same as the Pentax 10-17mm lens? Now comes the fun editing portion, which is a rehash of what I wrote about previously in this section, except with double the number of photos. There was no ceremony (civil or religious) to deal with, so the shot count was a lot less than I would normally do for a full-day event. I'll have more to say on some specifics in the future equipment reviews I'm working on now. June 5, 2006 - Sony's new Alpha D-SLR is a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a warmed over Minolta 7D, but Sony upped the ante with a 10 MP sensor. Most likely this is the same as the D200's, which means very good image quality and with built-in image stabilization good for up to 3.5 stops with just about any lens mounted. The only downside is the lowish flash sync speed of 1/160 instead of the D200's 1/250. It's also not a speed demon at 3 fps compared to the D200's 5 fps. I only very quickly looked over the specs because I'm not an interested purchaser, but I think this is nice first effort by Sony, even if the the skeleton would very clearly lead a CSI team to declare it a Minolta in origin. The lens offering is also interesting with some very clearly being nothing more than re-badged Minolta lenses, but with others coming from Carl Zeiss, and a few of the consumer offerings being very clearly OEM products from Tamron. Still, being able to offer over 20 lenses right off the bat is pretty darn good to create a complete system. With this kind of effort and the new Pentax D-SLR also offering built-in image stabilization, how soon before Nikon and Canon jump on this bandwagon? The big pro SLRs are an important part of those companies' marketing and prestige factor, but the consumer sales is the bread and butter that pay the bills and allows the company to actually R&D more prestige products. Pentax and Sony are making a strong play for that consumer market and as much as I dismissed Pentax and the old Minolta in the past, the SLR competition has become very interesting now that everyone has produced pretty solid products all around (Panasonic/Olympus too). Will Nikon be able to withstand the competition now that the big consumer electronics companies are in the SLR game (Sony, Panasonic, Samsung)? Nikon is the only major camera brand with no partnership with a huge electronics company (actually, Canon is also alone, but it's so big and varied with the largest market share that it can easily go it alone). Another ongoing question mark is how will the Sony/Nikon relationship progress now that they compete directly with one another? As most know, Nikon obtains almost all their sensor chips from Sony, save for the D2Hs, which uses Nikon's own LBCAST sensor (but, I don't know who makes it for Nikon, or if Nikon produces this chip on its own). Nothing changes for the coming D3 generation, because those products are already in beta and final development, but for the D4 generation, will Nikon still be buying from Sony, or will it finally have progressed with the LBCAST chip to go it alone? Heck, maybe the D3 cameras are already LBCAST 8^) Perhaps I worry too much, as Nikon has shown that it can hit the long ball when it wants to, e.g. the D70 and D200 are home run superstars that brought in a lot of revenue for Nikon. The Nikon name also still carries much cachet, which I'm sure was a factor in the success of the aforementioned cameras. June 2, 2006 - Well, Thom Hogan was right. He had predicted that Nikon would produce a revised D2X and we now have official word of the D2Xs model, a minor tweak, and improvement of the original D2X. Rather interesting that there was nary a peep about this camera on the old rumor mill, other than Thom’s prediction. Just as the Canon 30D was a rather underwhelming improvement over the 20D, the D2Xs is also underwhelming once I read about the changes offered. I only had time yesterday morning to quickly gather up the new links about the D2Xs for updating NikonLinks without reading the actual releases, so as I commuted to work afterwards, my mind went over the possibilities. One of the few words that my eyes read over and stuck in my mind was “high speed” and that led to speculation that wow, Nikon might have actually killed the D2Hs by making the D2Xs a dual-purpose camera; high resolution and high speed shooting frame rate, as in 12 MP at 8 fps. However, once at work and I could actually read what was up, it quickly became apparent that there would be no buyer’s remorse from me about being stuck with the old D2X instead of waiting it out for the D2Xs. The “high speed” that caught my eye was just about the improvement in masking for the High Speed Crop mode. It also made sense now why Nikon had suddenly dropped the price of the D2X by CAN $500 within one-week of my purchase of the camera – don’t worry, my store gave me price protection and I got that $500 back – how do you think I could afford to buy the new 105mm VR macro lens J I wonder if the original D2X price will fall even further to say, US $3500 or less, as Nikon and its retailers clear out stock to make way for the D2Xs (or maybe stock is almost all gone by now)? Almost wish I had a few bucks leftover to take advantage if the price does drop further, but I ain’t got two pennies to rub together these days J Speaking of two-cents, here’s my “worthless” take on what might be coming based on the rumor mill (I’ve probably already speculated on this before):
Update: it dawned on me what the D2Xs really means: no new super high resolution, near full frame camera from Nikon until probably mid to late 2007 8^( I’ve
been following a
thread at the Photo.net Digital Darkroom forum, about a
It’s of
interest to me for the obvious reason that I’m an owner of a 4800, the
successor to the 4000 and while they are different in the sense that
they use different inks (though they do share the same Matte Black ink),
they are largely the same printer inside. It’s ridiculous that this
photographer has had such bad luck to go through three or four Epson
4000 units since his original began having problems. You would think
in the whole
Given the number of visits and service calls, you would also think that Epson UK would cut their losses at such a fiasco of a service call, give the photographer a new 4800, and hope to heaven that he won’t take civil action against them for all the lost revenue the photographer has suffered as a result of a defective printer that was still under warranty when the problems began. The photographer apparently had a very large print job for the Duchy of Cornwall, Prince Charles’ vast land holdings that provide him with his independent wealth. In
I had to
deal with Epson
The CX4800 has worked perfectly since it arrived with nary a clogged head or any other issue despite the infrequent use of it as a printer/copier – we tend to use it more as scanner now that I’ve given away my old Epson 1200 (yes, I’m looking at options for a replacement scanner, stay tuned J) In fact, none of the three Epson pigment printers I have in-house has given me any clogging problems like the way my old and now departed Epson 1270 use to give me. This despite much warning about the nature of pigment inks and their large, insoluble particles and the need to print regularly to keep the heads from clogging. The R2400 has gone a few weeks at a time between print jobs and although I do a nozzle print check before sending a print job, I can’t recall that I’ve ever had to deliberately do a cleaning cycle (knock on wood). Although I’ve heard all three printers do self-cleanings every so often. I believe I’ve written about the following theme before in a Vignette, but it bears reminding every now and then. Why do we photograph? What compels us to take up a camera and take pictures, whether they be little snapshots of our daily lives, or a grand scenic vista, or as an attempt to create art? A couple of things made me ponder this recently. A regular reader asked me an opinion on a wedding photographer’s portfolio that really struck him as being special, which made me think about the notion of being a “photographer.” Then, a recent posting on Michael Johnston’s The Online Photographer, in which he posted images of Dorothea Lange’s Immigrant Mother and W. Eugene Smith’s Tomoko Uemura in her Bath, really hit it home for me. Lange’s
Immigrant Mother is now an iconic photograph showing the desperation
of the Dirty 30’s Great Depression. Smith’s Tomoko Uemura in her
Bath is a new photo to me, but holy smokes, what a photograph! I
thought it was a death scene at first glance, but then it becomes apparent
that it’s a mother bathing her disfigured daughter (okay, I cheated
and had to read
These photographs are examples of the power of photography for me and that what gets me going are the photographs that reveal the human condition. What is the human condition? I don’t know, but I know it when I see it. In response to my reader about the power of photography, I used a photograph in one of my National Geographic books as an example. The photograph was taken by William Albert Allard in 1981 and in the right foreground it shows a Peruvian boy in tears. The crying boy shows tremendous anguish on his face. His clothes are worn and ragged; revealing that the boy and his family live a subsistence lifestyle. As your eyes move from the boy to the slightly out of focus background you see a man walking in the middle of the scene, but further left and down, we see dead sheep, victims of a hit and run by a taxi. Now you realize why the boy is in such anguish, those were his sheep that were killed and probably represented the family’s meager wealth. The human condition revealed with a photograph that showed tragedy (the boy and his sheep) and cruelty and injustice (the driver of the taxi that hit and killed the sheep then drove off). The emotions provoked are raw about the injustice that the boy had to live through that day. When the photograph was originally printed, the response from National Geographic’s readers were donations totalling $7,000 that allowed the boy and his family to get back on their feet. I can fret and sweat all I want about taking yet another landscape or urban photo that nobody wants to see, but this is just in pursuit of what I consider the intellectual process of photography. What camera should I use; which lens will give me the view that I want; should I wait for better lighting; should I filter it; how will I edit and print the photo, etc, etc. All of it just superficial eye candy compared to what Lange, Smith, and Allard have documented about the human condition, which is about the emotional aspects of photography. Would I love to have an original print of Ansel Adams’ Moonrise, Hernandez? Of course, it would inspire me to be a better photographer, but a print of Smith’s Tomoko Uemura in her Bath would inspire me to be a better photographer, and more importantly, a better human being.
The Lightspheres are quite a bit larger than I expected them to be. Have only snapped a few shots for quick testing and they seem to diffuse the flash lighting nicely. Will have more to say after I've used them for a shoot coming up next week May 29, 2006 - A follow-up look at the current GretagMacbeth Eye One Photo has now been posted. I originally reviewed this package back in 2003, but given my recent spate of articles about color management, I felt it was appropriate to get a current Eye One Photo for comparison purposes. 2006 has been very heavily color management oriented and frankly, I'm getting a little bleary-eyed from all of it and pretty poor in the pocket from having to buy all the paper for profiling and testing. All the articles are quite positive of the respective equipment reviewed when read individually, but how do they really measure up relative to one another? I offer this quick article comparing, ranking, and recommending the three major suites I've been fortunate enough to review. The Eye One Photo is the last of my vendor-supplied reviews for the time being, as I now focus on trying to get reviews written of some of my own gear. How big is 17x22 inches? Take a look at the snapshot below. My packages of 17x22 inch sized Epson Premium Luster arrived and are at the bottom with a package of 13x19 Premium Luster taking up the right half and a package of letter sized Premium Glossy sitting top left to add some scale. Can't wait until I print off my first 16x20 inch images through the 4800 8^)
May 22, 2006 - One last note about ProShow Gold and burning to an ISO image instead of directly to a DVD. If you burn to an ISO image, you can add more folders and files and top up the DVD's capacity. Adding folders and files to the DVD does nothing to effect the video files, but you'll get added functionality in being able to store all the proof images for example, instead of just the image files used for the slideshow. For example, if I have 200 images in a folder that I select from for a slide show and if I only used 150 of them, ProShow Gold will allow you to burn the image file content in a "Show" folder on the DVD. But, burning directly to a DVD only gets you the 150 images used in the actual slide show. By burning to an ISO image and then decompressing the files to a burn folder, you can add back the 50 unused image files to the "Show" folder, so that the client has a complete record of all the proof images. It helps the make the DVD a dual purpose disc in being a slide show and your proof file disc. And, you can also add in more content besides just the slide show material.
I see from reading Michael Reichmann's latest comments that he's under fire again for his most recent article about comparing big-ticket digital capture. His comments made me think about my own history writing about my experiences in photography and the thoughts meandered a bit and eventually came to thinking about the costs involved in being a reviewer. The photo above is a representation of the monetary costs of reviewing; probably about a $1000 worth of paper and ink used since getting the R2400 with the bulk of the amount spent since the beginning of the year with all those paper and color management reviews and articles - yes that stack of paper is all from testing different expensive fine art matte and glossy papers, creating printer profiles and then testing how good those profiles are. Haven't even taken into account what's been run through the 4800 for those printer profile tests. But there are additional costs in considerable energy spent trying to get a review or article written, as well as personal and family time lost to feed this website. People constantly wonder how I can find the time to produce the content for this website, what with three young kids and a regular job and all. It's very tough at times, so do keep that in mind when reviews are few and far between these days 8^) Take yesterday for example. My wife took the kids out to a park for several hours on her own while I was at home slogging my way through I don't know how many monitor calibrations and profilings to try and wrap up the follow-up review of the GretagMacbeth Eye One Photo. I spent the entire day testing and printing in preparation for the review, and this is just in addition to all the other days and late nights spent as well. I don't want to complain too much, because this website has opened doors and provided me with the opportunity to sample products that I would otherwise not be able to afford. But for some anonymous people, it's all too easy to just sit back and read what other people have spent considerable time, energy and money to produce, and then criticize that effort without having contributed anything back to the community. But don't worry, I'm not writing this because of any negative comments I've received (no worries about taking my website and going home with it), it's just some thoughts perculating through my mind based on other things I've read recently (besides the Reichmann comments). May 16, 2006 - After writing about ProShow Gold, I receive a few emails from users commenting/complaining about various bugs in the software that made it lose some of that Gold luster. I couldn’t say much because I hadn’t experienced any problems, until now. Some users complained about their DVD burner stalling during a burn session and I found myself experiencing the same problem recently. I thought that maybe the large jobs that the other users were creating might have been a cause, but now I think that there’s an inherent incompatibility issue with certain brands of burners, as my jobs were nowhere as large and complex as some I’ve heard about. In some instances ProShow Gold apparently does not like seeing multiple burners in the computer and will stall and lockup the chosen burner. I use two burners, an LG and BenQ, so I disabled the LG and for a brief minute the BenQ appeared to work, but then it stalled again. I also thought that maybe my BenQ Lightscribe burner wasn’t compatible with ProShow Gold, but a check of Photodex’s list of compatible burners has it listed. Selecting my LG burner presented no problems even with the BenQ active. Prior to buying the BenQ, I had another LG DVD burner and having two active LG burners never presented a problem with ProShow Gold. The only solution is to choose to burn to an ISO image instead of to a DVD burner. This will create a compressed file with all the folders and files necessary to burn to a DVD using your burning software of choice. I decompressed the files into a folder and started up Nero for burning. Nero warns me that if I choose a simple data DVD to burn that my files won’t be video compliant, but this is bunk and if you choose to follow Nero’s instructions for creating a video DVD, you’ll find that you won’t be able to burn all the files and folders that ProShow Gold has created. So, if you use Nero too, just use the data DVD option and all will be find, because I immediately tested the new DVD in my home player and it played perfectly. It certainly seems to me that ProShow Gold is quite picky about which burners it will play nice with even if those burners are “suppose” to be compatible. Given my good history with LG burners, I’d suggest that brand’s products first if you’re a ProShow Gold user looking to upgrade burners. I would have bought another LG burner if given the choice, but the only LightScribe burner the shop I went to had was the BenQ unit. Wedding
Photography Worflow As I wrote recently, I was able to use the D200 for a short bit of wedding photography when my wife and I were guests at one of her friend’s wedding dinner. I wasn’t sure how the night would go, because I was a guest and I didn’t know if anyone else would be photographing; I was basically working for my wife, who asked me to bring some gear along. If someone else was working, courtesy requires that I be in the background and grab a shot here and there, but as it turned out, if there was going to be someone working, it was going to be the groom using his Canon Rebel XT whenever he had a moment to snap some shots. So, I had no problem going around taking shots whenever I wished. A Chinese dinner is usually a four-hour event from the time you arrive to the time that you leave. It’s noisy and boisterous and for wedding dinners, there are usually little games held at the couple’s expense that reveal that Chinese aren’t quite as fuddy-duddy as you might think with most games having obvious sexual overtones and innuendo. There’s plenty of action going on and oftentimes, the action is in cramped quarters with tables packed closely together. Having the 12-24 zoom lens was killer for having to work in such tight quarters and still being able to show some context to what was going on around the couple. The wide-angle zoom also worked very well for the usual walk around toasting that happens midway through Chinese dinners when the head table gets up and walks to every table to toast the guests. This is the domain of the Hail Mary style of photography when short guys like me will often hold the camera up and pointing downwards in the general vicinity of the couple and say a prayer for some good shots. Framing is hit and miss with some shots showing too much ceiling, but there are always some great expressions that the camera captures. Chinese also love having group shots taken at the end of the dinner and this one was no exception. Being very minimally equipped, there were no light stands, monolights and umbrellas, just me with a handheld camera and single on-camera flash bouncing off the near-white ceiling. At the end of the night, I had well over 300 shots taken, but a number of them, like the groups, were dupes or triplicates (always take extra to cover closed eyes, or people not paying attention to you). Workflow My desktop is relatively unchanged since I first wrote about it here. A change in optical drives here, an addition of more RAM there, running dual monitors, but the overall computer is still largely the same. I only have two hard drives inside the box, dual 10k RPM Western Digital Raptors. One as my C drive with all the applications and the second one is my short-term storage, temp file drive, and Photoshop scratch disk. I use to have another 300 GB storage drive, but for safety and security and to keep things more simple with less heat inside the computer, I moved that drive out and into an external case. I have four external drives, all at 300 GB capacity, for long-term storage and backup purposes. While four drives at 1.2 TB of capacity sounds like a lot, it isn’t because of the way I use the drives, it’s only 600 GB of capacity, as I mirror the data. As I complete a project, I move the whole she-bang from the short-term storage drive to the appropriate external drive, and then to the second, mirrored external drive. No RAIDs, because I don’t need anymore complexity in my computing life – I’m not dissing RAIDs, I’m just saying I don’t need it at this stage. Eventually, I’ll get an NAS – no, not Nikon Acquisition Syndrome, as I’m already afflicted, but a network attached storage drive (Nikon Acquisition Syndrome is like a STD that flares up every so often and gives you the most horrible itch to spend money on things Nikon – often described like a drug addiction too.) I have
my eye on one of the Buffalo TeraStation units that connects to the
computer via a network RJ45 cable, but also has four USB 2 ports of
its own. Getting the 1 TB version with four
250 GB drives would be quite fine to use the
Anyway, back to workflow… After backing up my RAW files, I start round one of the editing to get rid of all the clunkers in the folder and move the dupes and triplicates out of the working folder. Out of 350 shots, this takes me down to around 250 files, but this will be pared even more further down the editing road. Next is the RAW conversion to 16-bit TIFF files through Bibble Pro. I have Nikon Capture and I use it often for the tedious and boring testing of cameras and lenses because people would expect a Nikon user/reviewer to utilize what is considered the best RAW converter for Nikon files. However, when real work is required, I use Bibble Pro, because it’s fast, efficient and its layout is much nicer than the bloated Nikon Capture. Bibble Pro also caters to my laziness. The recently added Perfectly Clear plug-in is awesome for being exactly what it advertises to be, a one-click solution for editing RAW files into good looking proof images. The Perfectly Clear plug-in brightens up the image, improves the contrast and provides a round of sharpening. It works great for probably 80 to 90 percent of my files, but for those remaining 10-20 percent of the files, Perfectly Clear can be too much of a good thing. For images that are already high key or close to blow out, you won’t want to use Perfectly Clear, because it will exacerbate the blow out. Because it brightens the image and improves the contrast, digital noise may become more apparent depending on your ISO setting. For files that are very dark, Perfectly Clear may not be enough and you’ll have to either do some plus exposure compensation and/or do some fill/shadow enhancement. For the noise issue, Bibble Pro delivers again with the built-in Noise Ninja plug-in. I found that the default setting was just fine for my D200 files taken at ISO 400, but of course, you’ll want to season for your own tastes in noise reduction. Lastly, I apply some sharpening with Bibble again, which allows me to dispense with any additional sharpening in Photoshop, except for enlargements, but more on that later - again, sharpening is seasoning to personal tastes. I know that sharpening during RAW conversion isn’t the “approved” way to sharpen files, because no sharpening “should” be done in-camera, or RAW conversion, and that all of us should use Photokit sharpening and do three rounds of sharpening, etc, etc ad naseum. Look, do what works and looks good for you and your workflow and again, digital workflow is in a state of flux and this particular workflow may change as quickly as my next job. For me, the RAW conversion sharpening is essentially my capture round of sharpening in Photokit. There’s no one correct way to do something, except the one that gets you the results you desire – just make sure you know how to repeat those results J After batch
processing all the RAW selects through Bibble Pro, I fire up
You don’t
necessarily have to use
Whichever image browser I use, for this stage of editing, if I know I’m printing proofs, I like to adjust the browser to show four large thumbnails in a row to represent the typical four images per page. This allows me to see how the photos relate to one another in context and the flow of the storytelling of the photos (yah, I know, calling it storytelling is so trite and so 20th Century). It also gives me a sense of how portrait and landscape photos work. Ideally, one sheet should be either all landscape or all portrait orientation for best viewing. I try and avoid odd number placement and if I have to mix the two orientations, I try and go with 2x2. After doing whatever edits are required (minimal at this stage because we’re still working with what are essentially proof files), I use a simple Photoshop action to convert the 16-bit TIFF files to full-sized 8-bit JPEG files saved at maximum quality and tagged with the sRGB color space. I’ll use another Photoshop action to covert the TIFF files to much smaller 800 pixel wide JPEG files, saved at medium resolution and also tagged with the sRGB color space. The full sized JPEG files are used for creating a ProShow Gold slideshow, as well as being the client’s copy for their own printing needs or desires (burned to the same slideshow disc.) The smaller 800 pixel JPEGs are for use in creating a digital proof album via FlipAlbum Pro. Both sets of JPEGs are tagged with sRGB because if the client takes the files out to a lab, most likely, the files will be printed through a Fuji Frontier or Noritsu printing system and these machines are sRGB devices. Most clients are not likely to be viewing images on a calibrated monitor and sRGB plays nicely with those monitors too. If I’m
printing any of the proofs (in color), I’m using the TIFF files tagged
with Adobe 1998 RGB color space and printed with custom profiles through
my Epson 4800 printer. I generally use Epson Premium Luster for most
of my printing needs. Before printing proofs or creating the FlipAlbum
CD, I go through a second round of editing to make sure no “iffy” quality
images remain. Then if any files have been tossed and the order number
restructured, I’ll use
This helps to keep FlipAlbum Pro in line for the image order, because it’s otherwise stupidly old school when dealing with alpha numeric naming conventions, as in 1, 10, 11, 12, 13…2, 20, 21, 23…, 3, 30, 31, 32, instead of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, etc. Adobe Bridge is pretty good with batch renaming, but I do find its use of ( ) around the numbers to be annoying with certain types of naming conventions, as in CameraHobby (1), CameraHobby (2), etc. I'd much prefer CameraHobby1, Camerahobby2, or better yet, CameraHobby001, CameraHobby002, etc. The FlipAlbum Pro CD is burned with a custom image and label via a LightScribe burner. Same goes for the ProShow Gold slide show disc. Lightscribe helps to give the discs a personal touch, but you might prefer printing on discs with an inkjet printer for full color. Lightscribe images have a monochrome finish like oxidized copper. Given how many printers I have in-house already, buying another inkjet unit for CD/DVD printing was not something I desired (and also having to worry about another set of ink cartridges.) After getting the slideshow DVD and proof CD ready and delivered to the client then it’s waiting for confirmation of which images the client wants enlarged for their portfolio album (assuming that they ordered such a package). Or, if a client ordered just the basic services then my work is done - actually, I'd likely do a more touchup editing if this were the case before delivering the discs. For enlargement print orders, it’s time to edit more critically and carefully and do what I can for touchups. This may or may not require another round of RAW conversion. For my wife’s friend, we decided to give them a letter size portfolio album of proofs (40 sheets), the proof CD and DVD slidehow, as well as an 11x14 inch enlargement, as a wedding gift (I would have actually given them a 16x20 print, but unfortunately, my 17x22 inch paper order is nowhere to be found by my supplier at this time.) The proofs were printed via Qimage, which is mostly a fine printing application, but I’m a little perturbed by some limitations with centering the templates and maximum printing area available for letter-sized sheets. For example, I can fit four 3.5x5 inch images per sheet if I don’t have the template layout centered, which doesn’t look good to me, because one edge will have more white space than the other. However, if I center the template, then I lose the ability to print four images per sheet in Qimage, because of an apparent limitation of the Epson 4800 printer driver. I may have to go back to ACD FotoSlate if I find myself doing a lot of proof printing down the road, or maybe buck up for the ImagePrint RIP J For the 11x14 print, I just took the TIFF file from the original conversion and did some minor touchups of skin blemishes, followed by an output sharpening round via Photokit for a glossy inkjet print at 240 dpi print resolution. The resulting print is quite sharp, maybe too sharp if viewed closely, because I generally use a very light hand for touchups. I may go back and re-edit with a duplicate layer and Gaussian blur with a blending mode to soften the image a touch and add in a diffused glow to the couple. So, to wrap up, I started with somewhere in the range of 350 photos taken and edited down to just over 200 images from a 4-hour shoot. Those 200 files are placed into a FlipAlbum Pro proof CD. About 160 of those photos were used in a 6-minute DVD slideshow. Just over 150 of those photos were printed four per letter sized sheet for the portfolio-style album (two 8x10 sized images thrown in the mix) and one 11x14 enlargement. The entire editing and printing process was about one full weekend of work (mixed in with other tasks at hand) and took up about 32 GB of hard drive space. And to reiterate, what I did for this job may change for the next one, all based on whether a new application or process comes along that does a job or task better. May 12, 2006 - Some interesting news and images of new Tokina lenses coming this fall over at Photo.net. Of the four new lenses, only two hold any interest for me because I already have a fast mid-range DX zoom lens and I'm not interested in a consumer super-zoom. The other two that are of interest is the 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 fisheye zoom lens and the 50-135mm f2.8 zoom lens. Okay, maybe I only "really" have an interest in the 10-17mm lens, because the 50-135 would be rather redundant given that I already have the awesome 70-200 f2.8 VR lens. But the smaller 50-135 would make a nice backup lens, or one for a second photographer to use during an event shoot (for those of us that sometimes work with another photographer). The 10-17 offers more versatility than the 10.5mm Nikon fisheye lens and I'd expect the price of the Tokina price to be less than the Nikon lens. It looks really intriguing for those times you want the special effect look of fisheye, while still being able to get usable rectilinear images at the longer focal lengths. May 11, 2006 - Working with and handling Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308 and then going back to something like Epson Premium Luster feels so much like I'm slumming it. The thickness of the German-made paper is addictive and using thinner, lighter papers make them feel so "cheap" when in the past, papers like Premium Luster were usually heavier than most other papers. Now, I really, really want to get my hands on the new Fine Art Pearl. Just created some new profiles with the GretagMacbeth Eye One Photo (waiting for the test prints to dry 24-hours before evaluating them) and it's handling has improved nicely since my original review a few years back. Can't wait to see how these profiles match up against the X-Rite and ColorVision profiles. May 9, 2006 - I finally got my order of Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 308 gsm, smooth surface, fine art inkjet paper. Just in time as my review loan period is coming due for the X-Rite suite, as well as giving me fodder for the GretagMacbeth under trial right now (and the ColorVision one too). The paper is quick thick and should be fed through the manual roll feeder of Epson desktop printers. It has a texture not unsimilar to Epson Velvet, but Velvet is just a bit more fine in its "tooth." Velvet is also a little bit brighter than Photo Rag, but not quite as thick and heavy. Unlike the profiles supplied by other paper brands, Hahnemuhle's profile for the Epson R2400 doesn't suck, but I detect a slight coolness in comparison to Velvet printed with Epson's Special profile. I expect that a custom profile will remedy this coolness. As I expected, I like Photo Rag 308 quite a lot and it would be a toss up between it and Epson Velvet for future matte printing needs. Speaking of matte papers, after swapping out the Photo Black cartridge for a Matte Black in the R2400 to print the color patches for profiling Photo Rag, I've now dedicated the R2400 as a matte-only printer. The 4800 becomes my primary workhorse printer (for obvious reasons), and my primary paper is currently Epson Premium Luster. However, I suspect that this paper choice will change once Hahnemuhle's Fine Art Pearl becomes available in Canada. I've been given some information that clarifies some operational aspects of the 4800 printer:
At the wedding dinner last Sunday, a few of the guests remarked to my wife about how impressive the full D200 rig looked with the 17-55 lens and SB800, and wag that my wife is, shot back that the cameras/photography was my first wife and she was merely the second wife. But then she seems to appreciate having all that gear around for when her friends and family are in need and has no issue with getting me to do freebie work for them while expressing concern about how little I make on my own 8^\ May 8, 2006 - Getting to terms with the Epson 4800 has been a rather disruptive process. I took the chance that my rickety desk could support the almost 90-lbs of weight (it could), but after firing it up and doing some prints, I found the 4800 exerts so much force when printing that it causes my whole desk to sway. The 4800 had to be exiled to its own platform, but short of re-doing the whole office and getting in some new furniture, with the 4800 moving in, something had to move out of the office (my wife drew the line on buying new office furniture). Gone is the CD collection and somewhat elaborate headphone listening setup (now living room based - vulnerable to the prying fingers of my kids) in favour of a solid wood coffee table capable of handling the weight of the 4800. Not a perfect arrangement by any means, because the USB 2 cable has to snake across the room from where my CPU is located. It's likely that I will have to rearrange some more in the days or weeks to come, but I'm at an okay compromise right now.
The initializing process wasn't as bad as I thought it would be thinking that I would have to dedicate at least a half-hour of time for it. While it did take several minutes waiting for the printer to suck all that ink from the cartridges and gear itself to life, it certainly wasn't a half-hour. What did take a half-hour though was the print head alignment process. I don't think I needed to do this so soon, but the inclusion of a small package of Premium Luster paper for a head alignment made me think that this was standard procedure when first setting the printer up. I did wonder why in this modern, digital age, when the microprocessor controls so much that I still had to be around to watch the printer's LCD during the initialization process to flip ink cartridge locking levers up and down. What's the point of this? I'm sure there's a reasonable technical reason for some manual intervention by a human to flip the levers, but coming from the R2400 where that printer does everything on its own after inserting the cartridges made me wonder about this process. But then the R2400 looks so much simpler than its bigger brother.
Or, would I? After initialization I found that the setup process drank up 1/3 of the ink and that I still had plenty of ink left, so not as bad as the ominous warning and I note that the manual is much more accurate than the separate warning sheet when it stated that the setup process would use up 1/3 of the ink. But this setup process also dumps all the ink into a so-called Maintenance Well (MW) and this MW is a user replaceable part like a cartridge. After it gets full the MW must be replaced with a new MW at CAN $50 per. My MW is already 72% full after just setting the 4800 up and I imagine the first time I have to do a power cleaning cycle, will require replacement. I also did some quick calculations of the ink wasted during initialization. I estimate that I blew through around 293 ml of ink during initialization (110 ml x 8 carts / 3 = 293 ml). In Canada, 110 ml carts cost $70 per cart, or $0.64 per ml, which means that about $188 worth of ink was wasted during initialization. Adjusted for 220 ml cart prices ($110 in Canada, or $0.50 per ml) is about $147 worth of ink gone. Expensive enough already, but if we look at it from an R2400 cost perspective, the costs really skyrocket and gives a sobering realization of how much Epson makes from ink sales of its consumer line of printers.
I'm also surprised by how primitive the Windows driver is for the Epson 4800. The R2400 driver is quite slick compared to the 4800 and settings remain static with the R2400 instead of having to be reset everytime you print. Is the 4800 driver so primitive because Epson figures users will pony-up for the Epson or third-party RIP? I'm hoping that I'll find a more up-to-date driver for downloading that's more R2400-like than like a consumer Epson printer. For actual printing, in addition to the already mentioned amount of physical shake from the 4800 when it was briefly on my desk, the 4800 is a loud beast. Fan units kick in during a print job with side and rear exhuast vents to keep the innards cool in addition to the noise the printer makes pulling and feeding the paper from the tray. The print noise seems about on par with the R2400, but it's hard to tell really with those noisy fans. These are just some initial thoughts from a couple of days with the 4800. Of course, a full review is being worked on (where I'll discuss the quality of prints) and I've already begun the custom profiling process with the three color management suites I have in-house. I suspect that once I get my 17x22 sized paper in and print off my first 16x20 that the cost and noise factors will recede into my background memory 8^) Last night, as a wedding guest, had the first opportunity to put the D200 through its paces with the 17-55 and 12-24 lenses (had the 70-200 as well, but didn't use it), one of the new SB800 flash units, and the new 8 GB flash card. ISO 400 throughout with a lot of bounce lighting used. I find that direct flash with digital is more often than not, not very good compared to film with direct flash, but using bounce lighting helps to mitigate the quality and give a nice spread of light over the subjects. Have yet to review all the files and see how good they really are though. The D200 felt awesome in the hand and I never hit the buffer limit. It was so enjoyable to be able to just shoot as much as I wanted without having to worry about frame rate, buffers, or flash card capacity. Old habits die hard though and I found myself checking out how many frames were left regularly, even though there was never any doubt of having far more than enough shots left. For weddings, the D200 is turning out to be quite a camera. Can't wait to put the D2X through a similar workout too - incase you're wondering, I only brought one camera with me as I was a guest and I didn't want to look too GI Joe with two big cameras 8^) I still ended up being pseudo-official photographer as my wife wanted me to document the evening for her friend, the bride, as there was no one else around to do serious photos for the couple (lots of guests with digicams though). May 5, 2006 - A look at X-Rite's Pulse ColorElite System for creating custom printer/paper profiles has been posted. Direct comparisons to GretagMacbeth's Eye-One Photo suite will be conducted in my Eye-One follow-up review to come. As you saw from yesterday's update, I received my new Epson 4800 printer. It's the final piece of the puzzle for me to provide photographic services with an all in-house workflow that can output to a good sized 16x20 inch print. I may offer printing services to others. Something along the lines of sending me a fully edited image and I'll send back a 16x20 print for less than lab costs. Something to mull over while I get to know the beast. May 4, 2006 - The beast has arrived. This is what I saw when I walked in through the front door after coming home from work:
May 3, 2006 - Back on April 26, I alluded to a "Greed" item to be announced. If eveything goes well for delivery today, I'll be able post what that "greed" item turned out to be for a May 4 update. I'll just say that I'll have to clear off a significant chunk of desk real estate for this item. Stay tuned...8^) Update: well, big bummer, my package didn't arrive as promised. Hopefully tomorrow. May 2, 2006 - Got my hands on the new 105mm f2.8G AF-S VR lens yesterday and boy, what a lens. Fat and beefy and internal focusing so no extension of the lens barrel. The barrel is beefier than the front lens element that takes 62mm filters. The barrel is more the size usually found on 77mm filter sized lenses. The hood is impressively deep, almost as deep as the 70-200 hood. It feels very solid in the hands and seems very well built. Unlike a report by another reviewer, I did not find focusing speed to be an issue. Focusing is fairly quick when the subject is not at macro distances. Focusing quits around the 1:2.5 magnification ratio and manual focusing is required for magnifying to 1:1. Effective aperture goes from f2.8 at regular focusing distances down to around f4.8 by the time you hit 1:1. Depth of field is so shallow that using a regular ball head and tripod combination is going to be a pain in the ass for very small focusing and compositional increments. A focusing rail would be very handy for this or any other macro lens. Working distance is also quite shallow with distance measured in inches from the front of the lens when magnifying down to 1:1. Some might question why the need for a VR lens element in a macro lens when many serious users use macro lenses on a tripod. Well, chasing around insects isn't always done with a tripod. Doing setup and accentuating shots during a wedding isn't always done with a tripod either, so I'm quite happy that Nikon has decided to implement VR along with AF-S in a macro lens. Besides, the new lens is only a little over a $100 more than the old 105mm macro lens and that C note is well worth the money to me to get VR and AF-S. I don't know enough about the new nano crystal elements to make any comments about it, but heck, it's just the cherry on top of the sundae of what appears to a very fine lens. I'll have a more detailed report to come once I've had the opportunity to use the lens for some actual photography, along with reports on the Nikon 12-24 f4G AF-S DX and Nikon 17-55 f2.8G AF-S DX lenses 8^) April 27, 2006 - Many have complained about the tunnel vision view of Nikon's consumer D-SLRs, but few seem to know about an accessory that can remedy this tunnel view and make viewing easier to bear with the D50, D70, D100 and D200 SLRs. All of these cameras use the same viewfinder standard that Nikon has used for close to two-decades, going back to at least the F601/N6006 film cameras of the late 1980s. These cameras used a rectangular viewfinder instead of the round one used by the higher-end Nikon SLRs. On these D-SLRs pull the rubber surround off the standard viewfinder and slip on the DK-21M magnifier eyepiece. It's a fairly snug fit so there's not too much risk of it falling off and losing it like I did with an accessory rubber eyecup for the D100. The DK-21M is the consumer camera version of the DK-17M, which is for use with the D2 series of cameras. The DK-21M is about CAN $30 to purchase and is a pretty cheap way to mitigate the relatively poor and distant view of the viewfinder. It's not quite as easy to see everything in one go from subject scene to bottom display information, but it is nice to have that bigger view even with the D200's already improved viewfinder over the D100. I just wished that Nikon had made the DK-21M compatible with a better rubber eyecup like the way the DK-17M can accept the round rubber DK-19 eyecup. I've used rubber eyecups for many years and find them very useful for providing a more comfortable viewing experience with Nikon SLRs. April 26, 2006 - A review of the Ricoh GR-D was sent my way and it was a nice enough read to keep passing along. A tip from a reader about using Legion's Premium Canvas paper, a paper that I had some difficulty feeding into and printing with the Epson R2400: I found your comment about the requirement to manually front-feed Legion Premium Canvas through the Epson 2400 printer--and the bleed-through on the print's bottom edge--to be most gratifying. I thought it was just *me* and *my* 2400 that might be having problems. (Note: I also found that front-feeding also caused "clipping" where the front & rear of the image was clipped off, almost as if there was a restriction on where the printing head started and ended when using the front-feed method. Most strange.....) Speaking of printing, I thought I was fairly close to posting the review of the X-Rite Pulse ColorElite System printer profiling package, but a snafu with getting the GretagMacbeth Eye-One Photo delivered has delayed the posting of the review. The Eye-One Photo just got delivered yesterday and it's going to take me some time to get some new profiles made and compare to the X-Rite and ColorVision suites. Baby did a bad, bad thing - Chris Isaac Hubris:
exaggerated pride or self-confidence For a while now, I’ve been musing quite aloud that the D200 was in my plans for upgrading the elderly, but still reliable and working just fine D100. My budgeting plans were coming along nicely for a late spring or early summer purchase with the greater consideration being when the hot-ticket D200 would become available for purchase. But, it’s funny how things change and how plans go awry or become wholly revised based on things happening beyond your control. I had fully expected that 2006 would be my last year for shooting weddings with film and that 2007 would be the big purchasing year to offer digital-only wedding photography (not that I’m "that" busy shooting weddings). Even my other website offering wedding photography services used to only mention film-based packages, so what happened to those plans? Long time
readers that have a memory like an elephant may recall that I’ve been
shooting with two F100 film cameras for several years. However, only
one of those F100 cameras actually belonged to me with the other loaned
to me by a great and kind soul for some six-years. It was a great thing
for me to be able to shoot with two highly capable film cameras for
so long (although it had its rather expensive repercussions, as you’ll
read about later on in this little ditty). I also received a request to do a wedding shoot in June from within the extended family, a full day (non-money) event apparently and with that kind of consideration (or lack of) it would be as good a time as any to experiment with a digital workflow and process without the severe pressure to perform and deliver like a real money shoot would have. Hey, when you’re not being paid anything you have every right to experiment J There are also additional shoots coming up where digital would be a better process and allow me to provide a better overall package based on a planned significant printer upgrade. With everything
that I’m committed to do in 2006 being open to digital coverage the
next step before actually committing to digital coverage was to secure
financing. Long time readers will also know that I have claimed poverty
many a time in the past and I continue to claim poverty. Living in one
of the most expensive cities in
Attitudes and outlook had to change though. If I want to offer wedding photography as a serious business then I would have change over from amateur hobbyist to professional photographer, even if it’s only on a part time basis. Equipment should never be the basis of how good a person is as a photographer, but equipment is and always will be a factor for how well we can do the job asked of us and unfortunately, good equipment requires some fairly major cash to invest in. But, as I attempted feebly to explain to my doubting wife, I'm investing in myself. My significant other, she that hath fury unmatched by Hell, was mentioning to me that I already owned a digital SLR and why did I have to consider blowing a big wad of dough on more D-SLRs? As fine as the D100 has been to me over the four-year relationship, it is unsuited for the style of wedding photography that I want to offer. It’s primary weaknesses are that it’s too slow in frame rate for the sudden bursts that I need every so often and the miniscule buffer that fills up very quickly if shooting in RAW mode (and JPEG too actually). It’s a huge difference to go from a F100 to a D100 and at minimum I wanted the digital equivalent of the F100. When the D200 was rolled out to the public, it finally appeared that Nikon had listened and responded and given us the digital F100. I thought I was all set until it happened, FUD. Fear, Uncertainly, Doubt FUD goes hand in hand with second-guessing and I worked my mind over about the D200 purchase. Not one, but two, for the cardinal rule of wedding photography is always backup your gear. Now a true backup does not really have to be the exact same as the primary pieces, so a D200 primary camera could be backed up with a much cheaper D70s, but recall that in my world there’s no such thing as a backup camera. If I have two cameras I use them at the same time and thus having two identical cameras is the ideal situation so that your mind doesn’t have to wonder about which button is where and what I have do to adjust this setting on such and such camera. The D200 is a fine camera even if it had some teething pains with the banding issue, and I’m sure it will produce many a fine picture in its users’ hands, but figuring that my large capital outlay has to last me for quite some time, I began to wonder about the D200. Did I really want to be using it for say the next five-years, which is the time that I figure my D-SLRs would have to be good for. If my duration was shorter, the D200 makes more sense because it’s not as much capital outlay as the D2X and it leaves more money available to see what the next generation of upgrades brings forward. However, the longer the duration then the immediate next upgrade from D2 to D3 series is of no consequence because I wouldn’t be looking to buy. It may even be the case that I would skip the D4 generation before spending another big outlay in cash for capital acquisitions – remember, Hell hath no fury like my wife that has so far tolerated my photographic excesses from day one, but talk of more future purchases is a life-threatening endeavor. With such a long timeframe in mind, the D200 was starting to lose its appeal and the more expensive D2X was starting to make more sense as the appropriate long-term solution. Throw in the better build quality, longer lasting shutter, better battery life, faster and superior AF quality and the big difference in price for the D2X was becoming easier to bear. FUD also made me consider Canon. When you’re contemplating blowing this much cash you gotta look at all the options available, including the competition and despite my being a Nikon user for nearly a decade, I’ve admired what Canon has done and is capable of doing in the digital market (even if I do poke some fun here and there). Their cameras and lenses are impressive tools and I don’t doubt that they would produce some fantastic results once I learned how to operate them as quickly and as efficiently as my Nikons. However, no matter how much I tried to configure something for a big switcheroo, it still came down to blowing a lot more dough to get me back to the kind of gear I currently have. Plus, I’m still not convinced of Canon’s flash quality and ease of use for outdoor fill conditions. So, I’m committed to the Nikon brand…this time around J All of this is just so much verbosity for me to say that while I did end up buying the D200, I also bought a D2X J I seriously considered going with two D2X cameras, but that was getting to be a bit too much outlay in cash for me to stomach all at once for just two cameras. It’s not to say that I’m not going to spend that full amount, as the difference in price for a second D2X may be put towards a major printer upgrade J |
In
the most recent update, Bibble added a new B&W conversion plug-in,
which is quite welcome if it did nothing else but just convert to B&W,
but this ain't no one-trick pony. The B&W plug-in provides for the
ability to add back color into the scene and in most shots, will allow
you to do spot coloring without having to work with layers and brushes.
And, it allows you to do this for not one, but two colors if you wish.
There is a limitation though that can't be worked around without having
to resort to layers and masks. If your intended colored subject is too
similar in tone to another part of the scene that you don't want colored,
you'll end up with bleed through, as the sample images below show.
May
31, 2006 - Got my two Gary Fong Lightsphere flash diffusers
yesterday. Ordered them through Vistek in Toronto for Can $64 per unit
rather than pay over $100 buying direct from Fong's web store - UPS
courier delivery to Canada doubles the cost of a Lightsphere, hence
I'm very happy that there's direct Canadian availability now.
The
ink cartridges that come with the 4800 are massive. I assume that
these are the 110 ml size cartridges provided and I was really wary
when a warning paper taped to the top of the printer warned me that
initialization would use up most of the ink and that these included
cartridges were merely for setting the printer up. Great, I'm going
to have to blow almost a grand to buy eight 220 ml cartridges a
lot sooner than I thought.
Now,
it does depend on just how much ink is in an R2400 cart. I've read
figures of as high as about 20 ml, or as low as 11 ml and this makes
a big difference in costs. At 20 ml, the R2400 costs $1 per ml and
at 11 ml, a whopping $1.82 per ml. This translates to either $293
or a staggering $533 worth of ink gone down the drain into the Maintenance
Well. If the second figure of 11 ml is true that means three full
sets of 9 ink carts (27 total) wasted. In the picture at right,
my current supply of R2400 carts is 26, one shy of possibly how
much ink got blown by the 4800 in about 15-minutes. If someone has
more accurate figures for the R2400 cart capacity, 
