Kia ora tatou:

I guess most of us buy our memory cards on price. Well, why not? I mean they are all much of a muchness (that looks terrible in print).

Wrong.

I am asked from time to time which brand of cards they should be using. I know I have tended to stick to the big names (Sandisk and Lexar) and buy them from someone I can have a discussion with when/if they go wrong/fail. So far it has worked. But there is more to it than that.

Firstly, you need to consider write-speed, the time it takes your camera to write the file to the card. This will vary according to the make and model of camera. If you have a camera that takes 2 different forms of card (i.e Compact Flash and SD), then you find that performance varies.

Brand is another issue. One manufacturer’s 200x card may well differ from another’s. And don’t believe that a card with an advertised write speed of 30Mb/sec (e.g Sandisk Extreme III) will actually deliver that. The culprit here is not the card, it is the camera. As an example is my Canon 1DS MKIII.  A SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition 8GB ($NZ180.00) has an actual write speed for RAW files of 17.966MB/sec, in other words a little more  than 1/2 the potential performance. A Sandisk Extreme 8.0Gb CF Ducati($325.00) has a write speed of 19.808MB/sec. Nearly twice the price, but not 2x the performance. Bang for the $$$, The former card represents better performance value. A Transcend Class 6 8GB SDHC card for the same camera has a write speed of 9.795MB/sec.

So how do I know all this? Because there is a cool site which has tested a whole array of cards with different cameras and published the data. You can access it here.

Read-speed is the time it takes to get the data off the card, and here the issues are the speed of your card-reader and the bus speed in your computer. If this matters, then buy a really good card reader. I recommend the Lexar Professional UDMA Reader. Quick and effective.

Lastly, how do you know that card you ordered online is the Real Deal? My friend SSG ordered one while overseas, A 16Gb Transcend. When he went to download it, it turned out to be only 8Gb in capacity. He was able to return it to the dealer who had sold it to him. Would it be that easy if he had ordered it from www.fornexttonothing.com? I wonder.

I note the Big Two are using holographic logos in their packaging. How reliable they are I am not certain.

Caveat emptor.

There is nothing so annoying as to have two people go right on talking when you’re interrupting

-Mark Twain

Kia ora tatou:

As most of you know, I am a digital guy now. My friend, Doc Ross, is a fine artist and film guy (that makes two of them I know). Recently we faced off across the debating table at the PSNZ Southern Regional Convention, arguing our sides of the moot: that digital is dancing on the grave of film. Debating is great fun; you take a point of view and argue it, no matter what you may believe. As Jill Ruckelhaus said, ” The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right.”

Naturally our side won… (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Here, for you Mac users, is the wonderful advice Donald has sent me about keeping your Macs running sweetly.

BTW, the evangelist on the right is Steve Jobs. Mac fanboys genuflect to him daily. PC users may know of him….in the same way we may have heard of Knockemstiff, Ohio..but who wants to go there ? (LOL)

Make sure you have 25-30% free space on your primary hard drive, otherwise things can get flaky.

1-2 Gb free suits most people, and if this gets compromised the machine will warn the owner, by suggesting they free up some space, however many people don’t understand the message and ring me. Cultural language differences sort of cause this. I’ve seen disks with zero space free and the machine runs fine, but of course you can’t save anything. Despite it saying zero, memory management systems probably are still doing things like creating scratch disks or virtual memory, so may be this accounts for the continuing stability. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

This post has very little to do with digital photography, that is until your computer runs slowly or falls over. However it is something all of us who work on a computer should care about. It is rather like your car. Unless it is a diesel, from time to time you need to tune it and make sure it is running smoothly. Servicing a car is a given (unless you won Lotto, then you can change the vehicle when the carpet gets dirty). Here are a list of free applications (read: programs) that you can download and install to keep things moving smoothly, along with hints. Note: these are all apps that work for me.

1.       Defragging. You should defragment your hard drive every few weeks. This puts the data back in the right place (think: the books back in the correct sections in the library). If you use your PC a lot, do it more often. The defrag utility in XP and Vista are both slow and not that reliable. Try Auslogics Disk Defrag. While you are at it, install and run Auslogics Registry Defrag. This does the same thing for your registry, which is where the individual files for your apps live. I also use RegCure from time to time to clean out my registry and remove unwanted files and invalid paths (usually caused by removing software/updating, etc). Sorry, this one costs! Caution: Unless you know what you are doing, DO NOT edit the registry. This can send you off to your tech for a major computer rebuild.

2.       Clean up your disk. Again, Windows’ inbuilt utility is OK, but it slow and relatively ineffective. I recommend CCleaner (the first C: is for Crap). This is “a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner”. Recommended. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Adobe announced yesterday the final release of Lightroom 2.1. I have been using the Beta version for the last couple of months, without anything untoward happening. If you open the application, it should prompt you to up grade. Do so. Besides supporting the latest camera models, you should find a marked performance increase. I know I did.

I have learned that it is often a good idea to have a look through the readme file that comes with an application. Sometimes they tell you nothing of significance; at other times they can give you real insight. Included here are the “known Issues” from 2.1.

Known Issues
Burning exported images to disc is not available for the Lightroom 64-bit Windows application.
Upgrading a Lightroom 1 catalog during a catalog import can create multiple temporary copies of the catalog while upgrading

Lightroom performance can be impacted when the Window’s Recycle Bin contains thousands of files. Hmmm.. that may explain why it sometimes runs really slowly!
Lightroom may not automatically launch an import dialog when a memory card is attached to a Windows Vista computer. Please select the Import button in the Library and select the attached card reader to begin the import.Yep, that one I am aware of. Thanks for confirming that it isn’t me!
Catalogs with hundreds of root (top level) folders can cause very slow launch times. We are currently testing a fix for this but need more time to evaluate it. As a workaround, try right-clicking a root folder and choosing “Add Parent Folder” until the number of folders at the left-most level of the Folders hierarchy is significantly reduced.
We are still working on additional methods to improve the performance of the new Localized Correction features. Good to hear it!

I have also included the fixes published by Adobe, to save you having to hunt them out. (more…)

Data: Canon 1DS Mk II, EF 100-400/4.5-5.6L, 1/640 @ f5.0, ISO 100

Paint what you really see, not what you think you ought to
see; not the object isolated as in a test tube, but the object
enveloped in sunlight and atmosphere, with the blue dome of
Heaven reflected in the shadows.
::: Claude Monet :::

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the
artist, not of the sitter.
::: Oscar Wilde :::

It has taken me 2 years to get back to this image, to finally understand the feelings I had at the time I made it, to realise what was in my heart at the time and bring it out into the light. My photographs are like that, which is probably why I have so many in my catalogue (>120 000) and why I only ever delete the duds. I never know when an image that has been sitting back there in the shadows, patiently (or impatiently awaiting its time, will stir restlessly out there on the corner of my vision, will shuffle grumpily in the darkness, raising a small cloud of dust and attracting my attention. (more…)

Today a good friend and mentor passed away. A number of you will know him.

Richard (Dick) Poole, my friend and mentor of some 20 years, died in his sleep yesterday morning after a battle with cancer. Like the late Brian Curtis, he was one of the grand old men of New Zealand photography, one of those people you take for granted, until their time has passed. So I want to take some time, to take some time to remember.

I remember the day I first met you, a tall, lanky, balding man in a brown jersey with a bushy beard fierce eyes and an uncompromising attitude. For years I marvelled at the sensitivity of the portraits you made, at your passion for photographing women beautifully and your unremitting concern for craft. I marvelled at the way you made light sing and dance and the way you made it look so easy, the sign of a true master.

I remember the day you took me into the Ilam Gardens and taught me to see light, and how in the space of 20 minutes you taught me to see that light in the field could be read in terms of studio lighting, and vice-versa. In doing so, you moved my photography forward immeasurably.

I remember the day, standing on the shores of Lake Pukaki, when you taught me the two-cigarette method. You never said anything much that day, but by then I had learned to read the lessons contained in your silences and on that day I learned that a good landscape photographer needs patience and the ability to be still inside. All your lessons were profound.  You taught by example, always willing to freely share what you knew.

I remember the long conversations, where, of an evening, we would sit around an evaporating bottle of whisky and discuss the merits of D-76 and Rodinal, and the papers we each fancied (you Kodak Elite, me Agfa Brovira), and the intricacies of the Zone System. It took you ten minutes to show me the easy way to load a double-dark. You were that sort of teacher. You knew your subject so well that you could make it seem easy. I never ceased to admire your deep knowledge of the history of photography, and how well-read you were. From you I learned to mix and use  Amidol and Ferri;  I heard of the lives and philosophies of  Weston, Bullock, Adams and Modotti; I learned about the Graflex and the Ur-Leica. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

I was recently asked to participate in a debate this coming weekend, in which the Motion is: that digital photography is dancing on the grave of film photography. I am to be the 3^rd speaker for the affirmative, so it relatively easy to take that stance. The more I thought about it however, the more I have come to realise that the argument is academic, that digital has replaced film as the mainstream means of image capture. Further reflection leads me to think that the whole argument is pointless (I will of course, debate my accorded stance with enthusiasm, conviction and not a little vitriol, as I should) and that photography has come of age. Film photography has as much of a part to play as digital photography. They are the same, only different, much as petrol and diesel engines exist side-by-side. They both do the same job, but have their own strengths and weaknesses.

So why would you shoot film anyway? A phone call today from a student I taught years ago on the West Coast further brought the topic to my attention. Georgie is an 80-something who got her Voigtlander back in 1967. It has finally given up the ghost and she has been told that the cost of fixing it makes it not worth doing. She told me that she had checked with a couple of local photographers, who had both told her to go digital. She assumed I would agree. Not necessarily.

A year or two back, I would have agreed. Now I am not so sure.  A long conversation with Freeman Patterson has shifted my thinking. Although he “gets” digital, he has decided to stay with film. It comes down to this. Do you like computers? He doesn’t. He would much rather be outside, working in his garden. Or taking his camera out and making photographs.

Fair enough. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Not my usual post.

Yesterday this email found its way to me:

Good morning

Can you please advise :

I have about 5000 35mm slides (transparencies), which have been in storage for nearly 6 years

Recently I viewed most of them.  General condition is good, but dust & fungus appears on some, a few have become discoloured (mauve/purple) and with some of the oldest, the emulsion is totally destroyed.

I want to copy to digital format and endeavour to restore where possible, using PhotoShop.

I have looked at several scanners - 2 Nikon Coolscan models are way too expensive, 2 Epson Perfection models (V700 & V500) are pricey, and 2 Canon’s (CS8800F and CS5600F) are affordable.  Would there be any reason not to get one of the Canon scanners? Are there other scanners which I should look at?

Ordinarily I would just deal direct, but this was the second question of its type in a fortnight, and it got me to thinking about the slides I had lying in storage…somewhere, and about all the slides that must be mouldering in cupboards throughout the land. I am sure many of us have good intentions about turning all those memories into digital format… at some point.

I know I did. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

No geeky posts or software updates here.

After a six-month hiatus, I have responded to Beth’s last post.

While I have posted it in full on the appropriate page, I have decided to post it here as well.

You may want to download it and read it over a glass of wine and a Diazepam…

Now on to Marthinus… (more…)