More photo goodies!
If you've been looking for an alternative to the expensive Pocket Wizard radio flash triggers that currently rule the photo universe, you might just have a new 'expensive' option coming in the first weeks of January. Radio Poppers from Kevin King, Phoenix Arizona based wedding shooter, promises to be a revolutionary new transmitter / receiver flash trigger for working with E-TTL and Canon / Nikon cameras. His tiny Radio Popper receiver units promise more flexibility with shutter speed sync, increased transmitter working distance and flawless reliability in bright daylight. You can read more about his Radio Poppers on the STROBIST website, where you can follow links to an original article from September of this year.
There still seem to be a lot of skeptics and Pocket Wizard true-believers out there who want to cast doubt on his invention and scheduled January 2008 release date. You can check out the Radio Popper Website and decide for yourself.
* If you're reading this article, I would love to hear from you! Please take a second to respond by clicking the POST A COMMENT Link below.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Radio Popper Transmitters On Their Way...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Giving Microsoft's Sync Toy A Spin!
Here we go again...
Sync Toy: the smart way to copy files ?
From Microsoft's site...
'Sync Toy v1.4 is available as a free download on the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.'
Now that I have officially kicked Win Vista's butt and given myself over to the 'dark side', I figured I would go one step further and give the Sync Toy Utility a test drive. It appears to have quite a following on the Microsoft Pro Photo Website, with much praise from digital shooters as a simple and effective file copying / backup program. I plan to use the small file utility do a twice daily scheduled backup of my current image files from my 'DC' hard drive ( Main storage ) to an external mass storage device, possibly even a DROBO hot swappable drive storage system.
Setting up Sync Toy to manage file backups, file changes and renames, appears to be a fairly simple procedure. During the initial programming, you are asked to choose a folder pair where designated files are synchronized one to the other on a schedule that you choose, with options for more or less control over the process. If I can get this to work easily without some sort of battle with the Win Vista operating system, I will be a happy camper!
From Microsoft....
'Sync Toy synchronizes the files in folders of your choosing. It does so by copying, renaming, and deleting files. ' ...............'You can even set up Sync Toy to run unattended. ' ......'The powerful preview feature in Sync Toy shows you exactly what is going to happen before any files are touched. Preview even gives you a chance to unselect any proposed actions before you start.'
Sounds a little scary, but I'll be giving it a try!
* If you're reading this article, I would love to hear from you! Please take a second to respond by clicking the POST A COMMENT Link below.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Win Vista Is My B#*tch!
Geek Time!
After more than a week of boots, re - boots, hard drive installs and removals, disk formatting and software updating, I might just have a usable system for my imaging workflow. With a clean system and a dependable color balance thanks to the Gretag Macbeth - eye one profiling, I can hopefully get back to some work in Photoshop. The problem with Win Vista overriding my video look - up tables was resolved with a 512 MB, DDR 2 Evga Graphics card added in my PCI Express slot. Take that Bill Gates! ..........try and turn off my ICC Profile now Jerk!
Other upgrades include a 160 GB SATA drive in addition to the 320 GB Main HDD running my Operating System. The 160 SATA is expressly reserved and labeled as a Photoshop scratch disk set with 'write caching' and 'advanced performance' ( Scary! ) enabled. All image files are saved to a third 500 GB SATA disk labeled as DC Storage ( ?..... I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you! ) with no other data allowed. Using each drive for only one function, the Main Drive runs my OS and loaded programs, the scratch disk is only used for Photoshop and the big 500GB drive is only used to store image files. That's just the storage on the inside of the computer. With my new PCI E 1x SATA-E raid card installed, I will eventually put 2 more 500 GB drives on the desktop for long term backup and storage. The system is rounded out with 4 Gigs of RAM, 2 external high speed USB 2.0 hard drives ( 160GB Seagate and 250GB WD) that remain connected at all times and a newly installed 600 Watt dual fan power supply to replace the cheap 250 watter that came with the computer. The new power supply will guarantee that all my extra goodies will have more than enough juice to run properly with lots of extra connectors for the future. Wow! ...........I feel like such a geek.
Oh,........ but there's more! I also have Ready Boost enabled with a 1 GB USB stick running most of my background ( Antivirus + Firewall ) programs and two extra fans installed to cool my processor and hard drives. Fan number one is sucking air out the back of the case and I modded another huge 12volt fan into the side of the enclosure to blow air in. It has a sweet on / off switch mounted flush on the outside, provided by the the good folks at Radio Shack. It looks so cool you would swear it came from HP as an option.
And finally.......... because I couldn't leave well enough alone, I bought an inside / outside car temp thermometer and ran the sensor into the middle of the enclosure above the hard drives to keep a watch on overheating. The readout unit is mounted on the front of my computer where I can easily see it and looks as though it were built into the case. It proved to my satisfaction that my big 12v fan mod was lowering temps by as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit in the case.
Still working on the Flux Capacitor...
* If you're reading this article, I would love to hear from you! Please take a second to respond by clicking the POST A COMMENT Link below.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Great New Portable Strobe Mods From David Honl!
Check this out!
I've been so busy getting my new Win Vista computer up to speed that I neglected to mention the great new products I just received from David Honl at HonlPhoto.Com. I was so excited when I received the package that I tore into the box like a kid at Christmas and unlike socks from grandma, these products did not disappoint! David sent me 4 items total, including his 8"regular speed snoot, the 5 inch "shorty" snoot, 1 speed gobo and the heart of the system, a rubberized Velcro speed strap that all the modifiers mount to. From the look of things, David has invested a lot of time and money into the craftsmanship and materials that go into each unit. Don't confuse these portable strobe mods for the cheap imported stuff you get at your local camera store, these babies are made to last! Pricing from $9.95 US ( Speed Strap) to $22.95 US for the 8 Inch Regular Snoot, puts these in the 'crazy affordable' price range. You might as well buy a set for each portable flash in your kit bag.
from his site:
"Put an end to rubber bands, tape or sticky residue from gluing Velcro to your expensive strobes. My Speed Strap fits any shoe-mount strobe unit, attaches and removes in seconds, and provides a large wraparound surface area to quickly attach gobos,bounce cards,barndoors, and snoots. Non-slip so it won't budge when attached." ...........'David Honl, WWW.HonlPhoto.Com'
Sometime soon, I will review the products in greater depth and put up some pics showing how I used each item. But for now, I must return to the war with my new Windows Vista operating system.
* If you're reading this article, I would love to hear from you! Please take a second to respond by clicking the POST A COMMENT Link below.
Monday, October 15, 2007
VLUT In A Rut..." Windows Vista Is Killing My Calibration!"
Quick update:
Still in the death struggle with my Win Vista Home Premium OS. I have loaded, booted, rebooted, registry tweaked, downloaded and safe moded till my brain hurts. The good news is that I am winning the battle with my new operating system and I expect to be running at full steam by the middle of this week. With even more upgrades since my last post "Vista is a pain", such as a PCI Express raid controller for E - Sata and 2 new external Sata drives, I should have uber speed and storage to spare. It's possible that I might have to consult with Dr. Pimento to get the damn raid setup working properly, but when I do, the externals should access data as fast as my internal hard drives. Ain't that awesome!
Warning : Windows Vista will force unload your VLUT ( Video Look-up Table ) during boot up. This will generally happen after your color calibration has loaded and when the last start up program has come on line. Your screen will go from no color balance to proper color balance ( ICC profile, as determined by your calibration software : X-Rite, Monaco, Eye One etc... ) and then back to default windows color at the last second. This is frustrating as hell, but can be overcome. By dragging the monitor calibration shortcut in the Windows Start-Up-Folder to your desktop and executing it with a simple doubleclick, you can restore your perfectly calibrated ICC profile. This should stay in effect until your next system re-start or until your computer goes into Hibernation Mode. As a photographer using my PC for pre-press, I would suggest that you not use that feature ( Hibernation ) until Microsoft solves these problems. With any luck, I should have a registry tweak to fix or work-around this issue by the end of the week!
* If you're reading this article, I would love to hear from you! Please take a second to respond by clicking the POST A COMMENT Link below.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Vista Is A Pain... But Not A Lost Cause...Yet!
Frustration!
My attempt at making Windows Vista run with the reliability of Win XP Pro is as of today an unfinished and not too certain experiment. I'll have to say, Bill Gates is kicking my ass at this point! With nearly every unneeded service and resource hogging application disabled or removed, I am still finding new bloat and processes that require battling on an hourly basis. Adding the long list of programs that won't yet work with Win Vista, Apples Quicktime as one example and the problem of installing software that hasn't yet passed the Microsuck seal of approval and you get a frustrating experience. If I thought that XP Pro SP2 had all the drivers to run my internal hardware, I would be burning the hardrive and performing a ritual curse on microsoft as we speak.
I've got to get this thing up to speed by the end of this weekend, Installing 2 extra Hard Drives, one 250 GB SATA as a scratch Disk for Photoshop, a 500 GB SATA Monster to hold the photoshop finals and a 3rd Gig of RAM. I will also be testing out the Ready Boost feature with an external 1 GB USB thumb drive for running background programs like antivirus, firewall etc...
If you see someone running wildly down your street carrying a large desktop, mumbling obscenities, it might not be me, but it's probably someone who's upgraded to Windows Vista!
* If you're reading this article, I would love to hear from you! Please take a second to respond by clicking the POST A COMMENT Link below.
4 comments:
* CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR COMMENT