Photography Technology Blog

Well, this is only in the rumor stage at this point but if it’s true then Apple will no longer be offering displays suitable for use by graphics professionals (unless they have some kind of MIRACULOUS anti-glare technology in the works). So what’s the rumor? The rumor is that Apple has EOLed (End Of Life) the 23 inch cinema display and that it’s going to be replaced with a glossy screen.

You know… when CRTs went away I didn’t miss the glare issue one bit and now we’re going back to it? Does anyone else find this ironic (and yeah I really do think)? Remember anti-glare filters? I wonder how long it will take for those to come back? Maybe that will be my new business only I can sell them for TONS of money by making a photoggraphy grade filter that is neutral.

Apple, since this is still a rumor (although 9 to 5 seems to have a great track record so far) I’ll spare you the toungue lashing for now but if it’s true… WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? (aside from tossing aside graphics professionals because they are no longer your key demographic and do not fit into a strategy of maximizing share holder wealth)?

OK, obviously that’s open for debate but I found this interesting. The folks at DXO are attempting to apply some science and objectivity behind determining which camera has the best sensor. From a technical standpoint they rate the D3 as the best followed closely behind by the D700 (which makes sense, they’re the same sensor) and then the Canon 1Ds MkIII (note the s). The scale is based upon color depth, dynamic range, and low light ISO? I’d like to know what low light ISO is. Do they mean high ISO used in low light? That would be my guess but perhaps it’s not the best choice of words. Anyhow, it’s sure to start some epic flame wars in cyberspace. Have fun!!!!

Anandtech has an interesting review out on the Sony A900. Part of the review compares the new 24 Megapixel Sony A900 to the 12 Megapixel Nikon D700. They’ve addressed an issue that I don’t see other reviewers addressing when displaying test results relative to noise and that is to compare them at the equivalent size. In this review Anandtech has downrezzed the A900 to be the same size as the D700. Downrezzing of course masks noise but is it enough to compete with Nikon’s stellar high ISO performance? In addition to the samples they’ve provided here it would have been nice to see how the D700 compares to the Sony when its files are uprezzed to the same size at various ISOs as well as high ISO performance isn’t a priority for everyone and that almost certainly illustrate some interesting differences as well.

The results are very interesting. You can’t draw any conclusions from this review that would equate to a universal truth. I’m guessing that Canon’s 1DsMkIII for example would yield significantly better results than Sony’s new offering.

Cheers, Joe

Well this is interesting news as Lenovo has developed a laptop specifically geared towards photographers and other graphics professionals however I fear they may have completely missed the point. We’ll have to wait until someone get’s their hands on one but here’s the quote from their press release that really concerns me:

Its optional 400-nit WUXGA display provides up to twice the brightness of earlier ThinkPad mobile workstation models, and the 72 percent wide color gamut provides more than 50 percent greater color intensity. The high resolution, extreme brightness and wide color gamut…

“Extreme brightness”. Hello, has the marketing department talked to ANY professional photographers who care about color? I think not. “Extreme brightness” is that LAST thing we want, quite the opposite. If they’d said something like “extreme lack of brightness” I’d have gotten extremely excited however this may be yet another device that can’t be properly calibrated in the 100 cd/m^2 to 120 cd/m^2 range without making a compromise via profiling. Hopefully that’s not the case though. It certainly has nice specs but in order to be useful for color critical work, aside from the aforementioned luminance issue the other big question would be “is it using an 8 bit or higher monitor LUT”? All laptops are currently using 6 bit LUTs (at least to my knowledge). That didn’t used to be the case but in a low margin high volume world, corners had to be cut to remain profitable and 8 bit displays in laptops vanished.

Although it has some attractive features, pricing starts at $3000 without the fun options. I would estimate that one of these full outfitted would easily cost over $4000 and if the screen’s luminance can’t be calibrated properly then in my opinion (regardless of the extended gamut) it simply isn’t worth it. You’d be better off getting a far less expensive notebook with a Wacom Cintiq.  With that said, this model boasts some interesting features.Of interest to photogrpahers in particular is support for up to 8 gigs of RAM, an optional integrated colorimeter, as well as an optional integrated graphics tablet and CF card reader. Other options include a dock that features eSATA ports, and internal dual hard drive bays (which can be configured as RAID 0 or RAID 1, the former being extremely risky but potentially beneficial to videographers).

For more information check out Gizmodo’s blurb on the Lenovo Thinkpad W700.

I wrote about this a while back and I want to touch upon it again as it’s getting easier and easier to go paperless. The difference now is that the meaning of “paperless” is more literal in the sense that you don’t get a piece of paper at all. With that said if you could all indulge me for a minute I’d like to request that everyone reading this consider switching all of their statements (where the option is available) to paperless. This is of benefit to both you and the environment. First the environment…

Less use of ink (chemicals)
Saves trees
Less CO2 emissions (a vehicle has to drive that piece of mail from its point of origin to your business)

The advantages to you..

1) Less risk of identity theft. On a credit card statement for example, your credit card number is usually right on the bill. Same goes for your business checking account. Then you get your phone bill and that has your phone number on it. Someone interested in stealing your identity only needs to lift a CC statement and a phone statement and they have A LOT of info on you, enough that they could make purchases with your credit card via “carding” to figure out the expiration date. If you go paperless, there’s nothing to steal.

2) Less clutter in your office - I HATE filing with a mad passion. If a piece of paper lands on my desk it is doomed to that existence for at least 6 months until I become motivated enough to scan it and then shred it.

3) If it comes as a PDF to begin with you save time by not having to scan it.

4) Finding a transaction on a computer is easier then sifting through a pile of paper. A scanned PDF is not searchable unless you have a package like PaperPort which integrates an OCR and database feature. The documents that are provided directly from your financial institution however ARE natively searchable so if you’re looking for something specific, it’s much easier to locate using the built in search on your computer.

I’m currently getting my business & personal checking and savings statements, my AMEX statement, VOIP bill, and wireless bill online. When the bill is available I get an email. If I get lazy and skip a month it’s not a big deal as most institutions provide at least a 6 month history. With AMEX you can request older digital copies for free. Bank of America maintains a 1.5 year history, etc. so even if you’re a procrastinator, there’s still plenty of time to catch up. One of the coolest “going paperless” options… I have a business account set up at my local Apple store (it’s free). Whenever I make a purchase at the local Apple store, in addition to getting a small discount on Apple products, I also walk out of the store without a paper receipt, they email it directly to me (I also don’t take a bag either even though they have nice bags (I bring a backpack)).

There’s a minimal amount of work you need to do in order to have a good functional system where things are easy to find. Part of that is creating folders with obvious names like “business checking”, “AMEX”, “taxes”, etc. The second part of that is renaming the PDF once you’ve downloaded it. I usually rename my documents to the statement closing date using a Year, Month, Day format. As mentioned in a previous entry, the advantage of this is that if you sort by alphabetical order, your documents will also always be in chronological order. For example let’s say we have the following dates:

June 1st 2006, July 1st, 2006, June 1st, 2007, July 1st, 2007. If we name those files in the traditional (for the US) method of month/day/year (and the same problem applies for day/month/year) we end up with this in an alphabetical sort:

06012006
06012007
07012006
07012007

Now, if we name them in the year/month/day format (year/day/month will not work) we end up with files in chronological order when sorted alphabetically:

20060601
20060701
20070601
20070701

In addition I also usually tag another descriptor on the end that lets me know what it is. For example the wireless bill might be 20080804_wireless. By adding that extra bit to the end it helps if I’m doing a search in that it allows me to use wild cards for example, in order to find all files ENDING with wireless I could just enter *wireless. Not all search tools support wild cards but many do. So there you have it. Food for thought!

Cheers, Joe

Boston, MA finally has an Apple store of its very own. Big deal? If it were just another Apple store I’d be yawning but apparently the Boston store has taken the title from the New York store as the largest Apple store in the US. Sporting 3 floors and a glass spiral staircase I might just have to stop by the next time I’m in town. More info from Mac Rumors.

Not really photography related… OK, not photography related at all but I read this and thought “gee, why wasn’t this done a long time ago?”. Specifically what I’m most excited about is the prospect of using text messaging to issue Amber alerts. California has lots configurable LED signs on the freeways that they can send messages to to warn people about traffic conditions. They’ve also used these signs to post Amber alerts and they’ve made a difference but you really need to be on a highway to see it. Imagine if everyone in a region was sent an Amber alert via text message with a description and plate number for the suspected vehicle of a kidnapper? The system would be expected to go online by 2010.

More info from CNN and USA Today.

Just a heads up. Looking for a photo seminar that takes you to five European cities in 6 days? Check out Fish’s entry for the workshop in his blog, Flying With Fish. Even if you’re not looking for a European photography safari, Fish’s blog is PACKED with a wealth of information and tips for the traveling photographer.