Monthly Archives: March 2010

iPhone Explorer

iPad, Software

An interesting app.

Yesterday I speculated about using the iPad as a storage device for pictures taken on the road. Let’s assume for a moment that the iPad version of iPhoto supports Panasonic G1 RAW or whatever your choice of RAW format happens to be.

It should then be a simple matter to connect the iPad to your home computer and, using iTunes, sync the devices in the same way as you do with the iPhone.

Meanwhile, until the iPad becomes available and some experimentation is done, I came across a free application named iPhone Explorer which permits files to be moved between the iPhone and your desktop.

Here’s a screen shot:

What you are seeing is a Finder-like directory of the iPhone – mine is the 2.5G original, by the way. The file named _1050431.RW2 is a RAW file I dragged and dropped from my SDHC card, inserted in my desktop, onto the iPhone. I then tried drag and dropping that same file onto the hard drive in my desktop and it worked perfectly. So if this application works with iPad (and there’s a chance it will or that an update will be crafted) you can use the iPad as a storage device in lieu of external drives when travelling with your camera. Where am I going with this? Simple. The less you have to carry on a trip the more likely you are to focus on taking pictures.

The advantage of an application like iPhone Explorer is that I do not want my photos which I have stored on the iPad downloaded into iPhoto on my desktop. I want the RAW originals imported into Lightroom. (Lightroom can already import JPFGs but that is of little interest to me). So by using the iPad as a storage and preview device, I can cull the losers on the iPad and, once home, import the remainder by drag-and-drop into Lightroom.

The only change I made to iPhone Explorer was to set the minimum file size it will accept on the iPhone at 14mB – slightly larger than the largest RAW file size produced by the Panasonic G1.

As you can see my iPhone only has 2gB of space, or enough for some 180 RAW files but this does prove that if you can get the RAW file into the iPhone (or iPad) then it’s easy to transfer it to your desktop. The issue then becomes how to get the file into the iPad, and I’ll have more on that when I have one in my hot little hands – if I can wrest it from our 8 year old son, that is!

iPad connectivity

iPad

Making it work with your DSLR.

One of the nicer features of my hacked netbook is its ability to read the SDHC card from my Panasonic G1 using its built in card reader slot as well as its ability to run Lightroom and Photoshop, if at a rather poky speed, meaning what I was used to on the old G4 iMac.

Apple will make card reader and camera connectors available with the launch of the iPad on April 3:

The left one connects to your camera, a connection which I have found to be molasses slow in the past. The other allows you to simply insert the SDHC card into the connector for download.

While Apple should be chastised for not integrating a card reader into the body of the iPad, at least this means you can get your snaps from the camera for preview on a decent sized screen, the small LCD screen in the camera being pretty much useless for those of us with 50+ years old eyes.

What is unclear is whether Panasonic G1 RAW will be supported by the iPad’s native photo processing application, iPhoto. And as you can be sure that it will take the slowpokes at Adobe half a generation to port Lightroom to the iPad, iPhoto is what you will likely have to use. Still, that’s not all bad. iPhoto is fine for preview and light processing and you can still take your snaps for subsequent upload to the home machine with Lightroom at a later date. I’m not sure how one goes about using the iPad as a RAW file storage device but am confident this will be possible, in much the same way the device stores JPGs and MP3 tunes. Maybe one can use MobileMe as conduit storage when on the road, though uploading 10mB RAW files using wireless is not my idea of fun.

As regards Panny RAW support, this page confirms that Aperture v3 supports G1/GH1/GF1 RAW (that only took Apple 18 months from the introduction of the camera) but I cannot find out whether iPhoto in the iPad will. I’m using iPhoto ’09 (v 8.1.1) on my desktop and it does not import G1 RAW files showing only a JPG preview then refusing to import anything. One workaround would be to shoot JPG+RAW, I suppose, which will at least allow preview of your images, but until a proper RAW reader application is available that strikes me as a weak option.

I suspect that the demand from photographers and videographers for a broad range of import and preview formats will see the iPad gestate into a very useful traveling device for preview and illustrative use.

There’s also a handy iPad to VGA adapter, in addition to Component and Composite (ugh!) variants:

This will make it easy to plug in your iPad to the big screen TV for picture and movie viewing. Pictures can then be moved to the desktop machine by performing a sync, much as with the iPhone.

To cut a long story short, I have reserved a 32gB (non-3G) iPad and will check it out on April 3. I am avoiding the 3G model as AT&T’s already overloaded network will only get worse when the iPad ramps up bandwidth demand and with free wi-fi broadly available there is little need for yet another usage fee.

I opted for the middle of the road 32gB version, figuring it as follows:

  • OS etc. uses 2gB
  • Our eight year old’s iPhone games, to be ported to the iPad, consume another 4gB. The boy has his needs, after all.
  • iTunes will be another 2gB or so.
  • Leaving 24gB which is equal to 3 8gB SDHC cards’ worth or 1,800 RAW originals. That’s a lot, especially after the cull.

Which means that my travel outfit is the diminutive G1 with two lenses (kit and 45-200mm zooms) and a 1.5lb iPad + a few ounces for its charger.

That little lot represents firepower and competence we could only have dreamt of a mere 5 years ago. The main lie in the iPad’s specs will, I’m sure, prove to be the battery life. Jobs’s “up to 10 hours” spin will probably translate into something closer to 5-6 hours, but that is still more than adequate for moderately heavy use.

One more unusual use for me will be as a device to display cooking recipes. I enjoy cooking and the keyboard-free surface should resist splatters well. We will see. Somehow I don’t see greedy little piggie Mr. Jobs giving me a free replacement should I drop the original in the frying pan ….

Let’s hope this device proves as reliable as the iPhone, not like the other awfully unreliable Apple hardware I have had to contend with over the ages. Apple is smart to use a reservation system as it will allow them to allocate the skimpy first batch of 200,000 iPads to stores with the highest demand. For example, there’s unlikely to be any such demand in the deep South. The iPad may be a touchscreen device usable even by those with hamburger fingers, but a modicum of reading skills is a prerequisite to use. That means higher allocations for those of us living in civilization.

Of course, if I don’t like the gadget when I test it in the Apple Store, I’ll buy it anyway and flip it for a quick 20% gain on the way out the door, as only pre-ordered unit quantities are being shipped to stores. So if you think you can get one on a walk-in basis, you are going to have to deal with the arbitrageur types like me!

iPhoto update: Reader Craig Johnson (see Comments, below) has pointed out that there was an update to iPhoto for compatibility with the G1. I downloaded it just now – it still shows iPhoto as v 8.1.1 but a new ‘RAW compatibility update’ was applied – and I can confirm that RAW files from my Panasonic G1 now load in iPhoto and can be processed. As Craig points out it’s unclear whether the iPad version of iPhoto will support G1 RAW out of the box, but I am confident that Apple will get there eventually owing to the popularity of that camera. Thank you, Craig!

The Leica for the rest of us

Micro Four-Thirds

That’s more like it, Panny!

After the tired product ‘refresh’ that is the Panasonic G2 (see below) this patent filing from Panny (from 43rumors) shows a Leica rangefinder format micro four-thirds body with an EVF where a viewfinder should be and finally appears to take advantage of the compactness available to micro four-thirds designers. Miraculously they have managed to retain an electronic flash in a neat flip-up design in the center of the top plate.

Panasonic GF2 patent

I started thinking about writing something like “This is the final nail in the coffin of the antiquated Leica M rangefinder, a design now some 55 years old” but thought better of it. There will always be a market spot for the ultra-wealthy who think nothing of blowing $10k on a limited function display piece, and good luck to them. The GF2 is simply the Leica for the rest of us. Kudos to Panny for finally recognizing that a lot of serious photographers want a small rangefinder-format DSLR with auto everything.

Let’s hope we see it later this year, at well under $1,000 for the body and with the same EVF definition as that found in the G1/G2/GH1 bodies, meaning excellent.

Panny underwhelms

Micro Four-Thirds

The G2 and G10 tinker at the margins.

As I am so delighted with the Panasonic G1 I tend to keep a weather eye out for new gear in this line of micro four thirds cameras. My wish list is short and, I suspect, shared by many serious users of the G1:

  • Drop the prism hump
  • Delete the built-in flash
  • Upgrade the EVF to avoid ‘burn out’ in bright light
  • Move the eyepiece to the rear left
  • Reduce noise at higher ISOs
  • Improve iA to make it use faster shutter speeds
  • Add a 10mm ultra-wide pancake lens

Well, the recent new product announcements from Panny address only one of these – possibly improved noise at high ISOs from an updated processing ‘engine’ – marketing gobledegook for software.

The G2. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

The new G2 adds 720p movie mode, SDXC card capability and moves around a button or two. I’m a street snapper – you can keep the movie mode. And one 8gB SDHC card holds 600 RAW images so the far greater storage promises of SDXC are not something I lust for. The EVF is unchanged. The G10 fills what must be a niche between P&S compacts and the G range, offering simplified controls in a G1 format body. And, curiously, the 14-45mm kit lens is now 14-42mm, deletes the OIS switch which is now a software function (no big deal for me as I always leave it ‘on’) and – this is the strange part – the lens actually gets slightly larger, if lighter. That makes no sense other than to accountants who are squeezing profit margin out of the product. Panny makes no claims for improved optical performance, so it’s hard to draw any other conclusion. Truth be told, the optics of my 14-45mm are so superb, even if the mechanicals are so-so, meaning a rough zoom ring, that I would hate to see things going backwards.

Sure, the G2 adds a touch screen for menu selections but for those like me who hardly ever use the LCD screen, this is a solution looking for a problem.

So it’s hard to see these new models as anything more than minor refreshes while we all wait for a GH2 with a proper viewfinder and some new compact lenses at the very wide end.

Alternative keyboards

Computing

Hasta la vista Apple.

In my ongoing quest to banish every last piece of Apple’s awful hardware from the home, I have now purchased two non-Apple keyboards in the last six months, both my Apple wireless ones having failed in that period, refusing to pair with their respective computers. One was the white model the other the aluminum slim version. Looks great – but strictly for display only.

One replacement is wired and is the Kensington Slim Type for Mac. It comes with downloadable software for use with Macs and features proper scissor key mechanical switches for that traditional ‘long throw’ feel which those of us over 7 years of age grew up with.

The Kensington Slim Type for Mac keyboard

At $27 it has been working nicely for six months now and I even found a nice keyboard skin to keep it clean for some $10 more.

The other is the HP Wireless Elite. I have lost all trust in Apple’s Bluetooth as a wireless keyboard technology. The aluminum one which just failed was used with my home theater Mac Mini and would constantly lose pairing with the Mini, displaying an obnoxious message in the center of the screen in the middle of watching a movie. When I am luxuriating in the beauty of a Penelope Cruz or Kate Beckinsale on the screen, the last thing I need to be reminded of is Apple’s crappy products.

Having had good experience with the RF wireless technology used in the Microsoft Wireless Mouse I wrote of earlier I decided to stick with that technology and purchased an HP Elite RF Wireless Keyboard, my wild spending ($33) getting me a slim black keyboard with numeric keypad, an RF USB dongle and an ominous looking CD full of software for Windows users. I discarded the latter, plugged in the RF receiver to the back of the Mini, pressed a couple of keys as instructed and, hey presto!, a perfectly working keyboard which pairs instantly and avoids the need for that ridiculous “enter a number” pairing process dictated by Apple for its wireless garbage. The USB receiver is a little larger than the one for the Microsoft mouse and flashes a veritable klieglight blue diode every time a key is depressed, so either install it out of sight or apply a couple of turns of black electrician’s tape. A real genius designed that part. For reference, the keyboard is some 11 feet from the dongle.

The HP Elite RF Wireless keyboard.

No need to do anything software wise and the OS X System Preferences->Keyboard->Modifier Keys screen even allowed me to disable the Caps Lock button which I like to do as a matter of course. The volume and mute keys work perfectly and are well isolated top right for ease of use in the dark. Interestingly, the elegant gloss chrome side panels match the appearance of the Microsoft RF Wireless Mouse and the whole thing simply works out of the box and has yet to unpair itself. Quality of construction, fit and finish are beyond criticism and the keys adopt that short throw feel used in Apple’s current range. The keyboard comes with two AAA batteries installed and you can blow through two of these before you have equalled the cost of one piece of Apple’s jewelry. Recommended.