Category Archives: Hardware

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Nikon voice memos

Lightroom, Nikon bodies

Smooth Lightroom integration.

One really handy feature in the Nikon D2/D3/D4 bodies is the ability to record a voice memo of up to sixty seconds in length for each image. After enabling the function in Settings, you hold the voice memo button down while speaking into the microphone on the rear of the body. If you are taking posed snaps of strangers and want to send them a copy as a courtesy, this is a great way of recording their email address for later retrieval.

At first I thought this to be a worthless gimmick but in practice am finding it to be a really useful feature on my D2x.


Recording button red circle; speaker and microphone – yellow and green arrows.

You can playback the voice memo using the camera’s small speaker to check it’s intelligible at the time of recording.It sounds far better over your computer’s speakers!

When it comes to processing, Lightroom fully accommodates this function. The WAV file recording has the same frame number as the image but with a ‘.wav’ file extension and is imported along with the image into LR 2, 3 and 4.

You can see the sound file in the Library module of Lightroom and you can play it back by clicking the arrowed icon:


LR’s Develop module and the playback icon.

A like feature is also available on some Canon DSLR bodies.

File sizes? A 10 second recording averages 75MB – not enough to worry about when it comes to consuming precious space on your camera’s CF or SD card. The D2 and D4 use one CF card, the D3 one or two CF cards.

The Crown Graphic

Cameras

A well thought out design.

Watching Brian dePalma’s splendid Prohibition Era movie The Untouchables the other evening I was struck by just how skilled reportage photographers were in that period. In one early scene, the Treasury Agent Elliot Ness orchestrates a raid on a suspected illegal liquor warehouse and as he prepares to smash open one of the wooden crates he believes contains the hooch, an aspiring press photographer, armed with a Speed Graphic and that enoromous flashgun with the almost as large one-use bulb, bursts in and takes a snap. His men want the reporter removed but Ness, sensing a ‘photo op’ lets him stay. As he picks up the axe to smash the crate, it’s what follows that leaves you lost in admiration. In a choreographed series of actions, the reporter realizes he has used one of the two exposures in his film slide. In the matter of a few seconds, you see him insert the dark slide, pull out the film holder, reinsert it reversed, pull out the second dark slide, change the flashbulb and snap Ness as he pulls out the contents of the crate …. a Japanese decorative umbrella. Ooops. But what the photographer had to go through to get his one chance at the front page is exceptional.

The camera was, amazingly, exceptionally well suited to hand-held use. It came with a decent rangefinder (I dismantled mine to clean the mirrors whereupon it became easy to use), an optical finder with interchangeable masks for different lenses, a wire frame finder easily extended from the body and ideal for reporters’ use and adjustable focus stops. You had a reasonable range of perspective controls thanks to the drop bed, and lens exchange was very simple and fast. Best of all the whole thing collapsed into a surprisingly compact rectangular box and the included carrying handle made for easy transport. It weighed less than the modern DSLR. A large chromed side plate accommodated the flashgun whose handle later did double duty in George Lucas’s ‘Star Wars’ movies as a light sabre!

Until the roll film camera gained acceptance, the reporter’s tool of choice was the Graflex company’s Speed Graphic or later the Crown Graphic. I owned a Crown Graphic for a couple of years, interested in finding out just how it was to use a large format camera. I put together a slide show of my Crown Graphic – long sold – and you can download the 50MB file by clicking or touching the picture below:


Click the picture to download the slideshow.

Toward the end you can see where I made my own focusing cams for the wide and long focus lenses so as to ensure accurate coupling with the optical rangefinder for hand-held use. A fun project!

Tripod use was every bit as easy and the huge negative size meant that large prints of just about any size were easy to make with frightening resolution. Scanned at 4,000dpi the negative yielded no fewer than 320 megapixels! At 2,000 dpi, more than enough, it came in at 80 megapixels.

I eventually gave up on the Crown for a couple of simple reasons. First, it was impossible to find anyone to process my Kodak Vericolor originals without adding scratches, boot marks and hair lines. This meant endless retouching just as in the bad old film days. Second, getting a good scan of the originals at a reasonable price was also impossible. Drum scans, which would disclose every last detail in every last leaf on that giant sequoia were prohibitively expensive and the scanned files would average over 200MB. Guaranteed to disclose my iMac’s dual purpose design when processed – a computer and a toaster, all in one. But the Crown Graphic was an absolute blast to use. Both color and monochrome film stock remains available if you want to give it a shot. You will not lose any money when it comes time to sell your hardware, but you will need a good changing bag to load those film holders. Just about any lens will do, the large negative making the latest and greatest in optics overkill.

Here are a few snaps:


Cayucos beach.


Abandoned gas pumps, Los Alamos, CA.


General Store, Los Alamos, CA.


Rust.

Favorite gear of 2012

Nikon bodies

Old can still be good.

It would be wrong to caption this column ‘Camera of the Year’ or something similarly pretentious. After all, I’m an amateur snapper, not a journalist reviewing free hardware who gives the award to the maker paying the biggest kickback/free gear gift/trip to Osaka or the Black Forest. This is my money and my preferences we are talking about, not other people’s money and advertising dollars.

That said, I do give careful consideration to where my money goes and that is rarely to the latest and greatest. Obsolete means nothing to me, except maybe a good entry price and low depreciation, and buying new tends to be anathema to my psyche. Plus I like the gestation and discovery period that something a few years old has undergone.

So if I tell you that my favorite camera body was last made 7 years ago – aeons in DSLR terms – and the lens is no less than 4 decades old, I would be quite understanding were you to write me off as some sort of nutty eccentric, like the guys still doing wet collodion in 8″x 10″ view cameras.

However I have long known that a change of gear acts like a kick in the pants for yours truly, if nothing else to justify the outlay by making some decent pictures. And if the use experience confers tactile and mechanical pleasure, both keenly developed senses in my case, then all the better.


Click the picture.

My favorite gear of 2012 is the 2005 Nikon D2x with what I can only describe as a thrilling lens, the 50mm Nikkor-S f/1.4 pre-Ai MF lens. That’s like a 75mm portrait lens on the APS-C sensor in the D2x body and the handling, balance and ease of use of the combination are really special. The trade-off is more time in the gym to carry this far from svelte outfit around but, surprisingly, as a street snapper I have not experienced any of the ‘it’s intimidating to your subject’ syndrome that many ascribe to these big bodies. Quite the opposite. Maybe the loudly emblazoned ‘Nikon’, married of course to my massive build and no less threatening physical presence, does the trick, but I rather fancy I may be fooling myself here. Sylvester Stallone I am not.


The 50mm Nikkor-S f/1.4. One of the most beautiful optical masterpieces yet conceived.
Click the picture.

Why pay $700 for an obsolete digital body? That money gets you a competent, current DSLR body, certainly less robust, but with a sensor sporting better high ISO performance. Maybe even a decent kit lens for that price will come with it. It will not get you much in FF DSLRs, with the original and superb Canon 5D being the best bargain in that price range. It also gets you an exceptionally well sealed body which, though it has no dust removal shaker, has no need of one. My FF D700 has such a mechanism yet I am regularly cleaning the sensor with brush and blower. There’s nothing wrong with the D700. It has far better performance above ISO800 and when fitted with the MB-D10 battery pack mimics the well designed vertical shutter release on the D2x. Plus it’s FF, so wide lenses remain wide. And neither body has a reputation for problems. Older D2x bodies can exhibit the ‘blank first frame’ symptom but that’s about all I have read of. Either body will last the average amateur longer than his stay on this mortal coil.

So why did I buy it? Because it is a far greater pleasure to use than the consumer grade alternative. It will not, however, take better pictures. Those are solely a function of the person pressing the button.

The lens is another story. Click the above picture and you will see how adding a $29 CPU confers proper EXIF data recording, automatic invocation of the appropriate lens correction profile, matrix metering and transfer of aperture control back to the lens, away from the control dials on the body. That works for me as I support the lens with my left hand in any case and, as an old fart, that’s how I have been changing aperture for several decades now, and I am strictly an ‘aperture priority’ guy when it comes to auto exposure. Manual Focus? No biggie, especially with the focus confirmation LED in the Nikon’s finder, the latter made so much the better by fitting Nikon’s magnifying eyepiece. The 50mm f/1.4 delivers performance indistinguishable from the 50mm f/2 of that era, offers one stop more speed and the bulk and weight balance with the heavy body far better. Focus and aperture clicks are simply a dream to use. Compared to modern multicoated optics you maybe trade off a little contrast in strongly backlit situations, but that’s what Lightroom is for.

The whole use experience is a tactile, aural and sensual thrill. That is never lost on me. This outfit makes for an integrated whole of quite exceptional utility and ease of use.

Highly recommended – the kit will run you under $800 if you shop around and there’s no way you are ever going to wear it out. And the only people who will point and say ‘Ugh, how dated’ are not ones you want to know in any case. They are called equipment freaks and photography is anathema to them.

Ten questions for Mr. Cook

Macintosh

These need to be asked.

I just watched the snow job that was the purported interview of Tim Cook by one Brian Williams on NBC. It confirmed why I never watch US commercial TV. Williams, new to me and hopefully never to be seen again, is one of those saccharine presenters who gets $10m annually for reading a Teleprompter while looking good. As for Cook, he rivals the hammers in my garage for charisma. These are the questions the sycophantic Williams should have asked:

  • Your stock just crashed 28% from $705 to $505, recovered some, then crashed again. There was no news to cause these events and zero communication from you to stockholders. Do you think such lack of communication is appropriate for the CEO of the world’s largest public company?
  • You have $120bn cash in the bank of which $80bn is abroad. It earns negligible sums. You have set aside $20bn in tax liabilities on your balance sheet to pay taxes in the event the $80bn is ever repatriated. By leaving the money abroad you are denying the US government and taxpayer $20bn in revenues which is rightly theirs. You can bring the money back, pay the taxes with no effect on earnings and distribute most of the remainder to shareholders. As you have stated, you have no earthly need for that sum of money when your quarterly free cash flow is $4bn. Why do you not do the right thing for America, its taxpayers and Apple’s shareholders and bring the money back onshore, while simultaneously sending a loud message about what constitutes good US corporate citizenship to your fellow CEOs who are denying the US taxpayer over $0.3 trillion in tax revenues?
  • You fired Scott Forstall, the father of the NeXT, OS X and iOS operating systems. Do you believe that a stress-free, ‘nice’ culture is more conducive to innovation than one where strong internal competitors drive for excellence?
  • Rumors have it that you are going to roll out an Apple TV set. Why would you enter a commoditized low margin business with a decade long replacement cycle and limited sales opportunities for your premium-priced product when none of the content majors wants to play distribution ball?
  • All modern smartphones are now ‘good enough’ and many have better screens than yours for less money, making for a harder than ever sale for Apple’s premium priced, telco-financed iPhone. What are you doing about this to compete for the minds and wallets of young, affluent consumers in huge markets like China where you have failed to execute a contract with China Mobile which accounts for over half of Chinese cell phone users, owing to your insistence on a ‘subsidized’ price model?
  • Do you think your annual product refresh cycle is optimal in a world where your competitors are on a quarterly upgrade frequency?
  • You claim to be innovative and that 80% of current sales are of products which did not exist three months ago. Realistically these ‘new’ products are simply modest refreshes of their predecessors. A smaller iPad, a thinner iMac, a slimmer iPhone, new cases for iPods. When are we going to see some real innovation again from Apple? Apple’s path to future growth is paved with innovative products in new markets commanding high profit margins with high frequency replacement cycles. Do you think you have peaked like Sony, Microsoft, Dell, HP and RIM?
  • Products like the iPad and Apple TV will have very long replacement cycles for most users, and at current prices you are going to be increasingly uncompetitive with solid alternatives being significantly cheaper. Price does matter, regardless of what you believe. Why are you not aggressively pursuing alternative product markets with high demand and replacement frequencies to show off your design chops and allow you to maintain 40+% gross margins? Markets like car controls, home appliances, cameras (a market made for Apple’s business model if ever there was one), ‘green’ products, etc.
  • Apple seems obsessed with making everything thinner and lighter. Few users care that the new iMac is thinner than its predecessor when repair ease is seriously compromised, the machine is never moved, the user cannot easily reach the camera card slot and needs a separate DVD reader for his discs. Few want an even lighter iPhone. Are you not answering questions which no one has asked while complicating the mass production process and compromising your time-to-market?
  • You have placed great prominence on the skills of Jony Ive, your chief designer, as a key man at Apple, rewarding him with a recent promotion. How many people with similar skills are waiting in the wings in the event of the proverbial bus or if Ive concludes that his $125 million fortune is enough and he would rather put his feet up in his new English castle?

Not one of these questions was remotely hinted at in the TV piece. Now do you see why I do not watch US commercial television?


Apple’s idea of innovation. A screen tilted at a ridiculous angle on a near
totally worthless stand at a premium price. Did I mention that it’s thin?

Disclosure: Long AAPL bull LEAP spreads.

Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse

Hardware

The search continues.


Logitech MX Revolution; MX900 in the back.

Any Mac user brought up on any one of many awful Mac Mice will understand the ongoing search I am making for the perfect mouse. Anything is better than a Mac Mouse, my last the Magic Mouse being a crowning achievement of form over function. The most beautiful mouse on the market it belongs in NY’s MOMA design collection but not on your desk where you will assuredly develop carpal tunnel symptom.

The best mouse I have yet used is the Logitech MX900 which is hard to find in the US. It was mostly sold in Europe and has been discontinued for many years. I hunted down a couple at some $20 each on eBay at the recommendation of a friend who swears by his. After a happy 18 months with mine I chanced on the rave reviews on Amazon of the more recent Logitech MX Revolution (Revo), still listed by Amazon at $155 (silly) and a good deal more than later models. I bought one on eBay for $40 and set about messing with it the other day.

Readon and you will see why it’s worth giving the Revo a try. Not only does it have exceptional ergonomics, the performance and actions of the various controls can be exquisitely tailored to your needs. Not least of the adjustments is the ability to change the behavior of the top scroll wheel from freewheeling to stepped or clutched using the SteerMouse mouse driver. Extraordinary.

As the picture shows, there is an even more extreme level of sculpting for the hand than with the MX900 and both are for right handers only.

The improvements include:

  • A longer battery life. I’ll comment more when I have more data, but the MX900 chews through two rechargeable AA cells in 3-4 days. The Revo has an on-off switch, unlike the MX900, though I really cannot see using it. The rechargeable, non-removable battery has a stated life of one week of steady use.
  • 4 small green diodes – not visible in the picture – which report the state of charge. When the Revo is down to one LED it turns red to warn you. All LEDs only light when the mouse is being used, to save power. The MX900 simply blinks a red LED when it is about to die.
  • A much better scroll wheel. It’s stepped in normal use, with far finer steps than the MX900; flick it fast and a clutch is released and the wheel spins easily for rapid scrolling. Very handy.
  • A tilt wheel. The top scroll wheel tilts either way for sideways scrolling with broad spreadsheets, etc.
  • Better button design and placement. The MX900 has six buttons if you count the depressible scroll wheel. The Revo has seven, with the second, side wheel acting as a for and aft toggle button and as a third button when depressed. Two side buttons, the top button and the scroll wheel make seven.
  • Even better ergonomics than the MX900.
  • An RF wireless design instead of the MX900’s Bluetooth. I really dislike Bluetooth. Pairing is always a challenge with new devices and on restart you have to wait for the mouse to be discovered.
  • I have been able to program all buttons to reflect my preferred working style using SteerMouse – $20. Further, a simple Terminal command tailors the behavior of the scroll wheel – see below.

The drawbacks:

  • Logitech’s downloadable software works fine on my MBA but refuses to work on any of my Hacks. The driver I used with the MX900 – SteerMouse – is optimal with the Revo.
  • You have to use the charger stand provided, unlike with the MX900 where you can simply swap out used AA cells.
  • Once the battery reaches end-of-life, it will be very hard to replace. Replacements are available but the mouse is, to all intents, a sealed design. See Update, below.
  • The Revo is too light for my liking. The heavier removable cells in the MX900 add a pleasant heft.
  • The Revo hates light-colored or variegated mouse pads and is awful with my 3M Mousing Surface. It refuses to work on light colors so a plain black mouse pad is the order of the day.
  • The Revo comes with a (rather oversized and dated by current standards) RF dongle which plugs into any USB socket. That means that you have to remember to transplant the receiver to any other computer you contemplate using with the mouse, and the long stick design makes it vulnerable to damage on a laptop.
  • The Revo – mine at least – needs to be very close to the wireless receiver to function smoothly. Reviews claim a 20 foot range; I have my receiver 6″ from the mouse, on the end of an A-B USB extension cable. Much more than that and it will not provide the smoothest in pointer movement.



SteerMouse button assignments. Button 6 is the top chrome one.
9 and 11 is the side click wheel toggle fore and aft. 13 is the side wheel depressed.

You will not go wrong with either mouse. Both provide precise pointer movement and both are easily programmed with OS Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The Revo is far easier to find in the US and you really do not want to pay Amazon’s new price. Logitech never made OS X drivers for the MX900 and their Revo OS X driver refuses to install on my Hacks, but seems OK with my MacBook Air, meaning that Hack or MX900 users may have to buy an aftermarket utility to allow programming of their mouse. Proceeds of sale of your ghastly MagicMouse will pay for a good used Logitech replacement.

Tailoring the behavior of the Revo’s scroll wheel:

A simple Terminal (in Applications->Utilities) command allows you to tailor the scroll wheel on the Revo. This works for the wireless version only, not the Bluetooth one. While it’s no longer published on the SteerMouse web site, here it is. You can find it under ‘Tips’ on the SteerMouse preference pane in System Preferences->SteerMouse. Fire up Terminal and copy and paste the following line, then hit enter, then type Exit:

defaults write jp.plentycom.SteerMouse LOGITECH_MX_REVOLUTION_WHEEL -int -3

Replace ‘-3’ at the end as follows:

0-12: Automatic Shift. Smaller values reduce the timing for its shift.
-1 : Click-to-click.
-2 : Free-spin.
-3 : Manual Shift. Changes between the Free-spin and the click-to-click by clicking the scroll wheel button. This is my preferred setting.

I have it set at -3. In that mode, depressing the top scroll wheel alternates between free spin mode and stepped mode. I generally use free spin mode, where the Revo will emulate the ultra-smooth scrolling which is provided by Apple Mice.

Update: Replacing the rechargeable battery: Refer to this piece and you will see that the battery is actually fairly easy to replace. They run under $10 on eBay but be sure to read the complete link as there are two variants, depending on the age of your mouse. If you damage the feet on removal, you can even buy replacement feet here! Isn’t the internet wonderful? I doubt there is any need to destroy the slider pads which the link suggests you should do. Instead, insert a finger nail to pry up one end of a pad then pull through dental floss to remove it without damage.

Double-click issues: If your Logitech Revo is double clicking when you issue a single click, the fault is likely a worn microswitch spring. The fix is here. It is very difficult indeed to do without irrevocably damaging the innards. Don’t ask how I know.

A note on receivers:

There are two models of this mouse and the receivers differ. They are not interchangeable.

2006 model: The mouse is p/n 831869-0000, The receiver is p/n 831735-0001, also coded 993-000007.

2007 model: The mouse is p/n 810-000422. The receiver is p/n 810-000412 or 810-000826, also coded 993-000011.

To pair the mouse to a new receiver, you have to use the Logitech Connection utility, downloadable from Logitech. This only runs on Windows machines but, once paired, you can move the mouse and receiver back to your Mac. Once paired the pairing is not volatile. The pairing instructions are here.