Category Archives: Photography

OS X Mavericks

Mac Pro

Some issues.

I installed the latest OS X release, the awkwardly named ‘Mavericks’, which purports to honor a surfing spot that no one but surfers have ever heard of, on my Mac Pro. I suppose ‘Yosemite’ would actually have cost Apple money given their stated aim of naming new OS X releases after famous California spots. Then again, they can always use Death Valley down the road when tablets have completely taken over.

The download (my broadband speed is 16mb/s) took 50 minutes then another 35 for the installation to take place.

Some observations germane to still photographers using multiple displays follow. I use three displays and my main photo processing applications are Lightroom 5, Photoshop CS5 and Snapseed. The computer I use is a 2009 Mac Pro with upgraded W5590 3.33gHz CPUs, USB3 and a SATA III Samsung EVO 256gB SSD boot and application drive, running in an Apricorn PCIe card.

Sleep: Sleep works a little differently. Whereas hitting the Sleep button on my wired Kensington Mac keyboard displayed the Sleep/Restart/Power Off/Cancel options under Mountain Lion 10.8.5, with Mavericks hitting that button immediately puts the Mac Pro to sleep. To wake the computer moving the mouse no longer does anything – both wired and wireless. Rather, the left mouse button has to be clicked.

EyeOne Display One: This one is a deal breaker if it does not work. Used with the EyeOne Display One colorimeter it works perfectly, which is amazing given that Xrite has discontinued this popular colorimeter and has an awful history of upgrading the application for the latest version of OS X.

iWork Numbers ’13 and iWork: The file format is changed and not backwards compatible with the previous Numbers ’09. You can save in Numbers ’09 format if required, but once you save in Numbers ’13 there is no way that you can load the file in Numbers ’09. Numbers, Keynote and Pages all come as updates but updating is optional as the old versions continue to run fine. However, if you are sharing iWork files with others, or with other machines, once you upgrade all other machines must be upgraded also. The UI enhancements in Numbers ’13 are an improvement though the clunky Numbers app will never equal Excel in sheer utility and portability.

Multiple display use: Apple has historically done a really poor job of supporting multiple displays. Mavericks maintains that low reputation. They have finally added the display of the menu bar on all displays, where it formerly showed on only one. A workaround was to use SecondBar but that only supported two displays, not three. If you set the menu bar to be solid (translucent is very hard to use) then the active display (the one last clicked) shows the bar with the other two (in my case) being shaded but just visible. Nice. Further, the Dock is meant to appear (or hide) on all connected displays but the code is faulty. I can get it to show on two displays and it’s not even consistent on which two. My three displays are connected using DVI (2) and Display Port (1) with an aftermarket non-Mac Zotac nVidia GTX660 GPU. The same faulty result occurs if you do not set the Dock to ‘Hide’.

Continuity across screens when dragging files is a mess.


File partially dragged to left display.

First, you can no longer extend a file across multiple displays. So that means that extra broad spreadsheets can only be viewed on one display at a time. What on earth was Apple thinking of here? Second, as you drag a window from one display to another, the dragged part becomes translucent on the destination display until most of the window is dragged over, changing eventually to solid. This makes it impossible to make that simplest of tests for consistent display calibration by part dragging a file acrtoss two displays and comparing colors. Bad, bad, bad.

After all the time Apple has delayed in fixing multiple display support this is easily the worst ‘upgrade’ in Mavericks and seems like an excuse to show off fancy coding than respecting user needs.

PCI fan: After a cold start this would spool up to 2100rpm and stay there for anything between 15 minutes to a couple of hours, before settling back down to 800rpm. Now the Mac Pro starts the PCI fan at 800rpm and keeps it there until an increase is needed. Good.

Moom: This is a key application for multiple display users, arranging windows in any one of a number of preset layouts. You have to go to System Preferences->Accessibility->Security & Privacy->Privacy to enable Moom after which it works perfectly. I highly recommend this application.

Sound over HDMI: On my other Mac Pro which delivers sound over HDMI, I had to reinstall the patch described here to get back the HDMI option in System Preferences->Sound.

Finder: This is another application which Apple has been very slow to update, finally adding tabs in the Mavericks version. But it still does not support splitting the Finder window into two screens which is a great help when moving files. So I am sticking with Total Finder which continues to work perfectly and whose maker does an excellent job of timely updates.

The ML Finder allowed you to color file names with the complete row showing the color chosen. An easy way to highlight often used files. Now the Mavericks Finder instead shows a small colored dot by the file name. Basically, the dot is so small as to be useless, defeating the goal of easy file location.


Useless color coding in the Mavericks Finder.

Photoshop CS5: CS5 does not load when you click it or try to round trip from Lightroom 5. To restore proper function download and install the Java update found here. No speed changes noted.

Safari: Comes in a new Version 7 with Mavericks. Some pages seem to load sluggishly but I do not have enough objective data.

Firefox Version 24: No issues noted.

Lightroom 5: No issues found. The first entry to the Develop module continues to take 5 seconds as code loads but remains instantaneous thereafter. No speed changes noted.

Printing: No issues printing to the HP DesignJet 90. As with ML, I print wirelessly, with the printer connected using USB2 to my (ancient) Airport Extreme router, some 35 feet from the Mac Pro, using Lightroom 5. (See the Comment, below, regarding incompatibility with the Epson 3800).

Other commonly used apps: Carbon Copy Cloner (backup app – update required), AppCleaner (update required), Snapseed, Excel 2011, 1Password, Fingerprint (wireless printing app) and Vienna (RSS reader) all work fine with no need for updates. iTunes and Digital Camera RAW Compatibility both require (free) updates. Dropbox, MakeMKV and Mac BluRay Disc Player continue to work well.

Geekbench: This app tests CPU and RAM speed. The best reading in ML was 19,700. This is my result in Mavericks – 0.8% slower. Historically this improves with subsequent OS releases during the life of a major release:

Operating temperatures: No material changes noted.

Should the still photographer upgrade? There are no tangible benefits from upgrading but you can bet that eventually Mavericks will obsolete some apps which run fine under Mountain Lion. So an upgrade is not a front burner item, but likely one which will have to be made eventually. Apple provides the upgrade from the last version of Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion and Mountain Lion to Mavericks at no cost.

Early MF Nikkor lenses

Nikon lenses

Nikkors in a bunch.

Here is my completed ‘metal era’ user set. I have installed CPUs in each and all have been converted to Ai indexing for the modern DSLR.

The designs are much of a muchness here, sharing looks and ergonomics, with but two anomalies. The 24/2.8 uses a diamond patterned aperture ring rather than the scalloped standard, reflecting the presence of a Nikon Ai conversion kit. The 35/2 and 85/1.8 use the original factory aperture rings which came with fluted machining for some reason. Otherwise all lenses use scalloped focusing and aperture collars. The 24mm and 28mm are the only multi-coated optics here. Color rendering across the range is especially notable for its uniformity, and I have published lens correction profiles for each lens, available for free download here.

Average cost was $166 plus $30 for the CPU installed in each. The total spent would buy you one ‘pro’ grade plastic fantastic current lens and will leave you desperately searching for repair parts when the internal motors fail a few years hence.

Age in years in parentheses. Click any link for the related review.

Front row:

Rear row:

The only significant one missing from the era is the 35/1.4. I have the latest 35/1.4 Sigma which is superior to the Nikkor. Also, I have avoided the more pedestrian variants – 35/2.8, etc. – as the faster optics add optical quality and performance. I use no lens hood on the 20mm, where it is useless, or on the 55mm where it is redundant.


Data for the lenses shown.

Each is used extensively, each is a joy to hold and behold and each is wonderful in a special way. No hood on the 20mm (useless) or the 55mm (not required).

Does anyone need all of these? Of course not. Three at most will suit any particular snapping style. For me it would be the 20mm, the 35mm and the 85mm. Yet I adore what the 24 and 28mm can do, would miss the 50mm horribly, the 105mm is frequently just the ticket, as is the 135mm and who could live without that simply divine 200mm? I would, however, warn you never to get one of these, because once you do, you will sell the garbage that passes for your current set of lenses and start getting pre-Ai metal era Nikkors, from the good old days when men were men, closet doors remained firmly bolted and women were pregnant and in the kitchen.

All of these are abundantly available used – mine came from KEH and eBay over a two year period, CPU installation is easy on all but the 50mm optic, the 20mm requires that you fabricate an aperture follower, and handling, performance and build quality are the best anyone ever accomplished. None is collectible, so you will not be competing with white trash collectors for these, nor should you have any qualms about gluing on a CPU and removing the useless aperture claw from the bad old days of film. Manufacturers would have you believe that modern lens designs are specifically for the digital era and if you believe that you can drop me an email and bid on my bridge for sale in Brooklyn.

To see my snaps taken with all of these on the D700, D2x and D3x, simply enter “Nikkor”, the focal length and aperture in the Search box.

The new Mac Pro – 2013 – Part XX

Mac Pro

A poor value.

For an index of all my Mac Pro articles, click here.


The new Mac Pro.

Apple announced some of the pricing for the new Mac Pro (“nMP”) yesterday and it’s hard to see much of interest for still photographers whose application use is centered on Photoshop and Lightroom, for the high price asked.

The base spec 4-core 3.7gHz machine comes with 12gB of memory and two AMD FirePro D300 GPUs for $3,000. The 6-core comes with 16gB of RAM and one 6-core 3.5gHz CPU with two FireCore D500 GPUs for $4,000. Each comes with one 256gB SSD. You will need to add external drive enclosures to those as there are no internal slots for drives, meaning USB3 (cheap) or Thunderbolt (still very expensive).

Given the CPU-intensive nature of PS and LR, the provision of two excellent GPUs in the nMP is largely wasted.

Compared with the 2.66gHz 4-core current MacPro (“MP”) the nMP 4-core will be 39% faster and the 6 core will be 97% faster on CPU tasks. However, you can buy a mint 2009 MP 4-core ($700) and upgrade it to a 6-core 3.33gHz i7-980 ($275 net of old CPU resale) with USB3 ($50) and a 256gB SATA III SSD ($175) on an Apricot PCIe card ($50) and with a GTX660 GPU ($150 net) for $1,400. I set forth the details of the upgrades here. The CPU speed of this upgraded MP machine will be 35% greater than the 4-core nMP and 10% less than the 6-core nMP and you will have a lot of money left in your pocket. And that’s before adding external disk storage for the nMP.

That makes the nMP a very poor value for still photographers. Movie makers should be able to take advantage of the new, dual GPUs when used with the latest version of Final Cut Pro X, but those GPUs are of little use to still snappers.

The 2009 4-core will only fall in value, owing to age and because more will become available as nMP early adopters sell their old machines. Thus the next few quarters will represent an excellent opportunity for 4-core MP buyers who, as a side benefit, will be spared all the usual teething troubles of a new, untested design, and will not need to buy external enclosures and costly Thunderbolt cables if that option is elected.

Update January, 2014:

Performance data are now coming out for the New Mac Pro and, frankly, they are very disappointing for the money asked. The $3,000 4-core base machine records a 64-bit Geekbench score of just 14,200. Compare that to the stock 2009 old Mac Pros:

  • 4-core – 9,100 (Used mint cost $750)
  • 4-core with Core i7/980 upgraded CPU – 15,000 ($1050) – faster than the nMP at one third the cost
  • 8-core – 12,000 ($1100)
  • 12-core with W5660 upgraded CPU – 25,000 ($1400)

Nor is video performance much to get excited about. With the single exception of Final Cut ProX, version 10.1 (not 10.0) no apps currently out there appear to use all the cores of the high-core count nMP fully, and with the better specified nMPs running $4,000 (6-core), $5,500 (8-core) and an eye-popping $7,000 (12-core) that’s simply money poorly spent until applications start using the new technology fully. Don’t hold your breath for Adobe to get with the action any time soon when it comes to PS and LR.

Finally, I am sick and tired of the puerlie images comparing the sizes of the small nMP with the older MP’s case. That’s comparing apples and oranges. If the old MP is a truck, then the new MP is a passenger car needing a bolt-on trailer. The old MP has storage for up to 10*** (or more) drives inside (with PCIe cards and optical drive installations in addition to the stock slots) whereas the nMP accommodates but the one PCIe SSD. By the time you have the nMP in a like configuration, you will have boxes and cable clutter all over your work space. And there are still no proper thermal stress tests of the nMP running under full load, an area where the old MP is a known and robust performer.

In conclusion, a stock or modestly upgraded 2009 old MP remains a superb bargain which yields little in performance to the new machine. A state-of-the-art nVidia GTX680 GPU ‘Made for Mac’ card can be installed in a couple of minutes in the old Mac Pro for some $500, providing video performance comparable to the nMP, so the buyer of the upgraded 8-core/W5590 old Mac Pro is looking at a bill of $2,000 with the fast CPUs and the better GPU. No contest.

Old MP buyers will only be winners over the next few quarters as early upgraders flood the used market with the older machines, making for abundant supply and falling prices.

*** Old MP drive capacity:

  • Four 2.5″/3.5″ in the backplane slots/trays. Up to 16TB total.
  • Two 2.5″/3.5″ in the optical drive area. Up to 8TB total.
  • Four 2.5″ in two dual Apricorn PCIe cards (cards are <$100 each). Up to 4TB total.
  • One or two more in the PCIe area attached to the sockets on the PCIe cards. Up to 8TB total.
  • Total? Up to 12 drives. Up to 36TB total.

Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 Micro lens

Nikon lenses

A high definition macro lens.

Choices:

After the 50mm f/2 Nikkor, this is quite possibly one of the commonest Nikon lenses ever made. The 55mm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor is abundantly available in many variants:

  • Metal focus barrel, compensating aperture, pre-Ai
  • Metal focus barrel, non-compensating aperture, pre-Ai
  • Rubber focus barrel, pre-Ai
  • Rubber focus barrel, Ai
  • Rubber focus barrel, Ai, multi-coated

The later 55mm f/2.8 Ai-S MF optic is not recommended, owing to widespread reports of oil migrating from the focus mechanism to the aperture blades. Overhauling the lens to replace lubricants makes no economic sense owing to the high cost of labor. The even later 60mm f/2.8 versions, all AF, have the benefit of extending the focus range to life-size without the need to use an extension tube. But the construction quality of the 55mm f/3.5 was never equalled.

Ai conversion:

Spare no thought of destroying ‘collectible value’ by doing the Ai conversion. First, collectors are scum who serve only to drive up used gear costs. People who put gear in storage – be it camera or Ferrari – are beyond contempt in my book. Second, Nikon made hundreds of thousands of these lenses and you can always find any version in any condition on the used market, at very short notice. There is no such thing as a ‘collectible’ 55mm Micro Nikkor.


The rear of the lens is exceptionally well baffled.

This means that the usual work will have to be done to file away an arc of alloy to permit clearance of and proper engagement with the aperture follower on the Nikon’s body. Not doing this will damage your camera. This work has yet to be done in the above illustration.

The snag is that the aperture collar where the filing has to be done cannot be removed by simply removing the bayonet flange – the five slotted screws shown. No, removing the small radial aperture ring indexing screw does not help. Don’t bother trying. So to work around this, after removing the bayonet flange, I placed some heavy-duty tape over the rear of the lens and scribed around carefully with a sharp knife to produce a thoroughly sealed interior which resisted any ingress of metal filings.


With the bayonet flange removed, 3M clear Scotch tape is placed in position, ready for filing.

Be sure to keep the lens focused at its closest distance – the protruding rear element will otherwise contact the adhesive tape, a move not calculated to enhance definition. Filing can now proceed in the usual way, using my guide here. All filings are blasted away with compressed air after which the Scotch tape can be discarded and the bayonet flange replaced.

CPU installation is as easy as it gets. No changes are needed, the CPU simply being glued in place in the usual way as I indicate here.

In use:


Deeply recessed front element.

The front element of the Micro Nikkor is deeply recessed within the barrel, so it’s unlikely that adding a lens hood will make any difference to results. Some reports indicate that the Micro Nikkor has poor performance at infinity, only really coming into its own at 1:10 and greater reproduction ratios. I have no idea where these urban myths were perpetrated – perhaps the results of a bad sample or two? – but mine is tack sharp at all apertures and subject distances, with optimum resolution being at f/5.6 through f/11 in the center and f/8 through f/11 in the extreme corners. Minor diffraction resolution losses become apparent at f/16 and f/22, and by f/32 these are noticeable, so I would avoid using the smallest aperture.

I do not recommend using a protective UV filter. It will serve only to attract light reflections, especially as it will be situated a considerable distance from the front element.

The lens is very light and the focusing helicoid exceptionally well designed, so that there is no play in the barrel even with the lens fully extended at its closest focus distance.

f/3.5 is not especially fast so how is focusing? I use the focus confirmation display in the D3x and hitting the illuminated central LED is very sensitive, meaning focus is very accurate. The infinity setting is exceptional, as the combination of 55mm Micro Nikkor and D3x body can easily distinguish between 250 feet and infinity. For reference, the same focus module is used in the D700, D3 and D3s bodies. So even at close focus distances, getting critical focus is trivial, though a tripod is strongly recommended in the close-up range where even minor movement of the camera can significantly upset focus.

Lens correction profile:

The lens is pretty close to perfect as is. There is very minor vignetting at f/3.5, and very low barrel distortion at all apertures. Chromatic aberration is almost non-existent. Nonetheless, I have made a lens correction profile which you can download here. This corrects these very minor aberrations, and if you add a CPU then you can have this profile automatically invoked and applied in Lightroom or Photoshop when downloading images from your camera’s storage card.


A CPU allows the correct profile to be automatically
loaded in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Comparison with the 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor:

The 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor of the same era is a firm favorite of mine and both optics are absolute classics from the period when Nikon’s mechanical and optical designs peaked. It’s hard to put in words the tactile pleasure of using these lenses. How do they compare? At f/3.5, f/5.6 and f/8 the Micro Nikkor has the edge in errr…. edge performance, but you would need to make a 40″ print to prove it. The 50mm of course opens up to F/1.4 and the Micro Nikkor goes down to 50% life-size, so it’s horses for courses. Neither will let you down.

The following images are of a 27x enlargement of the top right corner of the frame:

At 1:2 closest focus distance:

This image of a wristwatch was exposed at f/3.5, full aperture, at the closest focus distance:


Helicon Focus focus stacking of 14 images.


The 14 differentially focused images and the Helicon composite.

This gives you a sense of the maximum image size at the 1:2 closest focus distance. The image was created using Helicon Focus focus stacking software, and is a composite of no fewer than 14 differentially focused images, all taken at f/3.5. Because it takes a few seconds to take all the constituent images, refocusing a bit between each, I have removed the blur of the seconds hand using Photoshop.

The 55mm Micro Nikkor is recommended without reservation and at current market prices it’s almost offensively inexpensive.