Category Archives: Photography

Software of the Year

Lightroom

No contest.

By a country mile, Adobe’s Lightroom is my choice as Software of the Year.

While Lightroom has been around for quite a while, it has continually moved to strength and has never become a resource hog. It runs very fast on a capable machine, be it Mac or PC, yet will perform at quite usable speed on something more modest like my 2012 MacBook Air. Photoshop deserves like praise for speed; I’m still on CS5.

For cross-platform users, the LR catalog will load just fine in Windows and in OS X, and Adobe’s realistic licensing permits use on two machines. While it was hard to imagine any great improvements to LR3, LR4 surprised mightily with it’s greatly enhanced Highlights, Shadows, Clarity and Vibrance technologies, all materially improved from version 3. Used creatively, the first two begin to approximate the power of HDR with none of the complexity or garish results. Add a touch of noise suppression from the built-in controls and you have pretty much all you could wish for in day-to-day processing. With an outstanding database with easy keywording and filtered image retrieval, you are looking at a very powerful tool indeed. Aftermarket apps to load images to Shutterfly or to offer specialized processing needs are easily added. I find I rarely leave the confines of Lightroom for my processing needs, with round trips to Photoshop generally being restricted to perspective correction (PS’s tools are more powerful than LR’s) and, of course, to selectively blur backgrounds with the excellent Magic Lasso tool and Filter->Blur->Lens Blur. It would be great if Adobe was to add these functions in LR, but I suspect cannibalization of their PS cash cow is a key concern.


This merely scratches the surface of the metadata capabilities of Lightroom.

The one other external processing tool I use occasionally is Snapseed, which now accepts TIFF files generated from RAW originals, meaning no loss of quality. I use LR4 with two displays and it is beautifully engineered for this purpose.

Having chipped my many old MF Nikkors, I especially like how LR reads the EXIF data and automatically invokes the appropriate lens correction profile from the many I have created. It just takes one more bit of drudgery out of the processing step.

Best of all, LR is remarkably inexpensive for what you get, which includes Book, Map, Slideshow (really outstanding) and Print modules, all well integrated, for $115 at Amazon. The best book I have found is by Martin Evening who not only writes and illustrates his instructions well, but also takes great photographs. A $33 bargain which really should come with the software.

Update 12/17/2012:

This just hit my inbox. At $129 there are few better bargains in photographic software:

Q&A five years on

Photography

A few changes.

Five years ago I published one of those Q&A sessions you see occasionally in the press, so it’s fun to revisit that and see what has changed. Where there have been changes the older answer appears in parentheses.

Who Inspires You: Cartier-Bresson, Erwitt, Penn, Parkinson

Favorite (re)discovery: Old Nikon MF lenses. (Digital imaging)

Best gadget ever: The iPhone. (Those clip on eyes for the old Leica M mount 50mm DR Summicron)

Best camera you ever used: Nikon D2X. (Leica M2)

Best lens ever used: 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S, MF made in the 1960s. (A tie. 90mm Leica Apo-Summicron-M Asph/Canon 85mm f/1.8)

Best picture ever taken: The one I just snapped. (Darling, there are so many it’s impossible to say)

Most capable camera you ever used: Nikon D700. The 5D’s capabilities with better build and a far better sensor. (Canon 5D which I use to this day. A jack of all trades and master of most)

Best computer for photography: My Hackintosh HP100+ built by my buddy FU Steve (New question and answer).

Favorite photo venue: The Mission District, San Francisco. (The streets of Mayfair, London, preferably on a sunny day)

Favorite watch: My Patek Philippe Nautilus. (Any Patek Philippe; an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak for sports wear)

Favorite champagne: None, I no longer drink the stuff. (Bollinger NV)

Jeans: Levi 501 button fly. The classic.

Favorite writing instrument: The Bic Cristal ball pen. Another classic.

Shirts: Ralph Lauren. (Brooks Brothers and L L Bean)

Suits: I no longer wear a suit. (Paul Stuart, Madison Avenue)

Favorite restaurant in the whole world: Ristorante Rocca, Burlingame, CA, where I am amongst friends. (La Grenouille in Manhattan, but only if I have a gorgeous brunette to accompany me. On my own it would be any McDonald’s whose stock and food I adore)

Most exciting location you have ever dined in: Windows of the World, 107th floor, World Trade Center, north tower.

Favorite car: Ferrari. It has avoided me so far and somehow continues to do so.

Photographic ambition: A biography of the best of the best in photography, made as a movie documentary, with a highly opinionated voice-over by yours truly, of course.

Greatest fear: That soon 51% of US voters will be working for the government

Favorite leaders: Churchill for his courage, Reagan for his optimism, Thatcher for her determination, Golda Meir for her guts.

Favorite actresses: Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Rachel Ward, Claudia Cardinale, Eva Green. (Rachel Ward, Claudia Cardinale, Eva Green)

Favorite actors: Brad Pitt, George Clooney. (Who cares?)

Favorite city: Los Angeles. (Beverly Hills. A focus of vapidity in a sea of pollution)

Least favorite thing to do: Listen to some moron vent about politics. I never fly. (Commercial air flight)

What you do to relax: Read women’s fashion magazines – Vogue, VF, Bazaar, Elle. Walk my dog. Watch Formula One. Read philosophy.

Person who irritates you most: Anyone in, or running for, public office.

The greatest crime in a free society: The religious right. (The Income Tax)

The greatest influence on you as a photographer: Caravaggio

Painters who mean most to you: Caravaggio, Giorgione, Mantegna, Ucello, Corot, Manet, Degas, Seurat, Sisley. (Caravaggio, Giorgione, Mantegna, Ucello, El Greco, Gericault, Corot, Manet, Degas, Seurat, Rothko)

Favorite music: Chopin, though I rarely listen to music. (Chopin when I’m depressed. Mahler when I’m really depressed. The Rolling Stones when I’m recovering)

Favorite dog: Any Border Terrier, but especially mine.

Favorite musician: Horowitz

Favorite composer: Chopin

Favorite woman: The one I wake up next to.

Favorite photo: The one I haven’t seen or taken yet.

Favorite photo you have seen: I suppose it has to be The Great Brailowsky. HCB at his luminous, spontaneous best.

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.

Hitting the wall

Hackintosh

Technologically unchallenged.


HP100+

One of the best indicators that the desktop PC has peaked is the falling sales of PC hardware and the poor upgrade rates to Windows 8, the latter as much a function of a mediocre product as it is of ‘free’ competition from the scummy people at Google in terms of their Cloud apps.

And while I have been diligent in seeking out the services of ace Hackintosh builder FU Steve in keeping my Hackintosh at 90% of the state of the art (90%, as Ferrari pricing takes over at anything higher and you get performance you cannot use) the state of play right now suggests that future enhancements will be few and far between.

Sure, while I could add a couple of silly priced EIZO monitors, which I would never do, there is nothing I can currently do to my Hackintosh, the HP100+, to improve it for my purposes, which leaves me without a tech challenge. Disappointing.

Desktops have peaked.

I could add a wild and crazy $$$$ GPU, but I do not game. I can scarcely tell the difference with the latest nVidia GTX 660 card installed on what I do, which is mostly LR and a bit of PS.

I use a SandyBridge i7 CPU and IvyBridge, the latest iteration, adds nothing in a desktop. Nor, I suspect, will Haswell in 2013 where the stated goal is lower power consumption. I’m green, but not so green that I’m about to rip out the guts of HP100+ to save a few watts in power consumption, installing a new motherboard and CPU.

I could have FU install a Xeon CPU and motherboard, at Rolls Royce prices, but the only plus of that is in massively multi-threaded math operations, and I have no need of that. LR and PS use four threads poorly, never mind sixteen.

I could ask El Supremo to add BluRay but the reason I passed on my BluRay player to a friend is that on the 42″ 720p Vizio TV (5 yrs old and it continues to delight daily) I could not tell the difference from regular DVDs, so BluRay is not something I could make use of.

The other thing which is currently useless is Thunderbolt, as so few peripherals support it. Those that do are overpriced, and I already have USB3, which is half as fast, running fine (not a pretty story, but I got there. As Churchill said of American democracy, we will try everything else before settling on the right answer, which is how FU got USB3 to work!). The only thing I use USB3 for where the speed is actually exploited, is to import images from SDHC and CF camera cards into Lightroom.

This sort of reminds me of film camera days. I was happy with my Leicas for 35 years because there was nothing else out there that was better for what I mostly do, meaning street snaps. And technology was only improving for film emulsions, not for hardware. Then digital came along and I have been chopping and changing, but seem to have stabilized on the two big Nikon DSLRs, both obsolete, and the two small Panny MFTs, the latter increasingly my son’s province. Then of course I got into converting old classic-era Nikkors with chips and that effort was super successful, the lenses are to die for and there’s nothing more I need optically. Forget believing that today’s optics are better. They are not.

Yours, technologically unchallenged ….