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Here’s a tip for my Lightroom friends. Was frustrated that my imports were taking too long – over 20 seconds to import a small number of images.Decided to test it with an empty catalog and not unsurprisingly the import was nearly instant. So my workflow is now use a new catalog during an event and then […]

The Nikon Z7 can send photos to an iPhone or iPad using the Nikon Snapbridge app. It can do this via Bluetooth as photos are taken, but only a low-resolution version. The app can also connect to the Z7 via Wifi and download full size jpeg images but this needs to be initiated from the […]

There are hundreds of discussions about a “Disk Not Ejected Properly” Alert. And there are lots of suggestions of how to fix from changing Energy Saver settings to firmware updates on external disks. None of the existing solutions worked for me with a 2017 iMac Pro and a Seagate Backup+ Hub 6TB disk. Every time […]

I gave a presentation at a Nikon sponsored event yesterday on how to transfer images from your Nikon DSLR to your smart device or laptop. Here’s the recording:

Something weird is going on with the Fuji XT-2 and the new v2 firmware. The new firmware allows you to capture raw files when using the film simulation bracket. Here are two samples of capturing RAW + Fine JPEG. The RAW rendering by Adobe Lightroom 2015.10 Camera Raw 9.10 looks completely different to the out of […]

Don’t bother with using an @EyefiCard #eyefimobi #eyefi with the #nikon #d500 – it’s incompatible. The card can’t send photos to your device and take pictures simultaneously. If you press the shutter during a transfer, the transfer will stop and you will need to power cycle the camera and restart the iOS App to resume […]

Almost 2 years to the day I used a Canon 7D Mk II at an A-League match and wrote a short blog about the image quality. While the 7D was good in the right conditions it really wasn’t good enough, even at ISO 250. Not long after this blog I sold the 7D. I just finished using […]

If you’re thinking about upgrading your Macbook Pro to the new ones that have the Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C ports, you’ll probably need these accessory cables to compensate for the deleted Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 ports. If Apple was a good corporate citizen and wanted to look after it’s loyal customers they should really have […]

I’ve been using Windows Media Center since 2006. I built my first Windows Media Center on an Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard with an Athlon CPU. That lasted until 2014 when I upgraded to a tiny Gigabyte BRIX Pro i5 4570R computer. However, with more HD free to air channels the little BRIX was getting a bit sluggish. With the advent […]

At what is probably the first international event where Nikon’s NPS and Canon’s CPS had the new flagship cameras available I couldn’t resist to take them both out for a spin. Readers may remember that I switched from Nikon to Canon about 3 years ago when I was let down by the Canon 1D Mk3’s autofocus […]

In Apple’s OSX operating system 10.11 El Capitan, the Photos app is set to automatically open when you insert a memory card. While you can change that on a per card basis, when you format the memory card the app will open again. There’s no setting in the app to stop this, but you can […]

This web site claimed that Adobe Lightroom was 600% slower than the competition, taking 190 seconds just to bring 97 Fuji XT-1 raw images into the program. I did my own timing tests with 152 raw files from a Canon 1D-X. Bringing the photos into the current version of Lightroom took about 12 seconds. Clearly […]

This is the start of a new series of posts about getting great sound from streaming audio services. This post will focus on Apple Music played from a Macbook laptop to external speakers, not headphones. It would be equally applicable for other streaming services like Spotify, Rhapsody, and Pandora. With the advent of streaming services with […]

I’ve been puzzled why I couldn’t get the 600EX-RT Speedlite flash to keep up with my Canon 1D-X at 12 fps when the flash is in E-TTL mode. There’s even a Canon video saying that it can (Action Photography with the Speedlite 600EX-RT). But try as I might, the flash slows down the fps to about […]

Here are four samples of the 7D Mk II used at the 2015 Australian Open. In the right conditions, it’s very good.

Here is an image at ISO250 for comparison with the high ISO.

Seeing how the 7D performs under stadium lighting. Here’s a sample image at ISO 5000 and then processed via Lightroom. The top image shows the full frame and the second image is the crop and the third image is a 100% view. It’s not as clean as a 1DX but it’s certainly acceptable. I also […]

Just a quick test of the Canon 7D Mk II’s dynamic range showing the shadow detail when there’s a pure white element in the image. The first image is the overall scene and the next two are 100% crops of leaves with water drops from the rain. The shadow detail is looking OK. (Raw file. […]

The Mac OSX Time Machine backup software allows you to encrypt the disk or disk partition that it uses to backup a Mac with Filevault 2. Encrypting a backup is designed to protect the contents so that only a person with the password to unencrypt the disk can restore its contents. However, time machine will […]

Building a new Windows Media Center box with a Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BXi5-4570R with external storage on a WD My Book. The config is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, and a 60GB Kingston V300 SSD as the boot device. Had to give up – with the WD disk attached, the Brix wouldn’t […]

As virtually all Apple Macbook laptops now come with a non-removable SSD, a little known serious issue is there is no simple way of deleting-removing your data securely when you want to dispose of your SSD-powered Mac. When you get a new computer, the last thing you think about is getting rid of it, but […]

After shooting with the 1D for six months here are my settings for most sports. I started with Pete Read Miller’s settings and made these adjustments: ISO speed settings: I try to use 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800 as these are the “native ISO” settings. The next preference is 1/3 stop slower […]

With a 4 year old Mac Pro getting a bit long in the tooth – it has no USB 3, no Thunderbolt, no 6GB SATA bus – it was time to bite the bullet and build a Mac that’s got current technology. It’s not even bleeding edge, just current tech. The reference site I used […]

In 2007 I bought a Canon EOS-1D Mk III and I sold it 12 months later because mine had the much reported Autofocus tracking problem and swapped to Nikon with it’s D3 body. That camera and it’s subsequent updates of D3x, D3s and D4 all used a similar approach to autofocus. With the Canon EOS-1D X/C […]