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roamingstudio

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Posts posted by roamingstudio

    Reflecta 7200 RPS and Vuescan

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>Im finally leaping into getting a scanner having watched the market for years. The Reflecta 7200 RPS Professional seems to be a good mid range without the massive expense of Coolscans. I would probably combine with VueScan (although Silverfast is another option) - and I wanted to check whether anyone would have any issues with this combination.<br>

    <br />I have about 3000 negatives to do - so the batch processing of the RPS seems nice. Those few photos really worth enlarging / selling will be professionally scanned. </p>

    <p>I also have a friend shooting XPan and many recommend using VueScan for this (it can lock scanner exposure settings...) but I cant see if anyone has been successful with the Reflecta 7200 RPS.<br>

    Thanks for any constructive feedback</p>

    <p>Marc<br>

    Ps Yes I can handle photoshop to do post processing where necessary; and understand the need for a good workflow with colour calibrated screens etc. </p>

    When is it worth repairing a G9

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <p>I have two Canon G9's which are both unhappy children at the moment. One has a problem with focus at the edges (the center is ok) so I suspect a mis-alignment with some optical elements. The other has a 'Lens Error - reboot' - essentially it goes to maximum extension of lens and then whirs array (ultrasonic whine?) before stopping. There is seems to be no way to retract the lens; and the external lens protector remains open.<br>

    <br />I will obviously contact a local certified repair center (near Zurich, Switzerland) but is it really worth getting something like these faults repaired? Or should I bite the bullet and upgrade to a G14 or somesuch? (note the G series is used by the wife and I on short walks etc; I have a 7D plus a couple of L optics for when I want to go out with more robust photos).</p>

     

    Upgrade from 20D

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>I went 20D--> 7D and cant fault the transition. Yeah there will always be something better out there; but the composition and person experience behind the camera are just as important these days.<br>

    <br />The biggest difference I noticed: Focus points and no more cleaning of the sensor. My old 20D always needed a clean or two a week - but the 7D traveled around New Zealand for 7 weeks changing between Tokina 12-24; 28-105L and 70-300 without any noticable marks on any photos. And it was at the beach; on boats and in rain forest. </p>

    finding a negative scanner

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>Im watching these threads with interest, as it is likely a friend and I will get a scanner soon. We were busy out taking photos as the sun set on the old negative days, hence we are definitely late to the bar. Most negatives will be 35mm, 100ISO but some will be from the nice Hesselbad Xpan's... Probably to be chained up with a Mac-Mini. I had thought about the Reflecta 7200 model, but something held me back so far...<br>

    So thanks to everyone for providing input; as always P.N. has a great knowledge pool.</p>

    7D owner needs help

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>It sounds remarkable similar to an issue I had with my 7D and 24-105 whilst in New Zealand. There it was related to the compact flash - for some reason the in-camera formatting was screwing up. I changed to a CF card which had been formated in a friends canon 1D, or used my laptop to format it, and it worked. Of course I had also done the hard power off - remove lens, both batteries and wait 30 minutes.</p>

     

    Canon 7D refusing to take photo: CF issue?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    Thanks for the feedback. Currently there is no battery grip (-0.02$ but thanks), and the issues have occured during daytime, nighttime. There may be some validity with the focusing system; but I had also tried high ISO just to check that it was not a metering issue (from memory, it had no influence).

     

    Craigs suggestion of rolling back firmware, formating a load of cards, and checking their data seems to be a good suggestion and something to try out at the weekend. Knowing how UDMA / CF cards work, a flaky controller could account for it.

     

    RS

    Canon 7D refusing to take photo: CF issue?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>Ive recently been traveling around New Zealand, and been using my Canon 7D, mostly with Canon 24-105L lens, but also Tokina 12-24 and Canon 70-300 (non-L). On about 5 occasions now it has suddenly refused to take photos even if focus points are highlighted in red.<br>

    The first time this happened twas the night before christmas, and a summer tramp through Stewart Island. Trying to clean contacts, remove both batteries, and change CF cards had no real effect, and photos or videos could not be recorded. However mysteriously the issue had disappeared by morning, and I put it down to a firmware glitch.<br>

    The second time was just entering the church of a friends wedding, and the camera misbehaved for around 2 hours before mysteriously working again. At this point I was pulling hair out of frustration.<br>

    Over the next few weeks the issues returned occasionally without warning, although I did manage to find a common issue: that the compact flash card had been formatted in camera. Ultimately the next time it failed, I borrowed a CF card from a friend, formatted in a 5D, MK II, and the issue disappeared. I then reformatted my CF cards in his camera, and found they would work in mine without issue. Format the card in my camera, and many times a photo or video could not be taken.<br>

    Ultimately I reformatted all my cards in my PC, and these have worked flawlessly since; however I am still perplexed about this issue and wanted to find out if others have had similar problems... or indeed know of a potential fix. I am using the latest firmware, so upgrading does not help. The CF cards were mainly sandisk 1GB (Ultra II, Extreme III) or 16 GB (UDMA, 60MB/s). The CF cards (which failed) from a friend were Kingston, and (forgotten, but not sandisk).<br>

    Unfortunately formatting a CF card in my camera is not guarunteed to make the image writing fail, so it will be a little hard to convince canon that there is a significant problem. However is it worth sending back for a replacement? (originally ordered in March 2011, delivered in July 2011).</p>

    <p>Thanks for any tips<br>

    Roamingstudio</p>

    Estimating Luminance from different RAW photos

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    I wanted to thank everyone for their responses; and agree a lightmeter is probably best; it is just hard to get a 'natural' reading when the lights are on all the time. There are some good tips with regards to sorting out the log values, and will look at that a bit more.

     

    A sling shot wont help with the lighting, as people tend not to like that sort of thing, and tend to prosecute. But otherwise I agree it is a good solution (wink).

    Estimating Luminance from different RAW photos

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>Dear All</p>

    <p>This may seem like a niave question, but I wanted to find out if there is a way to estimate luminance from different digital photos (mainly Canon G9, but also Canon 20D) taken with different ISO and F.x values. The reason is that one of our neighbour's has installed very bright lights which remain on 24/7, we are fighting this but our local council don't seem to care.<br>

    Previously various photos have been taken when the lights were on or off, but I want to have a technical way to describe the lighting difference so that two photos can be compared directly.<br>

    I have Lightroom installed, have access to Photoshop, and can also do image processing in applications like Matlab. It is more about what is the correct technique to be able to do the comparisons.<br>

    Many thanks<br>

    Roamingstudio</p>

    Will WC-DC58N fit a Canon G9

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <p>Simple question really. Im expanding my girlfriends interest in photography and had recently bought her a Canon G9, which she fell in love with. After explaining the benefits of exposure compensation etc, she started taking photos but eventually complained that the lens was not wide angle enough.. (sigh).</p>

    <p>I discovered a local electronics store has an ex-demo WC-DC58N available; which is in excellent condition. Their system says it is compatible with the Canon G9 - however online it appears that it is only for the G3. The G9 compatible lens is listed as WC-DC58B.</p>

    <p>I understand it is necessary to first use an adapter - such as the LA-DC58H. I recently picked up a Lensmate G9 58mm adapter so that I could recycle some of my many older 58mm filters (from Pentax days). Will this work with the WC-xxxx series? Would it also work with the TC-xxx series?</p>

    <p>In the end I guess the main question is::<br>

    Would the Canon G9 + Lensmate + WC-DC58N work?</p>

    <p>Thanks in advance,</p>

    <p>Marc Lawrence</p>

    <p> </p>

    Scanning old Negs; Batch, or Single Process

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>Thanks to everyone for their response above; I was travelling around Sicily & UK and did not get an opportunity to reply.<br>

    Based on the early replies the 'easy' solution would be to get a company to do the batch scan. But the Coolscan approach does seem nice especially if I end up learning more! Just need to find a low priced one, any tips? (Switzerland can be really expensive).</p>

     

    Scanning old Negs; Batch, or Single Process

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>This might be a frequently asked question - but various searches on keywords brought up ambiguous results.<br>

    I used a Pentax K1000 for a few years, and built up a collection of negatives and photos but never scanned any of them in, published or indeed sorted the negatives other than put them (safely) into a box marked storage. Last time I looked there were >2000.<br>

    A few years ago I moved into digital with Canon 20D and more, and use a lightroom based workflow to process the photos. However i would also like to work with some of my older negatives but face an uncertain next step. Some advice / costing would be useful.</p>

    <p>1) Send all the negatives to a cheap scanning facility, get most processed to jpg (or 16 bit tif) and process / release those I like (for critique). I would then sort through the negatives, select the best ones and reprocess them professionally. Pro: only spend $$ for the most expensive items. Cons: takes a lot of time, and could lose negatives in post?</p>

    <p>2) Send all the negatives to an expensive scanning facility, getting 16bit tif, DNG or somesuch (recommendations)? Post processing if necessary in lightroom / photoshop etc. Pros: it is a 'oneshot' processing. Cons: It costs much more etc.</p>

    <p>3) Purchase my own Nikon Coolscan 4000 (refurbished?, or 5000 now), link it up to my Lenovo X200 with HDMI / DVI external monitor (Dell 2000FPW), colour calibrate using my old Monaco Optix Pro, and process the negatives slowly over time. Pros: I only ever process the good negatives, and can always repeat with different scanning parameters. Cons: cost? Scanner only used for (relatively short) time, before being passed onto someone else.</p>

    <p>In many ways option 3 is probably the best, perhaps even finding a rental service (near Zurich). However is it realistic (in terms of expectations, price, learning)? Can refurbished / well looked after Coolscans be found at reasonable prices. (flatbeds could also be used, but I plan to scan my fiancees slides as well). General comments would be most useful.<br>

    I would also say I am not professional by any means - but have had many positive comments from colleagues in the past, and would like to break out a bit more (portfolio, obtain critiques, improve techniques etc).<br>

    Many thanks,<br>

    Marc</p>

    Optix XR Pro: software for Windoze and MacOS

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>Hi guys</p>

    <p>Thanks for the updates; guess I stick with the latest versions of the software and hope that any future 3rd party software will support these older devices.<br>

    Seems this has the latest windows link<br>

    http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=730&Action=Support&SoftwareID=746<br>

    Another link coming for Macs is<br>

    http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=654&Action=support&SoftwareID=310</p>

    <p>Many thanks</p>

     

    Optix XR Pro: software for Windoze and MacOS

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>About four years back I bought the Monaco Optix XR Pro software; installed and used it to regularly calibrate my Dell FPW2004 (? - the 20" with same display as Apple Cinema). All is happy and fine...<br>

    However I was recently reading that the Monaco is discontinued; X-Rite recommend a new software for it... but at cost. Therefore what is the best software for use with this device which is suitable for windows or MacOS (I may change to OS X Snow Leopard when it comes out).<br>

    Does anyone know how well the XR-Pro (device) will work some of the new widescreen displays, LED backlights and / or Apple Glossy...<br>

    Many thanks,</p>

    <p>Marc</p>

     

    CS4 Slower or is it my crappy Vista?

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>If you feel like a little fun... then Vista Lite might be worthwhile looking at; although you need to be confident with the options you decide to disable. Basically it allows you to rip out unused parts of the OS; like legacy drivers for devices you never use.<br /> http://www.vlite.net/about.html<br /> There is also an XP version which I used (xplite) ; and it works fairly well keeping an old Dell PIII zipping along fairly nicely. What helps is to use the http://windizupdate.com/ to ensure you only update the necessary bits.<br /> NOTE: Do not use these tricks if you are at all unsure about what you are doing as it you have the potential to make your system (very) unstable.</p>

    Damaged CF pins

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    I once built / soldered a PCB with commercial 3M CF adapters. If you like soldering of 0.5mm spacing of pins, and nothing to loose; then it might be possible to repair / replace. But you would need to find a matching CF card slot... possibly easier to ask Canon for a quote first.

    Highly adaptable, chuck in rucksack camera support

    in Accessories

    Posted

    Im looking for a highly adaptable, small chuck in the rucksack camera support... but sufficient to hold a longish

    lens (canon 100-400; 70-300) with a decent body (e.g. 50D) rock solid...

     

    I currently have a gitzo 2530 + RRS plates and ball heads (acratech) for going hiking and such like... and love

    it. However sometimes I feel need to have something much smaller. I did invest in a gorillapod SLR, and used it a

    lot this autumn. However I find it is just not stable enough; or was a real pain to get set up; it would

    definitely need a ball head for helping with alignment; and then total weight with long lens was causing a lot of

    vibration (MLU was required).

     

    So does anyone know of anything else which might be suitable; or other recommendations? I often like getting low;

    so the RRS small tripod could be nice. However sometimes it would be nice to hang it off things (e.g. Balcony /

    bridge railings) or in other strange places. At work Ive used Baitella (Fisso

    http://www.baitella.ch/en/medizin.html) lockable arms for holding things steady; generally the G13 can withstand

    1->10Nm torques...

     

    Creative solutions are welcome; and if necessary I would create my own (in new year).

     

    Thanks,

     

    Marc

    Do you miss the pre 5D Mark II days ?

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    Video... bah who needs it? The professional wedding photographer who can capture the look in peoples eyes as they exchange the rings?

     

    The nature photographer catching a bird / animal during feeding?

     

    Dont think of it as a 'video camera' - think of it as a 'camera which allows video'.

     

    However I have no idea why we would need improved weather proofing and sensor cleaning. The daily pleasure taken in locking up the mirror; the tension of applying the fluids and swabs; the smell of fluids, the sweat of making sure you dont scratch the glass. That is what taking photos should be about. Why can we not even use flash bulbs?

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