EricM

<p>:) Barry. I'm curious Barry, anyone else, do you use Clam Av?</p>

<p>You have to be careful of (cherry picking) stats. The only place I have seen Mac sales increase is with notebooks in coffee shops and it's almost always MacBook Air...hardly a production machine. It's almost embarrassing to pull my MBP out when everyone is also hovering over the glow of the apple logo. Erie....we're all in Starbucks, all dressed the same, all behind apple logos...it reminds me of a scene out of 1984.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>With an iMac (or Mack Pro) you will not be harangued hourly with an offer to "upgrade" to Windows 10. For the moment, I have that harassment blocked. If Microsoft persists, I will switch platforms, regardless of the cost. I subscribe to the full Adobe Creative Cloud, which works on both Windows and OS.</p> </blockquote> <p>Not in my experience, Edward. I only get it when I boot. I'm still on Mavericks on the MBP and I'm harangued into OS updates just like W8 wishes me to go to W10. The W8 demands a mouse move to dismiss while the MBP is egging me on for El Capitan and demands two mouse moves to go away. Also, I have a home theatre pc running W8 and what is more annoying, is that up to half an hour into into a full-screen movie with seven speakers and a sub woofer trying to keep up, I get a full screen iTunes update notification! That's infuriating. No other software does this and iTunes certainly wont be there when I rebuild it with W10.</p> <p>W10 was a surprise to me. I plugged in my Samsung laser printer from 2005 and nothing happened. Usually we get some sort of activity on the monitor when a usb device is installed. But nothing. I sighed and muttered "typical windows". It was a clean install on a new ssd after all and I expected some driver grief. But I was too quick as it was there in the print dialogue box when I needed it. It was then the same with my Epson printer and found it in Ps without any effort. It just works. The MBP? Lol, it took a min of 8 clicks, a google search, and three panels in order to navigate and select. Windows 10 is free now on Apple products and I'm tempted to give Bootcamp and W10 a shot on the MBP.</p>

<blockquote> <p>Any other photographers steering away from Macs because none seems suitable and appropriately priced?</p> </blockquote> <p><br /> $5K for a cool garbage can that you can't upgrade...Yes, for sure, to answer your question. They're over priced fad gadgets. It's not just over priced hardware, but also the shifting sands of their OS's and software. In in my circles, when Apple (without warning) dropped Carbon years ago, one of their 64-bit architecture that Adobe was writing CS4 for, many switched to Windows because they could finally use more than 2.7 gb's of ram on Windows in CS5 and weren't stuck in Apple's 32-bit. This was just after many Mac users going through the switch from Motorola to Intel. People were spending $800 on Ps and only having it run on a couple years on Apple hardware while noticing that Windows XP is being supported for 14 years. Apple has long abandoned the professional desktop publisher. After that FCP fiasco a couple years ago, they're hardly in the film/video industry anymore. It's 2016 and they finally get 10-bit colour with El Capitan.</p>

<center>. <p><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1444/23479824043_caea2a79a0_o.jpg" alt="" /><br />Samsung Note 3 & Snapseed • EricMilner.com<br> .</p> </center>

<p>David, I'm not sure how long you've been around and in the game but I think you'd find this an interesting read from the OpenRaw.org movement. Stuart touches on many issues of why dng will never be adopted by the large manufactures and on the other side, Peter Krogh and Thomas Knoll's counter responses are just as valuable. I can't believe this is nearly ten years ago...</p> <blockquote> <p>Let me first make one thing clear: DNG is not an open standard for defining and storing all needed RAW camera information.</p> <p>DNG makes the RAW format problem worse, not better.</p> <p>DNG is not an open standard in that it does not document all the essential information contained in current RAW format files like NEF and CR2 (which also don't document this information).<br />In many ways, DNG can be viewed as simply yet another RAW format with undocumented information - except that DNG has the added risk that information can be lost during conversion to/from DNG and other RAW formats.<br />From a software developer point of view, DNG is a step backwards. From a camera manufacture's perspective, DNG does not address the missing elements in EXIF.<br />From a photographers perspective, DNG is dangerous because people believe they are storing for the future with the format, when nothing could be further from the truth.</p> </blockquote> <p>http://web.archive.org/web/20060421030226/http://www.openraw.org/node/1482</p>

<p>ob·scure. adjective. not well-known : not known to most people : difficult to understand : likely to be understood by only a few people : not clearly seen or easily distinguished : not readily understood or clearly expressed</p> <p>"One thing that I am curious about is Eric~'s assertion that DNG is an 'obscure format that the industry is already forgetting about'. Leaving aside the fact that some manufacturers -- Leica, for example -- are using the format in camera, there is quite a bit on the web about the advantages that DNG offers."</p> <p>Yet the dng advantages aren't enough for industry adoption. Leica and Pentax are small (obscure) companies and it makes sense for them to use dng. The better question is why everyone else (Sony, Fuji, Nikon, Canon) isn't using dng? Why don't they trust the Adobe format?</p> <p>The photographers out there making 3Tb's of raw data a year don't (usually) bother with the time consuming step of converting to dng. Why? Because when we do the dng thing, now we have two files, nef and dng. What's the next step? Do you delete your original nef and put your trust in dng forever? Not very many are comfortable with that conundrum. So, do you keep both nef and dng and back-up those up two file types as you carry on producing 3Tb's of raw files a year? That's what I chose. And when I'm staring at a computer with seven hard drives in it that's networked to synology nas with five more hard drives and that is then duplicated off-site while it takes 14 months for Crashplan to do cloud back-up...I'll tell you from experience that keeping both nef and dng begins to be ridiculous. Do my photos look better with dng? Are they more future proof? Does it save me time? Save hard drive space? Opens up software options? No, not in the least.</p> <p><br />"So I'd be interested in hearing the evidence for the format being dropped."</p> <p>I didn't say dropped. The new people to digital photography, have hardly heard about dng. They've come home with their $800 Costco kit and now paying $10/mnth for CC Lr like millilions of others and dng is now reduced to an obscure check-box on the Lr import window...one that many rarely investigate.</p> <p>Adobe has reduced their marketing for dng compared to the past and it's not even including anymore when you manually download the raw camera updates. And have you noticed it's even harder than it needs to be in order to find the dng converter on Adobe's site? If you're not convinced that dng is being forgotten about, take your own poll amongst your ten closest photographer friends and then take the additional steps and make polls on Flickr and the Fb photographer groups where you can sample from real numbers. You'll quickly find out that few actually bother converting their files to dng.</p>

Great post, Sebastian. I feel the same. At some point you have to trust some file types and I'm more comfortable going into the future with nef/xmp files than having them trapped inside an obscure dng that the industry is already quickly forgetting about. "I'm betting someone will keep producing software that opens .NEF files. Will future software be able to open DNGs? PSDs? Lightroom catalog? The iPhoto catalog? I'm not counting on any of these." Nor me. Yet strangely there is people like you here that also can't open their earliest digital images yet still continue to close their options by converting to dng and throwing out their native raws. Foolish, imo.

"IMHO they are a recipe for disaster." I was referring to this. I've never once heard about xmp files causing a problem or how they possibly could "...but it seems to me that there are both pros and cons to converting RAW into DNG." Judging by how little it is practiced today, it's safe to conclude that there's more cons than pros. I went all in when dng was introduced and just recently stopped it a few years ago. My "work for hire" material though, still has to be delivered in dng. It's a waste of time for me.

It's baffling to me how anyone could be afraid of a file type. After my raw nefs are backed up and archived, all I have to be concerned about after that is the tiny xmp files. When my syncback software scans my drives for files that have changed since its last scan, it has a small task to back up just the xmp files instead of the entire massive dng. It's also wonderful to view a folder by 'file type' and just drag the xmp files over to external hard drives for updating your back ups. This is so much quicker on your desk time in front of the monitor

That's a great volume of work. Thanks for sharing

Apologies for misunderstanding you David. Transfer and re-install are two different things. Years ago, with programs like Norton Ghost, you could install software and then transfer the same application over to many computers. That didn't last long though

Nope, the average Joe can not just transfer programs like CS5 to a new os...that would be a piracy nightmare. "...a low degree of confidence that a new OS could even read the older versions"? The redeeming feature of Windows is backwards compatibility. Did you google this question? Seems others are successful. I'd go with CC2015 though, it's fantastic. And consider a Samsung Evo 500gb ssd as C Drive. The 256 is too small, imo.

I'd rather have a segway crash than the equivalent of six weed eaters fall from the sky. They have too much intricate tech to go wrong in the hands of the average dumbass. Death and legislation is just around the corner.

<p>I wouldn't do as Andrew suggests and use your cloud copy. Instead, I'd do it exactly as Jos suggested.</p> <p>41,000 images is noting for Lightroom so no, I wouldn't split them up.</p>

<blockquote> <p>Yeah, this is why people don't want to upgrade once they have a system working. Because microsoft is always screwing with the files, overwriting things you want to keep. Like it did for you.<br> Any time you upgrade software, be it the entire OS or just your display drivers, a re-calibration of your display is in order, and if you're doing critical work, new custom profiles. Nothing will screw over a nicely working system like "automated updates". Just sayin'.</p> </blockquote> <p>"Patch Tuesday" is once a month and this isn't my experience at all. <br> <br> </p>

<p>I'd check drivers </p>

If you were happy with it, why not go back to W7?

<center>. <p><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5677/23722399612_b8dced993e_o.jpg" alt="" /><br />HTC & Vignette app • EricMilner.com<br> .</p> </center>

<p>Sarah, a contributor on Fb suggest to try the most recent unified firepro drivers through Dell or HP. They just added windows 10 support. h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=wk_152047_1&swEnvOid=4158<br /></p> <blockquote> <p> <br> Too bad your fine and functional peripherals and internals no longer work--or that the device makers lag or have no intention of writing new drivers.<br /></p> </blockquote> <p><br />I bought a new ssd, installed W7 with my key, then installed W10, then onto my software and then I started plugging in old peripherals, like my Samsung color laser printer. And nothing happened. Usually when you plug a usb device into the back, something happens on the screen. Not this time and I rolled my eyes and cursed Windows. But I jumped the gun and prejudged Windows as lo and behold, the Samsung was just there in the print dialogue box. The same with my Epson printer...it magically just appeared in Ps print dialogue. I'm impressed. So in Windows defence, W10 is the first OS (Mac included) were my old stuff just worked without having to do a single thing. </p>

<p>That's a pretty nice card and I'd actually wait for them to catch up to W10.</p>

<p>I can't be of any help other than to ask if you are on Fb and if so, some of the Windows and PC Gamers groups are awesome for questions like this.</p>

<blockquote> <p>A DROBO is sort of a RAID, but more flexible. You can hot swap drives to replace failed units or increase capacity. The new drive is automatically configured and populated with data. Data is spread between drives so a single failure is completely recoverable. </p> </blockquote> <p>All this is standard fair on NAS systems as well.<br> </p> <blockquote> <p>but I back up to Blu-Ray discs as I go along. It's not hard to do if you keep up.</p> </blockquote> <p>I still burn discs as well. It's easy to keep up with considering the amount of time we sit at our desks.</p>

<p>He seems fine on Fb as he's posting lots of pictures of his adventures while bicycle riding.</p>

<p>I have the Intuos 5 Pro Medium. It's fantastic but the only one I've owned and can't compare it to anything. If you're mostly doing Lr, you're probably fastest with keyboard/mouse and shortcuts. Tabs are more for Ps tools for retouching and masking etc.<br> <br> And you might want to try a Surface Pro 4 as the pen/stylus is getting great reviews as a drawing tablet.</p>

<p>For the most part, the 2.5" drives are also slow 5400 rpm drives.</p> <p>I used to do this as well. I had docking stations running bare drives and then I needed more and added dual docking stations beside the single one and this was on top of the the externals I maxed out...then I had to duplicate it...cords everywhere...what a mess on my desk and in my brain.</p> <p>It's not as intimidating as it appears, but I'd look at a 3 or 5 hard drive bay NAS by Synology or Qnap, and run in raid 5. It will keep you out of trouble for years. I sure wish I did it a lot earlier. Now it's one box with a cat5 cable sitting next to my router. </p>