ron_goodenow

I have one of the original Microsolutions parallel port portable cd burners (they make an adapter so I can now connect via USB) and I must say it is one of the best products I have ever purchased. Just built like a brick. And, should you need it, they have excellent customer support. This new portable dvd burner might be the ideal replacement for the Apple.

Anyone know anything about the Delkin bridge? Would it permit connection between camera or flash card and a USB hard drive? IF it does that might be a good solution. And, one can buy very small enclosures that will hold a laptop hard drive. A complete package could probably be put together for less than $200-250. Lots of portability, huge capacity and probably far less attractive to a thief than a gorgeous Apple.

Having been robbed on foreign travels over the years, despite the best of protection, I would think seriously about alternatives to taking the G4 to those particular countries. Certainly, make sure that you insure it and, as suggested, keep it completely out of sight, even being sure that in your hotel room it is under a mattress or locked in a safe. Presumably, you need it for more than backing up photos. If that's all you're doing I'd urge thinking about lighter and less risky strategies.

Much depends on the kind of photography you do, and that is not clear from your post.

 

My Sandisk 256 died and while it was being replaced I picked up a PNY 510, which has been working perfectly for several months. My inclindation is to get images off my camera into a subnote or, if not traveling, desktop as soon as possible. The advantage of relatively low mp cards is that one starts archiving and backing up sooner rather than later.

I've been using an Oly 560 as a backup and for backpacking, canoe trips, long business or other trips where I don't want to haul around my 5060 and attachments. The results are very, very good. Using rechargeable CRV3's I can shoot forever, the camera has a nice sliding door that protects the lens and because I have rather large hands I like the overall feel and functionality -- some of the nifty Canons and Pentaxes I've seen are just too small. I find the Oly large enough to hold steady, yet it fits nicely in my pocket. The exposure system is excellent, as is the lens. The 560 is no longer being made, but I assume the latest Olys have some of the same features. The Stylus is a bit smaller, but waterproof. Unfortunately, xD, but they are coming down dramatically (I picked up a 256k at Office Depot today for $39.).

 

Just 2 pennies from an Oly partisan (not many in this Forum).

All depends on your camera store. Mine has knowledgable people who can haggle a bit for a large purchase and to keep me coming back in for more. When one of my cameras had some problems under warranty they took care of contacting the manufacturer, packaging it up and keeping track of the repair, which went very well. Though I've generally had good luck with on-line merchants I prefer spending a bit more to help keep my nearby store in enough business to be able to try to compete on price and service. In fact, my store, having seen many of the photos I've taken with my digicams is now referring business to me.

 

That doesn't mean I buy everything from them (eBay for batteries, large office supply places or Best Buy for deals on memory cards, etc.) but for big ticket items they get my biz. And now they give me some.

 

And, of course, use a premium credit card if possible. I've noticed that some are now extending the warranty period beyond the 'traditional' doubling.

With sub-notebook prices plummeting and eBay alternatives available I would go that way. I travel with a tiny Sony Vaio and an extra battery that gives me about 8 hours of extra processing time when needed. That means that in remote places, on planes, hotel rooms late at night I can not only view my photos, but do a heck of a lot of basic editing, culling, etc. Oh, and I can keep notes on the day's work, plug in for e-mail, use wireless spots, etc. You'd be amazed at what you can do in many 'third world' locations. Added value is that I can further backup from my subnote to my MP3 player for further security. I've been travelling internationally for over 30 years and remember the old days when my heavy 35mm system with lenses, no backup capabilities, no editing capability, etc. really limited what else I could bring along.

That big old camera bag for lenses, etc. still exists, but now the subnote and accessories are there and one can do so much more.

Uninstall and reinstall software and be sure your battery is fully charged and the contacts to your USB cable are clean and not loose. Also be sure your laptop disc is not fragmented or you do not have memory problems. I've had this problem once or twice with a 560 and it almost always turns out to be battery power. No problems with my 5060 yet. Good luck.

I have a 5060 and a new Oly TL20. However, before that I used a Sunpak DS20 and Vivitar 1000 perfectly (albeit in manual modes). The Sunpak has a nice tilting head and is only about $30. It also works as a slave unit. Highly recommended by Wrotniak for these cameras. Make sure you check voltage output of non-recommended units and don't fry your camera -- though I think that is very rare. Google that issue. Here's the Wrotniak site:

 

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-flash-units.html

Thanks for tips. I am not so concerned with HOW to downsize as I am interested in why SHQ files on my camera need to be saved at a higher resolution than HQ files if they are to retain sharpness for web use. Is it the camera, is it a 'natural occurance', etc.????

 

And, sure, I can increase server space, but because I share my photos with numerous sites, some of which I do not control, would prefer to go as light as possible.

I do railroad photography as a hobby and publish a great deal on the

web. Seldom do prints. Normally I post images at 650x size, sometimes

smaller. Until recently I used an Oly 2020z and 560 and when shooting

in SHQ or HQ could easily do my cropping, editing, etc, and downsize

an image that retained its sharpness at about 30-35k. Having stepped

up to an Oly 5060, I find that I cannot get equal sharpness from an

SHQ image unless I maintain a file size of about 80k. This, of course,

drains server space. This happens whether I am using Elements 3.0 or

batch processing with Ifranview.

 

Stopped off at my camera store yesterday and the guys there were

telling me that recently several customers have stopped by to discuss

this issue.

 

So.....is this a natural occurance related to the original resolution

of the photo? Is it something related to my camera and its jpeg

compression in particular?

 

Obviously, I can set the camera for HQ or one of the SQ settings and

end up with more shots on my card (I have several so that is probably

irrelevant), but then should I decide to print at a large size I may

be up the creek. Another solution would be to stick with the 2020 and

its faster lens for railroad photography, but then that's not all I do

when traveling.

 

Just wondering about this, and some practical advice (aside from

changing resolution for each shot). I haven't noticed anyone saying

that if one is going to publish extensively on the web one should

shoot at lower resolutions if worried about disc or server space.

 

Thanks for bearing with me.

Don't know about the Panasonic but I shoot swimming pools with my Oly 5060 and Polarizer and can see effects on my lcd. They're not dramatic or maybe in your terms 'subtle', but are noticable. And, with a little bracketing one can be quite confident of results, easily tuned a bit with PS. Oh, and there is a very solid underwater housing for the Oly.

As a matter of practical experience I have been using very small Sony Vaio subnotes for several years and have been very happy with them. My current one (SRX87) fits nicely in my camera case, and its brilliant screen is great for basic editing, particularly when I attach my tiny Wacom tablet, which is also easy to throw into a suitcase when I know I'll be away from home and studio for a long time.

 

For very long trips (eg. cross country flights, sitting on hotel beds out of easy reach of wall plugs) I purchased a small Polarmate universal lithium battery pack which gives me about five-six extra hours on top of the hour or so I get with my OEM battery, and it and my Archos MP3 player (10 gig, lots of room for backups) also go in my hardened case with 5060, converters, flash, cards, small tripod, little shortwave, batteries, many extra cards, USB cable, chargers and safety backup 560. All this raises the odd eyebrows at security checkin (more 'aahs' than concern) but in one place I can handle just about anything -- and am ready for inevitable airport delays. I can't emphasize enough the value of light, light, light, and having that extra battery power. And, it would be very easy to add a small external dvd/cdrw burner, though I find my Archos and a tiny Lexar 512 USB flash unit handle most backup and file transfer chores.

 

I'm not precisely sure what you intend to do, but prices on these very small computers have come way down. Much depends on whether this is your primary computer, but if not a 20-40 gig hard drive is plenty, and as much as I dislike Microsoft, I find that I can load up a huge variety of editing software that runs smoothly on XP. At home I plug it into a LAN for easy transfer. Oh, and I do own a bricklike USB Microsolutions CD burner for the VAIO in the event I am going to be away for a long time and have the need for making cd's. I would guess this entire load of stuff would not be much more than about $1500 (excluding camera gear). Don't know much about Macs, but my daughter, a professional writer who travels a lot, has had a lot of quirky trouble with her last two iBooks, including the latest top of the line one, and they are pretty big.

 

Just one person's input.

Rob:

 

Your last point is very well taken. I know that internet cafes in Europe and South America are now offering cd burning services. Another option which I may try on my next trip is to go to one of those places and dump images onto my 512 USB flash card or my MP3 player, which has a 10gig hard drive. Another thing I do try to do is edit while traveling. The 5060 allows for basic cropping and then, if the work is only going to be used on the web, saving at 650x...And, of course, the cropped images are smaller. One of the nice features of the 5060 is that it holds two cards, one a CF (or microdrive) and the other an xD card. One thing I have tested is backing up those pictures I really care about on to the xD card and then leaving that in my hotel shaving kit or my wallet. I've had cameras robbed in New York and London and am pretty sensitive to the need for backup. Incidentally, I always bring a backup camera on these trips, in this case an Oly 560, which itself, though 'only' 3 megapix, produces excellent results. I also use it in places where I want to be unobtrusive because the 5060 is a moose. One of my hobbies is railway photography and the last thing I want to do is draw any more attention to myself than necessary because rent-a-cops here and abroad like to crawl all over photographers, regardless of the local laws.

 

Fortunately, the cost of CF cards is plummeting and ultimately even more than I have will probably be the best solution, though the number increases the likelihood of losing or damaging one....There is no end to possible problems....sigh.

Rob:

 

For ordinary shooting I do use the SHQ setting, and I have lots of cards. However, there are times when I head out on very long trips without my subnote (eg. foreign travel) and am not entirely sure when and how I am going to make backups, not yet having one of those digital wallet type devices. Since about 95% percent of what I want to do is not going to be printed (and I generally have a feeling as I am about to shoot what I may want to print at 8x10 max and adjust accordingly), and since I don't want to overly burden my creaking hard drives I like to consider options. Incidentally, I have done a number of resolution tests (albeit of a home made kind!) and find the difference between HQ and SHQ on this camera are pretty hard to find, something that Wrotniak reported as well. I've made some stunning prints from HQ, with lots of detail, etc. Anyhow, thanks for your ideas and an opportunity for me to lay some things out.

Rob:

 

Thanks very much. I'm still a bit thick on this. I had seen the chart, but was mainly curious about why they would design the camera this way. At the end of the day it would seem that I am slightly better off shooting at this SQ setting, or is there something in the overall compression algorithm which still would make a large print inferior to one made in HQ? Thoughts welcome. And, I had not seen the Oly site, which I will now pour over. Amazing how we learn things....

Rob:

 

Yes, and, where I first noticed it, my 512 card shows lower photo capacity with the lower compression setting! The difference in file size is basically 1.08 per snow scene in HQ vs 1.30 in SQ1. The photos themselves seem very detailed and clean, as does virtually everything taken with this camera regardless of setting.

My Oly 5060 has several of the somewhat usual resolution settings,

including RAW, TIFF, SHQ, HQ, and SQ1 and 2 -- all in ascending order

of compression. I am curious to know why the 1600x1400 setting in SQ1

produces larger files than the 2592x1944 setting in HQ, a lower

compression setting??? I would have thought just the opposite.

 

Are there any inherent advantages or disadvantages of using this SQ1

setting?

For printing?

 

Thanks much.

 

Thanks. Working my way through this great camera.

For whatever it's worth I've had a slew of Oly digicams and whether they appear a bit flimsy or are built like tanks they all stand up to a heck of a lot of abuse. The issue we should all be concerned with is what's inside. And what kind of photos they take. I have 35mm cameras made by Oly, Roilei, Pentax, and other companies that belie their 'plastic' exteriors. The only real advantage I see to my heavy Oly 5060 is that it is very, very easy to hold steady, and that is worth a megapix or so.

Is this problem actually shutting down your camera, or just giving you a premature warning?

 

I had a similar problem with my backup Oly 560, and it disappeared with the use of LiIon rechargeables. However, despite the low power warning the camera would just keep snapping away with the NiMh's. Not nearly the capacity of the LiIon's but still quite good for almost a day's shooting.

Everything I've read suggests that these batteries should be stored at about 40% of full charge at 60 degrees (F). There isn't a lot of really good studies, but some experts suggests one can expect an overall service life of 2-3 years, though I'm sure some last longer and some not so long. We need much more reliable information on storage and service life from the manufacturers (who love to charge an outrageous sum for their batteries). I've had pretty good luck getting batteries from eBay for my Oly 5060, but as with OEM ones, have no idea of when they were made and how long they could be expected to last.

I'm wondering about the use of the auto-focus assistant lamp in low

light situations and what others do. I find that when using it there

is often too much of a shutter lag and I miss exactly what I was

shooting at -- a facial expression, for example. On the other hand,

when I turn it off I get much faster response and, frankly, shots that

seem to be quite in focus. I can see using it on fixed objects in

highly critical situations (eg. photographing interiors, etc.) but

when there are people in the picture....I also find that the lamp's

presence encourages some people to look away.

 

Ideas welcome based on practical experience.

 

Thanks.

I have had great luck with a couple of those eBay six dollar batteries in my Oly 5060. Ditto for one I purchased from Tiger Direct for less than $20. They certainly seem to last as well as the OEM battery. However, a caveat. Lithium Ion batteries have a shelf life. Though some users report that their camera batteries have last for three or four years many experts say they are generally good for no more than two. In other words, they can drop dead no matter many times you have used them, how you store them, etc. What this means is that it is very important to know when the battery you purchased was manufactured. It's entirely possible that some of these eBay dealers (I've noticed some Canon compatible batteries going for a buck or so) are selling stock that may be close to the end of its shelf life period.

 

I'd be interested in personal experience on this issue, and knowing how in the world one knows in advance when a particular battery was made. This all makes me wish Oly had stuck with AA's.........