gary_anthes

Thanks, all. As you may have guessed, I use Photoshop plus ACR but was wondering if I should spring for the Black Friday Topaz deals. I decided not to because the Adobe tools are very good and periodically get worthwhile updates. No one I asked made the case that Topaz is better than Adobe for the three things I mentioned. Gary

Hi, can anyone comment on how well Topaz AI performs noise reduction, upsizing, and sharpening compared to the Adobe capabilities? I don't care about video. Thanks.

No inside info, but a spate of recent "rumors" have been reasonably consistent, like this one: https://photorumors.com/2022/10/20/the-new-sony-a7r-v-camera-will-be-announced-on-october-26/. I'm assuming the numbers aren't far off.

I will soon upgrade my Sony A7R iii to either the iv or v. The v will cost me maybe $1,500 more and I'm wondering if it's worth it. I don't care at all about video, or about eye- or face-tracking AF, by deep learning or otherwise. I care a lot about hand-held, low light still photography, about good autofocus in low light, and about good high-ISO performance. The jump from 5.5-stop IBIS in the iii to 8 stops in the v is attractive, but would I notice it as a practical matter? The jump to 61 mp in either the iv or v is important. What are your thoughts?

Ah, I discovered the solution: IMAGE>MODE>RGB Color. Sorry for the errant post! G

I have a jpeg black and white image, scanned from a neg, that will not open in NIK when I am in Photoshop. "NIK Collection" is greyed out in the Filters menu. I tried saving it as tiff and trying that, but same result. I have never before been unable to open an image file in NIK. I have the problem with no other file. If the file is corrupted somehow, is there a way to fix it?

I'm looking for a 17-inch Windows laptop for photo editing. I don't care about video, games, or touch screen. I do care about processing efficiency and excellent display. What specs should I look for in a $1,500 (approx.) unit? Can you suggst specific one(s)? I know this is not a new question but I figure the answer changes every few months. Thanks much.

I have the Epson P800 printer and am very happy with it. Best of several Epson printers I've had. But I note that newer, high-end Epson P series printers add green, orange, and sometimes violet ink. Do they make a noticeable, practical difference? Would any of you upgrade for those?

Thanks, Ed. I bought this from B&H VisibleDust Zee Pro Sensor-Cleaning Bulb Blower for Digital Cameras (Royal Blue) and it works better than I expected.

About six months ago I traded my Canon 5D MK IV for the Sony A7R III, and I'm very happy with the result. There is just one respect in which the Canon way outperforms the Sony -- keeping a clean sensor. I don't change lenses all that often, and I'm very careful when I do. Still, I can't keep dust spots out of my photos. I find that Sony's clean/shake option only helps marginally. Are others having this frustration? Is it safe/easy to clean the sensor myself on this camera?

OK, I got a solution from Epson after a long phone call. It is indeed a bug, in the one setting that is not the same as in the Epson 3880. It can only be fixed via the printer touch screen, not via your computer. Touch Setup (the wrench icon), then System Administration, then Printer Settings, and then Horizontal Centered. The printer ships with Horizontal Centered ON. Turn it OFF. End of problem. Thanks to all who weighed in.

Jeff and David, if I understand correctly, you are suggesting essentially the same thing, and I can see that would work. I tried setting scale to 100%, uncheking "center" and setting the "top" and "left" margins in the printer menu to exactly what I wanted them to be. Didn't work. 'I' doing exactly as I did with my Epson 3880 where I didn't have that problem. Seems like it must be a bug in the printer driver. Anyone ever try to get through to Epson tech support? Rodeo, the paper trimmer will remove the wide margins, but not add to the margin that is too narrow.

There are posts here and there on this subject, but none solve my problem. I'm printing 11.25 x 16.75 images on 13 x 19 paper using Epson P800, Photoshop CC 2019, and Win 10. I choose 13 x 19 ("user-defined" by me) as media size and I have the "center" box under "position" checked, and "scale" set to 100%. The image is printed in exactly the right size but with .5 inch margin at top and 1.5 inch at bottom. Anyone had this problem?

Thanks, Ed. I did buy the 55mm Sony/Zeiss lens and it is WAY better at autofocus, as expected. It's 5x more expensive but worth it to me for the kind of stuff I do.

Hi, all, I'm using the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens on my Sony a7R III for low-light, hand-held street photography. I love its size and weight (tiny) and its image quality (very good) but the slow, uncertain autofocus is causing me to miss shots and is driving me crazy. I'm thinking of replacing it with the Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Lens. Pretty expensive but maybe worth it for fast, low-light focusing? I'd actually rather go a little wider than 55mm, but the fast, high-quality 35mm lenses seem to be much heavier. Advice? Thoughts?

Some do and some don't, but all photographers, even "simple minded" ones, care about the quality of their prints, even 8x10 ones.

The difference is noticeable even in an 8x10 print. Interesting. At that size, something other than pixel count must be at work, yes? Thanks for your comments.

I was about to buy the a7RIII but now that the a7III is out, I'm having second thoughts. Is the R worth an extra $1,200 bucks? I don't make huge prints, but I occasionally do crop extensively. I'm most interested in very good low-light performance. Any thoughts?

You two are no doubt right. I could still exchange it for the 1.4 and save $1,000. Shooting both lenses at, say, 2.0, would I see any difference in performance? Gary

I just bought the Canon 50mm 1.2L lens to use with my Canon 5D Mk 4, hand-held in very low light. In disappointed to find that it's not very sharp (even in the center) wider than f2.0, and the light fall-off out from the center is pretty bad at the widest apertures. I'm pretty happy at f2.0, and that still counts as "fast," but I wonder if it is (or I am or my camera body is) performing as it should? What's the experience of other users? What aperture do you use in very low light when you don't care much about depth of field?

I just "upgraded" from a Canon 6D to a 5D Mk. IV. Its RAW (CR2) files will no longer preview as image thumbnails in either Microsoft Windows Explorer or in Photoshop CC. The only way I can see them is to open them in ACR. This was not a problem with RAW files from the 6D. I have the latest updates to Windows 10 and Photoshop. I'm looking for a quick and easy way to view groups of thumbnails all at once, of reasonable size, so I can quickly decide which to delete and which to open in ACR and PS to edit. How do others do that? (I couldn't find workable solutions on Microsoft or Adobe forums.) Thanks much.

Can anyone compare Shutterfly and Blurb for making hardbound photo books? My No. 1 criterion is quality, but I care about price and ease of use of the software. Thanks. Gary

Thanks to all for your interesting replies. I've decided not to upgrade to the 5d4. Too much money for the benefit, given my needs and practices. Instead I'll wait for the 6d2, which I assume will be out this year, or possibly for something else Canon may introduce this year.

Only brand name is Argus, on the lens. Any idea of approximate age, value, etc? Thanks.

<p>Thanks for the test, Mark. It's helpful. Despite the low light and high ISO, I assume your images are "correctly," or optimally, exposed. I'm wondering what the results would be if they were underexposed by, say, two stops. Many of my images, even when correctly exposed overall, have dark parts that I care about that are underexposed. I'm wondering about the differences between sensors when dealing with that.<br> Gary</p>