mark bucher

<p>A camera doesn't "feel" like a camera without a vertical grip on the body. I cut my teeth shooting a Nikon F2as with motor drive, talk about a handful. Anyway, when I'm out shooting, I find it beneficial to have both BLM-1s fully charged and in place in the HLD-5. Took a while to get used to the 620 because of it's small size, but once I really started using it, it naturally became an extension of my eye. It's not an E-1, but I don't think there will ever be a camera body as ergonomically well designed as the E-1. I regularly shoot the Sigma 135-400 hand held with the 620, something that wouldn't be practical without the HLD-5 to help balance out the lens. </p>

<p>I"m having the exact safe problem here with a new iMac. I was able to log in to post this, but it's not allowing me access to my workspace or portfolio. Could use a bit of help! Thanks, Mark</p>

From what I've read, the only two legacy flashes that have a low voltage output are the

Vivitar 285HV, and the Sunpack 383. I definately would NOT attempt to fire and old flash

using a new digital camera. You run the risk of frying the motherboard in the camera by

using and old flash.

Yeah, download the latest drivers from Epson, but be sure you get all the files from the old

driver off of your system before you install the new ones'. Also a question, you're printing

directly from your workstation and not through a RIP? Wow.

I had one over in sands of Iraq and it was a piece of junk. Besides the heat it generates, you've got to worry about the dust and sand in the air. Would not advise trying to use one on location. Now, I've got a 1400 that's in a climate controlled room at my house that rocks. I keep it covered with a sheet when not in use, and keep the paper and the tray in a sealed garbage bag. Helps big time with any dust.

 

Mark

I had the Xerox 7700 and it's replacement the 7750. Outstanding printers. Once you put an image in a frame behind glass, put it on the wall, 9 out of 10 people viewing it won't be able to tell the difference between a laser print and a dye-dub print. The printers are that good. Extremely easy to set up and maintain, but I do advise buying a support agreement with Xerox,if ever there's a color shift, they'll come and correct it. Once you get your workstations tweaked in, the color and saturation is outstanding.

 

Mark

I've got a 1400 and have printed weddings, senior portraits, and some display work for a local cafe and it's great. The colors are dead on and the quality is flawless. I bought mine and get supplies from Imaging Spectrum out of Dallas. I bought a ton of stuff from them when I was shooting for the Air Force and they really stand behind their products. www.imagingspectrum.com

 

Mark

The new pro body is designated "P-1" and the prototype was shown at PMA 07. I shoot two E-1s and they're both pretty well used, so I don't know that I'll sell them when the new pro bodies come out. I've got the 50-200 and it's a great lens, but I probably use the 14-54 more than any other lens. It's just a sweet, reasonably fast lens. I totally agree with the AF points made earlier, and I do a ton of zone focusing for fast moving sports; I let the action come to me. With baseball and softball starting to spin up, that's my favorite sport to shoot. The HLD-2 is an absolute must have, as well as a couple of spare batteries for it. I've switched to Olympus after shooting Nikon for 20 some years, works for me.

 

Mark

650.00-700.00. That's in US dollars

 

Mark

The E-1s I have just keep on plugging away. I don't buy into the megapixel myth so I'm happy with what I shoot. Now, having said that, I've got a substantial investment in Oly equipment, I'd love to see a body that rivals the D2X released.

Find a Vivitar 285HV and you'll have all the flash you'll ever need.

 

Mark

Keith, I use an old Vivitar 285HV on my E-1s with no adverse effects.

To further elaborate on shooting at higher ISOs, I'll also shoot totally manual and use an old Vivitar 285HV, prefocus on spots and let the action come to me. I'm pretty comfortable with that set up shooting at 1/125 @f8 at ISO 800 shooting hoops and volleyball of the girls. I also have the FL-36 but I've found it isn't as responsive as the 285. I have shot thousands of images with the 285 and am more familiar with what it can and can't do compared to the FL-36. All goes back to having a basic understanding of fundamental photography and getting that good sharp latent image. Guess I'm old school.

 

Mark

Skip,

I'll shoot RAW when my daughter's playing hoops and my wife is busting on me for pictures. Normally I don't for publication. These are for our walls or her scrapbooking. I've pushed the ISO up to 1600 on a couple of occasions and don't have any major gripes with it. Compared to the days of TRI-X and Accufine, it's an even tradeoff. As my old mentor always used to tell me: " Just tell em the grain is a special effect and charge em extra".

 

Mark

Right on Todd, learned that one back using the first generation of D1s in the military. That

reinforces my insistance that knowledge of basic photography is even more critical in today's

digital world. As far as the HLD-2s, I'm 6'3", so I've never been accused of being small. In

my hands, a camera just doesn't feel right unless it's got an external power drive mounted on

it. I've got two E-1s and have the HLD-2s on both of the bodies and they feel right when I

pick them up. The HLD also improves the focusing speed and responsiveness of the E-1.

What I'm hoping for is that the next generation of professional body Olympus releases uses

the HLD-2, instead of a new design. I know that's wishful thinking, but I can hope can't I?

Yeah, I'm running a MBP w/ 2GB of RAM and see a noticable slowdown with RAW files. With

jpgs everything flys so be sure to invest in as much RAM as you can afford or the machine

will handle. Also, a 7200 rpm HD makes a big difference too.

 

Mark

I don't save the culls when shooting RAW, just the selects for printing and publication. I hear

ya though on burning up the CD-Rs.

 

Mark

I've never seen that problem with any of my bodies. I shoot 400 RAw for the local HS sports

and I've always had great results. BTW, did you get the HLD-2 with your body? Makes a

huge difference in terms of overall handling and power. Helps with the focusing too.

 

Mark

RAM, RAM, and more RAM. Photoshop is a memory pig and the more you have the better your machine will run. I've found that RAM is much more important than the processor, especially when dealing with large file sizes. That be my opinion anyway.

 

Mark

In my house, I've got three Macs, two PCs all sharing files using an Airport wireless router. Now, the PCs drop out alot, but that's to be expected. Macs just work.

I had the Colorburst running on an old Mac G4 driving an Epson 9600. Fantastic product and

once you got it tweaked, the color was stunning. We fed 10 workstations into it and never

had a problem. Setup and installation was simple and straightforward, like I said earlier,

once you get it dialed in, the software just rocked.

 

Mark

I've got the 2.0 model and the machine rocks. 2 GB of RAM should be mandatory for use

with PS, the wisest words I've ever heard spoken regarding computers are: "He who has the

most RAM wins". My two cents anyway.

 

Mark

iPhoto is an amatuer program. We used it in the desert for quick and dirty downloads, then

when we had the time, everything was edited on Photoshop. Buy and learn PS.

I'm a huge fan of throughly reading the manual on my camera; I carry one in my camera bag

too! Maybe I'm not so dumb after all?

 

Mark

I'm assuming you're using xD cards with the camera? Try picking up an external card reader

and plugging your cards into that instead of the camera directly. That way the system

doesn't have to synch with your camera when you plug it in, it's already read the card readers

drivers at startup and it's always ready to go. I never lug my cameras into any of my

computers, I've got three external USB card readers and it always works.

 

Mark