Dave410

<p>Just got home from yet another long Asian trip. I didn't take too many photos this time, but I did have an afternoon off in Bangkok to prowl the streets with my camera.</p>

<p>Here's a girl working a food stand on a street corner. It must have been a rough night!</p><div></div>

<p>Jeff -- Great photos. Who is the Asian girl band?</p>

<p>Thanks, Jim. I saw that article and wondered about the MacBook Pros.</p>

<p>Good to know onOne is working on your laptop, Rich. Is it Perfect Photo Suite? I have Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 and it's very slow on my 7-year-old PC. And the Dark Side is just a joke. The kids in the Apple store don't like it much either.</p>

<p>Hi Folks,</p>

<p>I just installed Windows 10 on one of my computers and it's okay. Not great so far, but okay. Nevertheless I'm still thinking about going to the Dark Side and I've been doing some homework recently.</p>

<p>As I understand it, the PCIe-based SSDs on the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros are still using AHCI, but the SSDs on the new MacBook are actually using NVMe. Is that correct? Anybody tuned in to Apple enough to guess when NVMe will reach the MacBook Pro line? I'm waiting for that for either my next PC or my first Mac.</p>

<p>If I make the leap, it would be very nice to have just one computer -- a fast laptop that I can take with me on the road and then plug into a dock when I'm home, but I'm worried about acceptable performance. I like onOne's Perfect Photo Suite plug in for Lightroom but it's brutally slow on my old, old home-built PC and I want it fast, fast on my next computer. Is anybody using that plug in on a current MacBook Pro and do you find it fast enough? What Mac do you have?</p>

<p>Many thanks. Gotta run off to work.</p>

<p>Cheers,<br />Dave</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Sounds like it's working fine, but how do you guys like it? How would you compare Win 10 to Win 7? (I skipped Win 8.)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Finally, a camera that can be used to track inside the box if Schrödinger's cat is alive, dead or both.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Too late. I think I remember seeing a photo a few years ago showing quantum superposition. Unfortunately, I can't find it now. (Very clever joke, though.)</p>

<p>I was on the road last week and bouncing around Asia, as usual. Here are some locals enjoying the full moon at a rooftop bar in Bangkok, Thailand.</p><div></div>

<p>See how easy? Some people will even take the photograph for you.</p><div></div>

<p>People think being a photographer is difficult, but it's really very easy because people put up signs next to things you're supposed to photograph, like these Japanese sake barrels outside a store in Narita, Japan.</p><div></div>

<p>Good luck, Jan! Best wishes for a speedy recovery.</p>

<p>..</p><div></div>

<p>.</p><div></div>

<p>I’m breaking the rules this week, but I’ve been busy scanning the boxes and boxes of 35mm slides in my closet and I just finished a couple hundred from when I was a young buck second lieutenant flying T-37s and T-38s at a training base in Oklahoma. They took a lot of work, but they turned out pretty well considering those Kodachrome 64s were about 35 years old and many were covered with mold.</p><div></div>

<p>Just a couple of points:</p>

<p>You may upgrade to Lr6 or higher someday and newer versions of Lightroom can use the graphics processor (GPU) to help speed things up. Make sure any new computer has a video card with a GPU from Adobe's approved list and an appropriate amount of video RAM.</p>

<p>If you can wait until around Christmas, there is some very cool new technology that should be available called NVMe that will make accessing data on SSD drives at least four times faster. I desperately need to build a new machine, but I'm waiting for NVMe.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

 

<p>I can't offer much help except to say that I've been using Vuescan for many years and I'm very happy with it. Tech support from Ed Hamrick is outstanding and if you purchase the Professional version you'll get free updates several times a month. I would recommend downloading the free trial and giving it a try. Good luck.</p>

<p>Not sure what was going on here, but a bunch of models were posing in beds on rafts in one of the canals while a professional photographer shot images. We got there just as they were shutting down and a boat was collecting the models.</p><div></div>

<p>Amsterdam has more canals than Venice.</p><div></div>

<p>Hello from Tokyo. I'm working now, but I had some vacation last week so we jumped on a plane to Amsterdam for a few days.</p><div></div>

<p>Updates available for stand-alone Lightroom and Photoshop too. Thanks!</p>

<p>I don't have the 24-70, but the 24-105 was my first lens when I started shooting digital a few years ago and I was unimpressed with the image quality even after I sent it back to Canon for a tune up. I sold it and bought a 17-55 IS to hang on my 40D and now it's the primary lens on my 7D. I love it! Much sharper and the image stabilization works great.</p>

<p>Where am I going with this? Well, I'm guessing you will see a big improvement in image quality by leaving the 24-105, but will miss the image stabilization. In fact, one of the big reasons I haven't jumped to a 5DIII and 24-70 (besides the ungodly high price) is the lack of image stabilization on the 24-70 and there really isn't another lens I would want as a walk around lens.</p>

<p>So, to me, there really isn't a good solution to this problem. Nevertheless, good luck!</p>

<p>You've pretty much covered it all. Scanning slides and photos is excruciatingly boring, even if they are your own family pictures. At one time I was planning to start a business doing just that (there can be big money in it), but I realized I didn't want to spend all my time scanning photos of somebody else's kids at Disneyland. Much better to be poor.</p>

<p>Anyway, I have explored some of the online scanning services and spent many, many hours scanning myself and discovered that you will do a much better job if you just do it yourself, no matter how awful it is. Most of the online services will do a few scans for free and I've compared the samples to my own work. No comparison. My work is much better. No surprise because I take the time to scan each image carefully, but the professional services just run the slides or photos through an automated process. They simply can't afford the time to do it right and still make a profit. </p>

<p>As far as now or later is concerned, I would say now. Your images are deteriorating as I write this and will get worse and worse over time. I don't foresee any big improvements in scanning technology coming either. In fact, some of the really good film scanners have been discontinued and there are no replacements available. Once I'm done with my slides, I'm going to sell my Nikon film scanner at a profit. Besides, the current scanning technology can read more data than exists in your images anyway.</p>

<p>With all that said, I'm almost done scanning the 2,000 or so 35mm slides in my closet and it's a great feeling. It's only taken me about 20 years!</p>

<p>Sorry I can't be more positive. That's just the way it is. Why don't you set up your flatbed scanner and just do a few every evening until you're done? A couple of beers can help. </p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Did you buy a Mac?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, I still have my PC, but I'm tech support for my girlfriend's Mac and the two Macs my parents own.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>You can live in fear but you seem to me to be a rather intelligent fellow who doesn't subscribe to the FUD of others.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>By "what to do about it" I meant "what the fix is, if there is one." I had to Google "FUD," and that's not me.</p>

 

<p>Not sure what to do about it yet.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.money.cnn.com/2015/06/03/technology/mac-bug/index.html">www.money.cnn.com/2015/06/03/technology/mac-bug/index.html</a></p>

<p>You guys answered my question. I wondered if you could set up a NAS at someone else's house and have off-site backup and remote access to data, and, apparently, you can. Cool!</p>

<p>Cool. Thanks!</p>