Even though the holidays signaled the end of the Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai and Its Contemporary Material Culture exhibit, I was able to catch it.  A very interest collection of photography, some video, and strange sculptures (which were never really explained considering this is a photography museum). All on the theme of the changing Shanghai.

Most interesting was Isidro Blasco’s mixed media display which consisted of an overlapping set of images that were re-assembled in 3D on a wooden frame rather than digitally combined into a larger 2D image.  Most compelling was Zhou Xiaohu Temporary Sculpture which was a digitally created image of modern day Shanghai in the background with the old historic 2-3 story buildings of the demolished Shanghai in the foreground; at first glance one wouldn’t think it was digitally created if it wasn’t pointed out.

Overall MoCP was an interesting find in the heart of Chicago. I was a bit disappointed by the Reversed Images exhibit from the fact that there didn’t seem to be as much quantity of photography as one would expect for a Photography museum and that there seemed to be very little artist participation in the display of their work.  Most of the sparse signage was obviously written by the curators of the museum where it would have been more educationally, especially considering the cross-cultural nature of the exhibit, to have heard about the work in the artists own voice.

Another large disappoint I personally felt with MoCP was the lack of engagement from the staff.  There was a person (student perhaps) that was on duty near the front door who didn’t even greet us as we walked in.  An after that I never saw another person from the museum the entire time. While warm temperatures of the space was a welcome refuge from the winter winds on Michigan Avenue, the cold reception for visitors was a bit off-putting.

And, as far as I could tell, the entire museum space was being used for the exhibit.  If there was any permanent collection at the museum, I couldn’t see where it was.   (That being said, visitors need to make sure they keep climbing the stairs upward, the museum has three levels and the third level was almost missed as it appeared to be more of a staff access area than museum display space.

While these were just my wind chill induced first impressions, I do recommend visiting the museum if you are in the downtown Chicago area.  While I will be the first to admit that I don’t always get some contemporary photography, there is always value in expanding your photographic vision.

Since Snow Leopard is supposed to get rid of bloat in the OS, the last thing I did before upgrading was to record the amount of spaced used on my hard drive.  So the first thin I did after the upgrade was to check the hard drive again.  Ahh…found the change!

So, just by upgrading the OS, I tripled the amount of free space on my hard drive!  Lucky me, my hard drive was the next upgrade I was planning on doing.  Of course, since I do have a background with computers, the technophile in me wanted more details.  That’s why I recorded the size of a few of the key folders where I expected to see most of the OS changes occur.  As you can see by the chart above, I was a bit surprised by the results.

However, I was so rushed this morning that I forgot to check the Unix side of the house.  There are a number of folders on the Mac that are hidden and only visible when you drop down to a Unix command prompt.  I’m assuming that is where most of the hard drive space came from.  Regardless, I’m just shocked and happy to have an OS upgrade that actually gave me back space on my computer’s hard drive.

With regards to the other major improvement that is of interest to photographers, I haven’t been able to statistically test the GPU offload capabilities yet. Since I didn’t benchmarks any of my photo or video editing software tasks before the upgrade all I will have here is the observation that “it’s faster”. For more specific, see the Snow Leopard Benchmarks that Gizmodo did to show the performance boosts.

Aside: The GPU offload is achieved through OpenCL.  Essentially, OpenCL allows applications to use certain GPUs as another CPU to do work (see the OpenCL brief PDF for the gory details, if you’re into that sort of thing).  So, applications that don’t need use the GPU because they are not doing graphics, can now tap into that reservoir of power to increase their speed.  It’s like suddenly having a dual core Mac turn into a triple or quad core mac.

To be able to take advantage of OpenCL, applications do need to be re-written to truely maximize their performance and you must have one of the following graphic processors in your Mac:

• • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce 8600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130, GeForce GTX 285, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GS, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX5600
  • ATI Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870

You can find out which graphic processor you have in your Mac by going under the Apple menu, choosing “About This Mac”, clicking the “More Info…” button, and then selecting the “Hardware > Graphics/Displays” option from the content pane of the window that opens up.

The good news is that Adobe had stated that CS4 was Compatible with Snow Leopard with no signification issues.  And I have found that LightRoom also shows no significant issues (unfortunately, I couldn’t find a similar statement from Adobe prior to my decision to upgrade).

If you’re a photographer and working on an Apple computer, I highly suggest you upgrade to Snow Leopard as soon as possible.

After shutting down the system for the first time I can remember this year, I attempted to remove the drive bays and was a bit frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t release them. They have a small button on the bottom that you push and it release the lever that latches the bays into place. I could push the button in to the point of breaking my finger but the latches wouldn’t dis-engage.

Very frustrating! And a bit concerning.

Has any other ReadyNAS NV+ owners encountered the same problem?

I was eventually able to use a paperclip to force the internal mechanism to release (for some reason pushing the button was supposed to slide this latch behind the button down, but it wasn’t; luckily I was able to find the latch with the paperclip).

Other than this strange “hardware” failure, the ReadyNAS has been a great data storage device for all my media and photography. (Though I wish it was a bit faster, see my post about the ReadyNAS Pro.) I might need to start upgrading my disks soon, I could use additional space and I’m getting close to my MTBF.

Update: I just realized that the ReadyNAS web admin isn’t compatible with Firefox 3.0. That was the source of the repeated “system is busy” message I kept getting when logged in. As soon as I opened the admin interface in Safari, it worked as expected.

Update2: Since writing this (in the past 24 hours) we have had two power outages. One for 10 seconds and one for 1.5 hours. Both caused the ReadyNAS to go down. The first one took the RAID 3.5 hours to resync itself with no failures or lost data. The second one just ended and the NAS is staring it’s resync process. This has spurred me to go buy a UPS system. The trick here is to get one with enought power so that you can run the NAS and your key equipment during a short outage and shut stuff down safely during a longer one. And what information does Netgear not provide in their documentation? How much power the ReadyNAS uses. (You would think this would be available in the section talking about “connecting a UPS”?) Luckily, I have a Kill-A-Watz lying around and was able to measure the power usage. For those who are wondering: 60-65 Watts running. Thought it did spike to 80 Watts during boot up…

Some quick run down on the specs:

• 6 Drive Bays: Storage up to 6TB and including RAID6 support, which handles two drive failures.
• Faster Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (this should increase the read/write performance to the box, one of the issues I have with the NV+ while moving photos around)
• Supports up to 4 Gig of RAM
• Two Gigabit Network Ports with Load Balancing (this should also increase the read/write performance)

It looks like it’s only a slight bit bigger than the NV+, but has all the same features from connectivity and supporting your home network. Connect to it from Windows, Mac, Unix systems, even connect via web browser (which has saved me a few times while I’m on the road and needed something off the NAS), streams audio and video (I have my entire MP3 collection on it and just realized today that I can set up play lists on the device as well), and security means to ensure only those who should have access can get it.

I just hope they fixed the problem I encountered this morning. The Windows system didn’t automatically reconnect to the NAS (needed me to login) which meant that the printer wasn’t available either. My wife called for tech support when she couldn’t print. I should be able to set up the printer support so that anyone can use it…one less call for Husband Tech Support is always much appreciated!

They say this one will use on average 155 watts of power (with 6 x 500 Gig drives). I end up leaving my NV+ on all the time, thus power consumption is always a concern. (Which reminds me, I have 9,000 hours run time on my drives, I should start rotating them out with new ones to be safe…they have a 10,000 hour MTBF.)

The real deciding factor on this thing will be performance. When copying 15 Gig of photos from my laptop to the NAS or when working on photo right off the NAS, the NV+ is a bit too slow for my tastes. (which reminds me, I had a set of performance stats I ran on this thing when I bought it…don’t think I ever posted them…hmm…) I isolated it down to the fact that it wasn’t using all the network bandwidth available so it must have been a bottleneck on the NV+ CPU. With a faster CPU and Load Balanced network ports on the Pro, it could be interesting.

I much prefer the NAS to the other storage strategies of USB connected drives or drive systems (aka, Drobo)…less stuff to have to plug in and deal with. And the NAS is always accessible to me, even when I’m on the road! All I do is plug into my Gigabit network when doing photo work, and just work. I have automation routines set up to keep my data synced between my laptop and the NAS in the background…even as I’m roaming around the house wirelessly…

The best way to understand what Viveza can do for you, is to watch the “lessons” that Nik Software has prepared on their website. After watching the “Introduction”, I think you’ll be longing for this tool just as I am. At $250, it’s not a cheap tool, but when you consider the control that it provides and the fact that some of the similar adjustments without it would take you hours on a Wacom tablet with layer masks, I think it’s money well spent.

(Oh, and they have a 15 day free trial available so you can try before you buy…I tested it out tonight and it suddenly jumped to the top of my list of new purchases…)

Dust is the worst enemy to any SLR camera, film or digital. You change lenses, you do it in a hurry, in less than ideal conditions (like on a windy beach or in the middle of a forest) and dust gets inside your camera. This dust would show itself up as specks on film; luckily it would only be on a few frames since the dust would move along with the film as it advanced. With digital cameras, that dust speck is on every single image until you clean it off.

Until now, I always took my DSLR to a professional to have the insides cleaned. The sensor inside your digital camera is very sensitive and can be easily damage. So I always figured a professional was the safest bet; even if it did feel like throwing money away at times. And, as I learned today, they tended to know more information about the gotchas of cleaning a sensor. For example, the Canon cameras (I have a D20) have a sticky substance on the frame around the sensor. The purpose of the substance is to trap anything that might get close to the sensor. The downside, is when cleaning it is easy to accidentally get this goo on the sensor (and then you need yet another cleaning solution to get it off…). Luckily, I learned this from one of the knowledgeable folks at Calumet Photo in San Francisco–thanks for the heads up!

Today, I cleaned the sensor myself using the Green Clean Sensor Cleaning System. This system was released to market back in March time frame. Since then, it has become one of the best sensor cleaning systems available. The System consists of a can of compressed air and a vacuum attachment–this turns the compressed air into a mini-vacuum to suck any loose dirt or dust off your camera (camera internals, sensor, lenses, eye piece, etc.). The hose for the vacuum has a sterile plastic wand that attaches to the end, this is used to pull dust off the sensor. Since it is sterile (you remove it from its bag just before you use it), if you accidentally touch the sensor with it there is much less chance of transferring anything to the sensor or damaging the sensor. This is the trickiest part, since it is hard to see inside the camera body and it is easy to touch the sensor with the wand (I did it, luckily no damage!).

Next, there are two cleaning swabs. First a wet swab to clean any residue off the sensor. Second a dry swab to clear away the cleaning solution from the first. Here is where you need to be careful of not touching the edge of the sensor (remember the sticky goo on the Canon’s?). Both swabs come sealed and you open them just before you use them. The kit comes with enough swabs and sterile wands for three cleanings.

I really like this system. It is easy to use, and well documented. You can visit the website for a demo movie showing you the steps of cleaning the sensor (they even have a download version for offline viewing on your laptop in the field). The most surprising thing is how little dust there was on the sensor after 15 months of use with no cleaning (and many lens changes). I found most of my dust on the lens housing and eye piece. Which will get a more frequent cleaning with the vacuum from this kit.

If your afraid of cleaning your own sensor, this might be the kit to try. Just take your time and follow the directions. You’ll be happy with the next photo you take.

Check out Jott. A free services that provides just that. Set up an account, dial a toll free number, and record up to 30 seconds of a message that will get transcribed and emailed to you (or someone else for that matter if you enter their info into your account). As a photographer, I can see a dozen or more ways to use Jott. Since I have started using this services, I tend to send myself at least two Jotts a day. Whenever it’s easier to record verbal note versus typing up an email on my Palm Treo (this usually involves rush our traffic…).

These are the typical answers any photographer would have given when faced with the same question. Well, technology has provided us with another answer. SLRGear.com has a wonderful set of technical lens reviews available on their website. These lens reviews go way beyond the type of testing that I have seen from any other review source.

The team at SLRGear (which is part of Imaging Resource) have utilized DxO Labs’ DxO Analyzer software to mathematically characterize the optical performance of lens/camera systems. SLRGear then takes this mathematical data and plots it in a four dimensional model that lets you see the optical performance of a lens across it’s entire focal length and aperture ranges. For the amount of data that is generated through the testing, this four dimensional model is a wonderful way of seeing the performance of a specific lens…even if it does take some time to wrap your mind around viewing the data.

Below are two screen captures that I took of the graphs for the Canon 50mm f1.4/USM lens tested first on a Canon 20D (partial frame sensor) and then on a Canon 5D (full frame sensor). Note: since the 50mm lens is a prime lens, these graphs are three dimensional, not four.

So what exactly are you seeing? SLRGear provides the full details on how they test lenses. However, I’ll try to condense it down to the basic details. A picture is taken with each lens/camera combination of an extremely flat surface that has a precisely spaced grid of dots. Multiple pictures are taken at each focal length and aperture setting of the lens/camera. The DxO Analyzer software then analyzes those images to determine the Blur Measurement from 17 points across the frame. This data is then displayed in the two dimensional surface plot seen above—the rectangle is the frame and the color coding and warping indicates the amount of blur. As you adjust the aperture or focal length slider, the graph changes to show which parts of the frame are blurrier than others.

So what value is this? Have you ever bought an expensive piece of glass, taken some pictures and then were upset because they weren’t as sharp as you expected? Well that is probably because the aperture/focal length that you took the shots at is one where the lens performs poorly. If you look at the video of the 50mm F1.4 above, you will notice that the frame has a warped blur signature at f1.4 (blurry at the edges but not as much in the center). But at f2.0, the lens has low and uniform blur across the entire frame. This means to get the most out of this lens, don’t use it below f2.0!

In a nut shell, if you look at the graph of a lens and as you move through the focal length and/or aperture you see the graph “flapping”, it’s probably a poor lens that you wouldn’t want to buy. That lens has a very narrow sweet spot for sharp focus. However, if the graph stays largely still, then the lens has a wide sweet spot for sharp focus (which is probably why it costs $1000 or more…).

Using these blur surface graphs you can now determine the optimal range for lenses that you have in your bag. Or, check the optimal range of a lens before you buy it to ensure it is going to meet your need based upon your typical shooting conditions. If you don’t see your lens listed (make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page to see all their reviews), make a request so they add it to their list. They also have a great forum for discussing real world experience from lenses.

This is a great tool that you should take the time to learn how to use. You will end up with less frustration after a shoot and more pin sharp images.

Thanks much SLRGear team, keep up the great work on reviewing our lenses!

The first step when planning a DSLR purchase is to be realistic with your needs and long term plans:

• What type of photography will you be shooting? If you like to shoot action photography (from the kid’s soccer/football/basketball game to motor sports), you will want a camera with a better burst mode, faster shutter speed, and possibly image stabilization. If you like to shoot landscapes/cityscapes, you might not care about the burst mode or as high of shutter speed, rather better low light capabilities. Think about what you will be shooting and the conditions…

• What type of photographer do you plan on being now and in the future (or have you been in the past)? If you have a old Nikon or Canon film camera, the majority of your lenses could be used on your new camera. Eventually (usually sooner than you think), you will have a larger investment in lenses than in your camera body or bodies. If your interested in a better way to capture the kids growing up or family events, then an entry level camera might be more cost effective. If you have aspirations of doing some more formal stuff (weddings, fine art, stock) then you might want to consider springing for the pro-sumer grade of cameras (which have better capabilities but also a larger price tag).

• Don’t underestimate what “feels” right. A friend of mine borrowed my Canon D10 for a while to get a feel of it. While he felt comfortable with the controls (give yourself some grace for the learning curve here), it physically wasn’t a good size camera for him. His hands are smaller than mine and the D10 felt too big. He felt much more conformable with the Digital Rebel line of Canon cameras (one step down from the D10 family) which has a smaller size. On the flip side, I know some people who just didn’t feel comfortable with the layout of the controls on a Canon, but liked the layout of the Nikon (and visa versa). This tends to come down to personal taste and perhaps previous experience (not to mention that learning curve…sometimes one menu system just makes more sense to one person than to another).

If your unsure of what options there are for each of the above points, you might get some insight from taking the online market research survey I am conducting as part of a project I’m working on. This survey has the goal of understanding the needs and focus areas of photographers today, especially with regards to the Internet. The survey is available at www.focalpower.com and is completely anonymous if you so choose.

Unfortunately, the Internet has also supplied us with plenty of information sites about photography. One of the better sites for in depth information about camera bodies (they don’t focus on lenses or accessories that much) is DPReview.com. Depending on your desire for detail, you might get overwhelmed. (I still haven’t figured out if the people who run this site are ex-camera engineer or not…you start to wonder when you look at the details in their reviews!). DPReview has much more detail than either the Canon or Nikon websites.

Other great places for information is from other photographers. Ask them what they prefer, what their opinions are. But be careful here, you will soon find out that this tends to be akin to a religious or political discussion. That being said, there are some great photography community websites like photo.net’s forums and photoSIG’s forums. I have also found numerous other forums on different photographers websites, but they don’t have as large a member base as these two.

While there are a glut of photography magazines out there (with most of them featuring camera reviews), the two that I exclusively read at this point is Photography Monthly and Practical Photography (both published out of the UK). First off, these magazines are more information than advertising (can’t say that about most of the ones out of the US). Secondly, they have really solid reviews of gear as well as photographic advice. Luckily both seemed to have expanded their websites lately PM has a Camera Product Review section, while PP has a Buying Cameras section. Expect to pay a little more for these magazines (about $10 each) and to find last month’s edition available this month. I feel that it is a small price to pay for a good magazine for reading on airplanes. You can typically find these at Borders and Barnes and Nobel.

Soap Box Time: I just wish the editors of these magazines would put an online appendix of articles on their websites…eventually I remember reading something in a past magazine and need to re-read the article for details, but I then spend an hour or two digging through my old issues trying to find the specific issue and article (very frustrating in today’s information age!).

Now that I’ve shared my favorite sources of information, what are yours? I’m curious to hear from others what they find as useful sources of information.