Thanks Tariq; I agree completely re. towers (desktops).
I got rid of my quad-core Mac Pro (best video cards, 12GB RAM, and solid state systems drive, etc.) when I ran the quadcore i7 MacBook Pro against it using Geekbench.com: the tower scored 4,700—the laptop scored 11,700!
It's all I use now, and for photo work, I simply connect my external drives and the 30" screen.
I found the form factor of both of the Airs is lovely, but for me, not for work. And understand completely about enjoying the projects (we are on the alt board, after all!).
I got rid of my quad-core Mac Pro (best video cards, 12GB RAM, and solid state systems drive, etc.) when I ran the quadcore i7 MacBook Pro against it using Geekbench.com: the tower scored 4,700—the laptop scored 11,700!
It's all I use now, and for photo work, I simply connect my external drives and the 30" screen.
I found the form factor of both of the Airs is lovely, but for me, not for work. And understand completely about enjoying the projects (we are on the alt board, after all!).
Your Geekbench score is almost exactly what mine is for my almost two year old desktop Hackintosh. My 64bit score is just over 11,000. It really is amazing a laptop can achieve this today. That's quite a performance jump in a short period. My biggest pet peeve with the airs is their terrible screen quality - in fact, that goes for most of the Macbooks. I don't understand why an iPad has a nice IPS screen with wide viewing angles and decent off-angle color consistency yet the Airs and Macbooks don't. This is really the main thing which has prevented an Apple laptop purchase since my last one - which was a G4 Powerbook!
Tarig, the glass screens are simply horrible, full stop. I paid for the high-res matte screen for the laptop (which runs 64 bit natively) and whenever I sit in an airport (often!) I am SO glad I did. I have a 13" MBP here too (a full 2lbs lighter), but I simply do not find myself wanting to carry it, because of the screen. IMHO, Apple made a huge mistake going shiny glass for laptops.
Agree 100% re the Air screens, too. And don't forget the generation of laptops that 'forgot' that all pro. video and audio gear uses FireWire 800 connectors! I skipped that generation completely.
Kit, I don't see much hint of blue/cyan after applying the peripheral illum, so I didn't use the color shading correction. I played with it a little bit, it seems to affect the color of the LCD only(?) as I fail to see any effect on the jpg or raw, strange, maybe I did something wrong...
Kit Laughlin wrote:
Tarig, the glass screens are simply horrible, full stop. I paid for the high-res matte screen for the laptop (which runs 64 bit natively) and whenever I sit in an airport (often!) I am SO glad I did. I have a 13" MBP here too (a full 2lbs lighter), but I simply do not find myself wanting to carry it, because of the screen. IMHO, Apple made a huge mistake going shiny glass for laptops.
Agree 100% re the Air screens, too. And don't forget the generation of laptops that 'forgot' that all pro. video and audio gear uses FireWire 800 connectors! I skipped that generation completely....Show more →
Yeah, I know. If the upcoming HD iPad 3 has the screen everyone expects + the processing power + SD card slot, I may break down and pick one up.
Re GXR, I have been seriously considering one recently. Sort of waiting for more feedback on the Fuji X-Pro 1 before I take the plunge. From what you guys have been posting here, the IQ looks fantastic for a 12MP sensor. If it's even as good as the sensor in the X100, I would likely be happy with it. Kit, you mentioned you are using yours for work. Has the smaller 12MP file size not been an issue for clients?
Tariq Gibran wrote:
It's the desktops which you would save a ton of money on.
Yup. I've always built my own machines (desktops and servers), ever since discrete motherboards have been available to purchase.
I also like buying exactly the components I want. It isn't always cheaper than a desktop bundle from Dell (at least not in Canada) but usually I get exactly what I want for the same or somewhat less. Compared to Mac Pro, a lot less... I could build two really nicely configured machines for the same price. Kinda kicking myself for not acting on this sooner.
The newer Intel chips certainly have upped the performance ante. My Intel Core i5 2520 Sandy Bridge laptop (windows only probably destined to stay that way but maybe it'll surprise me and be supported) runs rings around my current work desktop.
I saw a relatively recent Hackintosh build using an Asus motherboard I'd planned on buying anyway - Core i7 2600K - Geekbench of ~ 13,000 without overclocking the CPU. I guess there isn't as big a performance jump delta over the last year or so.
aleksanderpolo wrote:
Kit, I tried the CV 15 on GXR today. There are some vignetting on the short edge (I shoot 3:2 ratio), so I tried the "peripheral illum" from 0 to +3. The +3 setting seems to correct most of the vignetting, so I have it set in my CV15's in camera profile now. When I change lens, I will remember to load the CV15's profile for correction.
Guaranteed that at some point you will forget to change this setting... IMO, if it bothers you, Cornerfix would probably be a more perfect final solution in terms of eliminating all vignetting and colour shift and can be done after the fact so you don't have to think about it while shooting. Unless you're a Jpeg shooter.
Kit Laughlin wrote:
kosmo, I'd be very grateful if you could send me your default setup; I find that all files processed by RRP are a stop or so underexposed, and cold (skin tones, especially), even after careful WB. I need to re-read the manual, probably, but files straight out of Aperture with 'as shot' settings look almost perfect to my eye (not talking about the false colour and the other problems being discussed above).
Not sure if it would be worth the hassle, but you could take a RPP processed file, and in Photoshop, add a Hue/Sat layer desaturating 100%, drop an Aperture processed version of it on top as a layer, and set that layer to Color mode. This should give you the sharpness of RPP processing with the colour of the Aperture file. An unknown variable will be that desaturating the RPP layer may change the tonal relationships somewhat..
michaelwatkins wrote:
I saw a relatively recent Hackintosh build using an Asus motherboard I'd planned on buying anyway - Core i7 2600K - Geekbench of ~ 13,000 without overclocking the CPU. I guess there isn't as big a performance jump delta over the last year or so.
My performance is due to a little overclocking of the I7 (2.8 to 3.2Ghz) I'm using but the largest performance boost was likely buying very fast ram, DDR3 2000 G. Skill, and tweaking it's settings in the bios. This took me from a Geekbench of around 7500 to just over 11000! I would bet with current processors and whatever high speed memory is available today, similar increases (stable and reliable increases of course) could be had - so maybe 16,000 or better? I used a Gigabyte board as that seemed to be the most compatible at the time.
Kit, you mentioned you are using yours for work. Has the smaller 12MP file size not been an issue for clients?
not at all, and even when I was doing a lot of work for John Deere, I was using a D3/D3s for most of it, and all they cared about was the content, colour, composition. Most of my current work is for architects and interior designers—and guess what they care about? "Content, colour, composition"! I have to say though that, these days, most of my stuff ends up on websites or in brochures, at relatively small sizes (A4 the largest, for the most part). And 12MP can handle that easily.
As an aside, even though I have a 5N on the way (with the Hawk's adapter), it's strictly a luxury ('high end P&S') because, as I have been writing about elsewhere: it's number one in the 'carry-anywhere, at all times' bracket of camera (just because it's so light and small), and because I can mate it to that incredible CV 35/2.5 color skopar—incredibly small combo. I mention this because for current work, the GXR ticks the boxes with the CV 12 and 15 lenses. At this point, I will only be using the 5N with that one lens; it's quite a lit lighter than the GXR (and no doubt flimsier, too!).
Re. the computers: I found that swapping over to SSDs for systems drives gave me the biggest performance boost of all, but I had enough relatively fast RAM that this was not the bottleneck. PS opens in five seconds on the current laptop (and most of that time is the splashscreen telling us about PS); when I was using a fast 7,200rpm drive as a systems drive (on both the old tower and numerous laptops) I recall that opening PS took around 30".
Thanks for the explanation Kit regarding your client work. Interesting with regard to the architectural/ interior work. That's usually work I associate with high file size requirements that was traditionally done with large format. I guess it just depends on the market/ client.
Yeah, I will eventually add an SSD for the boot drive. I'm not quite dealing with a 30 sec. wait for PS to open though. Initial open might take ten seconds but after that, if it's closed and re-opened, it's very fast.
Actually I prefer this way as the profile has the lens name written on the EXIF, so I won't forget which pic comes from which lens. I use LR only, never tried Cornerfix, and found the need to import and export in other program too troublesome for me. For CV15 the vignetting is not too serious that needs to be corrected, I just prefer to have it corrected in camera so I can forget about it afterwards.
By the way, wish RPP can be ported to Windows as the result looks good (I am not a mac guy).
rscheffler wrote:
Guaranteed that at some point you will forget to change this setting... IMO, if it bothers you, Cornerfix would probably be a more perfect final solution in terms of eliminating all vignetting and colour shift and can be done after the fact so you don't have to think about it while shooting. Unless you're a Jpeg shooter.
Cornerfix is not another RAW converter. You run your CV15 DNGs through it, then import to LR and do your usual adjustments. The EXIF aspect is nice until you forget to switch the setting when using other lenses. Instead I just keyword the images with the lens I used, if I can remember... But you're right, the vignetting really isn't much of an issue to worry about most of the time.
I'd be cool if Ricoh developed the lens profile system a little more. Like a way for the camera to sense if you've switched lenses (simply sense that the lens has been taken off then placed back on) and prompts you to select the lens profile you've created for the lens. Feature could be turned off for those who don't care.
A lens change detection system and a user defined lens table would be great. Or, have the camera prompt for lens input (selecting from the user defined table) on power-up. That would work for me - I always power the camera off when switching lenses in the hope that a closed shutter will keep dust off my sensor. Make it an option et voila, for some people, a complete solution is born - no new lens detection sensor needed, just some firmware mods.
Incidentally yesterday was the first time I've noticed a spot on my sensor; using an air bulb was able to dislodge it. Couple months of regular use and one dust intervention - not bad.
Giant segue:
Yesterday I also experienced an odd situation - was out in the forest and found something interesting to shoot, when I returned I had only six images. I know I made at least 25 exposures. The card had been formatted the night before. I can't explain this, never have experienced data loss before.
Did I do anything different? Well I have been using the My1,2,3 settings just these last few days - I've embedded lens information in each otherwise the settings are the same. I realized that I had not changed to My2 (set for a ZM25) only when I'd more or less finshed my walk-run and I suspect I'd moved it to My2 for those final six exposures.
I'm a little unnerved given I can't find the smoking gun, so I've put a different SDHC card in and formatted it (normal practice) and will see what happens tomorrow.
Has anyone experienced unexplained image loss with the GXR?
Michael, I haven't experienced image loss with the GXR, but had a brief scare thinking I did once. I was out wandering around and had done a bunch of photos. For whatever reason, the camera became unresponsive. IIRC, the screen was black and it wouldn't shoot, etc. I turned it off and on again, but it didn't do anything, so I pulled the battery, which did work. When I went to review the photos, it showed me the last photo from the previous day, so I got a scare thinking it had lost everything I'd shot during that day's walk. Luckily that was not the case. Scrolling through the photos showed they were all still there, including the last one I had done prior to the lock-up/crash.
I'm not sure why this happened, and it hasn't since, though I have not used the camera all that much since then either (not because of this problem).
BTW, I don't turn off the camera when changing lenses because I have found the camera will reset certain settings when shut off. One of these is the continuous advance setting. While I don't use this setting often, when I do, it's a pain to have to briefly go and turn it back on if I have shut off the camera for whatever reason. Therefore, I don't when changing lenses. So far dust spots haven't been a serious issue.
Near as I can tell the camera was operating normally although as normal on a walk/run hike I wasn't chimping so I can't be totally sure the images were recorded. (Cue fish story: "The Big One That Got Away") ... They were the best photographs of my life...
The only thing different in my routine was the use of the mode dial - I wonder if it is possible for the camera to appear to work if the mode dial isn't completely clicked in to one of the detents. Will check that but doubt this was the case. If not, I'll assume a memory card flaw for the time being and am going to keep a close eye on card #2 in my rotation.
Interesting about the Continuous Advance being reset on power off - wasn't aware of that, good to know.
Dust can't be that big a problem - the NEX always leaves the sensor open (which I admit bothers me some, maybe that concern has more to do with my film experience) and I never once had a dust spot in the couple months I used it heavily.,
I don't use continuous that often, but yes, in PASM mode. I haven't gotten around to figuring out which combination of settings I like best to set up a MY mode. It would make sense though that if I set continuous as a parameter of a MY mode that it would remain active between power cycles.
