Messages

1

Software & Accessories / Re: Adobe Creative Cloud - Adobe Owns you!

« on: June 18, 2013, 12:00:53 PM »

It still come back that after three years, sure you have a copy of cs6 but none of the PSDs you've made using CC will work fully. Then they jack up the price at the end of those three years and now your hands are tied. Do I trust adobe to support CS6 with updates? Nope. They've never done it in the past with any releases. They simply released a new version of PS.

Yeah, now you are just creating conspiracies from thin air. My files from CS2 and CS3 still work in CS6, and seeing as Creative Cloud is based very much on CS6 w/ upgrades, your PSD files will still work. Or, you can save them as .tiff, .dng, or a variety of other formats that work perfectly fine in a dozen other programs.

You have it the wrong way around. It's not the question if your CS6 files are going to work in CC but if your CC files will work in CS6. (As this will be the last version you'll be able to use if you stop using CC) And that is going to be a big if. That is putting a lot of trust into Adobe and their shareholders. If they at some point decide to change the PSD format so it wont be compatible with non CC versions you'll be stuck dead in the water. Since the updates will pretty much roll out without you knowing about it they can all of a sudden switch off compatibility and by the time you realize what happened a big chuck of your work may already have been saved in the new format.

I am not again CC, but I am against having CC as the only option. Because this clearly points out that Adobe wants to pressure people into the CC model. They do not want to give people a choice. And a company who does that might just decide to up the pressure a bit more down the line. TIFF and DNG are all fine as long as you don't rely on the ability to change effects or layers later on. Personally I often use that ability with my images and loosing the actual PSD with all it's functions would mean I would have to start from scratch.

2

Site Information / Re: CR wobbly

« on: June 18, 2013, 06:31:11 AM »

Right now everything seems stable. No more troubles since yesterday, so whatever you did seems to be working.

Speaking if which, what did you actually do? Would love to get some insight into that.

3

Software & Accessories / Re: Adobe to Stop Making Packaged Software

« on: June 18, 2013, 03:37:43 AM »

According to Photo Rumors Adobe is considering a new $9.99, 3 year pricing model for Photoshop Creative Cloud

http://photorumors.com/2013/06/16/adobe-is-considering-new-pricing-models-for-creative-cloud/

I think the bottom line they still seem to be missing.

 There are a LOT of people out there that do not want to RENT software, they'd rather purchase it and use it as long as they want, even un-attached to the internet.

Totally agree, I do not ever want a subscription model no matter how little the cost in the beginning. (Because it will get more expensive once they've got everybody hooked) I want to buy the software and then use it for as long as I want.
I have CS6 now and unless there will be a non-cloud version coming out that will be my last PS version.

4

Site Information / Re: CR wobbly

« on: June 17, 2013, 10:05:13 AM »

Keep having the issue over and over again. Happens mostly in the Forum but the blog shows a lot of faulty images right now.

Happens on three different machines. (Two Windows 7, one Windows 8 ) I'll see if I can check it from my iPad later and see if it also shows the same issue.

It seems to happen more often when I am behind my company proxy, but it does happen from outside the proxy as well. (Just seems to happen not quite so regularly)
On my work PC it seems I have maybe a 50/50 chance of a page loading. A reload tends to work, but often only after the third try. (Thus I really do not believe this to be a local browser cache issue. Pages that worked fine before all of a sudden break, then work, then break again...)

5

Site Information / Re: CR wobbly

« on: June 14, 2013, 08:20:23 AM »

Don't think it's an add. From what I have seen is that at times there are obviously elements not being sent. (For example a tag is not closed, or a " is missing so the next element wont get properly started)
From time to time I get an error from Firefox stating that an unsupported compression algorithm is used and it does not display anything at all. Interestingly this happens after I see part of the page already. So it looks fine for a second and then *bam* grey screen with error message. A reload tends to fix it.

6

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Is it time to consider Sigma lenses seriously?? competitive to Canon?

« on: June 14, 2013, 05:24:36 AM »

If budget is an issue Sigma lenses are definitely worth considering seriously. There hasn't been much info about the USB dock that can be used to fine tune the Sigma ART lenses ... if that USB dock works as well as they say it will, I think Sigma ART lenses are a great bargain.

Well, lens rentals seems to think it does:
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/06/sigma-optimization-pro-and-usb-dock
Makes me really hopeful about it. Although I have to admit I've been a Sigma 'fan' for quite a while already. I had (and still have) several Sigma lenses and with the exception of the old 24-70 I really do like all of them. (The 85 1.4 is my favorite lens)

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Site Information / Re: CR wobbly

« on: June 14, 2013, 05:19:37 AM »

Had it happening on and off for the last couple of days. I think last occurrence was when I logged in this morning. (Well morning CEST, so maybe 4 hours before this post) Not 100% sure about this however. I will report back if the problem occurs again.

And it just happened again, so at least for me purging the caches had no positive effect

8

Reviews / Re: Horrible experience with Adorama camera

« on: June 05, 2013, 02:51:50 AM »

Paying by wire transfer is a problem, particularly if your bank is slow or unreliable.  I do a lot of wire transfers to buy things for my business, and it usually takes a minimum of three days to arrive in the sellers bank account.  Promising someone a wire transfer in one day is  something that isn't going to happen. A bank agent takes the info for the transfer, then it goes to a wire room, where it must wait its turn to be sent, which may happen the following day (Unless you try to send it on Friday)  Then, it takes a day to show up in the other account.  If your account does not have the funds, its another delay to transfer them.

Sorry for going OT, but holy crap!
Is it that complicated to wire money in the US? Here in Germany the banks are legally required to wire the money within no less than 1 working day. And if you wire money within the bank from one account to another one it's usually there within minutes. Sometimes even if you wire money across banks. (Seen this happening when I wire some money to my dad or he wires money to me)
No wonder you guys pay everything with plastic.

9

Lighting / Re: Battery Mystery

« on: June 03, 2013, 08:29:25 AM »

The batteries are in series, so its hard to know see how a flash could damage one and not the other.  The batteries have been tested continuously at 2 amps, I think that's far more than a flash would draw. 
If you have a meter, it would be something easy to measure.  I had 3 of the Energizer Advanced Lithium's on my desk, along with a old Triplett meter I just bought.  Open circuit voltage was 2 volts on two of them and 1.6 volts on the other.  All had been used a equal amount, so there appears to be substantial variation.  I think the 4th battery was tossed and dead.  Sometimes things lay around here too long.

Interestingly enough I saw this too before I started using Eneloop. Often when I tried rechargeables the batteries were empty really fast. Yet when I put them in my charger only one would show being depleted while the other ones usually looked on the okay side. (I only did this a couple of times however since there really was no point of using the rechargeables with so little capacity)
Never had that issue with my Eneloops however, they all seem to discharge at the same rate.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: What wireless flash control should I get?

« on: June 01, 2013, 05:08:18 PM »

I'm probably going to dip my toes in with Youngnuo YN-622C triggers.

 I second the 622 as well. Only downside of those is that they are fairly bulky. The eTTL support is really great if you have flashes that support it. They even work with my Sigma flashes. (something that did not work when directly connecting them onto my 7D)
If you don't need eTTL however I would look at something cheaper. I also have a set of Pixel Soldiers. They are a bit cheaper and much smaller yet get the job done just as well if you work with manual flashes only anyway.  It would really help to get some more info on what you are planning to do with them.

11

Lenses / Re: Do you wish your 70-200L were black?

« on: May 23, 2013, 07:03:07 AM »

i am kinda torn on the white/black issue with Canon lenses.
I don't like the white look and I really don't like how it can attract unwanted attention. But the heat thing is something to keep in mind. I did a shoot some time ago in the blistering sun with no shade. Had my 100-400 connected to the camera and the heat difference between the body and lens was quite significantly. The lens at times was almost cool to the touch whereas the body itself began to heat up to uncomfortable levels. (At which point I began to make sure that the body itself was covered by a shirt or my own shade to give it some time to cool off)
Wouldn't have thought that the paint made that much difference, but it sure did.

12

Canon General / Re: Confused about this censor size info

« on: May 18, 2013, 11:07:21 AM »

devianArt appears to calculate the sensor size by seeing how large your original picture is. This is obviously a flawed mechanism if you don't upload full sized images. (And who does that anyways?) The idea is that if you cropped your image obviously the used sensor size is smaller, but again, it only works if you upload the 100% crop.

13

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D and rear curtain flash :(

« on: May 16, 2013, 05:14:49 AM »

I mean the camera sends the signal to fire the flash before the shutter closes and that's all the flash needs to do.

In ettl mode, the flash sends the command signals with the low-power pre-flash before the shutter *opens* - it probably tells the slave flashes "wait this time, then fire with this strength". The pre-flash isn't only for flash power calculation, that's why you need to have a pre-flash in optical mode even if all flashes are set to manual - and the new rt mode seems to be a 1:1 copy but with radio transmission.

But it is indeed a bit mysterious why slave flashes would need a dedicated "2nd curtain sync" capability for this, probably their fw doesn't allow them to wait for a longer time than 1st curtain sync (mere speculation)

In non-bulb mode this is true, but in bulb mode it's not. (Since the camera cannot know for how long I will press the shutter) Hence the camera must send a simple 'fire now' command.

14

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D and rear curtain flash :(

« on: May 16, 2013, 01:19:42 AM »

Well, the flash must support second or rear curtain sync too, or it isn't there to use.

And that is the thing I really don't understand. What great magic must the flash know in order to be able to rear-synch? I mean the camera sends the signal to fire the flash before the shutter closes and that's all the flash needs to do. This is especially true for bulb mode since in that case Canon cannot even do it's famed 'I'll send the shutter speed setting to the flash' since the camera doesn't know the shutter length anyway. So it should just send a dumb 'fire now' command.
I have done the combining of flashes that you described but that is pretty much useless for me. I need all my flashes to fire on the rear curtain and not have some of them fire on first curtain and some on the rear curtain. (Well, I guess I could see one or two applications were this would be a fun thing to do, but not for the majority of my pictures)
This is turning out to be much more annoying and certainly a lot more expensive than I thought it would

15

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D and rear curtain flash :(

« on: May 15, 2013, 01:17:45 PM »

Pixel soldier triggers don't support rear curtain, hss, etc. Your trigger needs to support it, and so does your flash.

You'd need Pixel Kings, YongNuo 622c, or similar triggers that have that capability.  If you're on a budget, I suggest the YN622c trigger set. It's cheaper and you get more bang for your buck than the kings, and with the right flash, supports menu setting flash changes.

Keep your pixel soldiers though, in case you want to remote trigger your camera/flash chain (i.e. Your pixel soldier plugs into only the shutter release port, tells the camera to fire remotely, which fires the YN622 or pixel king or whatever trigger in the hotshoe, which sets off your flash(es).

Thing is with the YN-622C second curtain only works if you have an eTTL flash connected to it and not a dumb manual flash. (At least not for me) Which again is fairly stupid. I mean for a multi-flash setup I really don't need intelligent eTTL flashes at all. A 'dumb' manual unit is much easier to work with anyways, but of course then I can't do second curtain again