Dangers of short term digital storage media

Professional photography in the digital world. What are the risks involved for our work and our clients and why are secure and reliable grandfather-father-son backup systems crucial? Read more on this issue and understand why professionals invest not only in photography equipment but also computer backup systems. Know what you are paying for as clients and why some of us charge what we do and yet struggle to survive. Here are two similar research carried out by two different groups based on two different data samples.

Disk failures in the real world:
What does an MTTF of 1,000,000 hours mean to you?



Experts: No cure in sight for unpredictable hard drive loss



Those who have experienced it knows its unpredictable. HDD technology is like that. Those who have seen my workplace should understand why I have Lacie disks all carrying the identical data and also know and understand how much effort we put into data integrity wherever possible.

Personally, I'd rather be spend what clients pay me for data integrity and security than take a leisure holiday. You get what you paid for holds true.

iso [i, saw] unity

Just as simple as that. Very interesting and creative perception. This blog holding a 'competition' using the theme of our national day. Those who covered should send in their best pics under the theme 'unity'. Read their blog for more. Click on picture to read the blog.



Right click to open new window/tab please. Otherwise the link will open inside this frame.

Brunei celebrates her 23rd National Day

Today, 24th February 2007, our beloved nation celebrated her independence day.. a day late. The actual day was 23 years ago on teh 23rd February 1984. As usual, the location was the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Padang. Over 7000 members of govt and NGOs took part in the national parade with even more turning up in the form of citizens, permanent residents, ex-patriots and tourists. The main roads around the SOAS padang was closed off and everyone participating turned up as early as 5:00 am. Unfortunately, I was late. Hehehe. I turned up around 8 am. Sorry, I was busy doing some work until 3 am when my espeed 2 connectionn decided to pack up on me. Yeah, I'm now uploading the pics and typing this at Red Chilli in Kiulap. And worst still, the downtime had to happen on a weekend so no updates until further notice.

For more pictures, click on the title to get to the album. This album I've decided not to upload as flash so visitors may save their pics that I took of them if they want. Note: These ones have been watermarked. Those in the main open gallery are not. Also, there were so many photographers there today.. and to the point where I think we could have made our own contingent consisting of solely photographers. Maybe next year. :)

Update:
The entire series of pictures above was taken with the Kenko 300 PRO 2X converter.. yeah, from start to finish. Malas ku tukar. Mizi had a try with the Kenko 300 PRO 1.4X. Check out his blog for more info.

Dell 2707 WFP first glance.

All the hype. Dell's new 27" LCD with 92% NTSC. Is it all worth it? Here are the specs. As a photographer, color gamut and accuracy are one of our greatest bane especially in today's world of flat screen LCDs. In the past, good colour gamuts were always there in CRTs but the latest technologies and demand for flat and small footprint displays have made these a hard thing to come by. So we have to settle with LCDs. What is there out there for us?

Till today, most LCDs could only display up to the sRGB gamut which is much smaller than the industry standard Adobe RGB color space. The exception was a $6000 NEC LED display (NEC MultiSync 2180WG-LED http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/10/28/a_revolution/ ). Not quite affordable. Then Lacie's 321 which is essentially an NEC display rebranded (I've got one of these). The Lacie is an excellent display capable of displaying a slightly larger gamut (72% ntsc) than most LCDs and hardware calibrated rather than software.

This year, Dell, comes out with the 2707. A 1920x1200 .33 dot pitch (vs Lacie's 1920x1200 @ 2.7 dp) but capable of displaying a whooping 92% ntsc at 2/3rd the price. Too good to be true? I bought one. My old trusty Sony G520 was due for upgrade (though still displaying wonderful colours) and I needed a much bigger workspace. So I ordered one from a local reseller (Bilster) in Kiulap and within 2 weeks it was here. How does it compare?

Here are my pros and cons:

For:
27" is a big space to work with :)
Pixels are slightly larger but these are the limitations of single link DVI and our graphics adapters. SL-DVI can only support up to 1920x1200 where to go 2560x1600 e.g. Apple's or Dell's 30" LCD, we will need a graphics adapter capable of running dual link..
Multiple inputs - component, composite, vga, dvi-d etc with all sorts of gimmicks (to me, of course). See full specs.
The gamut is really much bigger than my Lacie 321 in the greens and blues.
Cool shiny brushed aluminium with glass-based stand.

Against:
Color consistency. And a really bad one at that.

See below (Dell 2707 PC Mode):

As you can see here, this was a calibration report from my Lacie Blue Eye Pro. Compare it with the Lacie below:

From these two charts, clearly, the Dell does have the bigger gamut BUT the variations/consistency of color display is huge compared to the Lacie. I've done several of these test and they are all the same. Dell 2707 WFP does NOT produce consistent colours. In fact, I found this out not by looking at these charts BUT VISUALLY. At the moment, my Dell has a slight magenta hue compared with the unshifting white of the Lacie 321. When I saw this difference this morning, I immediately set out to test my theories with the calibration reports. Everytime I calibrate the Dell, the color shifts would be corrected but after some time, the colors shift again. Whilst this is noy yet conclusive, I will be testing a few more settings on the Dell. There is a PC and MAC mode which I will be re-calibrating and testing.

I will update this after doing a final set of calibration on the other modes to make sure this is not an error on my part. Stay tuned for more.

Update (Dell 2707 Mac Mode):
Test 1

Test 2 (immediately after test 1)

Slightly better than in PC more but still a significant difference against the Lacie's 321 Delta E.

Conclusions:
A sweet large workspace with large color gamuts that are not super consistent like the Lacie. At about 2/3rds the price of the Lacie 321 for 6" more real estate, can we really complain? For myself, I'm happy with the larger gamut BUT I have my Lacie 321 to do my color sensitive work hence I have no issues. I cannot really recommend it to others who are depending on this for color consistent work because clearly, the colors are NOT consistent. Maybe this is a defective screen or maybe it was made that way.. either way, these are the results I have so far.

Feel free to ask questions or comments.

More Kenko 2X

All images here shot with: Canon 1d mk2 + EF70-200mm f2.8 L IS + Kenko 300 PRO 2X
@f5.6 ISO400

120% crop - wide open loss of detail

@f7.1 ISO400

120% crop - notice the difference in detail from just 2/3 stops down.





100% cropped from 400mm. Shot from at least 1km away similar to image above.



Overall, I would fully recommend the Kenko 2X. The more I use it, the more I love it and best of all, its less than half the price of a Canon 2X AND it fits ALL lenses (telephotos). Auto focus is noticeable slower though but still acceptable. One word of advice: TO BE USED ON HIGH END ZOOM or PRIME lenses only. These things magnify the flaws of your lenses so if your lenses are lacking, then it WILL show in the end images.

Buy it from QQestore:


Also worth noting:

Reviews for this lens is that it is comparable in sharpness and contrast to the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L at about half the price. Get yourself a 140-400mm f5.6 lens with this and the Kenko 2X for under B$1500.

Kenko 2X review II

This image shows a 100% crop of the bird. Its not as sharp as without but its pretty acceptable esp for web only images.



The qualities of IS. When used properly, IS can help with panning shots and improve your chances. Here, with the Kenko 2X, not too bad.



The more I use my 2X, the more I love it. Now I'm wishing I had a longer lens.

Kenko 2X review

Image cropped 100% showing 1/3 of centre resolution.

Not too bad considering its 1/2 the cost of the Canon 2X and fits almost all lenses due to its recessed elements unlike the Canon 2X. Images should be ok to print up to 6x10 being conservative.

Am not putting up the review on the 1.4X because there are already numerous out there showing its a very high quality and affordable solution to Canon's alternative.

QQESTORE

Today, I had my third dealing with QQestore. I must say I've been quite impressed with their customer service. These are the reports and findings from my intial purchase to today's.

My first dealing:

Canon CP-E3
Canon TC-80N Remote commander
- At first I was pretty apprehensive and pretty nervous about an online store in Brunei. 3 months warranty period for accessories etc. Well, I made my order and within a week, my shipment arrived and I walked in to collect the items. The staff was very helpful if not too particularly knowledgeable about the stuff I bought. That was not too uncommon but cannot be faulted. I walked away pretty content with a purchase of products under B$500. Not too bad for first experience.

2nd dealing:

This was the turning point. I recently saw a 'weekly deal' for a Canon EF300mm f4L lens for B$1198. Too good to be true. This lens normally retails for B$2200+. I contacted one of the employees and repeatedly inquired if the price was right. I was told it was. So I ordered it together with a Kenko 1.4x extender (teleconverter). The item arrived yesterday, however, to my EXPECTED dissatisfaction, the item was flawed. Hehehe. I still paid for it though because the item was still underwarranty and I wanted them to exchange for a new lens. Here is the breaking news. Later that night, I got a call and was later explained that the pricing they had put out was a mistake and was USD$1198. Ha ha! I expected them to try and pull back the sale OR try to get somewhere out of it. Hehehe. I had known this was way too good to be true for that price. However, they said it was their mistake and they would still send me a new lens! The order was put through and was expected to arrive this Tuesday.

Ok, though as much as I would've liked that, I inquired on how and why it had happened and who would be held responsible for this. Sure enough, one of the staff had owned up and seeing it was her mistake offered to pay for the difference. :( I left it at that that night.

3rd dealing:

I spent a whole night thinking about how I had gotten a brand new lens for half price and at the same time thinking about how that employee would have to fork out almost $1k to cover. I called them up this morning and told them to change my order from the 300mm to the EF70-200IS with a 2X extender and I would make up the difference. ;p Yeah, I know.. some call that stupid.. but that's me I guess. Anyway, my rationale for this was:

EF300mm f4L IS = 1.4x = 420mm f5.6L IS ( i know this combination is a tad sharper)
EF70-200mm f2.8 L IS = 2x = 140mm-400mm f5.6L IS (check out the combinations of Kenko and Sigma)
(Sigma) http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/browse?id=27798
(Kenko) http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/browse?id=13001

Whilst the Canon Extender is pretty much sharper.. somehow, I preferred the APO color rendering of the Sigma. Besides, my trusty 80-200 was due to upgrade and better kill two birds with one stone :D The other benefit of getting the 70-200 instead of the 300 is that the former has a 3-stop IS whereas the later manages 2-stops.

So I can expect my new 70-200IS with Sigma 2X and Kenko 1.4 this friday.

Update*- Sigma APO 2X EX DG extender out-of-stock. Getting the Kenko 300 PRO 2X instead.