Welcome to my technology blog!
I just wanted to take a moment to not only wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season, but also to thank you for all your support and encouragement throughout the year! Looking forward to a great 2013!
May all your tech holiday wishes come true!
Terry
You forgot _______________. It happens. That relative or friend walks through the door that you totally forgot to get a gift for and you feel bad. Yep, it happens. Personally, I wouldn’t sweat it. However, for those of you who do (you know who you are) here are a couple of things you can do to save the day.
First off it may not be too late to give an I.O.U.! Be sure to check out my Holiday Gadget Gift Guide here. Let them know it’s on the way and just won’t arrive in time. I’d be happy with a cool gift that’s coming!
When you go to hang up their coat, head to your computer and fire up iTunes. Then go to the iTunes Store and buy a “Printable” gift certificate. You can print it (quietly) on your printer, fold it and stick it in one of those emergency cards that you keep around. Oh yeah, you forgot those too. OK, a handwritten envelope will do. You can then explain to them that with this they can download music, books, movies, apps and more. Whew!
OK, so the person that just walked in is not into digital entertainment. I get it! No problem. Head over to Amazon.com (here’s the link to get you directly to the gift certificates
Lastly pride yourself on avoiding the mall 🙂
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and get back to your guests 🙂
MacBook Pro 13″ Core i5 2.5GHz
MacBook Pro 13″ Core i5 1.8GHz
MacBook Pro 13″ Core i7 2.9GHz
MacBook Pro 13″ Retina Display <-HOT
MacBook Pro 15.4″ Core i7 2.4GHz $300 INSTANT SAVINGS
MacBook Pro 15.4″ Retina Display
Macbook Pro 15.4″ Retina Display <-The configuration that I use
MacBook Air 13″ <-The configuration that I use
Mac mini Desktop 2.5GHz Core i5
Mac mini Desktop 2.3GHz Core i7
Mac mini Desktop 2.3GHz Core i7 Server
Apple TV 1080p $94.99
Apple Thunderbolt Cable $44.99
Apple Magic Trackpad $59.99
Apple Wireless Keyboard $62.24
Apple Magic Mouse $64.46
Apple AirPort Express Base Station <-the new one $96.99
See their full line of Apple Products Here.
I’ve been a fan of shooting wirelessly to my iPad since the early days when I got my Nikon D7000Â using an Eye-Fi Pro X2 card. After that I configured my Nikon D4 and WT-5a module to shoot either wirelessly to my MacBook Pro or my iPad and now that I have a Nikon D600Â (and loving it!)Â I was interested in seeing how the new Nikon WU-1b module works. The idea in all of these scenarios is to use the iPad or iPhone for review of what I’m shooting with my DSLR and sharing with email or social media of quick event photos.
With the Eye-Fi and WT-5a module for the D4 you can wirelessly transmit your photos to a variety of Apps. However, the WU-1b seems to be narrowly focused by Nikon to shooting wirelessly to your iPhone or Android Smartphone. They provide a Free App (Wireless Mobile Adapter Utility) for both platforms (see my review of the iPhone version here). Once you download the App it’s pretty easy to get started. Just plug in the module into your D600’s USB port and turn your camera on. The WU-1b will start broadcasting its own WiFi hotspot. Connect to that hotspot via your smartphone and launch the App. Once you’re in the App you can either set it to wirelessly fire the shutter (with Live View on your smartphone) of your D600 and then transmit the image to your smartphone or you can switch the App to the mode that allows you to shoot normally with the camera and the images will be transferred to your smartphone as you take them. Whether you shoot in RAW or JPG the module will send JPGs to your smartphone. I normally shoot RAW to the 1st card and Basic JPG to the 2nd card (my Eye-Fi) card. When I’m in this RAW+JPG mode the WU-1b seems to send the smaller basic JPG. However, when I’m in just RAW mode it sends a larger full-sized JPG and of course that takes a lot longer. Speaking of time, the smaller JPG (about 500kb) takes about 5 seconds to show up on my iPhone. The larger JPG (about 1.6-2MB) takes about 10-15 seconds to show up on my iPhone.
While the WU-1b works as intended it really falls short in the review department. Unlike other tethering solutions you don’t actually see the images as they come in to their App. Instead you see a progress bar and once the images are there you tap to review them. Also while the camera settings are displayed, there is no way to change them in the App. Look at this is merely a transfer utility and remote shutter. Also there is no native iPad support. Yes the app works on an iPad, but in the smaller phone size.
Shuttersnitch is the App I use for All my wireless tethering to iPad needs. It works with the Eye-Fi cards and it works with the Nikon WT-5a module. The good news is that it also works with the WU-1b module. Unlike the bear bones Nikon Utility, Shuttersnitch gives you a great way to review your images as you take them, star rate them, geotag them and share them via email, social media and cloud storage such as Dropbox or any FTP/WebDAV location. It’s a professional App! I remembered that a recent update of the App mentioned support of the WU-1b module and sure nuff it works great! I had to simply turn on support for the module in the settings and just start shooting. The images came in as usual.
Shuttersnitch for iPhone and iPad
For the price, there’s really no reason not to get the WU-1b module if you have a Nikon D600. It provides a pretty painless way to get images from your Nikon D600 wirelessly to your smartphone and it can work anywhere since it creates its own ad-hoc network. Add the Shuttersnitch App and you’ll be even happier with it. Oh yeah, one more thing: Nikon can you please explain why the Nikon WT-5a (for the Nikon D4) costs $500 more than the WU-1b (for the Nikon D600)? Is there really $500 more technology in the WT-5a? I’m thinking not! Yes I see the price is coming down on it from the outrageous $877 that I originally paid, but really? c-mon!
While I’ve already published my uber 2012 Holiday Gadget Gift Guide, I realize that I have quite a few photographers following me here. Therefore, I thought I’d share my Top 20 Picks for Photography Gift Ideas. These are among my favorite and most used products.
So here they are in no particular order:
Westcott 7′ Parabolic Umbrella (White Diffusion)
Westcott 5501 Modern Vintage Background (9 x 12′, Onyx)
ExpoImaging Rogue 3-in-1 Honeycomb Grid
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Zoom Lens
Westcott Masterpiece Collapsible Reversible Background – 6×7? – Black / White
Westcott Spiderlite TD6 2 Light Perfect Portrait Kit Deluxe (110V)
Elinchrom BX-Ri 500/500 To Go Set – 2 Monolight Kit (90-260VAC)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Software for Mac & Windows
Mist X-Drop Kit, Quarry X-Drop, Saffron X-Drop and Slate X-Drop
iStabilizer Mount for Smartphones
Lastolite EZYBox Softbox – 24 x 24″
Lastolite TriFlip 8 in 1 Grip Reflector Kit – 30″ (76 cm)
Lastolite Kickerlite Floor Level Softbox – 3×4′ (91x122cm)
Lastolite Triflector MkII Kit – White/Silver
What could make Photoshop Touch on an iPad even better? Pressure Sensitivity! I wouldn’t dare retouch a photo on my computer without a Wacom tablet or Cintiq. Needless to say that means that up until now I haven’t done a lot of work in Photoshop Touch on my iPad. However, that may all change with the new Pressure Sensitive Stylus support now in Photoshop Touch and the Pogo Connect by Ten1Design.
See my video review here:
This Nikon D600 bundle is even a sweeter deal that the one that ran during Black Friday!
If you wanted a D600, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Get it here.
As many of you know, my watch is actually an 6th gen iPod nano. When I first started wearing it there were only a couple of different bands available. Now there are a  lot more. I like the Loop Band as my “sports” band. If I’m doing anything where I’m active the Loop Band is perfect as it won’t scratch or scuff.
Get the Loop Band here.
Apple totally revamped their iPod lineup including a redesign of the iPod nano. This basically means no longer wearing it on my wrist as a watch. I no plans to get the new nano. I don’t need another music player. However, Loop Attachments has developed and will be shipping soon The Clip. The Clip is designed to make the new iPod nano more like the previous generation and gives you the option to clip it onto your clothing and wear it.
Both these options come in multiple colors and they also carry other solutions for iPhones, etc. Â You can check them out here.
Lightroom 4.3 is now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the update mechanism in Lightroom 4. The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom. Also HiDPI (Retina Display) support within the Library and Develop Modules. HiDPI provides support for Retina-enabled Macs.
The following bugs that were part the Lightroom 4 releases have been corrected. The team appreciates the very detailed feedback the community has provided on Lightroom 4 and we’re excited to correct a number of issues experienced by our customers. These issues have been FIXED:
Continue reading “Adobe Lightroom 4.3 and Camera RAW 7.3 Now Available”
Back when I bought my Nikon D7000 I never really thought about buying the Nikon branded battery grip due to my use of that body as a travel body and the cost of the Nikon grip. However, the 1st time that I had to use it as a backup body when my D700 went into the shop for repair, I really wanted a battery grip for shooting portraits. Then I ran across this Meike 3rd party battery grip and decided to give it a try. It worked perfectly the entire time I had it. I sold it with my D7000 before upgrading to the D600. Once again I was in the same boat. I wanted a battery grip for the D600, but didn’t want to spend the money for the Nikon branded one.
Basically a battery grip does three things. 1) It gives you a way to grip your camera easily in portrait mode. 2) It allows you controls and shutter button access on the grip and lastly 3) it doubles your shooting time by allowing you to put in a second battery. In my opinion a battery grip either works or it doesn’t. Therefore, I have no problem buying a less expensive one as long as it works! Since I had good luck with the Meike knockoff for a fraction of the price, I tried one for my new Nikon D600 and it even works better than the 1st one! Better? Terry you just said “it either works or it doesn’t.” How can this one work better? There was one minor issue with the one for the D7000. The dials on the grip worked backwards. For example, if you wanted to go back one image during review you would have to dial to the right instead of the left. Weird, but I got used to it. I’m happy to report that this one works with the dials turning the right direction as you would expect them to work.
With any 3rd party accessory that accesses your camera’s electronics you are at some risk of it doing some damage. However, having used the previous one for over a year with no problems, I feel reasonably safe with this one on my D600. It comes with both trays for either a standard EN EL-15 battery or AA’s. You can get one here for about $68 or the Nikon branded one here for $273.