MakingImages

I’ve you fancy taking a look at what’s inside the Nikon D70 you could do a lot worse than reading this. Some people are very brave when it comes to using a screwdriver.

This is good news from Delkin via Rob Galbraith:

Delkin has updated its Archival Gold line of long-lasting CD-R and DVD-R media to include a damage-resistant coating called Scratch Armor. The clear layer, which is on both sides of the disc, is designed to prevent data loss from “scratches, scuffs, dirt, chemicals, and fingerprints,” says a press release.

Archival backup is a serious issue for any digital photographer and the quality of the usual or run of the mill CD and DVD media is, in my opinion, not up to the task which is why I always use the Delkin Archival Gold product line to offload backups to. I’ve had a number of other named brand CDs fail on me some after only a couple of months and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

The addition of an improved scratch resistant surface to the Delkin line is very welcome indeed.

Shipping is expected to start mid March 2006.

My current PC is long in the tooth. So long in fact that it has become an obstacle and a bottleneck in my digital workflow. My digital imaging software grinds into life and the operating system complains under the workload. The alarm bells ring all the louder when you start offloading images onto your backup networked drive because you’re low on PC disk space.

The decision to upgrade was an unavoidable one.

The specifications of a replacement system were easy to decide upon. A large and reliable hard disk, oodles of memory, a respectable graphics card and a fast processor. The monitor is not an issue as I have recently taken delivery of an Eizo s1910 so a PC that comes without a monitor was also something of a priority. There’s no point in paying for something that won’t get used.

A little while back I heard of the Dell Outlet Centre. It’s where Dell sell stock that has been returned for various reasons but is in full working order having passed again through the factory quality assurance processes that all their manufactured kit goes through.

I heard of some significant discounts using this service so went to take a look. Well, it was a manic day with sporadic visits to the site made necessary by the astonishing turnaround that they have. No sooner had I seen a noteworthy system than that system vanished into someone else’s shopping cart. Then, a few minutes later, another would appear with a different specification. Some systems remained untouched, systems which I had already decided were not suitable, but some stayed for a few minutes (and in one case seconds) only.

The site allows you to limit your search by certain characteristics so I plugged away and eventually made a purchase at something like £300 off list price.

The (early) days of spending £2000 on top class replacement computer every two years are long gone and I’m thankful for it.

A new Canon camera, the 30D, has been released and though it sounds like it might be a re-release of the old Canon D30 sources suggest that it isn’t. Now, we’re all confused about how Canon chooses it’s new model names. It doesn’t seem to make any sense and, dare I say it, it might actually lead to product confusion.

Why do they do it? How do they do it?

Mike Johnston, over at the OnlinePhotographer, explains:

As a final test, a metal band is placed around the head of a Rhesus monkey. The band is tightened until the monkey is in severe pain; he is then shown the proposed new product name on a flash card and has to pick it out from among several flash cards of nearly identical names posted on a wall; not until he picks the right one is the band loosened and his pain relieved.

It’s a complex process and I can’t help feeling that we should be thankful somehow. At least to the monkey.

Sometimes, when a stock image request comes in, all you can do is wonder:

Do you have any pics of werewolves?
Preferably female?
Pictures by tomorrow please.

A rare print of a photograph taken by US photographer Edward Steichen in 1904 has been sold at auction for an astonishing $2.9 million. Steichen started experimenting with colour photography in the same year that the photograph, Pond-Moonlight, was taken. More details of the sale can be found on the BBC news web site here (including a representation of the photograph) and more about the photographer can be found here.