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So on Friday I collected my new super sweet new Nikon D300 from Calumet in Euston. Now strictly speaking I didn’t need to upgrade, I’ve been doing well with the D70 I think and enjoying using it but it is around 5 years old and technology has moved on since. I got some money returned from HSBC from a PPI insurance claim and thought that I’d make a bit of an investment in a decent camera body. It’s not like I’m not going to get any use out of it is it?

So first thoughts compared to the D70? Well, everything seems to be in a different place but it hasn’t taken long to get used to that. It’s bigger, heavier and that screen is massive! I can actually check whether an image is sharp and in focus with it. The auto focus system is infinitely more complex and I’m still getting used to that. The whole thing oozes quality and even the sound of the shutter just sounds much nicer. Other little bits I’ve been playing with are the high speed shooting at 6 frames per second which is insane – writing 6 x 11MB RAW files a second! I’ve also had a bit of a go with the Liveview settings which will be great for landscapes or architecture shots on a tripod. The quality in low light is much better than the D70. I was shooting at ISO 1600 on Friday with less noise than the D70 at ISO 800! However this better sensor has it’s drawbacks, it chucks out a 11MB RAW file which is huge. I’m having to be a lot more selective about what images I keep and bin on my laptop.

The evolution of the cameras I’ve been using over the last few years.

Progression

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Since I got the Nikon D70 around 18 months ago I’ve been using BibblePro for all my RAW processing needs. It took a while to get used to it and it certainly has it’s quirks to say the least. However I’ve stuck with it hoping that the new version 5 sorts it all out. The thing is that version 5 has been promised for as long as I’ve been using it and has all but turned into vapourware as far as I can tell. I’ve also got sick of seeing this message on my machine.

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So, no more BibblePro for me as I’m going to give Adobe Lightroom a try. Hopefully it will be a little bit more stable.

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Game Over, originally uploaded by Andy*Matthews.

I love the retro games that are coming to the iPhone. Had to get the tube to work this morning and it was made all the better by a couple of levels of Sonic! Last time I remember playing this was on a friends Megadrive and I was probably 12 or 13.

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Now I’ve been enjoying using the Spotify service recently for listening to music at work and sharing playlists between people. I don’t mind the odd advert as they’re usually pretty un-intrusive but I think they need to target their ads a little more.

This afternoon I was happily listening to Queens of the Stone Age when suddenly an ad popped up for Pink’s new album! Not sure it’s the right demographic. More work required.

Spotify

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Had a few scary moments over the weekend. Managed to get some good shots (I thought from the small preview on the D70) but then I got the dreaded CHA error. I carried on shooting once clearing the error but knew that the card was probably going to do it again. I got back on Sunday and had remembered this link from Seb’s site. In the comments PhotoRescue was recommended. So, I downloaded it and gave it a go. Sure enough it recovered almost all of the images… so after paying the £25 for the software I had all my images back! Happy days. Must work out how to stop corrupting the card though.

Praying this works

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This site is now optimised for reading on an iPhone or PDA.

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Well looks like I’m not the only one who has a problem…

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So I’ve learnt quite a bit about google and how the search results work and also how my web hosting works. Always good to learn new things, especially nerdy ones.

Anyway, the site is back as number one on google.co.uk.

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Just ordered mine from O2. Going to be switching from Orange. Looks like I was lucky, ordered this morning and they’d sold out online this afternoon!

Should be here Sat morning hopefully.

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With a few friends switching to Macs I’ve been meaning to put together a list of ‘essential software’ together for a while and I guess this is as good a place as any. Not sure how I’ll group them. I may just list them all. I won’t include things that are installed by default on 10.5 just additional apps I’ve been using. There’s 10 applications here and I may well add to this list in the future.

1. MarsEdit
$30. Blog posting software from Red Sweater software. Allows you to type all your pointless musings from the comfort of your own Mac at home before uploading to your site. Also integrates with flickr. One of my favourite and most useful bits of software. Also the developer is very friendly and helpful. I’ve had questions answered with an hour on email. Mac only.

2. Handbrake
Open Source [free] but worth donating. DVD ripping software which turns your DVD’s in to nice 2-4gig sized Quicktime files for putting on your iPod, iPhone etc or playing in FrontRow or on your machine. I used to have a library of lots of films I had ripped. This was really good when I had the iMac as I would just watch films before going to bed. Comes in Mac, Windows and Linux versions.

3. Synergy
€5. A simple set of controls to control iTunes and display album art and song details when a track starts playing. Essential. Saves flicking between applications. Mac only.

4. GarageSale
€30. A great application that allows you to manage, design and upload applications offline and upload them to ebay without using the painful process on the site. It includes a series of excellent templates for use. Feels a bit like iPhoto in it’s layout and so useful. Also links with your photos and will host your images for you if required. Mac only.

5. GarageBuy
Free. From the same developers as GarageSale. Allows you to search ebay and save searches on ebay without actually visiting the site. You can also add watched items and even bid directly from within the application. Mac only.

6. iStat Menu
Free but worth donating. Gives you visual feedback about memory usage, hard drives, processor usage etc and completely customisable. Useful to see what process has brought your machine to a grind.

7. Mail.appetizer
Free but worth donating. Gives a preview of emails that come in to Mail in a semi transparent window. You can also delete messages or mark them as read without switching to Mail. Mac only.

8. Growl
Free. “A system wide notifications system”. A number of applications support this and send information to a transparent window. Hard to explain but very useful.

9. Transmit
$30. Simply the best FTP client for OS X. Mac only.

10. Time Machine
Ok, so it comes included with OS X 10.5 and I said I wouldn’t include items in OS X but this really is essential. See this post for more details. Mac only obviously.

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