As a photo-artist I really appreciate always having a camera with me. Rather than taking a bulky, heavy SLR everywhere I have reverted back to compact cameras because they are certainly delivering on thin, light, wide zoom-range and gobs of features. They are also bound and determined not to provide a view finder - to [...]
This is the Canon Powershot SD880 but whats missing here is also missing on my Panasonic Lumix Tz3 - a view finder. Now I can live with a compact camera that has a paltry manual mode settings range of f4.5 to f12 for for f-stop settings and shutter speed range of 1/60th to 1/500th - [...]
Update: the price per gigabyte for a HDD has sunk to $0.07/GB in approximately a year and a half. Also see this comparison of HDD vs SSD trade-offs. But the most important trend is a slowdown in SSD drive cost/GB reductions forecast out to 2014. The improvements in cost/GB have already started to slow and [...]
Well we spent most of the weekend trying to figure out our benchmarks results - would Windows 7 be able to beat Windows XP in raw speed and performance? Here is that tale of the table:
Speed Comparison: Windows 7 versus Windows XP
Test
Windows 7
Windows XP
Copy 800MB file from USB
29sec
27sec
Copy 800MB file to USB
59sec
52sec
Copy 800MB file [...]
What becomes immediately evident working with a Gateway NV74 with a 17.3″ screen in Windows 7 is that its is lovely to have so much extra room - now there is plenty for PS panels:
The response time seems reasonable but I shall have detailed comparisons by days end hopefully. One complaint on the keyboard [...]
Well a graphics-oriented client currently running Windows XP wants to try to make the transition to Windows 7 from XP - so I have been commissioned to test out a Gateway NV74 17.3″ 4GB RAM, 500GB hard disk@5400RPM [Passmark rating of 1.243]. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. I think this PC Model [...]
Apple is getting a stranglehold on the evolution of computing devices, particulary for consumers. iPod + iTunes dominates the media playing world. iPhone + iAppStore dominate the phone plus highly portable app and messaging world. But Apple missed the boat despite a huge technology leads on the PC desktop and laptop world back in [...]
Just as Apple’s Snow Leopard hits the streets I just saw the Microsoft attack ad material - Apple 13.3″ MacBook 2Ghz procesor, 160GB Drive for $1200. $Twelve hundred when Walmart is offering on its website for $348 for an Acer Aspire 11.6″ Netbook :
Operating System: Genuine Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: Intel Atom Processor Z520 [...]
The NYTimes technology section is getting to be one of my favorites for finding out about the last electronic bling. With the exception of Apple topics, the coverage is not breathless fanboy scrapings of every detail of the Palm Pre or HP Mini Netbook seen on many other gadget sites; but rather fairly well measured [...]
One has to periodically check the markets for a good full HD projection system. Now full HD means 1920 x 1080p projecting onto a 6foot++ wide screen with a contrast ratio of 6000:1 or better. In short I want to be able to project to audience of 50 to 300 people with some ambient light. [...]
Video comes to SLR
Yes indeed, that is a Canon digital SLR with replaceable lenses - and it is a pretty good video camera. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is probably the epitome of what has become a gold rush of digital SLR cameras that are currently supporting video capabilities. Nikon has the [...]
First there were PDAs, then cellphones and then the merger of cellphones+PDAs variously known as Smart Mobile devices or Smart Phones. All are related to what was promised a long time ago - Preferred Information At your Fingertips or PIAF devices. Now after several innovative and ersatz tries by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm [...]
Video cameras are adding huge zoom capabilities. Optical zooms with image stabilization. The Pansonic SDR-H90 above is 70x true optical (think of it as a 37.9-2650mm (4:3) still camera telephoto range). The camera has a builtin 80GB drive and takes SD card with up to 32GB of memory for combined long play record of over [...]
Benq is showing the pint sized LED projector with power to burn … but this is just one example of the explosion of projector products that have been coming down the pike due to the miniturization of LEDs linked with ever smaller and more capable DSP chips coming primarily from TI. The result is a [...]
Yahoo/Flickr had a great idea for the the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. They would have two gals, Yahoo employees, ride bicycles with specially mounted cameras on the front steering wheel of the bikes. Then automatically, once a minute a picture would be snapped of the parade as “observed” by the bike riders/picture takers and automatically [...]
Nuit Blanche in Toronto gave me the opportunity to indulge a somewhat forgotten fancy
- collecting live theater and show posters. I have a substantial collection of about 400-500 posters from the 1960’s through mid 1990’s - but I just have not been going to shows as often. So collecting has slowed to a trickle.
But the [...]
I wondered why was Adobe emphasizing so much the availability of speed boosts for Photoshop CS4 available through a 64bit version and special video drivers associated with various graphics chips ; particularly for the PC version of Photoshop. So I decided to do some quick benchmarks on my Vista and Windows XP laptops using CS3 [...]
The price of Digital Cameras, Videos, and other Photo Equipment has dropped dramatically in the past few days. I just got a flier from Henry’s, one of Toronto’s larger dealers - and the prices are marked down by 15-25% on average. Sort of echoing what has happened to many people’s savings in the past few [...]
One can tell that Photokina, the CES of camera shows, is upcoming in Cologne Germany in mid-September. There is a proliferation of new camera announcements - particularly in the ultra competitive digital SLR business. Early this Spring, this site featured a story on the new digital SLRs. Yet already there are new cameras coming [...]
For the past few years I have been arguing that still and videos cameras are converging. Casio’s EX-F1 is currently the best example of that convergence. The Casio EX-F1 delivers 5 modes of still picture taking including auto-bracketing in four modes, multiple exposures from 2 to 60 frames per second, motion sensor triggered [...]