A few weeks ago, my Safari 4 beta started to behave weirdly while starting up. At first, the “fastest browser in the world” just hung a few seconds after firing it up but in the end, it displayed a spinning beach ball for almost 2 minutes until I was able to actually do something with it. Well, I had hoped the 10.5.7 Mac OS X update or the latest Safari 4 beta update would cure the problem but no, they did not. Today, I was able to finally fix it!

After noticing several PubSubAgent Foundation::NetException errors in my Mac’s system log file whenever the spinning beach ball thing was going on, I had a strong suspicion it had something to do with RSS feeds. So I opened Mail, deleted the only exising RSS feed (Apple News something) and set the default RSS reader to Mail (was set to Safari) and guess what… everything is back to normal now! I’m using Google Reader for RSS feeds anyway.

M8, that’s how Benro calls its carbon manufacturing process for its latest carbon monopod & tripod series. According to a press release, the difference between the older N6 and the new M8 process is:
“Based on Benro’ Generation ll C-series N6 Tripod , the new Generation C-series M8 Tripods use updated QIHM-8X Quasi Isotropic technology, providing 20% greater strength. Magnesium and Carbon materials are used to produce a tripod that’s 10% lighter”.

At least from the outside there’s no visible change between M8 and N6 (I also own an N6 series tripod) but then I am certainly not an expert in carbon fibers. When comparing the MC-96m8 monopod data with the older MC-96n6 model the only difference is that Benro doubled the maximum load capacity from 10kg to 20kg. No difference in weight (shouldn’t it be 10% lighter too?). Anyway, with 740g (26 oz) it’s still a lightweight. Read more »

Yesterday, Apple released a new version of it’s photo management and raw conversion software Aperture. The issues addressed include:

• Nikon images imported using a direct camera-to-computer connection now display thumbnails correctly in the Import window.
• Fixed an issue that could cause duplicate image versions to be created after rebuilding a library.
• Fixed a library issue that prevented operation of the Relocate or Consolidate commands in some circumstances.

The fixed import-thumbnails issue is great news for Nikon D700 users. Finally, we’re able to see what photos we’re about to import from our camera. I also checked if they fixed an annoying EXIF metadata export issue when exporting a photo – and to my big surprise, they did!

EXIF data

As you can see in the screenshot above, EXIF Viewer displays the latitude/longitude metadata information in an exported Aperture photo when using Aperture 2.1.3. The master image was a raw camera file which I exported as a JPEG. Unfortunately, lens information is still missing in the exported photos :(

In a previous post I wrote about the possibility to use the Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX 11-16mm lens on a Nikon FX body – in FX mode. I detected some corner softness with the Tokina on my D700 so I thought it would be useful to have a direct comparison between the two lenses in FX mode. The comparison itself is pretty unfair because the Tokina was designed to work only on APS-C (DX) DSLR’s and costs 3 times less than the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm ultra wide zoom.

Weather conditions for a comparison test shot weren’t too good today but still sufficient to show the sharpness differences between the two ultra wide zoom lenses. Read more »

I’m in the middle of transitioning from my Nikon D80 DX-crop sensor DSLR to a Nikon D700 full format FX-sensor DSLR. I replaced the Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DX lens (24-300mm) with:

• Nikkor 24-70 AF-S f/2.8
• Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S VR
• Nikkor TC-17E II teleconverter. I’m still getting acceptable sharpness with the 70-200 tele. Of course this is a compromise and I don’t think I’m going to use the converter a lot. Maximum aperture is f/4.8 with a f/2.8 lens. The teleconverter also works great on my Nikkor Micro 105mm AF-S VR macro.

I still have my Tokina AT-X 116 Pro f/2.8 DX ultra wide zoom lens. I was thinking about replacing it with a Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 ultra wide zoom lens but the Tokina actually works quite well on a FX body like the D700 – in FX mode! Read more »

While playing around with the new geotagging Places feature in iPhoto ‘09 I was pretty stunned by the fact that Aperture 2.1.2 doesn’t export the full EXIF header info when exporting photos from an Aperture project. I already found out that Aperture doesn’t include all EXIF fields for its preview pictures but I expected it to write all EXIF fields when doing a full-size JPEG-export and the Include Metadata option is selected in the export options. Read more »

Even though I’m preferring Apple Aperture over iPhoto to post-process my RAW format photos, the new “Faces” feature in iPhoto ‘09 (part of iLife ‘09) sounded interesting enough to me to give iPhoto another try. To get some photos in iPhoto without having to duplicate them, I set it up to reference Aperture preview JPEGs in iPhoto’s preferences instead of copying them to the iPhoto library. The preset for Aperture preview JPEGs is 1/2 size of the original photo. Now I’m able to reference Aperture projects by dragging them to iPhoto using the Show Aperture Library menu in iPhoto’s File menu.  Read more »

My favorite GPS datalogger management application has received a major user interface overhaul. What a difference it makes!

Old BT747 user interface.

New BT7474 user interface.

The new user interface can be started using Java Web Start. Head over to BT747.free.fr and click on Install desktop version. Read more »

Much has been written about the “plays-it-all” Popcorn Hour A-110 media player. After digging through a lot of mostly very positive reviews I decided to get one too. My movie collection mainly consists of ripped DVDs (VIDEO_TS), .M4V H.264 MPEG4 files, lots and lots of MPEG2-TS files from my Dreambox DM800 HD cable tuner and a few .FLV and .XVID files. All these video formats play instantly and with no problems on my XBMC-enhanced Apple TV including digital audio passthrough to my A/V receiver. Read more »

Today, I was looking for a simple WordPress widget that allows me to statically display links to certain posts in the sidebar. I could have used the links widget but it wasn’t flexible enough for me. My idea was to use a certain custom field of a post or page as a trigger to display it in a widget. I searched for almost an hour but I just couldn’t find any simple, widget-capable WordPress plugins that could do this?! 

In the end, I ended up writing my own widget-capable plugin. I decided to publish it so anyone else can use it on her/his blog too. The plugin’s name is “Must Read Posts”. It shows your most recommended posts and pages in a sidebar widget or in a page. As the widget’s title is editable in the WordPress Dashboard you could change it to something like “Recommended Posts”, “Important information”, “Tips & Tricks” or whatever you like. Read more »

After installing the latest Mac OS X 10.5.6 update my Mac refused to play any sound. It took me quite some time to find the problem: for some reason the update set the sound output to “Headphones” instead of “Internal speakers”. Once I set it back to “Internal speakers” the sound was back.

Today, I finally received my brand new Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G Nikon lens. The latest model in Nikon’s lens lineup was first introduced at this years Photokina in September. I guess I must have been lucky to get one as it still seems to be unavailable in quite a few photography stores. It replaces my Nikkor non-silent-AF 50mm f/1.8 lens and from a Nikon point of view, it replaces the non-AF-S 50mm f/1.4. The new f/1.4 lens is the fastest lens I’ve ever owned. I did a few test shots and noticed right away that it’s pretty soft at f/1.4. Read more »

Here’s a review of iPhone and iPod touch apps that can be very useful to DSLR photographers. On one hand I was looking for iPhone apps which calculate sunrise and sunset times for a given location or even calculate the so called “blue hour”. On the other hand I was looking for apps that calculate depth of field, hyperfocal distance and flash exposure. I also had a look at some GPS coordinate tracker apps but due to (deliberate) limitations in the iPhone OS most of these apps don’t really work great. More on that later on. Read more »

The simple fact of notebook life is that notebooks simply don’t run as long on their batteries as they should. This is especially true for my MSI Wind U100 netbook. It came with a 3-cell battery that delivers approximately 1,5 to 2 hours of unplugged time. MSI offers a 6-cell battery and an even more powerful 9-cell battery is reportedly in the works. Read more »

I’m a big fan of the Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR II AF-S lens because it’s so versatile. It’s also a great companion to my Tokina AT-X 116 ultra wide angle zoom lens. Both fit nicely into my small LowePro SlingShot camera bag and it doesn’t get too heavy.

After reading Ken Rockwell’s review about the Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6 G I was curious to see how much sharper it is than my 18-200mm lens. Ken claims the 28-80mm to be “unbelievably sharp”. Read more »