I’d been waiting for the time to put together all the videos, audio, and pictures for this review for a while and I’ve finally caught up on other projects so am getting this out for the listening and reading audiences to enjoy! For those that subscribe and read via RSS, sorry because this is a video-heavy post and you’re just going to have to visit the blog to get the content today! Trust me though, it’s worth it as I take a look at how the Drobo performs in a real world environment with hot swapping drives, and the perils and pitfalls that surround storage area networks…
Many times I have been asked what kinds of software I use to do various things for the blog, especially things like videos, screen captures, audio recording, and all that sort of stuff. One thing that I’ve never really talked about is screen captures…not the videos but actual still shots of things as seen directly on my screen. There are many programs available to do this, some paid for, and some open-sourced, with some being Mac or Windows specific, and a few scattering that cross both platforms.
Well, today, I am going to give a little nod to a Windows-only program, called Printkey. Specifically titled PrintKey2000, and under specific note that this is a freeware program (meaning it is not supported – to use at your own risk.) While I have never had problems with it, the mentality of “let the buyer beware” should always be a consideration when downloading applications, especially freeware.
Those in Apple-land know that there are keyboard shortcuts to do a screen capture of either your entire viewing area, or a specific window, and these can either be copied to the clipboard memory for inserting in an application like Photoshop, or saved outright to your desktop. While in Windows you can always use the Printscreen and ALT+Printscreen to copy either a full screen or active window to your clipboard, the ability to save directly to your desktop does not exist natively. Instead, you have to capture the screen to memory, paste into an image editor, and save out as a JPG if you want to use it. What PrintKey does is fill that void of directly saving to the desktop. This is especially handy if capturing things for posting in a blog, in creating documentation, and other useful learning resource outlets.
To use Printkey, simply download the free application from here, run the executable, and let the program start in your system tray. The entire packaged zip file is half a megabyte, so the footprint is super for those that are space conscious. Here’s a capture of the software itself in action (don’t ask me how I got it – that took a few minutes to figure out! LOL):
While there are many features wrapped up in this handy little application, the ones I use most often are the Save, Rectangle, Print, and then the dialog screen at the bottom of the screen (click the image above to see a larger view). These should be pretty straightforward to those who are familiar with the concepts, but here we go regardless:
Save – saves the current capture to an image file…you can specify whatever format you prefer (jpg gif, etc.)
Rectangle – gives you a + sign that you can drag and drop around a custom area for capturing only part of your desktop
Print – sends the captured image to your printer…(hope that was explanatory enough)
The last one is the bottm details area…I am talking about this little section here:
It’s very handy because it will tell you the dimensions of the image, how large the file is in terms of storage space on your computer, and how much free memory is left out of the total memory. While some many not need all this info, the geek in me likes to have this!
So, there you have it, Printkey2000 in action. I feel that I should also mention another really good counterpart and that is the program, SnagIt from the folks over at TechSmith. With that handy application, you can not only capture images on both Windows and Mac, but you can edit them on the fly, including inserting text, arrows to call out an area, and other fun stuff. Alas, it’s not free though – 30 day trial is allowed before you gotta cough up the $50! (Which for me is not worth it for something like this. I have some friends that use other applications too, especially for video screen captures on both Mac and Windows platforms which include names like IShowU, Camtasia, and much more. Here though, was just a little scoop on a little known application for the Windows crowd out there.
Got your own favorite little unknown program? Have you used PrintKey? Like it, love it or hate it? Sound off in the comments as new little handy utilities are always welcome. Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow! 🙂
It’s been a while since I’ve done a hardware review, and I realized that when the folks at Expo Imaging had sent me the Rayflash to review, I had also received an Expodisc. I know I recorded the video for it, but for some reason it never got published, as the two were meant to be posted back to back.
In any case, here is the long-awaited review of the Epodisc from the folks at Expo Imaging:
First – what is the Expodisc? It’s simply a disc that defracts light as it passes through your lens in order to determine the proper white balance setting for your images. Why is this a good thing? It’s a good thing because light doesn’t always fall into the specific categories designed by your vendor. It’s not always daylight, tungsten, florescent, etc. These vendor pre-sets can get you close, but if you want spot on white balance settings in camera, this is definitely the way to go! Here’s the short video I had put together a while back on how it works:
Do I like the Expo Disc? Absolutely – and if I were in an environment where lighting conditions change often, or it was tricky to determine (say those lights in gyms with the green phosphorous), these utilities are a godsend. Landscape environments can also be tricky when you are dealing with things like snow, shade and sunny areas at the same time, and portraiture can be tricky too – say you have a bride’s wedding dress, the whites of the eyes, and the teeth for sample areas – which do you set? Use the ExpoDisc and it will be spot on every time!
Thanks again to the folks at Expo Imaging for lending me the review units of the Ray Flash and the Expo Disc. It was a pleasure, and for those interested in learning more about their products, please visit their website here.
Happy shooting everyone – be sure you get your shots in, because there’s limited time left in the Circles contest for a lucky participant. Here’s the Flickr thread – keep on posting and keep on shooting! We’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
With time becoming and ever-increasing commodity, the ability to utilize speech recognition software has both benefits and disadvantages. And in the interests of sharing my initial experiences with speech recognition software here on the blog, today’s post comes to you courtesy of and open-sourced software application called “E-speaking”. On the initial install, I decided to take roughly ten minutes to let the program get used to my voice before it was accurate enough to consider using for writing a blog post.
It’s still clearly is not accurate enough to rely on 100 percent of the time as a stakes clearly will be made that require human correction. however it can aid in getting most of the content puts together for the purposes of blog posts, article writing, and book writing.
one of the biggest problems was in getting the software to recognize the term “blog”, “web log”, and the letter E. a dish rally it also had problems with punctuation from time to to time. The software also is better able to capitalize sentences when you remembered to state that you need a “.It ” at the end of a sentence. The other problem is that the software had specifically related to word press is the phrase, “new paragraph” which will automatically add an additional blank line between paragraphs. This was rather it easily overcome though, by having my hands near the keyboard.
two of the programs that I am looking to review stand here on the blog include “dragon naturally speaking”, and “Mac speech dictate”. Requests are currently In with both companies to see if they have demo versions of their software for review purposes . When I hear back from them I will let you know what their responses are.
if you have any recommendations, suggestions, or ideas for how to improve blog posting efficiency through programs like these please feel free to e-mail me here on the log, or in via the comments below. My apologies in advance for the grammatical punctuation, and other errors that are evident in this blog post, but I did not want to over-edit the content so you could see this state of speech recognition software.
as we move into the new year I am looking forward to reviewing an ever-expansive set of applications, accessories, and hardware here on the blog. If you have ideas for specific types of applications, accessories, and hardware please feel free to e-mail me as always at my e-mail address: Jason @ canonblogger .com . Thanks for tuning in and we will see you back here again tomorrow.
With the increasing popularity and discussion of video (we are always hearing about the convergence of photography and videography), I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the different video hosting services, and look at their functionality. So, earlier today I recorded a video using Quicktime Pro on the Mac, and tried uploading it to 3 different popular services: YouTube, Vimeo, and Animoto. Here are the videos in that order, followed by my thoughts on each:
YouTube:
Thoughts
Price: It’s free! Nothing beats free in my book, and with the competitive landscape of technology, this is pretty hard to beat.
Quality: The thumbnail does not look right, but that’s a minor nit…on playback it seems pretty good.
Ease of use: Another pro here as well…it was easy (and quick) to upload. It took less than a minute to upload, and adding the video details was also easy. You do need a Google account to do this though, but since that is also free, the downside here is hard to find.
Accessibility: It was VERY easy to find the embed code to copy/paste into the blog. And YouTube/Google is pretty recognizable as far as things go, so it’s going to be hard to compete here. But, let’s look at the other services…
Limitations: The only one I can find is that you are limited to videos under 10 minutes. You can do HD quality, up to 2GB per video (so no data size limit), with no waiting in line for video conversion or anything like that. At first I thought 10 minute limit was, well…limiting, but after looking at the other two services, not as much.
Price: It’s free…kind of. You can go the free route, but there are downsides which I will go into shortly.
Quality: It seems on par with YouTube in terms of video quality,
Ease of use: Also on par with YouTube, and the dialogs are very similar, so kind of a 6 of one, half dozen of the other sort of comparison here.
Accessibility: Vimeo videos are just as accessible as YouTube ones are, anyone can see them if you set them up the same, so kind of an interesting dichotomy here…
Limitations: Your limitations with Vimeo are that you can only upload 500MB of data per week. This may sound like a lot, but when it comes to video, that could get eaten up pretty quick. I didn’t see a length limit on Vimeo, but could be wrong here. Another limitation on the free account is that you have to wait in line for your videos to get uploaded. I uploaded the video 20 minutes ago, and still have another 40 minutes to wait before it will start the conversion for me. If you upgrade your free account to the Vimeo Plus one, you can get 5 GB of content, HD quality, no ads, and for $60/year or $10/month. Not too pricey, but again, in a competitive economy, it’s something to consider…
Animoto:
Not reviewable – as it turns out, Animoto only allows 30 second videos for free – everything else is a paid service. The price is cheaper than Vimeo for the service at $30 per year, and it does seem to have no limitations on video length or things of that nature, but the fact that you can only do a 30 second video on their free service seems rather lame. I realize that we need to be quick and to the point with our content, but 30 seconds? Really? This one gets a major thumbs down from me for this and on that basis would not recommend it.
Self-Hosting
In the interests of being as broad in the review process as possible, I thought it would help to also include the self-hosted option as one worth considering. There are some caveats to this though, as services and limitations would vary from one hosting service to another. I use Dreamhost, and I like their hosting, so figured it would be worth showing that here.(You can sign up from the link or from using the promo code CBPROMO to save 50% on sign-up!)
Price: Free…kind of. You do have to pay the hosting company for hosting your website, but as far as I know ISP’s typically do not charge additional fees for specific types of content.
Quality: Perfect! Since you are uploading the original video, there is no degradation in video quality – but that being the case, you are solely responsible for quality control…fair warning.
Ease of Use: Again, it depends on your host. For me and the blog, it’s pretty straightforward as I am using a self-installed version of WordPress and I am familiar enough with the functions and formats to handle it, but if you don’t want to be bothered with uploading a video via FTP, then referencing that source URL in your WordPress or website with HTML and all that, it could be challenging.
Accessibility: I hate to beat a dead horse, but it also will be a function of your host, and what format you choose to upload your videos. I uploaded the raw Quicktime video, so it will be dependent on people having Quicktime on their computer. There should be a conversion utility (I think it’s called jwplayer) that converts the .mov format to flash for easier viewing on the web, but this may need to be installed in your version. It is free, but could be a limitation as Flash viewers are more common.
Limitations: You are only limited by your own comfort level here – if you don’t want to deal with all the nitty gritty details, then this could be problematic. For those that enjoy managing all their own content, this could be ideal though, it really just depends where on the spectrum you are. For me, I am okay dealing with it, but if I had my choice between fussing over the details and using a service like YouTube to host it for me so I can go back out and shoot more, record more, and research more content, I’d choose the latter.
*****
So, that’s the top three reviewed for your consideration. If I had to vote on one, I would say YouTube gets the nod. Ease of use, lack of expense, and visibility is just unbeatable. But, keep in mind, that’s just my thoughts. What are yours? Anyone have any particular favorites or preferences for video hosting? Any I missed? Benefits and downsides? Sound off in the comments!
In other blog news, don’t forget, the post from Saturday (yes, I made a Saturday post!) allows you to embed your own photos to the comments! Share your own thoughts on the best photos of 2009 – they do have to be online (embedded via URL) but it’s a great way to share your favorites with the community at large.
Finally, time is ticking away on the December Giveaway. Over $400 in prizes including books, prints, paper, and software are up for grabs so make sure you get your “Giving” themed photo to the Flickr thread before the end of the year!
Before getting to the new video from Mpix, just once question: Did you see what they are doing at Photoshop User TV? To kick off the new season, new format, and new set, they are giving away a super cool kick %^&&* prize from FJWescott (those folks that make great lighting products). I gotta say, the new format was needed – fast paced, lots of info and no fluff no muss, all tips and tricks! That set looks super cool too guys – job well done!
Also, some major shout outs to friend-of-the-blog, Jason D Moore for his honorable mention in the NAPP sponsored contest “So You Think You Can Teach Photoshop“. I know Jason had his heights set higher than an honorable mention, but believe me – Jason really can teach the you-know-what out of Photoshop. So, if the software is what you want to get up to speed on – go check out his site and sign up for a workshop, because I’ve learned a lot from him. Major shout outs dude – congrats!
Finally, to finally break the ice once and for all on the Canon vs. Nikon debate, I came across this video from Joey L – absolutely hysterical. Thanks to the NAPP forums for the link, and if you want to know more about JoeyL, check out his recent interview on TWIP – great stuff there too. (He’s also on Twitter and worth the follow).
You’ve probably heard of Mpix before, at least because I’ve talked about them on the blog, and even shown some of the results in using their metallic inks to get some amazing prints. Well, I got three new products from them recently while prepping for an art show that is coming up the first weekend in December. To change things up a little, and give more of a “multimedia” aspect to things, I did a video on this to show you each product, as well as show you what to expect in terms of wrapping, packaging, and delivery time frames. It’s available on YouTube, but also embedded here for viewing convenience.
Have you had similar experiences with Mpix? Better? Worse? What are your thoughts on the quality of their service? Feel free to sound off in the comments, or over on YouTube. For the time being, keep on shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
For those of you on Twitter (and following me), you know that over the weekend, my iPhoto library on the Mac was either corrupted, or somehow compromised in its integrity, because when I went to add in a few snapshots to it for sharing with the Twitter-verse, it crashed on me. Believe it or not, I was not worried, because I had a back-up copy of all my snapshots on my Western Digital Hard Drive. I blogged about this puppy before, in showing you how to add a second drive to your laptop in 10 easy steps.
Western Digital Passport Drive
Well, not only is the second hard drive a great way to increase the capacity of your laptop, but it also saved my bacon this weekend, because when the library was corrupted (I use the method of not importing a copy to my library and save the library on the main OS drive), it was simply a matter of creating a new library when opening iPhoto, changing the option in Preferences to not copy images in, and then sitting back and waiting the hour or so for the import to complete.
What I like about this Passport Drive though is the fact that I have dedicated storage for my photos, music, and documents independent of the OS drive. I also can easily remove it from the laptop if needed. Lastly, I also like it because I can expand this fairly easily. To do that, I would just get another drive, plug it into another USB port, and simply drag-and-drop to copy to the new location. The old primary can now be easily disconnected, become a back-up, and the new one becomes the primary. Another great feature of these is that you can easily copy data to and from it, and with surprising ease. I cannot verify this, but suspect that these Passport drives are solid state drives because they don’t get very hot, and it’s just been so awesome for letting my photos and music libraries expand without me thinking much about them.
The downside? They are a little pricier than their larger drive equivalents. With the ever-decreasing cost of storage these days though, it’s well worth the additional 20 cents per gigabyte in my opinion! (My 320 GB was like $80 – it goes for $71 now at B&H.) You can get these pretty much anywhere from your local Wal-Mart, to Best Buy, Newegg, B&H, and other retailers/e-tailers.
Oh, and there’s a moral to this story too: always, always, always…back up your data! For more reviews and other information on this drive, feel free to find your favorite review resource online. I like the ones over at TestFreaks myself (although this is a rating of the 500Gb unit), but as with any review resource, your mileage may vary.
In other blog notes of interest:
The Flickr contest is in its final two weeks starting today – it’s a prize package of three pretty sweet items, so be sure to get your entry(ies) in soon. At stake is a $25 gift card to B&H, the 11th Season of Photoshop User TV, and a book from Photographer/Author, and Friend-of-the-Blog, Matthew Bamberg. The Flickr thread is linked up at the top of the blog, but here’s a quick link for easy reference.
Speaking of the links at the top of the blog – you may notice that more content is being added. The Navigation Bar is being reorganized to include more “About” pages, Archives, My Gear, and much more. Feel free to peruse those at your leisure. More content is coming soon too, so don’t just be checking things out in your RSS feeds – lots of content is available directly from the blog!
Congrats to Mary Angelini as well for her witty comment from the Scott Kelby book giveaway – stop by her site for a good set of photo galleries to peruse too (and to congratulate her).
That’s it for today…happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.
It’s kind of funny how things go in circles. As a regular reader of the Strobist website (as I am sure many of you are), I found it interesting that David was covering the RayFlash from ExpoImaging and comparing it to other styles of ringflahses over the last couple of days. The reason for my interest – today I am actually going to share with you some thoughts on the RayFlash specifically. Continue reading “Let Me Light the Way”→
After a couple weeks there of some touch-and-go blogging, rest assured, things are back into high gear this week. Today the trusty hardware review returns, and regular content is on the horizons for sure. Thanks for all the patience of those who have stuck around during some down time. Today, we’ll be taking at the Sigma 50mm lens, f1.4. Continue reading “Hardware Review: The Nifty 50 from Sigma”→
Another exciting plugin from the folks over at Topaz is the Details plugin. This smart little plugin is, well…not so little. A simple click from the Filters Menu chugs at your processing speed for a good while as it scans, reads, and takes your image through several unique variations of detail adjustments. With 12 variations in this single plugin, you can take your image from bland to beautiful in just five minutes or so (depending on computer specs)!
Check this out. I took a sunset picture from here in Colorado a few months ago, and ran it through the entire collection. Here’s the original image:
Original Sunset Straight out of Camera
Sure, it’s an okay shot, but could it be better? I sure don’t remember it being that plain looking when I pressed the shutter, so let’s take a look at some of the options available in Topaz Labs Details Plugin:
Topaz DetailsTobaz Labs Details panel - Set 2
With twelve total options, I was stunned. A slight difference between this plugin and the Adjustment plugin is that this one does appear to chug a little slower – each time it had to re-scan the entire image and the scratch disk filled up further, so by the end of the 3rd edit, I had given up on an action for PS. Just find your favorite initially based off previews (they are pretty close) and run with that for your output.
What I did like is that the sliders at the bottom were still adjustable for further image customization from the default “out of the box” adjustments that Topaz Labs gives you. I also liked the number of options too. In the Adjustment plugin the options were just a little too overwhelming for me – but 12 is just about enough.
My last note though, would be that once you have the plugin loaded, it shouldn’t have to reload again with the same photo still open. A quick scan of the exif data should be able to say “same image” and scan no further. That would allow for actions, and quick galleries of the various options for viewing full size images of the various options rather than the smaller previews.
What about the CB Crew? What are your thoughts on this short review? Have you used the Details plugin yet? If so, thoughts on the usefulness? Got a favorite details adjustment? From here (I know it’s small), which ones hold the most appeal for you? Oh yeah, the last thing – do you want this plugin free? Then get your photo in the LDP contest today!
Anyway, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow! Don’t forget to enter the contest… here’s the link to the Flickr thread!