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...  bars as it was on the EDGE network. ]]></summary>
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Source: http://duncandavidson.com/atomfeed.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<title>James Duncan Davidson</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://duncandavidson.com/feed/full.xml" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008-03-10://1</id>
<updated>2008-08-21T14:16:21Z</updated>
<subtitle>Photographer and technologist based on the West Coast of the United States.</subtitle>
<generator uri="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/">Movable Type 4.12</generator>
<entry>
<title>Room with a View</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/room-with-a-view.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.87</id>
<published>2008-08-21T14:09:45Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-21T14:16:21Z</updated>
<summary>After such a rocky start to the trip, boy was I happy to check into the Mövenpick in Amsterdam. We arrived a bit before check in time, but after waiting for a while, we finally took up residence in our room. We even got the view I wanted.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Travel" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="amsterdam" label="amsterdam" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="movie" label="movie" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[ After such a <a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/an-inauspicious-start.html">rocky start to the trip</a>, boy was I happy to check into the Mövenpick in Amsterdam. We arrived a bit before check in time, but after waiting for a while, we finally took up residence in our room. We even got the view I wanted. Here’s quick a time lapse video of it:
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Our view actually includes more of old town to the left, but for this video, I wanted to capture the movement of the boats.]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/room-with-a-view.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>An Inauspicious Start</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/an-inauspicious-start.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.86</id>
<published>2008-08-21T13:31:10Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-21T13:41:47Z</updated>
<summary>I've travelled a lot in my life and had some interesting experiences along the way. In a half million miles of flying, however, August 20th is a day that will stand out, and not in a good light.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Travel" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="sickness" label="sickness" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="travel" label="travel" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[I’ve travelled a lot in my life and had some interesting experiences along the way. In a half million miles of flying, however, August 20th is a day that will stand out, and not in a good light.
It all started out with a 3:30AM wake up alarm and dash to the airport to make my first flight to Chicago. When I arrived at the airport, I looked at the line inside at the United counter to check my bags and immediately pulled a u-turn and went to the curbside checkin line. Even though it was shorter since you have to pay to use it, it still took over 30 minutes to wait out the line. And I had neglected to notice one critical line of small print on an out of the way sign. Curbside checkin was for domestic flights only and since my final destination was in Europe, I wasn't eligible to use it.
Okay. My mistake. But the 30 minutes of delay meant that I was within the 45 minute cut off period for checking baggage. I zipped inside to find the United attendant that controls the lines and explained the situation. I got a very cold, “too bad, the line is there [with hundreds of people] and you'll just have to standby for the next flight.” She had definitely dealt with way too many assholes and wasn't interested in dealing with another.
I used to maintain status with United to avoid just this kind of stuff. Playing the status game blows, but at least it results in a slightly gentler experience. Unfortunately, I didn't fly with United last year and had fallen off the bandwagon. Sensing that the situation was going to be bad otherwise, I conveniently forgot that I didn't have status, composed myself, and walked up to the Premier/First Class check in counter and explained my situation, complete with a full mea culpa for missing the signage.
After taking a quick look at my reservation, the agent told me that I was indeed bumped from my flight. The good news was that there were two more flights to Chicago that would arrive in time to make my connection. The bad news was that both were oversold. The standby game might work, but might not. I wasn't in the mood to play, however. I had plans and didn't want to mess them up. So I asked the magic question, “Is there anything else we can do?”
”Well,” she replied with a lot more enthusiasm than I could expect at 5:20 in the morning. “Let’s see. [tap tap tap pause tap tap tap] Hrm. I can put you into your final destination by flying you through Dulles and get you confirmed seats all the way. The flight departs here in an hour and a half, but you'll get into your final destination two and a half hours earlier than you would by going through Chicago. Is that OK?”
I was stunned. Of course it was OK. Better than that, it was perfect. I had run into that very rare airline employee that cared enough to make things work out. Much happiness ensued. I think I thanked her twice or three times.
Even better, as I walked away from the counter to grab a Jamba Juice before going to the gate, I looked at my boarding passes and saw the ever so welcome four letters next to my seat assignment: EXIT. Oh yah baby. I finished up my smoothie, went through security, boarded my flight, and settled into my seat ready to crash out and snooze to Dulles.
Less than an hour into the flight, however, things went truly pear shaped. Something about that Jamba Juice didn't agree with me. Well, that's truly too polite. Suffice it to say that something in the smoothie decided to destroy my day. With a vengeance. I spent the rest of that first flight, and quite a bit of the second flight wearing a groove into the aisle between my seat and the lavatory. I'll spare the gory details. Let’s just say that if being digestively challenged on terra firma sucks, 37,000' while on board a full plane it is way beyond any reasonable category of suckage. Anything short of an unanticipated departure of normal flight would have been better. I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.
Luckily, the “Oh God, I’m dying” phase let go soon enough, but the after effects kept on giving joy for a while. It wasn't until I was well over the Atlantic Ocean that the beast was fully done with me. Finally, about the time the plane was over Scotland, I was able to hold down a bit of liquid. By the time the plane touched down at Schiphol, life was starting to look up again. Most of all, I was so happy about having those exit row seats.
Hopefully, tomorrow this will all be past and forgotten I’ll be ready to enjoy my time here at my destination: Amsterdam. It can only get better from here.]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/an-inauspicious-start.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Time for a New Drive</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/time-for-a-new-drive.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.85</id>
<published>2008-08-18T03:41:40Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-18T04:09:49Z</updated>
<summary>My Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro has had several scary incidents of late. There's been no concrete verdict on the issue, but it seems like a bad hard drive. After the latest little scare, I took a hint and picked up a 320GB replacement drive.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="backup" label="backup" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="storage" label="storage" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[ My Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro has had several scary incidents of late. There's been no concrete verdict on the issue, but each time I describe the symptoms to smart friends, they all say it sounds like a bad hard drive. After the latest little scare that yielded no concrete hints but had the same smell to it, I took a hint and picked up a 320GB replacement drive and cracked open my MacBook Pro.
Why buy a new drive rather than going in for AppleCare? Well, since the problem is sporadic, it would be hard to tickle it for the Genius at the bar. I’m sure it’d be a case of taking the car to the mechanic and the mechanic shrugs. Second, the current drive is a 160GB and I picked up a 320GB for just over $100. The extra capacity will be well worth it.
Cracking open a laptop is always fun, and the Core 2 Duo version of the MacBook Pro is no different. It’s actually a bit nicer to crack open and dig around in than the first generation MacBook Pro.
<img alt="IMG_1209.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/17/IMG_1209.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
The only thing that was a bit wonky about changing the drive out was the IR sensor cable that was glued to the top of the OEM drive. I had to carefully leverage that bit off before slipping the old drive out and the new drive in.
<img alt="IMG_1218.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/17/IMG_1218.jpg" width="375" height="500" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Other than that little detail, the replacement process was cake—at least for someone that’s comfortable dealing with the innards of a computer. Once everything was back together, it was time for re-installation and copying my data over. For that, a nifty <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBlacx-Esata-HDD-USB-Dock%2Fdp%2FB001A4HAFS%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Delectronics%26qid%3D1219032463%26sr%3D8-1&tag=x180-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Thermaltake BlacX SATA to USB dock </a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=x180-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> I picked up a few days ago came in handy.
<img alt="IMG_1227.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/17/IMG_1227.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Normally in this situation, I’d just duplicate the old hard drive back to the new one. However, since the problems I was having felt like disk issues, I reinstalled the system fresh—including pulling down well over half a gig of software updates—and just copied my personal data back into place.]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/time-for-a-new-drive.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Using Instruments for Bug Reports</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/using-instruments-for-bug-repo.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.84</id>
<published>2008-08-16T08:46:36Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-16T20:24:56Z</updated>
<summary>The release of Lightroom 2.0 has been great to work with. But, as happens with major releases, sometimes issues make it out into world. For example, the other day while processing thousands of photographs from a recent job, Lightroom stalled out on me with the dreaded spinning beach ball.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="bug" label="bug" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="instruments" label="instruments" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="lightroom" label="lightroom" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[The release of Lightroom 2.0 has been great to work with. All the new features are just terrific. But, as happens with major releases, sometimes issues make it out into world. For example, the other day while processing thousands of photographs from a recent job, Lightroom stalled out on me with the dreaded spinning beach ball. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled. But a quick force quick and restart and I was on my way.
Until it happened again. This time, it happened as I was about to go out and run some errands, so I left it be to see if it would clear itself up. A few hours later when I returned, the beach ball was still spinning. I was just about to force quit the application and grab the resulting crash report to send on to Adobe when a touch of mild inspiration hit. I fired up Instruments, part of the Apple Xcode toolset, and ran it against Lightroom while it was hung up. Instead of just a static crash report resulting from a force quit, this results in a view into the application as it runs.
<img alt="LRHangShotWeb.png" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/16/LRHangShotWeb.png" width="500" height="343" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Once I had the trace from Instruments, I filed a bug report with Adobe and went on with my day of processing images while watching the Olympics on TV. A day later, one of the folks on the Lightroom team sent a message of thanks and indicated that it helped in tracking down a thorny bug they've been chasing. That made my day. Hopefully a fix for the problem will be part of the next minor update.
Sometimes, it's really hard for a software development team to get the right kind of information from users about what is tickling a problem. Vague descriptions and frustration are typically the rule of the day. Having been on the software development side of the fence myself, it was really nice to give something more concrete than just “it messed up.”]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/using-instruments-for-bug-repo.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>1D Mark III Focus Shifts</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/1d-mark-iii-focus-shift-in-dar.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.83</id>
<published>2008-08-12T01:41:53Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-12T21:25:32Z</updated>
<summary>The issue with the Canon 1D Mark III autofocus is well understood as a bright light, fast motion problem. I’ve run into the problem in one other area: lit stage environments.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Photographic Hardware" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="canon" label="canon" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="focus" label="focus" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[If you follow the top of the digital SLR market, you no doubt are aware of the controversy surrounding the 1D Mark III autofocus problem. The issue with the Canon 1D Mark III autofocus is well understood as a bright light, fast motion problem. In his latest on the subject, <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-8740-9068-9537">Rob Galbraith</a> opines that for slowly moving subjects in any light, the system is reliable in his experience. In general, I agree except for one significant environment: lit presentation stages. Both Pınar Ozger, who often shoots with me, and I have experienced the dreaded focus shift described by Rob shooting slow moving subjects at both O’Reilly Conferences and Apple’s WWDC.
If you haven’t seen them yet, check out the examples of the problem on Rob’s site, such as the ones of the baseball pitcher at the bottom of the <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-8740-9068-9357">first page of his August 1st update</a>. These images show how the problem manifests.
To show you a random example of the focus hunt in my own work, here’s an example of the problem in two frames I shot of Sam Ramji of Microsoft at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention last month:
<img alt="1d3focusshift.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/11/1d3focusshift.jpg" width="513" height="366" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Two frames. Bam bam. Right after each other. These are crops of about 10% of the image area scaled for web view, but otherwise unprocessed. Same focus point located right on Sam’s forehead/nose area. Distance to subject was constant through the sequence as Sam was standing in place and I was parked shooting off of a monopod. Two entirely different focus solutions. The left shot is crap. The right one is is acceptable enough, though not great. The point here, however, isn’t to show great photographs, but to show how much drift the focus system can put in between two consecutive frames. I see this time and time again on both of my mark III bodies.
To describe this environment to those that haven’t been to either a recent O’Reilly conference or WWDC, the stages are lit with simple high front stage wash. Sometimes there’s high back lighting, sometimes not. Almost always, these stages are lit at a level where I shoot at 1/125-1/250th @ f/2.8-f/4 at ISO 1600. That’s 6-8 EV, which is well within the Mark III autofocus system’s rated working range of -1 to 18EV.
It’s a confidence killer. It really is. Sometimes, I’ll shot sequences where every frame is out of kilter. Other times, I get a streak of nothing but perfectly focused shots. I make up for it in volume, but I hate having to do that. Pınar and I have tried different shooting modes and haven’t found rhyme nor reason to either tickling it or working around it.
Maybe one day, I’ll try to get more rigorous about sorting things out. I can say pretty safely, however, that I’ve only really run into this in the lit stage presentation environments. Out in the world, the camera works fine. At least it seems to. I'm never sure, however.
Related Posts:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/d3-vs-mk3-a-single-fast-compar.html">D3 vs mk3: A Single Fast Comparison</a></li>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/armchair-quarterbacking-the-d7.html">The D3, D700, and Canon</a></li>
</ul>]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/1d-mark-iii-focus-shift-in-dar.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Inkonomics</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/inkonomics.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.82</id>
<published>2008-08-09T01:48:45Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-09T22:45:00Z</updated>
<summary>Printer ink is expensive stuff. In fact, over the lifetime of any photo printer, you will spend more on ink than you did on the printer in the first place. The problem is that the printer makers don’t make it easy to sort out how much money you’re in for when you buy a particular printer. </summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Printing" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[ Printer ink is expensive stuff. In fact, over the lifetime of any photo printer, you will probably spend more—a lot more—on ink than you did on the printer in the first place. The problem is that the printer makers don’t make it easy to sort out how much money you’re in for when you buy a particular printer. Some would say that there is profiteering in the market and the obscurity by the printer makers is on purpose. Others, well, they just want to make good looking prints and not be taken to the cleaners.
One thing for sure is that the larger cartridges found bigger printers are more economical than the smaller cartridges in smaller printers. That’s no surprise. Buying in volume is almost always a win. The surprise, however, is how fast this rule applies if you are going to do any serious amount of printing.
Many of the experts out there have commented that you’re better off buying an Epson 3800 with its 80mL tanks than the R2400 or R2880 printers with their puny itty-bitty tanks. A bit of math on the back of an envelope can prove this out, but just for kicks, I plugged the numbers for the 3800 and 2880 into a spreadsheet and made a graph to illustrate the point.
<img alt="inkonomic_2880vs3800.png" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/09/inkonomic_2880vs3800.png" width="403" height="280" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
The first dot on each line is a plot of the cost of the printer and the quantity of ink it comes with. Each subsequent dot represents the amount of ink in a full replacement set of cartridges. The costs for the printers and ink are using MSRP. You can usually find ink cheaper, but I wanted to keep things somewhat simple.
There are a few problems with this simplistic analysis. The first is that it assumes that the ink cartridges are fully utilized. You know that’s not the case. Printers always leave a bit of ink the cartridges. If anything, this should result in an understatement of the cost of running with smaller cartridges. The second problem is that there’s an implicit assumption that the utility of a given quantity of ink is the same in each printer. Sure, there’s a lot of shared technology in there between the printers, but without real testing, its a bit of a stretch. The third problem is the comparison ignores losses due to cleaning and the like. Without the kind of testing that <a href="http://www.printerville.net/">Printerville</a> and <a href="http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing-v1.html">Red River</a> are doing, however, this is about as good as can be done with the available data.
Even with the issues, however, the graph does strongly show how much of a win the 3800 is over the 2880 if you’re going to do any amount of printing at all with the printer. There are, of course, other factors. The 2880 has the newest K3 inkset with vivid magenta ink and the 3800 was introduced back in 2006 and lacks vivid magenta. On the other hand, the 3800 has the ability to print up to 17" wide and produces simply outstanding output. Bottom line: If you want a 17" printer, there’s no probably reason to let the initial cost difference stop you.
The impetus for this comparison, of course, is that I’m starting to look at options for replacing my <a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/two-big-hp-b9180-problems.html">broken workhorse HP B9180 printer</a>. It would, of course, be nice to be able to make a direct comparison between the HP B9180 and the printers on the graph above. To do so would smack of government level junk science in assuming that you can compare the utility of ink between brands of printers. All the figuring I’ve done so far, however, leads me to believe that the HP B9180 has a cost structure of a similar nature to the Epson 2880.
It’s really too bad that HP doesn’t have a 17" printer with big tanks on the market. It would be neat to see how it would stack up against their 13" offerings.]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/inkonomics.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>A Day in Printerville</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/a-day-at-printerville.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.81</id>
<published>2008-08-06T22:30:27Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-07T00:17:47Z</updated>
<summary>Last week, I had the chance to spend some time with Macworld editor-at-large Rick LePage in the of Printerville testing lab. While there I got to spend some quality time with the large format printers and generally geek out with Rick about the current state of the printer industry.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Printing" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[Last week, I had the chance to spend some time with Macworld editor-at-large Rick LePage in the <a href="http://www.printerville.net/">Printerville</a> testing lab. Rick’s printer reviews appear regularly in Macworld where he reviews printers big to small, including the <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/61369/2007/12/hpdesignjetz3100.html">HP Designjet Z3100</a> and the <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/61347/2007/12/imageprograf6100.html">Canon ImagePROGRAF iPF6100</a>. While there, I got to spend some quality time with the large format printers and generally geek out with Rick about the current state of the printer industry.
By “spend quality time with the large format printers,” I really mean that Rick let me hook up to the 24" Z3100 via USB and just go to town making some big prints of some of my favorite photographs. As a photographer, I really can’t say enough about how amazing it is to watch your work being printed in high quality on big media. You see things about your photographs that you’ve never seen before.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/2729779049/" title="Printerville HP Z3100 by duncandavidson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2729779049_68915bf5b3.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Printerville HP Z3100" /></a>
The Z3100 is an amazing machine. Before hooking it up to my laptop, we put a roll of Canon Polished Rag into the HP printer and then went out for a cappuccino while the printer printed test targets, let them dry, and then used its built in spectro to make a ICC profile. Sure, it sounds odd at first to put Canon-branded paper into an HP, but Rick had been impressed with how it looked in the iPF6100 and, since the HP makes it so easy to profile, why not give it a try? When we returned, the profile was built and stored on the printer’s internal hard drive. Then, when I hooked up my laptop, the profile was automatically pulled over to my system and setup for use.
The best part was that the profile was dead on. From my perspective, all I had to do was select the paper and size to use and then print as normal. The results were awesome. And, since the printer is network enabled, anybody else could have shown up with their laptop, set up the printer, and used the same profile to make prints. This is just the kind of printer ability that would be great to have in a classroom or studio environment where you want everyone using the printer to have easy access to the printer’s full abilities.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/2729807707/" title="Prints at Printerville by duncandavidson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3007/2729807707_51ed68a139.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Prints at Printerville" /></a>
Spending time in the Printerville lab was also a chance to really talk with Rick about the economics of ink. Buying a small letter sized printer with its teeny cartridges is fine for an occasional casual use. But if you are doing any amount of printing at all, the per-ml ink cost drops fast enough that you'll save on ink costs in short order. For example, for what you’ll pay for a 13" wide Epson 2400 and enough replacement cartridges to equal what ships in a 17" wide Epson 3800, you might as well go ahead and by the 3800.
This really hit home when the big printer aborted a print because it needed a new Light Grey cartridge. I was almost flabbergasted when Rick told me that it was the first time that particular cartridge had been replaced since he got the printer for evaluation and writing up the article last year. And, it was only the third cartridge of any kind to be replaced in the printer. The real kicker was that the replacement cartridge was twice as big as the ones that came with the printer. Those big cartridges aren't cheap, but boy do they last.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/2729779157/" title="HP Z3100 Ink Carts by duncandavidson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/2729779157_ed30eed399.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="HP Z3100 Ink Carts" /></a>
The whole discussion about ink costs is a big one and Printerville is looking at it with a keen eye, including sorting out how best to <a href="http://www.printerville.net/2008/06/04/some-ideas-about-measuring-ink-cartridge-life/">measure ink cartridge life</a>. Suffice it to say that I think my next printer for my studio will be bigger. I’m not sure how much bigger, but I print enough that the cost savings will be realized in short order and the ability to print larger will be welcome.
My only regret about my visit to Printerville is that I had so much fun playing with the Z3100 that I didn’t spend enough time getting a better feel for the 17" Epson 3800 or 4880. Now that I’m looking for a replacement candidate for my currently <a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/two-big-hp-b9180-problems.html">ailing HP 9180</a>, it would have been good to spend some time with this class of machines outside of a store. Hopefully, I’ll get another chance to do this.
Overall, this was a great opportunity. It's rare to be able to get a good insight into the range of solutions available for printing in an environment that isn’t either a trade show or a computer store. I’m certainly no stranger to printers, but the opportunity to spend a few hours with Rick was eye opening, both from the standpoint of what the different kinds of printers can do and how to use them effectively. It’s the kind of opportunity I wish more photographers had.]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/a-day-at-printerville.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>HP B9180 Problems</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/two-big-hp-b9180-problems.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.80</id>
<published>2008-08-06T07:06:21Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-12T03:32:06Z</updated>
<summary>In 2006, I bought one of the very first HP B9180s to arrive in the United States. It was a dream printer to use. Best of all, it delivered for a long time on its promise to avoid clogged printheads. But, that was then. Now after two years of use, a couple of major problems have cropped up with my copy.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Printing" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="9180" label="9180" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="hp" label="hp" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="printer" label="printer" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[In 2006, I bought one of the very first HP B9180s to arrive in the United States. Out of the box, it was a dream printer to use. It was zippy and produced better results than any printer I had owned up to that point. Best of all, it delivered for a long time on its promise to avoid clogged printheads, the bane of my existence with previous high-quality printers. I raved about this printer, both on my blog and in person to anybody that would listen.
That was then. Now after two years of use, a couple of major problems have cropped up with my copy. One of these is addressable. The other one may not be.
The first problem I ran into was goop showing up on the sides of my prints. The goop was characteristic of the printhead hitting the side of the paper and leaving ink behind. The curious thing is that this happens with any kind of paper, even regular cheap thin stuff. I cracked open my printer and looked over by where the printhead does its nozzle checks. I found piles and piles of half dried ink all clumped up over the slot where the printer squirts the ink it uses during the checks and cleaning cycles. Additionally, I found gobs of ink all over the various surfaces around the area.
I was quite surprised by this really. But, after looking about for a while, I pulled out the isopropyl alcohol and some industrial cleaning swabs and went to work removing all that I could. I’ve since had to do this a few times. Here’s a photo of the affected area.
<img alt="IMG_1154-2.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/07/IMG_1154-2.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
There’s no build up right now around the ink check slot, but you can see that it’s been cleaned. In addition, you can see that there’s dried blobs of ink everywhere. That’s the stuff that dried completely and which couldn’t clean up. On the positive side, it does show that the HP pigment ink is durable stuff. I wish I’d thought to take a picture of the ink buildup. It was really quite impressive and several millimeters thick.
It’s not just the obvious areas that pick up ink. Even the areas on top of the print heads gather ink. Here’s a quick swab I took from the black diagonal crossbar of the print head carrier.
<img alt="IMG_1157.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/06/IMG_1157.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Yikes! This was definitely not what I expected out of this printer. In looking around the net, I’ve seen a few other reports of the printer gunking up the cleaning area, so this might be an issue that other 9180 owners will see. Keep your eyes out for it if you do own the printer.
So, the automatic servicing isn’t as clean as it should be. But, if all I had to do was crack open the printer now and then and clean things up, that would be OK. Like I said, however, there are two problems. And the second one is the damning one. Of late, the printer has started consuming ink like drunk celebrity twenty-somethings consume expensive vodka.
When the printer first arrived, I left the it on according to HP’s instructions and it performed it’s daily head check quickly and without much fuss. I got quite used to being surprised by the clunk-click every 24 hours. For a long time, this worked great. No clogged printheads and decent ink life. In fact, according to some, HP reps were saying that a set of cartridges would last a year and a half if all you did was let the maintenance cycle run without printing anything. My observations of ink consumption seemed to match this expectation. I could leave town for weeks at a time. Then, when returning home, I could immediately start printing and I’d get perfect prints right from the very first one. Life was good.
Sometime in the last six or nine months, however, something changed. The quick nozzle check and head clean cycles started getting longer and longer, stretching up to over an hour at a time. And ink consumption went way up. A set of cartridges would only last a month or so at a time, even if my printing was light or non existent.
Of course this started happening not long after the warranty expired.
Given that leaving the printer on was no longer a smart idea, I started shutting down the printer when not in use. This practice hasn’t really helped much. The cleaning cycles on power up and as needed are seemingly gulping down the ink. The last set of cartridges have yielded around 75 pages, give or take depending on the color. HP claims that a cartridge should yield around 4500 4X6 photos. That translates into roughly a thousand or so letter sized prints. I’m certainly not seeing that kind of run rate by any stretch of the imagination.
At $275 or so for a set of 8 cartridges, the costs add up quickly. So quickly, in fact, I think the printer might be destined for the bin even though its output is still awesome. A brand new B9180 costs about the same as two sets of cartridges—and includes a full set of cartridges to boot which means that the incremental cost would be around $300. At the rate the printer is consuming ink, a new one would pay for itself in next to no time.
I don’t have any reason to believe that this over-consumption problem is endemic to the printer model. I’ve seen lots reports from happy users of the printer after 18 months and no other reports that match this consumption issue. The likelihood is that this is a one off issue. (Of course, if you’ve run into this consumption issue, please leave a comment!)
The thing is, I’m not sure I want another B9180. The state of the art has moved on. And, as much as I like to print, other printers might be a better fit at this point. As best as I can tell from the research I’ve done and from talking with Rick LePage over at <a href="http://www.printerville.net/">Printerville</a>, the sweet spot for my typical usage patterns are the 17" printers with bigger ink tanks. Bigger ink tanks result in a more economical per-page run rate as well. The ability to print even wider comes as a bonus. HP doesn’t have an entry in this category, but Epson and Canon both do.
<a name="update1"></a>Update 8/7:
As happens when you write about problems on the net, a few helpful people have pointed me to some troubleshooting resources. The most useful of which for my purposes is a <a href="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01457506&lc=en&cc=us&rule=17975&product=1142684&dlc=en">document about checking the NEDD sensor</a>. Searching all over HPs site hasn't turned up this document for me before, but the right nudge from a <a href="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=28840171">DPReview forum post</a> was all it took.
In any case, the NEDD sensor is the magic device that is used to check the printhead status. If it's not working correctly, then the printer is going to think that its heads are clogged up and go to town with head cleanings. Sure enough, running TAP TEST 94 indicated that my NEDD sensor was bad. The prescription is cleaning, so even though I’ve cleaned this area before, I dove in and really checked things out. I opened up the right hand access panel and parked the print head off to the left. Here’s the view I was greeted with:
<img alt="IMG_1161.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/06/IMG_1161.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
See that gunk everywhere? The spit sponges were absolutely caked over. Diving in with an industrial swab instantly pulled out gobs of gunk. As well, poking around under the sponges revealed pools of ink:
<img alt="IMG_1177.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/06/IMG_1177.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
It’s hard to see in the photo, so at one point I started probing down to the bottom of the tub to find out there’s almost of inch of ink pooled up down there. Every time I probed down there, the swabs would come out dripping with ink.
<img alt="IMG_1193.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/06/IMG_1193.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Obviously, I can't really clean everything out without taking it apart more. So I focused my efforts on the NEDD sensor area and cleaned things out as much as I could. After closing things up and running the TAP TEST 94 again, I got the same result. Fail. So, I went back in and did everything I could without actually disassembling the parts. This time, I took a teeny LED light and looked into the NEDD slot and found more gobs of ink caking the inside of the slot. Hesitantly I tried mopping some of that ink up as carefully as I could. The result, however was the same. The test showed the same result: FAIL.
At least I know for sure what’s wrong now. A non-operational NEDD sensor means that the entire cornerstone of simple quick ink clog detection and cleaning isn't working. The result is hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars worth of ink blown through the system to collect in the bottom of the printer. Of course, knowing this probably doesn’t help me much as my printer is way out of warranty. To do more at this point will require disassembly of the printer and I’m not sure that I’ve got the patience and time for that, especially considering that I don’t think any amount of cleaning will fix the issue at this point. But finding out what the core problem is does finalize my decision to not purchase or install any more ink cartridges in the printer only to have them wasted.
It’s too bad. This was a great printer for a while and I really liked it. If you’ve got a B9180 that’s working OK, you may serve yourself well by checking and cleaning the NEDD sensor every once in a while. As well, you might want to run the TAP TEST 94 as described by the HP page to see how things are going. A little preventative maintenance might go a long way to keeping your printer operating well and producing great prints with a minimum of fuss.
At some point in time, I might go ahead and open this thing up some more just to see the internal workings and how much ink is collected up inside the thing. There are other things on the priority list right now, however.
<a name="update2"></a>Update 8/9:
<a href="http://poocs.net/">Patrick Lenz</a> pinged me not long after I wrote this article and let me know that his HP B9180 was doing fine. In fact, he’s been so busy after moving earlier this year that his has sat idled, but powered on, for the last several months with no noticeable drop in ink levels. And, when he went to print a set of prints the other day, he got perfect results from the get go. This is the way the printer should work.
Curious to see what a properly functioning 9180 looks like inside, I asked him if he'd take a few pics. He kindly did so. Here’s a view of the area of the printer illustrated in the first photo above:
<img alt="patrick_hp9180_one.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/09/patrick_hp9180_one.jpg" width="500" height="375" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
That’s absolutely spotless in comparison to the same area of my printer. Looks like his NEDD sensor is nice and clean. Going deeper, here’s a view of his spit and wipe area. There’s a bunch of ink in there, but it’s not the pig pen that my printer is.
<img alt="patrick_hp9180_two.jpg" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/09/patrick_hp9180_two.jpg" width="375" height="500" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Here’s hoping that his printer keeps working for a nice long time. It’s certainly a nice machine when everything is in working order! 
Update 8/11: Ronny Nilsen has a page of both <a href="http://www.ronnynilsen.com/Essays/Articles/HP_B9180/">paper tips, information about the NEDD, and driver issues</a>. It’s another perspective on all of this.]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/two-big-hp-b9180-problems.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Pinar’s Orchid</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/pinars-orchid.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.79</id>
<published>2008-08-04T01:15:16Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-04T05:02:33Z</updated>
<summary>While Pınar is away in Europe this summer, I’ve been keeping watch over her orchids. They’ve dealt with a drive up to Portland and my unpracticed efforts to care for them and reciprocated with a flower. A flower!</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Photographs" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="orchid" label="orchid" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[While Pınar is away in Europe this summer, I’ve been keeping watch over her orchids. They’ve dealt with a drive up to Portland and my unpracticed efforts to care for them and reciprocated with a flower. A flower! I think it’s the first time I’ve ever had a plant that flowered under my care.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/2730425590/" title="Pınar's Orchid by duncandavidson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/2730425590_1380df65ff.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Pınar's Orchid" /></a>
This photo was shot with my Canon G9 in Macro mode at ISO 200. The light is mid-morning indirect light through the big windows in my living room. It's a really simple lighting setup that works well for this kind of subject.]]>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>D3 vs mk3: A Single Fast Comparison</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/d3-vs-mk3-a-single-fast-compar.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.78</id>
<published>2008-07-22T04:15:15Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-12T21:08:17Z</updated>
<summary>Today, while shooting OSCON 2008, I got the chance to handle a Nikon D3 for a few minutes. Seeing a quick opportunity to shoot a comparison shot, I put my compact flash card into the Nikon and matched a shot I made with my Canon.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Photographic Hardware" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="canon" label="canon" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="nikon" label="nikon" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="noise" label="noise" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[ Today, while shooting <a href="http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/content/home">OSCON 2008</a>, I got the chance to handle a Nikon D3 for a few minutes, courtesy of <a href="http://www.sauria.com/blog/">Ted Leung</a> who has his copy with him this week at the conference. Seeing a quick opportunity to shoot a comparison shot, I put my compact flash card into the Nikon and matched a shot I made with my Canon 1D Mark III with the same exposure settings at ISO 1600. 
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/2691201854/" title="Participate 08 White Board by duncandavidson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2691201854_0f6e12d173.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Participate 08 White Board" /></a>
The shot is of a whiteboard in one of the conference rooms under what can uncategorically be called crappy light. The above shot is from the Nikon. There’s not much point at posting a 500 pixel wide image from the Canon here. Instead, here are crops of the resulting images at 100%:
<img alt="d3vsmk3iso1600.png" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/21/d3vsmk3iso1600.png" width="500" height="486" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
A few notes about this crop: both images were processed with Adobe Camera RAW via Lightroom. White balance was adjusted to match, but no further processing was performed. No sharpening. No nada. The crops are saved as a 24-bit PNG file to avoid compression artifacts. And, that extra blue bit in the right side of the Nikon image is another letter on the whiteboard in the background that was exposed by a slight angle change between shots.
This is most definitely not a rigorous and exhaustive comparison. In fact, it’s so quick as to be laughable. Therefore, instead of saying much about the crops, I’ll let them speak for themselves and only add that it pretty much matches noise comparison results I’ve seen elsewhere. Maybe at some point I’ll have the chance to really compare the systems more in depth to each other, but until a full Nikon kit lands on my doorstep or I can steal a lot more time with Ted’s camera, this will have to do.
Related Posts:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/1d-mark-iii-focus-shift-in-dar.html">1D Mark III Focus Shifts</a></li>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/armchair-quarterbacking-the-d7.html">The D3, D700, and Canon</a></li>
</ul>
]]>
<div style="float: right; margin: 10px;"><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/d3-vs-mk3-a-single-fast-compar.html"><img src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/04/02/ddlogo-small.png" width="125" height="15" border="0" align="right" /></a></div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>AT&T 3G, Now With Different Bars</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/att-3g-now-with-different-bars.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.77</id>
<published>2008-07-14T20:07:09Z</published>
<updated>2008-07-15T00:59:00Z</updated>
<summary><![CDATA[So far, I’ve been pretty impressed with speeds on the AT&T 3G network when I’m out and about time. I’ve noticed, however, that 3G signal strength isn’t showing as many bars as it was on the EDGE network. ]]></summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Telephony" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="3g" label="3g" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="iphone" label="iphone" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[So far, I’ve been pretty impressed with speeds on the AT&T 3G network when I’m out and about time. I’ve noticed, however, that 3G signal strength isn’t showing as many bars as it was on the EDGE network. At home, I’ve grown accustomed to seeing 4 or 5 bars while using the EDGE network. On the iPhone 3G, I’m either seeing 2 bars, or even one itty bitty almost not quite there bar.
To show the difference, here are two screenshots taken from the same physical location inside my home. The top screenshot shows EDGE network strength, the bottom shows 3G network strength.
<img alt="iPhone 3G Bars" src="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/14/iphonebars.png" width="320" height="354" class="mt-image-none" style="" />
Interestingly enough, when I make a call on 3G with one lonely little bar of signal strength, the connection goes through without a problem and the call quality is super crystal clear. With the same signal strength on EDGE on my first iPhone, well, that’s where we’d be in shakier “Hello? Can you hear me now?” territory right before hearing “boop-boop-boop” as the connection dropped.
To be fair, this is the worst comparison I could make. When I use my phone over by my windows, I get 3 bars and sometimes 4. As soon as I walk out the door of my building, 3G signal strength pops up to a full 5 bars. In my thoroughly non-scientific observations, this has pretty much been my impression everywhere I’ve been in Portland. 3G signal strength outside is pretty good. Indoors, it’s a lot lower in comparison to the outside strength compared to what I grew to expect on EDGE.
Regardless, no matter where I’ve been so far, no matter what the signal strength, I’ve not had a dropped or fuzzy call. In fact, every call has been awesomely clear and reminds me of the quality I get at home. My guess is that since voice only uses a percentage of the total bandwidth available on a 3G connection, you can get away with a whole lot less signal strength than before and still have great voice quality. Maybe a more interesting thing to do would be to measure bandwidth throughput at different bar levels. If the cat wakes me up at 5AM again tomorrow, maybe I’ll play around with that a bit.
Update 7/14: Wouldn’t you know that as soon as I posted a blog entry about getting 3G in all the places I’ve been in the last few days, I find myself at <a href="http://extractocoffeehouse.com/">Extracto</a> and am pushed off to EDGE. Ah well.
Related Posts on this Blog:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/two-small-reasons-for-3g.html">Two Small Reasons for an iPhone 3G</a></li>
</ul>]]>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Two Small Reasons for an iPhone 3G</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/two-small-reasons-for-3g.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.76</id>
<published>2008-07-12T23:09:25Z</published>
<updated>2008-07-14T21:29:40Z</updated>
<summary>After installing the iPhone 2.0 software update on Thursday, I found myself debating whether or not 3G speed and a GPS chip were really enough to justify an upgrade to the new iPhone 3G hardware. So much of what makes this release interesting is already running on my original phone. I decided, however, that there are two compelling reasons for an upgrade.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Telephony" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="3g" label="3g" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="apple" label="apple" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="iphone" label="iphone" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[After installing the iPhone 2.0 software update on Thursday, I found myself debating whether or not 3G speed and a GPS chip were really enough to justify an upgrade to the new iPhone 3G hardware. So much of what makes this release interesting is already running on my original phone. The Remote application, Twitterific, and Texas Hold 'em are my personal favs so far. I decided, however, that there are two compelling reasons for an upgrade.
The first is for development. Having a second device to run software seeds and to try out apps in development will be quite handy. It's never smart to install prerelease software on essential devices and my phone is quite the essential device. So, the old phone can become a development mule, and serve out the balance of its time as an extra remote for iTunes around the house.
The second reason is quite a bit more subtle. With EDGE, I frequently miss calls. Instead of breaking my Safari or email session, the call rolls straight to voice mail. Not optimal when you are expecting a call. This state of affairs isn't helped by the fact that I'm quite the data user. With the ability to push voice and data over 3G at the same time, I hope to find that this problem is alleviated. I know that Pınar, for one, will appreciate it if it does indeed help out.
Related Posts on this Blog:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/att-3g-now-with-different-bars.html">AT&T 3G, Now With Different Bars</a></li>
</ul>]]>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>NY Times on American Energy Policy</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/ny-times-on-american-energy-po.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.74</id>
<published>2008-07-05T22:33:38Z</published>
<updated>2008-07-06T01:02:08Z</updated>
<summary>In this Sunday’s New York Times, Nelson D. Schwartz takes a look at the current oil situation in an article titled American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot. In the article, Mr. Schwartz makes several points all supporting his central thesis. It’s an interesting and recommended read.</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Politics" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="energy" label="energy" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="oil" label="oil" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="policy" label="policy" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[In this Sunday’s New York Times, Nelson D. Schwartz takes a look at the current oil situation in an article titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06oil.html">American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot</a>. In the article, Mr. Schwartz makes several points all supporting his central thesis:
<blockquote>“Over the last 25 years, opportunities to head off the current crisis were ignored, missed or deliberately blocked, according to analysts, politicians and veterans of the oil and automobile industries. What’s more, for all the surprise at just how high oil prices have climbed, and fears for the future, this is one crisis we were warned about. Ever since the oil shortages of the 1970s, one report after another has cautioned against America’s oil addiction.”</blockquote>
With quotes from David J. O'Reilly, CEO of Chevron, Pete V. Domenici, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committe, and Representative John D. Dingell, a Democrat from Detroit who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the piece gives an interesting account of some of the inaction by policy makers in Washington DC. An interesting bit of history the article provides is that the offshore areas that current Republicans are so hot to exploit are currently protected by an executive order by the first President Bush in 1990. And, the article goes on to point out how Clinton’s time at the wheel was marked by inaction and bi-partisan efforts to prevent tightening of economy standards. In other words, elected officials across the political spectrum all contributed to the current situation we find ourselves in.
It’s an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06oil.html">interesting and recommended read</a>. 
Related Posts On This Site:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/05/surprised-about-oil-prices-rea.html">Suprised about Oil Prices? Really?</a></li>
<ul>]]>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>The D3, D700 and Canon</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/armchair-quarterbacking-the-d7.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.69</id>
<published>2008-07-02T02:52:06Z</published>
<updated>2008-08-12T21:11:03Z</updated>
<summary>As has widely been reported around the net, today marks the introduction of the new Nikon D700. In my eyes, this release pretty much seals the deal that Nikon is back in the game and in a huge way. More to the point, the domination that Canon has enjoyed since 2000 in the mid to high-end digital SLR market is well and truly over. So, what’s next?</summary>
<author>
<name>James Duncan Davidson</name>
<uri>http://duncandavidson.com</uri>
</author>
<category term="Photographic Tools" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
<category term="canon" label="canon" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="competition" label="competition" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<category term="nikon" label="nikon" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
<content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://duncandavidson.com/">
<![CDATA[As has widely been reported around the net, today marks the introduction of the new Nikon D700. In my eyes, this release pretty much seals the deal that Nikon is back in the game and in a huge way. More to the point, the domination that Canon has enjoyed since 2000 in the mid to high-end digital SLR market is well and truly over. To be sure, Canon isn’t out of the game yet and no obituaries need to be written. But, a big and fundamental change has happened.
The resurgence of Nikon really couldn’t come at a worse time for Canon. The botched release of the 1Dmk3 last year certainly hurt both Canon’s pride and their reputation in the eyes of everyone who was affected. In fact, the D3 smells like a rose compared to the 1D mk3. The D700 makes an incredible entrance into the territory that was formerly occupied solely by the three year old 5D. And the obvious next step of a D3x will probably shape up nicely against the 1Ds mk3.
To somebody who has shot Canon since the mid-90’s and who was a totally happy customer until last year, this turn of events is certainly interesting to say the least. If the 1D mk3 experience had been different, I’d simply view all of this as a boon to photographers and enjoy the fact that the competition should be good for everyone. It’d be a little harder to answer the perennial question, “What brand camera should I buy?” But, that’d be a small price to pay. Overall, I’d be happy and looking forward to seeing where this roller coaster goes.
Trouble is, the 1D mk3 experience matters. I’ve been happy with every Canon body that I’ve bought since the mid 90’s right up through the 5D. My only complaint with all of the Canon digital SLRs I owned was that I thought the autofocus systems were sub-par for the money. Otherwise, they all produced great images reliably and without a fuss. My purchase of two 1D mk3 bodies last year should have been nirvana. After all, take Canon’s great sensors and pro-level autofocus and the result should be sweet indeed.
The result wasn't nirvana by any stretch. My mk3 bodies have been to the shop multiple times for both autofocus recall service as well as other issues that have rendered the bodies inoperable at times. Issues that shouldn’t affect 1-series cameras. All in all, I’m pretty underwhelmed for a camera that was touted as a flagship camera and was the pinnacle of 20 years of EOS camera heritage. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve turned out to be adequate performers and have worked out business wise. But, merely adequate performance isn’t what a 1-series camera is about. Combine that with the nagging sensation that the body might fail you when you most need it and you’re not left with good feelings, even if you have another body or two in the case to serve as a backup.
Of course, I’m not the only one that can tell this story. Many others have the same kinds of feelings. To get a good idea of how many working pros feel, all you need to do is read through <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-8740-9068">Rob Gailbraith’s discussion about the AF performance issue</a> on the 1D mk3. In June of 2007, he was putting a lot of effort into trying to help nail the problem. He continued on for months and months because he obviously wanted to find a solution to give him the caliber of performance his work required. And then, his efforts tapered off into quietness, with the last entry a post in May of this year indicating <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-9310-9449">more information would be coming soon</a>. It hasn’t. Presumably, it’s not worth Rob’s time anymore because he’s sorted out a different solution. Maybe he’s just shooting with his older 1D mk2s. Or maybe, he’s got a few D3s now. In any case, his willingness to help find and solve the problems has faded. We can only assume the reason.
As far as the 5D goes, it’s three years old. It should have been replaced a year ago. The sensor in it is great, but we all know that semiconductor tech moves fast. Surely without upping the megapixel count, Canon could eek out cleaner images by now. And of course, the rest of the 5D package is pretty stale at this point. Instead of upping the game, Canon has chosen to let the 5D come down in price, significantly I might add. It’s a strategy that I’d appreciate if they came in with a more capable version, say a 3D, above it. Without such an approach, however, Canon has shown that they’re happy to rest on their laurels for a while in a very interesting market segment.
Canon has a lot riding on what they do next. I know that this next release will matter substantially to my own business decisions, especially since the majority of my business income comes from shooting in low-light environments. But, I also think it matters to the market as a whole.
To be blunt, I think the very next camera that Canon releases, which better be a 5D replacement at this point, is going to say a lot about how they intend to meet Nikon’s resurgence. If the 5D replacement is just a freshen up of the 30D to 40D variety and which doesn’t meet the challenge that the D700 brings, then Canon will be telegraphing that they’re happy with their market position selling the crap out of the Rebel XSi without worrying about the higher end. On the other hand, if they release a competent contender, then we’ve still got a two horse race.
What will be a competent 5D replacement? At a minimum, it has to have usable ISO 6400 that is as good as ISO 1600 on the current 5D and it has to have pro-level autofocus. I don’t care about more pixels at this point, though I won’t complain about a 16 megapixel sensor. Even with a larger sensor, it is the twin metrics of low to high ISO quality—two more stops at least over the current 5D—and capable autofocus performance that will tell the story. Anything below this threshold will say volumes about the direction in which Canon intends to take the platform.
Even if Canon meets the D700, they won’t be out of the doghouse yet. They’ll need a full-frame 1D mk4 that turns out beautiful ISO 6400 shots along with autofocus performance and reliability that puts to rest the 1D mk3 fiasco. And that camera needs to come pretty soon, or at least be announced by the end of the year. Anything less on the timing front will cause Canon quite a bit more face. And, anything less on the specification front will leave Nikon in the drivers seat for sure at the top end.
Of course, all of this is just my armchair opinion. Really, I should be out making more photographs instead of blathering on about this. But, right now is an interesting time because the market is changing in some fundamental ways. We know that Nikon’s back in the game. We know that Sony and others want to be in the game. The question is whether Canon is still in it. I’m certainly hoping so. The inevitable progress that comes with multiple strong players would be nice to have.
Update 8/1 <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-8740-9068-9357">Rob Galbraith has posted an update to his report</a>. Essentially, it’s still a problem.
Related Posts:
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<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/1d-mark-iii-focus-shift-in-dar.html">1D Mark III Focus Shifts</a></li>
<li><a href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/07/d3-vs-mk3-a-single-fast-compar.html">D3 vs mk 3: A Single Fast Comparison</a></li>
</ul>]]>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Changing Your Point of View</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://duncandavidson.com/2008/06/changing-your-point-of-view.html" />
<id>tag:duncandavidson.com,2008://1.68</id>
<published>2008-06-27T03:59:53Z</published>
<updated>2008-06-27T19:57:22Z</updated>
<summary>A sure way to photographic dullsville is to take a picture from the same point of view that everyone sees the same scene