Photography | Keys Corner

“DRM” for camera batteries

By John, on June 25th, 2009

We’ve seen copy protection for CDs and DVDs; we’ve seen ink-jet printer manufacturers add chips to their cartridges to make it difficult or impossible to refill them with cheaper ink.

If you have looked at online suppliers, you will have noticed that you can order replacement batteries for your digital camera much cheaper . . . → Read More: “DRM” for camera batteries

Abandoned Moscow underground station (360� VR)

By John, on October 23rd, 2008

Click to start the 360� Virtual Realitity

And here, “The making of…” or how they set up the camera to take it.

(Via Dark Roasted Blend)

When we were in Spain, we took our i-Blue 747 GPS track logger with us and left it running most of the time when we were out with the cameras. I was expecting that it would be a simple matter to geocode the photos when we returned.

But it turned out that there were a couple of snags to overcome first.
Continue reading Geocoding photos for the Mac

WLAN SD-cards for cameras

By John, on September 20th, 2008

One hassle with using a digital camera is that you have to transfer the photos to your computer to process them. There are two ways, usually, that this is done: use a memory-card reader (often attached by a propriety USB cable which the camera manufacturer sells at a high price, if you ever need . . . → Read More: WLAN SD-cards for cameras

Getting an i-Blue 747 GPS logger to work with OS X

By John, on September 13th, 2008

I bought an i-Blue 747 GPS track logger recently. You can pick one up, new, on eBay for around 40 – 50 Euro. The idea is to use it to tag photos with their position – our cameras don’t have GPS receivers built in, and often when we get back from holiday, its difficult to remember where exactly we took which pictures. If you set the clock in the (digital) camera before you set off, the time-stamp from the GPS log, together with the position data allow you add the exact position of each photo to the EXIF data that the camera stores when each picture is taken.

The problem is, few GPS loggers come with any software for downloading and processing the track data on a Mac. I’m not aware of any that supports OS X “out of the box”. However, there is lots of third party software around which can be used to read out the scans and process them on the Mac. It takes time to track them down, however. So here’s what works for me:
Continue reading Getting an i-Blue 747 GPS logger to work with OS X

Nikon / Microsoft tie-up – DRM for pixels?

By John, on September 1st, 2008

A few days ago Microsoft and Nikon announced a patent sharing deal. At the time a Microsoft employee was quoted as saying: This agreement is another great example of how industry leaders are coming together to collaborate through intellectual property licensing, and by doing so enabling innovation which that will ultimately benefit the consumer.

. . . → Read More: Nikon / Microsoft tie-up – DRM for pixels?

Apple at the Beijing Olympics

By John, on August 23rd, 2008

Apple is using the Olympics to market it’s Macs and professional image processing software, Aperture, to the press photographers attending. They’ve set up 50 workstations with 30″ Cinema Displays and all the necessary software (Photoshop, Aperture, and more) for the pros to use in the Kodak Photographer’s Center. The set-up is being managed by . . . → Read More: Apple at the Beijing Olympics

How to repair your Canon Ixus

By John, on February 21st, 2007

I noticed a link to this article in Handelsblatt (I think, today I can’t find it again) the day before yesterday. The article is very detailed with lots of photos and I’m sure that if you are good with a very small screwdriver, you can indeed save the 260 Euro that you pay . . . → Read More: How to repair your Canon Ixus

Six million pixels are enough

By John, on December 20th, 2006

This week’s Economist has a report about the new Nikon D40 – a 6 megapixel digital SLR camera which undercuts its rivals by several hundred dollars. Their main point in the article subtitled Nikon’s new camera favours quality over quantity is that they think Nikon has recognized that chasing an ever-increasing number of pixels . . . → Read More: Six million pixels are enough

Hi-res digital camera

By John, on September 26th, 2006

This 160 Megapixel (!) camera from Seitz Phototechnik AG (in Switzerland) takes panorama or conventional digital photographs and uses a optional 1.66 GHz Mac mini with 2 GB of memory connected via Gigabit Ethernet for storing and processing the pictures. Not for the weak-armed (it weighs in at 2.8 Kg without the Mac . . . → Read More: Hi-res digital camera