KevinKeeganPro.com Blog

This was the latest buzz last week after Apple’s Oct. 14th laptop event. Apple has opted to leave out firewire from it’s consumer level Macbook laptop, allowing it to only be present on the higher-end Macbook Pro variant.

I had to post something regarding this topic, as this doesn’t just hit close to home…this smacks home upside the face with a dumbstick. Apparently apple’s stance is apple creatith, thus apple can taketh away. Though I pray the sole reason behind’s apple’s latest disappointing odd product release feature set is to better differentiate the two computer models. Regardless, I think this is a very bad move on apple’s side. The Macbook has been for the most part, a smaller computer physically yet always very capable. It has been a go to computer for users that require a smaller footprint for either travel or otherwise. I mean, have you ever tried to open up a 15″ let alone a 17″ Apple laptop on a plane in coach, not happenin’.

The lack of firewire directly effects people that utilize many of the current devices in multimedia fields. External hard drives, DV decks/camcorders, HDV decks/camcorders are all useless now when paired with the new Macbook. The only element that I can think of that can save some people is many of Lacie’s hard drives have a triple or even quad interface consisting of USB 2.0, Firewire 400 & 800, and SATA. So what are professionals, whose HDV cameras and decks use only firewire to export their footage digitally supposed to do? Well apple doesn’t have an answer it seems. They’ve reportedly deleted any thread on their support page regarding the subject and their only response is that firewire is gone and most of the new devices all use USB now. How are video editors using a Macbook supposed to daisy chain a USB drive to another without a hub…and then add on a camera to that to capture footage. They can’t, and are left to flutter in the wind. There is even an online petition asking Apple to think again and fix the issue, giving Macbooks back a firewire port.

I think apple’s only option and it would be a very good option, is to re-release a new smaller 12″ or 13″ Macbook Pro. Similar to the 12″ Powerbook of the past, this would help address the price difference between the two model lines and would give users that need a more portable computing solution somewhere to look. We’ll just have to wait and see, and I’m no rumor guru. I have yet to read anything regarding such a speculation…and in fact it seems very unlikely considering the unsuccessful sales of the previous 12″ Powerbook. But whatever, in my opinion it’s Apple’s only way to fix the current situation it’s caused.

P.S. I love apple, and probably always will…but sometimes and more often lately, they’ve really shocked me.

Well I’ve had to switch servers, which is always a fun task. It’s almost all back up now. The site and blog are good to go and I’m going to have to rebuild the portfolio unfortunately, but it will get there.

Stick with me…

Well I received my Nikon D90 about 2 weeks ago now. I’ve had plenty of fun with it so far…and in my opinion, it shoots great quality pictures. I was aware that SanDisk had released a new 30 MB/s edition of their Extreme III SD card to go along with this camera. Well mine arrived yesterday and I thought I’d do a little test to get some real world numbers out of it.

I’ve chosen three SD cards for comparison:

1. SanDisk 4 Gb Extreme III 30 MB/s (Class 6) SD card
2. SanDisk 2 Gb Extreme III 20 MB/s (Class 6) SD card
3. SanDisk 4 Gb SDHC (Class 2) SD card

My test was shooting a simple well lit area of my desk in order to get max fps. All cards were inserted into the D90 then formatted before each test. With the camera set to manual (*Auto-ISO off and Active D-lighting on…I’ll get to that later), Continuous High or CH shutter mode, and JPEG Normal, I proceeded to fire off as many shots as possible before the camera buffer appeared to get full and began to slow down the camera’s ROF (rate of fire).

—————————————————————————

My results, though not exact, give you an idea of where the performance lies in this new 30 MB/s card from SanDisk.

1. SanDisk 4 Gb Extreme III 30 MB/s (Class 6) SD card
Approx. 90-95 shots at 4.5fps (after that it slowed to about 3.5-4fps)

2. SanDisk 2 Gb Extreme III 20 MB/s (Class 6) SD card
Approx. 50 shots at 4.5fps (after that it slowed down to a steady 3-3.5fps)

3. SanDisk 4 Gb SDHC (Class 2) SD card
Approx. 15 shots at 4.5fps (after that it slowed down to a about 1.5-2fps)

—————————————————————————

The card didn’t offer any kind of speed boost but merely ROF endurance at the camera’s fastest continuous speed.

The card did seem to have a slight quicker rate of review when going through pictures in the playback mode. Also the quick review after you take several continuous shots was quicker too, but nothing amazing. But there is one cool thing, let’s say you’ve shot several of continuous shots like 30-50 for some reason, the live review will keep showing you the latest picture that it has written to the card. It takes a long time to catch up and show the preview of the last in the series. Well if you hit the play button or the shutter half way, the quick review ceases. This allows the writing process to the card to finish as fast as possible. After that, just hit the play button again and you’re able to immediately flip through all of the photos you just shot…instantly. This would be very good for shooting sports, when you might need to check photos quickly then right away begin shooting again. Also, the speed when downloading from the camera to a computer using this new SanDisk Extreme III 30 MB/s SD card is incredibly quick compared to the others. I was able to download 500+ full size jpeg pictures in a 2-3 minutes.

So overall this card has some performance gains over a standard card and the normal Extreme III card in keeping the camera from filling up the buffer.

—————————————————————————
(Updated 3-5-09) *Now about the Auto-ISO issue. If Auto-ISO is enabled, and then activated by the camera** this can indirectly inhibit the camera’s ability to buffer. Also these other settings, pulled from the Nikon D90 manual, can cause the same effect…
• ISO is set to H 0.3 or higher
• High ISO NR is on and the ISO is set to 800 or higher
• If long exposure noise reduction is on
• Active D-lighting is on.

Here is the buffer size chart from the Nikon D90 manual…

**Auto-ISO: If the image being metered is going to be underexposed and the shutter speed has to drop below the minimum shutter speed parameter in the ISO sensitivity settings to achieve a proper exposure, only then will the camera force a change in the ISO settings from where you have it set at (i.e. ISO 200) – See below…

With the above settings, only when the camera’s shutter speed drops below 1/30th will the camera adjust the ISO above 200, but it will not exceed 1600.

My new iMac is on its way. A 24″ 3.06 GHz model with 4 Gb of memory.

This will be MY first new mac since my current powerbook G4 from circa 2004. This is a very good thing as this laptop can’t last forever. Along with the compy, I will be taking delivery of Final Cut Studio 2 as well as all the most recent Adobe apps…Photoshop, Dreamweaver, AfterEffects, etc…

And I’ll finally be able to iChat video with people…any takers. I get lonely I kid…

Update: The compy is here and kick-ass. The screen is huge and the computer seems to be very quick. It’s making things much easier to multi-task on projects with Leopards Spaces and the best thing is it should pay for itself in 2 or so months. Apple has still got it.

I’ll post a pic once the office is a bit more complete…ya know like furniture and some framage on the walls.

This is a great web browser plug-in that I have come across. It works with both Windows Explorer 7 (up to version 3.005) and Firefox 3 (up to version 3.17). The software simply “stumbles” around the internet based upon the categories that you have selected/are interested in. For instance, if graphic design is one of your categories, you can tell stumble upon to stumble only through sites that pertain to graphic design. That can be a really great research tool for someone and I have personally discovered many great resources for photoshop tutorials, stock images and other design related items. You can also stumble through some great videos and photos using it as well. The plug-in keeps track of sites that you like or dislike and in turn, shows you more sites that you give a thumbs up to and keeps a list of them like bookmarks. You can send links to friends and also (once they join) see what sites they’ve been checking out so you can visit them as well as many other great features.

From the site:
“Welcome to StumbleUpon

Join 4,734,696 Stumblers & Discover New Sites

Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.

Connect, Meet and Share

Connect with friends and share your discoveries, meet people that have similar interests.”

Check it out at www.stumbleupon.com.