Many will already know the DG28 website of (London) Times Supplements photographer Neil Turner. But if you don’t I highly recommend it as it has a great range of articles covering photographic technique, equipment, wiring, and also some very interesting commentary on day-to-day issues in press photography.
The Luminous Landscape website has a good field test of the new Epson R-D1 digital rangefinder camera. It’s an interesting piece of kit as it is the closest anyone seems to have come to a digital Leica M6 type camera, and it accepts Leica M-Series lenses. The review is generally very positive but you’ll need to lay down $3000 to get one…
UPDATE 15/12/04: Dan Chung has some observations on his real-world use of the R-D1 on his blog, including some front-focussing problems when using Leica M-series lenses.
I recently came across the FiftyCrows - ‘Social Change Photography’ website which is devoted to using photography as a vehicle for social awareness.
They have just announced the winners of their 2004 Central Asia and Caucasus Grant and there are also some nice photo-galleries on the site.
Taking great pictures is all very well, but if you can’t file them it’s meaningless. In some ways the technology of image transmission has advanced greatly, because of advancements in communications. But in other ways organisations have not always kept up in terms of the software they use for receiving pictures.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) has become the mainstay for most image transmission these days, and so a round-up of all the different software out there seems to be in order. Even though they all use the same ftp protocol, there are big differences in the effectiveness of different applications, as well as differences in their user-interfaces… which some may see as only eye-candy, but when you are trying to file in a hurry in a difficult situation, it all makes a difference. There is a secure, encrypted version of the FTP protocol, called sftp, but I am unaware of any organisations using it, so I shall not go into that here.
FTP Clients
Fetch (Mac)
Transmit (Mac)
Interarchy (Mac)
Yummy FTP (Mac) [Newish client, looks promising]
Cyberduck (Mac) [Open-source]
Bulletproof FTP (Mac/Win)
CuteFTP (Win/Mac)
HeftyFTP (Mac)
Vicomsoft FTP client (Mac)
Captain FTP (Mac)
DropSite & DropSite Courier (Mac) [This clever application creates transportable ftp 'droplets']
FileZilla (Win) [My preferred windows client, open-source, full-featured and works extremely well]
WS_FTP (Win)
3D-FTP (Win)
SmartFTP (Win)
FolderFTP (Win)
FlashFXP (Win)
CoffeeCup Free FTP (Win)
FTP Now (Win)
FTP Commander (Win)
NcFTP (Mac/Win/Linux)
gFTP (Linux)
All-in one image browsers, editors & ftp clients
Photo Mechanic (Mac/Win)
FotoTrafiX (Mac/Win)
PhotoThumb (Win)
Pocket Phojo (PocketPC)
FTP Servers
Mac OSX & Mac OSX Server [These have built-in ftp servers that are easy to use but neither is particularly good or secure - though server version is better]
Windows XP [Can be configured to allow FTP access, but also not very good]
ProFTPD (Mac/Linux & virtually every other operating system)
FTP-Config (Mac)
CrushFTP (Mac/Mac OS9/Win/Linux)
PureFTPd Manager (Mac)
Rumpus FTP (Mac/Mac OS9)
File Zilla Server (Win)
WAR FTP Daemon (Win)
Bulletproof FTP Server (Win)
Cute FTP Server (Win)
Gene6 FTP Server (Win) [Excellent, has nice remote web-admin module]
Cerberus FTP Server (Win)
WS_FTP Server (Win)
Fastream NETFile FTP/Web Server (Win)
Titan FTP Server (Win)
Crocodile Server (Win) [Apple Rendezvous enabled]
WU-FTPd (Linux)
TwoFTPd (Linux)
Legacy transmission applications (terminal-emulators, not ftp)
Zterm (Mac OSX, OS9, OS8)
Black Knight (Mac OS9)
Hyperterminal (Win)
This list is pretty comprehensive of what I feel is worth looking at, but not exhaustive and if you are after something not here, or with some esoteric functionality, there is probably something out there that suits your needs. Try searching at one of these links:
Search VersionTracker for FTP Clients and Servers for OSX
Search VersionTracker for FTP Clients and Servers for Windows
Search VersionTracker for FTP Clients and Servers for Palm
One of the nice aspects of Senegal is the friendly, tolerant, attitude of the people living here and the general air of stability. I was reminded of this on the walk to work this morning when I came across a hundred or so men, in a group, running and shouting down the street. My instinct, based on many other countries in this part of the world, was to assess what it could be - a demonstration? part of a riot? running from some incident? … No… just the new recruits for the nearby Customs training centre on their morning exercise run. Nice.
The New York Times has an op-ed piece written by the documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, about the role that photography plays in the coverage of war, and in particular the idea that it makes it harder for the public to deny reality. Often articles about photojournalism in newspapers aren’t that well thought-out or informed, but this one makes some good points.
He also touches on the incident of the the recent videotape of an Iraqi insurgent in Falluja allegedly being shot and killed by a U.S. Marine and the impact it has had. Kevin Sites, the cameraman who shot the footage, recently posted an account of his version of events on his blog.
The London Times had a story about a new system developed by Hewlett-Packard that would supposedly enable celebrities to avoid having their picture taken.
“By wearing a specially designed electronic badge that jams electronic cameras, they will be able to prevent photographers from taking unwanted pictures. The “privacy protection system” being developed by Hewlett-Packard will allow the publicity-shy to transmit an infrared signal to any nearby compatible camera.”
Compatible camera?… As pointed out at in this Engadget article, no-one is going to want to buy a crippled camera like this, thus rendering the system pointless and - fortunately for the press - cementing the certainty that any such system will never make it to market.
As the Christmas season comes upon us again some people may be looking at MP3 players for possible presents. I’m a big fan of Apple’s iPod, but it doesn’t do everything and there are a multitude of other players out there with a range of different features… The MP3Newswire.net site has done a good five-part round-up of the latest players that the market has to offer….
MP3 player round-up part 1
MP3 player round-up part 2
MP3 player round-up part 3
MP3 player round-up part 4
MP3 player round-up part 5
Often one receives images from occasional-use stringers that are of poor technical quality and/or resolution. It’s easy to assume that this is due to to using a bad-quality camera, but in many cases it appears it is down to the photographer not having the camera set up properly. Too many people with good quality cameras capable of shooting e.g. 4MP images have them set to shoot at lower resolution and/or too high compression, often in order to get more images on the card. When dealing with images from a camera you haven’t personally used before, here are some tips:
1. The key step is to preview the image in Photo Mechanic - because in the right-hand column it shows a lot of information about the image including which make and model of camera it was shot on (unless the image has undergone processing that has stripped out the EXIF info)
2. Go to the extremely useful digital camera specifications page at Digital Photography Review and look up that camera model.
3. Armed with all the details such as possible resolution sizes (e.g. 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480 etc) and available compression levels (e.g. Super-Fine, Fine, Normal etc) go back to the photographer and explain how they need to set the camera to obtain best results.
Those of you using Photo Mechanic will know what a great image browser it is already. But there are always bugs to correct and new features to add, so if you have any of either I suggest taking a look at the long-running Photo Mechanic Wishlist thread over at Rob Galbraith’s site. The program’s authors keep an eye on it and provide useful feedback regarding problems, and also information as to what is coming up in future releases.
For some large events with multiple photographers shooting, you need to have a “hot-folder” that is being constantly monitored, and when any files arrive in this folder, an application automatically transfers them somewhere else, for example by ftp. I have used Fotoware Distribution Manager to do this in the past, and it worked excellently. I’ve come across another application that appears quite promising called FolderFTP. It has some nice touches such as being able to have it automatically enter IPTC information prior to uploading, and optional email notification. There’s a short discussion on its use over in this forum thread at RobGalbraith’s site.
The company that makes it - PhotoThumb.com - specialises in digital photography software for Windows and also makes a handy little free shell extension for Windows called IPTCExt which enables you to losslessly edit IPTC/Caption information in a jpeg’s properties page, without additional software.
I’ve been hearing vague rumours about a new BGAN satphone in the pipeline that supposedly would have 384kbps bandwidth… Other than that I’ve no information, so if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know. I’m hoping it might have some sort of built-in Voice-over-IP (VOIP) functionality, to counter the current unit’s lack of voice capability, but that’s just guessing.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the Kuro5hin site of late, and it’s pretty interesting sometimes. For those of you unaware of it, it’s a site devoted to a wide range of issues from Technology to Culture to Politics and beyond. The more interesting aspect is the structure of it, as it operates on a community/collaborative basis whereby any user can post articles and vote on other’s posts, in a similar way to how Slashdot operates. Today they have an interesting article on the differences between concepts of comfort and pleasure. This may sound a touch obscure but there’s some good reading in there.
I’ve mentioned how I’ve been pretty pleased with the Voice-over-IP telephony client Skype before, but one of the disadvantages in my mind is I want to have something that looks and feels like a real phone, not a computer headset etc. Some people prefer the headset approach, and the possibility of using bluetooth headsets is somewhat more appealing…. but still I think it would be better to have an actual phone with keypad to make calls.
The optimum solution as far as I’m concerned would be a Skype-compatible phone one can plug directly into an ethernet router, thus not needing a computer to be switched on when you want to make the call. Or even better a wi-fi based solution. One can run Skype on a pocket-pc with wifi, but I don’t have one. The ethernet route unfortunately incurs some technical difficulties, and so far I haven’t seen anything like that available.
However there are some Skype-compatible usb-based solutions that look quite promising:
USB phone (PCPhoneline)
USB-to-RJ11 (regular phone) adapter (PCPhoneline)
USB phone (CUPhone)
USB-to-RJ11 (regular phone) adapter (CUPhone)
Combined cordless Skype/Regular phone (Olympia)
Chat-Cord
The other option to Skype seems to be the SIP protocol, which has both advantages and disadvantages. A discussion of which can be found in this blog. There’s a strong argument in favour of SIP due to its being based on open protocols, as opposed to Skype’s proprietary nature. There is a much wider variety of supported hardware because of this.
Here’s where to look for more information on SIP and other VoIP issues:
VoIP Wiki - a good starting point
Tom’sNetworking VoIP Need-To-Know article
SIP Center - information resources
SIP Forum - information resources
SIPphone - a leading SIP provider
VON Magazine
Some SIP-compatible hardware
Some more SIP-compatible hardware
Good list of SIP-related links
And here are some of the very few all-in-one ADSL modem/Router/Wireless/Analog-VoIP-input devices out there (They support SIP and you can plug a normal phone into them):
Draytek Vigor 2600VG
Inventel Residential Gateway
FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN
Intertex IX66
Small usb thumbdrives are ubiquitous these days and are very handy for transferring pictures between computers regardless of hardware, operating system etc. But what else are they good for? Here’s a couple ideas for other things to put on them, drawn from this Engadget discussion thread…
Portable Firefox web browser
Portable Thunderbird email client
Trillian email client (how to install on a portable drive)
A complete Linux distro (complete with some applications & bootable off Windows to fit on a 128MB drive)
Update 21/03/06: Wikipedia now has a good list of applications that can be run on a USB key here
Whilst OSX is an incredibly robust operating system, problems can still occur, and many people are unaware what to do in order to diagnose and fix problems. The ever-helpful MacOSXHints site has put together a useful article entitled “20 Troubleshooting Steps for OS X” with lots of good advice on what to try and just as important, what order to do it in. The article is based on advice given by users in this discussion thread in the forums.
As reported by the Digital Vision Network blog, a New York Times article discusses the increasing problem of how to preserve digital files for longevity, compared with film.
The Mozilla Firefox web browser and Thunderbird mail client have been updated again. Those of you still using Outlook and/or Internet Explorer should have a serious look at these, which have now matured into very good applications that are both more secure and functional than Microsoft’s offerings.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Thunderbird
They also have a promising standalone calendar application Sunbird.
All are available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux and so are especially good in a cross-platform environment.
UPDATE 09/11/04: Firefox version 1.0 final release is now available.
So it’s not the most exciting piece of kit out there and has been on the market for some time, but after having used it for a long while now I find the Delkin Cardbus 32-bit Compactflash adapter to be one of the most useful things I have. It gives you card download speeds approaching Firewire or USB 2.0 but without the bulky readers or cables, and I leave mine sitting in my card slot permanently. Requires drivers, but they are available for Windows and Mac. Rob Galbraith has some performance data with different types of cards.
Legendary AP photographer/editor and all-round good guy, Horst Faas, has a good round-up of all the new gear at this year’s Photokina in Cologne, in the November edition of The Digital Journalist.
