Digitalopia

At the recent WWDC conference Apple released details (and an early developer build to attendees) of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the next planned release of the OS X operating system.

Apple have also added a page to their Web site, giving some initial details of the new features of Snow Leopard.

• Microsoft Exchange Support - Snow Leopard will include support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 in the Mail, Address Book, and iCal applications. This is an interesting move and an important announcement as Apple is looking at the Mac moving more into the corporate enterprise,
• Multicore - With the advent of newer multicore processors, efficiently supporting multiple cores is becoming increasingly important for operating systems. Apple is including a new feature called ‘Grand Central’ that looks like a form of OS scheduler that can manage how applications leverage multiple cores. This may reduce the complexity for developers to write code specifically for multiple cores, leaving the complex task to the operating system,
• 64-bit - Whilst Leopard does provides 64-bit support, it looks like Apple will be added additional features to take full advantage of 64-bit computing,
• Media and Internet - Both QuickTime X (the iPhone implementation of QuickTime) and an update to JavaScript performance in Safari have been announced (note that it is expected that the Safari update may be released earlier than Snow Leopard),
• OpenCL - OpenCL is an interesting announcement. It was originally rumored that Apple would be supporting NVidia Cuda, a development API for tapping into the capabilities of modern GPUs (that are largely unused). However, Apple has announced OpenCL that appears to offer the same type of functionality. Perhaps this is because Apple wishes to support both NVidia and ATI graphics processors, and not be locked into a vendors’ proprietary technology.

At first glance this may seem to be a pretty limited set of features for a new OS X release, but there are a few clues and pointers as to where Apple may be heading with Snow Leopard.

The move from Leopard to Snow Leopard indicates a minor advance for OS X. Unless they have run out of wild cat names, by simply tagging Snow to the front of Leopard, Apple are hinting about the ‘minor’ update this release may represent. In fairness, I think they are saying it will be a minor update from a users perspective, in regards its appearance and feature set. However, most of the changes seem to be aimed at the core of OS X operating system.

With the release of the iPhone, Apple are starting to use the OS X platform on a wider range of devices. Microsoft previously tried this with Windows CE, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, etc. However, Microsoft basically re-wrote the operating system to support these devices, causing a fork in their ongoing development strategy. Apple seem to be tackling the problem in a cleverer way. If they are looking at reducing the footprint of OS X Snow Leopard, allowing it to be run on lower powered devices (perhaps tablet or hand held computers) they will be able to have a single code base that can be deployed across a wider range of devices. This can represent a significant cost saving for Apple, allowing them to streamline their core OS X development and allow them to concentrate on adding functionality, rather than having to manage multiple operating systems. Microsoft is struggling with multiple versions of the Windows platforms, and with the increased size (read bloat) of Vista, you can see that unless Microsoft pulls off a miracle with Windows 7, they will continue to struggle to keep up with the faster release strategies of Apple and the open source Linux platform.

It will also be interesting how much Apple will charge for Snow Leopard. If the feature set is limited, many people may not see the value in upgrading.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is currently scheduled for release in ‘about a year’, so we can expect a Q2/Q3 release in 2009.

Over the last few months I have tried to ensure that Digitalopia remains true to its original direction of ‘Digital Photography with the Apple Mac, from Amateur to Professional’. However, my interest, experience and work goes well beyond digital photography and the Mac platform.

I have decided to expand the scope of Digitalopia to include all aspects of my involvement with computing and digital technology, not just being limited to digital photography and the Mac platform. Whilst I can say that a large part of my personal computing is with digital photography, I would also like to share my experiences and thoughts with regards other areas of computing, from the trials and tribulations of using Vista Media Center to building a Linux NAS server from scratch. I will also be expanding beyond the Mac platform, including my adventures with Microsoft, Linux and the occasional foray into Unix.

Note that I will be continuing to share my passion for digital photography and the Mac platform, including my journey into Aperture 2 and the new Aperture plug-in architecture.

I hope that you continue to enjoy the articles that we put together.

Nik Software have today released the Viveze Plug-in for Aperture 2.1. The plug-in was one of the original plug-ins listed by Apple as being in development upon the release of the Aperture Edit Plug-In SDK.

I will be interested in looking further at the features of the plug-in, and to be honest, the descriptions do not really tell me how the plug-in differentiates itself from the features already available in Aperture.

A 15 day trial is available to allow you to try out the plug-in and it is available for purchase direct from the Nik Software Web site at $249.95. Yes, this is another Aperture plug-in that is more expensive than Aperture itself, as the Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter plug-in costs $299.95.

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I am often asked about the best types of storage a digital photographer should use, especially if they should use RAID storage. In this series of articles, I hope to explain some uses for each of the most popular RAID types, especially in the context of digital photography.

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is the use of 2 or more disks to achieve greater reliability, greater performance or greater capacity.

In this article, I will be describing RAID level 1, or Mirroring. Looking at the above definition, RAID level 1 provides greater reliability, but neither greater performance or capacity. I have previously covered RAID 0 Striping in a previous article.

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It seems that since Apple released Aperture 2, there have been ongoing debates on photography forums regarding Aperture’s tethered shooting support of the newer camera models from Nikon and Canon.

As a Nikon user, I was oblivious to the debate when I first wrote about the new tethering features in Aperture. However, after hearing about the lack of support for many Canon models, I decided to do a brief exercise looking at their support. What amazed me was the lack of support of not just the most recent Canon models such as the 1Ds III, but also models that were released over 2 years ago like the 30D.

I started to dig a bit deeper and found 2 sides to the story. I have not yet received a formal statement from either Apple or Canon (see below), but I thought I would share both sides of the arguments. Most comments are from various forums, and obviously give bias, so should be taken lightly.

What Evidence Supports Apple

The issue lies with Canon… I’ve heard different reasoning for this (Canon putting some proprietary blocks in the way or Canon’s SDK having some bugs that still need to be corrected). Hopefully, it’s the SDK issue or a firmware issue that can be updated or corrected.

The next comment was made from an Apple spokesman at a trade event.

… each camera needs to be reverse engineered for tethering because Canon is not willing to let go of the coding.

The Macworld review of Aperture 2 states the following.

Tethered shooting in Aperture works using a standard called Picture Transport Protocol (PTP), and as such, it requires supported cameras.

What Evidence Supports Canon

This comment was received from Canon’s customer support.

… while the transfer protocols for the camera and the image files are available to the software designers.

The Bibble software seems to support most, if not all of the Canon models. I guess the question here is that if Bibble can, why cannot Apple ?

The Follow Up

This is obviously not a closed case, so I have subsequently written to both Apple and Canon asking if they would be able to supply a comment that I can share with my readers. Fingers crossed they will respond.

For a more comprehensive list of supported cameras, take a look at this site. As you can see, Canon is very poorly supported by Aperture.

I am often asked about the best types of storage a digital photographer should use, especially if they should use RAID storage. In this series of articles, I hope to explain some uses for each of the most popular RAID types, especially in the context of digital photography.

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is the use of 2 or more disks to achieve greater reliability, greater performance or greater capacity.

In this article, I will be describing RAID level 0, or Striping. Looking at the above definition, RAID level 0 provides greater performance and to a lesser extent greater capacity.

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If you read my previous article on Aperture Tethered Shooting Tutorial, then you will know how much I enjoy using the new tethering features of Aperture 2.

However, one thing that I get asked often is how well supported are the newer camera models. In this article I will look at the support for the latest Nikon and Canon camera models, namely the Nikon D300 and D3, and the Canon 450D (Rebel XSi), 40D and 1DsIII.

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I am always looking for ways to improve my digital workflow, and I have been recently interested in refining the white balance I set for my photographs. I have previously had pretty good success with either the camera’s automatic setting for the white balance of my RAW images, or I would make small adjustments in Aperture (and previously with Adobe Bridge.) However, I have recently been shooting in artificial light and with flash, and I have not been very happy with some of the results I was achieving. It was also taking me far too long to fine-tune the ideal white balance in post processing.

So started my search for the ideal gray or white balance card. I was looking for something that was small enough so it can be carried whilst shooting outside, but sturdy enough to withstand the knocks and bumps it will get. After poring though numerous reviews of various products, I decided upon the range of WhiBal G6 White Balance Reference Cards.

They are available in three sizes, Pocket, Studio and Reference. I have ordered the pocket sized WhiBal G6 White Balance Reference Card from rawworkflow.com. The pocket version looks small enough to be able to fit into a pocket, and I have read positive reviews about its sturdy construction and relatively scratch resistant surface. There are a very good set of videos from the creator of the WhiBal, Michael Tapes.

I have also found a really informative article describing how to use the WhiBal with Aperture. It is definitely worth reading.

I will provide my personal comments on the WhiBal in a subsequent post.

Whilst I am not going to start (or restart) the ongoing discussion of the relative merits of Matte versus Glossy LCD screens, I will make a couple of observations.

Since the release of the new Aluminum 24″ iMac, there has been a lot of discussion regarding the lack of an option to specify a matte screen, leaving users wishing to purchase the top-of-the-range iMac the option of only the glossy screen. There was considerable buzz and expectation that Apple would listen to its photography user and make the matte screen an option on the new iMac. Unfortunately this is not the case.

Now, there may be technical reasons why a matte screen cannot be fitted. However, considering the Apple range of screens, together with just about every other manufacturer (including the high-end Eizo screens) provide matte screens, I rather doubt this would be a reason.

With the recent release of Aperture 2, shortly followed by Aperture 2.1 and the Plug-in SDK, Apple was starting to listen to the needs of digital photographers. Hopefully they will continue to do so, and this will only be a slight blip.

There is something pure and simple about a black and white photograph. Perhaps it is its common use among the classic photographers such a Ansel Adams and its adoption in fine art photography. It may be that to create a ‘good’ black and white photo is harder than a ‘good’ colour photo; reason being the lack of colour information forces you to focus more on the image content, detail and contrast.

Most image editing applications support the conversion of an image to black and white. However, not all are created equal and some simply support a ‘convert to greyscale’ option that does not give you the flexibility to adjust the image further. Both iPhoto and the software bundled with most cameras do a reasonable job of converting an image to black and white, but the greyscale images they produce can be quite flat and it can be hard to get the effects you desire.

New Zealand - Milford Sound

Aperture provides a set of adjustments for black and white conversion that will be common to photographers that use filters to achieve their black and white effects.

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