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05.2.2010 Mark Wood No Comments

2010 MacBook Pro – Initial Impressions

After waiting close to a year, Apple announced their new line of MacBook Pro laptops.  I’d been in the market for a new laptop to replace my 3+ year old white MacBook, and the introduction of the high resolution display pushed me over the edge.  I ordered the upgraded, glossy, high resolution screen on the base 15″ model.  After waiting close to two weeks, it arrived today!

Unboxing

As always, Apple’s packaging is almost as beautiful as the product itself.  I tried to document the unveiling with photos, but I’m afraid they do little justice to the actual beauty of the product.

NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
MacBook Pro 15" Shipping Box
NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
Shipping Carton Open
NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
Back of MacBook Pro 15" Box
NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
Front of MacBook Pro 15" Box
NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
Box Open

At this point, it’s easy to see the actual beauty of the product.  (It’s really not as shiny as the photo may indicate since there is a protective plastic film covering the laptop).  Perhaps I’m a bit of the odd man out here, but I had never handled the unibody MacBooks.  There is no Mac store within 50 miles of my home and none of my friends have one.  So let me just say that taking it out of the box was quite the experience.  To start with, the engineering is simply beautiful.  It’s very easy to tell that this was made from one solid piece of aluminum.  There are virtually no seams and everything lines up perfectly.  The second noticeable thing was simply how solid it felt.  Because of it’s unibody construction, it feels oddly solid and dense, yet not overly heavy.  It’s somewhat difficult to describe.

Removing the plastic film and opening the display was just as stunning.  While not everyone likes the look of the glossy display, I really like them.

NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
Glossy Screen and Keyboard

The other item which caught my attention was the black keyboard.  My white MacBook came with a white keyboard (clearly) and frankly, it always seemed to look dirty after being used for a couple of days — necessitating a good cleaning.  The black keyboard not only looks great against the aluminum housing, but I think will prove to be less revealing with regards to dirt and grime.  Great job Apple.

NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
Beautiful Design!

User Interface

While it comes as no surprise that the user interface on an Apple product is good, I have to give very high marks to those items which have changed since my last MacBook.  The first, and most obvious, is the new trackpad design.  Apple has opted to get rid of any discrete buttons and instead equip their laptops with one very large trackpad.  Even my old MacBook had the best trackpad I’ve ever used.  This one is even better.  The entire bottom two thirds of the trackpad is physically a button (which depresses with a click).  While this may sound odd at first, it’s actually very intuitive.  Not only that, the inertial scrolling feature Apple added makes so much intuitive sense to me that using my work computer’s scroll feature (the right edge of the trackpad) seems awkward and inefficient.  For those who haven’t heard the hype, the whole idea behind inertial scrolling is that if you use two fingers to scroll up and down in a document, flicking them down makes the document keep scrolling a little even after your fingers have left the track pad.  This flicking motion makes it very easy to scroll very large documents.

The other huge feature that cannot go unnoticed is the display.  I absolutely love the high resolution display!  I’ve seen some negative comments regarding text sizes with the higher resolution display and will admit that packing extra pixels into a display of the same size will shrink text — that’s a given.  But personally, I don’t find anything unreadable while the laptop is comfortably sitting in my lap.  The higher resolution really shines when photos are displayed.  They are stunning!  Finally I can actually see a decent sized rendition of my photos in Lightroom while having toolbars on the side of the screen!

NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/4.5, ISO 160 | zoom in
My Desk with External Monitor

Performance

Please bear in mind that this is, indeed, an initial review.  Also please bear in mind that there are numerous speed tests available on the web for these processors.  And I really am not into benchmark numbers or other synthetic tests.  With that said, I am willing to say the performance is really good.  What do I mean by that?  I mean that I find that I no longer have to wait for previews of my photos to render in Lightroom.  I find that clicking on Firefox or Thunderbird produce almost instant windows.  In short, I rarely find myself waiting for the computer to do something.  And that, for me, is what really matters!

Conclusions

Thus far, I’m completely satisfied with my purchase!  I really love the solid aluminum unibody design.  I love the high resolution display!  As I’ve said before, the performance is such that I never feel that I’m having to slow down my workflow to wait for the computer to catch up.  In all actuality, I have to say that this is the best laptop I’ve ever used.  I’m not, by any means, done writing about this wonderful new tool!  In fact, I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be doing much more in-depth reviews of individual aspects.  If there is something specific you’re curious about or interested in, I’m open to suggestions!

04.23.2010 Mark Wood No Comments

New York Times: A Moment In Time

This looked interesting!

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/readers-9/?hp

Apparently, the NY Times is encouraging as many people as possible to take a photo on May 15th at 15:00 GMT (11:00 am for those on the East coast).  Their goal?  To make a “Moment in Time”.

You will be able to submit your photo to the New York Times website and they will be publishing a selection.  I’m not sure exactly what this will turn into, but it could be a really neat project!

04.18.2010 Mark Wood 7 Comments

MacBook Pro 2010 – A Photographer’s Dream?

After almost 10 months of waiting, Apple announced the latest upgrades to their MacBook Pro line of computers.  And while many seem disappointed with Apple’s latest product release, I’m thinking that this may represent the new standard for photographers and other media professionals.

For those who haven’t been following the release closely, the latest generation of 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro models have been upgraded to use Intel’s latest Core i5 and i7 processors.  (For those curious, the 13″ line of MacBook Pros has stayed with the Intel Core 2 Duo line of processors, but did see a speed bump as well as more RAM standard.)

In addition to the upgraded processors, the other hot news is the change in graphics cards.  All 15″ models now come with a discrete graphics card – an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M.  Models are available with either 256MB of graphics memory or, for the higher end model, 512MB.

For a full review of all the latest options, I suggest reading the Engaget’s description of the updates, or their Review of the MacBook Pro Core i7.

So what does all of this mean to photographers?

Processing Power

Pure processing power has always been on the list of necessary features for a photographer’s laptop choice.  Converting RAW images, running programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture and storing / cataloging the hundreds of images taken every day is simply a processor intensive task.  And while the previous MacBook Pro machines were indeed powerful, over the course of the last 10 months, a lot of upgrades have come about in mobile processors.

In an effort to stay competitive, Apple made a smart decision to include the latest Core i5 and i7 processors in this generation of MacBook Pros.  Early benchmarks of these Intel processors has shown very favorable results and these should prove to provide an even better user experience to anyone doing complex computing.  While there have been many complaining about the lack of a quad core option, Apple has always been conservative with their laptop specs.  I guess, in this case, I’d rather have a rock solid laptop with slightly slower processor than the latest and greatest processor at the sacrifice of stability and build quality.  However, I’m sure many would not agree.

Screen Resolution

While the upgraded processor is a huge draw for running Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom, the other huge news is the ability to add a higher resolution screen to the 15″ product line.  For me, this alone makes these a huge step above the previous generation MacBook Pro for any sort of photographic tasks.  And while the 17″ does have an even higher resolution, many mobile professionals can’t justify the additional bulk.  In fact, most professional photographers I’ve conversed with feel that the 15″ is the best option with regards to bulk and horsepower.

While some may argue that there is really very little gain from the new higher resolution screen, let’s do some quick math.  The 13″ screen has a standard (non-upgradable) resolution of 1280×800 or 1,024,000 pixels.  The standard 15″ resolution of 1440×900 pixels equals a total pixel count of 1,296,000 (for those doing the math, that’s only a 26.5% increase over the 13″).  And while this does indeed make a difference, if you’re anything like me, the more pixels the better — especially for a program like Adobe Lightroom.  Enter the new upgrade option from Apple.  For only $100 more (for glossy, $150 for a matte option), the latest 15″ can be ordered with a 1680×1050 pixel resolution for a total pixel count of 1,764,000.  This is a 36% increase over the standard 15″ configuration and a whopping 72% increase over the 13″ model!  That’s huge!  I’m sure we’ll see many people upgrading for that feature alone.

Graphics Processing

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M has received its fair share of criticism in the last week.  However, since this chip was manufactured exclusively for Apple, and has only been released for a week, I really feel it’s too early to pass a harsh judgment.  In fact, early reports show it being more than adequate for most users.  Also, according to many (including the above Engadget review), the latest version of Photoshop (CS5) will take full advantage of the upgraded GPU.  I can only hope that Lightroom 3 (when released) will also follow suit as rendering a couple GB of images can currently take a noticeable amount of time.  Only time will tell how well this graphics option will perform.

Conclusion

Personally, one of the biggest reasons I’ve stuck with my 3+ year old MacBook was the fact that the MacBook Pro line simply didn’t offer enough incentive to upgrade for my uses.  And when Apple announced the new 13″ Pro models, I thought I’d finally found my next laptop.  However, with the discrete graphics option now standard on the entry level 15″ models, and the option to add a higher resolution screen, I really feel that the 15″ MacBook Pro is the perfect portable photographic companion!

Update:

The new MacBook Pro arrived and my Initial Impressions are posted (as well as unboxing photos).

02.22.2010 Mark Wood No Comments

New Sigma Lenses Announced!

Finally!  Some lenses to actually get excited about!  With the recent Nikon lens announcements, many pros were more satisfied.  But what about those of us who don’t have thousands of dollars to shell out on lenses?  This is when brands like Sigma really shine.

In fact, they just released two new lenses that really caught my eye.  First off was the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM prime.  Those who know me know I love prime lenses!  Most of the photos I post here are shot with my Nikon 50mm f/1.4D lens.  While an 85mm prime on a DX sensor is a bit of long, it still could be a lot of fun!

Also, since Nikon seems loathe to update their version, this just may become a must have for many pros.

The other lens that fascinates me is the updated Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM.  It’s quite a mouthful, but the idea of a really fast zoom in this range with Optical Stabilization (OS) could be the perfect walk-around lens for most people.

I’m not exactly sure when Sigma will actually start selling these as they were just announced today, but they both look really interesting!

02.15.2010 Mark Wood 2 Comments

MSI Wind U120 – Wireless Card Upgrade

So, my wife has an MSI Wind U120.  It’s a great little netbook — especially after I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10.  She loves it and uses it constantly.  But there’s always been a problem with this netbook.  Not the keyboard, or even the track pad buttons that some complain about.  No… our problem has been the Wireless card.

Realtek RTL8187SE

Perhaps it was bad luck, or a bad card, but the Realtek RTL8187 that came with our Wind was awful.  Not simply slow, or a little bit of a pain.  Completely and totally abysmal.  It took close to  a minute to lock on to a WiFi access point that was across a small room.  It refused to stay connected to almost any wireless access point.  On a public access point with any sort of traffic, it would drop out every couple minutes.  Digging in to the problem, I found that it was dropping more packets than it was receiving!  Which means that less than 50% of the packets were ever getting to the computer.  Lets just say that watching YouTube videos was an exercise in patience.  Even going to a web page was painful.

Looking in to the problem, I found that I’m actually not alone in this dilemma.  Many people reported that they just lived with the issues.  Some talked about replacing the wireless card.  Hmm… Being a bit of a geek, any excuse to take apart a computer seems to be a good option.

So, I went to eBay and ordered an Intel 4965AGN MiniPCIe card.  Total cost, including shipping, came out to $12.18.   It came today and I installed it in a little under an hour.  Not only is this card have built-in support under Linux, but it adds Wireless N capabilities which the previous card didn’t have.  Not that I have a Wireless N router, but it never hurts to upgrade if you’re going to take the computer apart anyway.

Installing the Intel 4965AGN on an MSI Wind U120

I’ve taken this netbook apart already when I replaced the hard drive.  There was nothing wrong with the old hard drive, but I figured that I’d save the Windows install that came with it and install Linux on a new hard drive (that I had laying around).  This way, if my wife didn’t like the Linux experience, she could easily go back to the native Windows install by just swapping back.

Please be warned – I am not responsible for you breaking your computer.  These instructions worked for me.  Also note that by the end of this whole thing, we’ll have taken the screen apart too so if you aren’t comfortable continuing, don’t.

Step 1 – Remove the Back Cover

I won’t go in to too many details here since I believe that if you can’t remove the back cover, you probably shouldn’t undertake this project.  One word of wisdom is that there is a screw under the warranty sticker.  This means you will have to void your warranty to do this.  Another word of wisdom is that you should have removed the battery before you started.  After loosening all the screws, the back cover snaps off.  It’s a little stubborn, but if you go slow and use something plastic like a credit card to separate the cover, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Step 2 – Locate the Mini PCIe WiFi Card

A little background here.  The MSI Wind U120 has two derivatives – the normal U120, and the U120H which includes optional 3G Cellular compatibility.  It is my understanding that the instructions written here should work for either so long as you don’t use the 3G capability.  The consequence of this is that MSI moved the WiFi card from where it was on the U100 series (in the back corner) and placed it right in the middle of the netbook.  This is all well and good, but they also put a non-standard Mini PCIe card in that’s about half as long as is standard.  Not good since the Intel 4965AGW I purchased wouldn’t fit there (due to the screw hole being in the wrong place in the motherboard).  What to do.  First off, I removed the crappy RealTek card gently popping the antenna wires up using a small flat-head screwdriver and undoing the lone screw holding it in place.  It slid right out.  Tossing that in the garbage, I continued.

Since I don’t have the 3G capability, I had an empty Mini PCIe slot in the back right corner (as shown below).  (If you have a 120U, this will be filled with the 3G card)  So, I figured I’d just put the new card there.  Easy!

NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/6.3, ISO 200 | zoom in

Not so fast.  While the card fits fine, the antenna wires don’t reach!  In fact, it looks like they just swapped the left and right wires from the U100 series.  These wires go through the hinge and up to the top of the screen portion of the netbook.  Time to swap them back!

Step 3 – Removing the Screen

To remove the screen, it’s necessary to remove three plugs.  These go to the screen itself, the microphone, and the webcam.  Once these wires are loose, the hinges need to be unscrewed.  There are two screws on one side, and one screw on the other.  Note the position of these screws as if you put them back in the wrong holes, you won’t be able to put the back cover on again (since its screws use the other holes).  With the hinge undone, open the netbook to about  90 degrees and it should come right off.  Easy, right?  Now look at those hinges.  The black plastic covers over the hinges are actually two pieces.  Remove the small piece on each side and keep them separate so you know which is which.

Step 4 – Opening the screen

Now comes the tricky part.  Removing the bezel (the black frame around the screen) from the screen.  There are four screws holding the bezel on located under the rubber pads at the four corners.  Remove these pads carefully as you’ll want to put them back over the screws when you are done.  Note: the top of the screen has two pads in the middle.  These don’t need to be removed.

With the screws removed, insert a plastic card (credit card or the like) into the groove and pop the two halves of the screen apart.  Scary popping noises may occur.  Proceed at your own comfort.  Once the bezel is removed, you should be able to see the two antenna wires going to the top of the screen and attaching to brass antenna pads.  These are the things you want to swap!  You’re getting close.  Remove the actual screen by unscrewing the four corners and gently lifting out (and setting someplace safe).  From here, I found that peeling back the sticky brass antenna (with the green piece of circuit board still attached) would peel back the foam at the same time.  Made it pretty simple to just swap the antenna.  Now the long cable is on the correct side of the screen like in the photo below!

A disassembled MSI Wind computer screen.
NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/6.3, ISO 200 | zoom in

Step 5 – Re-Assemble the Screen and Re-Attach

Again, I’m assuming that if you’ve come this far, you can safely re-assemble the computer.  Just reverse the following steps until you have the screen re-attached to the computer and the wires re-attached (except for the antenna wires).  No real words of warning here — just be careful and take it slow.  Everything went back together for me without a hitch.  At this point, you’re ready to install the new WiFi Card!

Step 6 – Install the Intel 4965AGN Card

This is super easy.  Just put it in the slot near the back right of the computer by sliding the front edge (with the brass connectors) into the connector and gently pressing down the back of the card.  The screw hole should line up with the stand off that is already there.  Just re-use the original screw from the old card.  At this point, you’ll notice that the two wires we swapped both reach a terminal of the card.  I attached one to the terminal labeled “1″ and the other to the terminal labeled “2″.  I really don’t think it matters which wire goes where as they both lead to the brass antenna pads.  See below.

NIKON D200 @ 50mm — ¹/60 sec, ƒ/6.3, ISO 200 | zoom in

Step 7 – Finish Reassembly, Insert Battery and Power On

Check for spare parts.  If you have anything left over other than the crappy Realtek card, figure out what it is and replace it.  So long as you didn’t break anything (and remember, I warned you it’s not my fault), Linux will simply recognize the new, improved, and fully functional card and connect to the network.  Easy as 1, 2, 3.  What’s more, if your experience is anything like my experience, the card will connect to the network in much less time than the old, crappy card.  Also, checking for dropped packets, I was thrilled to note that even after surfing for a long time, I had zero dropped packets.  Also, I seem to get much better signal strength.

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