What would I like Santa to bring me this year – photographically speaking?
Three things really:
1 ) A printer equivalent to my Epson 4800 Pro that simply works when I ask it too – even if I leave it unused for weeks at a time. Is that too much to ask for?
I don’t want extra image quality, more colours etc – I am quite happy with what my 4800 produces – I just would like it to work on demand; not when its temperament allows it to.
I don’t care who it comes from; Epson, Canon or HP… perhaps even Sony, Kodak or Fuji. Whoever…
2 ) I have been waiting for an update to the Canon 5D for a year or more – what I had in mind turns out to really be a Nikon D700. So the 5D MkII has 21mp and video, whereas what I really wanted as an up to date 5D with 12mp (or perhaps a few more, but 12 seems fine for what I want to do) with improved noise or dynamic range capture, plus weather sealing, better autofocus, anti-dust systems, etc etc and a competitive price.
I also don’t really want to have to upgrade my computer to take the huge files that will result from the MkII when I mostly print at A4 & A3, going up to A2, and stitch together into large panoramics… If it weren’t for my substantial investment in lenses and systems accessories, like flashguns, I would switch to a Nikon D700 and a D300 today.
3 ) Which brings me onto my third wish – software that is supported for more than a year or so. Last Christmas I tested out Lightroom; liked it and bought it. I moved pretty much all my workflow into Lightroom. Now Adobe have released Lightroom 2 and guess what?
If I want to use it as a RAW converter for any of the recent camera launches (such as the Canon 5D MkII, the Canon G10 or Panasonic G1) then I will have to spend £100 to upgrade to Lightroom 2 whether I like it or not. In fact Adobe’s web site is currently saying that Lightroom 2 will not support these until sometime in December. If I wanted to use Adobe Camera Raw instead (which does support them, but only the version compatible with CS4; not CS3) I will have to upgrade to Photoshop CS4, although I am quite happy in every other way with CS3 for the time being.
So, Santa, if you are listening – are these wishes really too unreasonable or difficult to deliver? Read more...
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2 comments:
Churchill,
I wonder what you think now of the series of recommendations you made re. the Epson 4800 back in May?
(a) Do you feel that all of these steps are necessary?
(b) In toto, do they work?
(c) Or should we just chuck the damn things?
Best wishes,
Mike Stratil
mstratil@charter.net
Hi
I can't afford to chuck it away.
Now I take one of two routes depending on what my likely usage is.
If I know that I am not likely to use it for some time ( a couple of weeks or more)then I turn it off, puddle soak the head, put a water container as near the print head as possible to keep the local humidity up and wrap the printer up in a vapour proof cover.
If I am going to be using it regularly I follow my in use routine of Harvey Head Cleaner every day, MIS Autoprint every third day, while covering it up and trying to keep the humidity inside the printer to >50%.
Treve
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