Adobe Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 Now Available

Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 are now available as final releases on Adobe.com and through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.

These updates include camera support for the following models:

* Nikon D300s
* Nikon D3000
* Olympus E-P1
* Panasonic DMC-FZ35**
* Panasonic DMC-GF1

**Note that in Europe and Japan this model is marketed as the DMC-FZ38. Unfortunately, due to a metadata difference between these cameras, files from the DMC-FZ38 will *not* be supported until the next Camera Raw and Lightroom updates.

Release Notes:

* Camera Raw 5.5 and Lightroom 2.5 include a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response. Olympus, Panasonic and Sony are among the more popular camera manufacturers affected by this change. But the demosaic correction provides only a subtle visual improvement to the processing of those raw files.

* Lightroom 2.5 corrects for the following problem in Lightroom 2.4. Lightroom 2.4 on Windows continued to display the import dialog when a memory card was detected regardless of the preference setting "Show import dialog when a memory card is detected."

Direct downloads:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 - Mac - Win
Adobe Camera Raw 5.5 - Mac - Win

Tip: Online Monthly Income Calculator

Fellow photographer Yuri Arcurs has created a neat tool for having your profits calculated in a matter of seconds.

If you work with stock agencies and lost your income profit from each one of them you got to check out this.

As he explains in his blog page...


"The calculator will estimate the expected total income for that month.

How it works is simple. Just call up the calculator anytime, and enter your total (to date) for the month, on any of the sites. The calculator will quickly whip up what your projected monthly total will be.

You can easily customize the list of agencies by adding your own to the list by tapping the last field. You can save your list and recall it, all stored safely and your data will be not be shared. Not even I can see the data you type in."

You can find it here.

And if you do not know this great photographer take a look at his inside tour studio video here.

Enjoy.

Tip: Shutter Count Utility

MAN!!!! It's been a long time since my last post.

For me it seems yesterday but when I looked at the last post date it seems ages.

Time runs fast, sometimes, and troubled waters and other non photographic businesses have been consuming my time and energy, unfortunately, not letting me too much to write anything here on the blog or even bring some creative ideas into here as much I would like to :(

Would like to thank you all for the warm mails that have arrived to the box and to say that it's always a pleasure to help out a fellow photographer.

On today's tip I bring you another great software to found out shutter actuations from your camera. I wish Canon and other manufacturers could release this to the public so we can know when it's time to have that service center call and even when we buy some second hand stuff.

Oh well marketing business... just hope Canon will release something very strong until the end of the year or they may be doomed ;)

Anyway...

Last year I had a Tip article "Tip: How to Find Shutter Count Actuation's" that mentioned this for the Canon 1D series and how to figure them out on Photoshop, but with the update on new cameras new software have arise.

Today I bring you a software to make actuation's count easier called EOSInfo.

What is EOSInfo and to what cameras does it apply to?

EOSInfo is a AstroJargon software and the successor to the 40DShutterCount utility. It's called EOSInfo since it provides more information than just the shutter counter, and works on a wider variety of cameras than just the Canon 40D.

FAQ:

0) I have a 1D*/5D/10D/20D/30D/50D/300D/350D/400D/450D/1000D. Will the software work with it?

This works on any of the Canon DIGIC III/IV DSLRs except the 1D* series. This means it will work for the 40D, the 50D, the 450D, the 500D, and the 1000D. Thanks to all the 5DMkII users who reported success. As it turns out, you have to power-cycle the 5DMkII before the shutter count value updates itself. It will not work on the 1D*, 5D, 10D, 20D, 30D, 300D, 350D, and 400D. It's not that I have anything against the owners of those cameras, but simply that the Canon SDK does not support retrieving the shutter count for them.

1) The software reports that I've taken 1234 pictures, but the last image on my CF card is numbered 1111 (i.e., the number reported is higher than the last image number number on the CF card). Why?
If you've ever taken images while tethered to a PC with the EOS utility or other software, or with no CF card in your camera, those increment the shutter actuation counter, but not the numbering system for your card. If you've reset the image numbering on you camera or "rolled over" 9999 images, this may also occur.

2) Does using LiveView affect the shutter count reported?
Taking pictures while in LiveView increments the shutter count. Entering and exiting live view mode does not.

3) Is there a Mac version?
Yes. Note how lazy I am, I don't want to renumber my FAQs.
4) How does it work? Is it majick?
Yes.

4a) Seriously. Are you looking in the EXIF data?
No. It doesn't matter if there are any images on the camera or not, or even if there's a CF card inserted - the camera just needs to be connected.

5) I've heard that only Canon can extract this number, so you must be lying. Are you lying?
No, I'm not lying. I've heard the "Canon service center" mantra too - but there are thousands - well, hundreds - okay, at least *3* people I know of who believe this number to be a relatively accurate count of shutter actuations.

5a) Why only "relatively" accurate?
See FAQ #2.

6) I'm using Windows Vista 64-bit, and I get the error "BadImageFormatException."
Download the latest version, it fixes that issue.

7) The software reports that I've taken 1234 pictures, but the last image on my CF card is numbered 4999 (i.e., the number reported is lower than the last image on the CF card). Why?
You may have used the CF card on more than one camera, and the other camera's images were numbered higher. DSLRs typically name image files by grabbing the highest image number on the card and incrementing by one.

8) Do you mean the C:\Program Files\Canon\EOS Utility folder, or the C:\Program Files\Canon\EOS Utility\EOS Utility folder?
What? That's brilliant, Canon. I mean the first (higher) one.

Direct Downloads:

40DShutterCount MAC
EOSInfo Windows

If you have any of the mentioned camera hope you enjoy this software and send me back some feedback about it. Also if you have any software that you have built to retrieve this kind of information from any camera would be gladly welcome. 


--//-- Update 2012-05-20 --//--


There is a webpage where you can check your shutter actuation called EOSCount and it's a must for you to control your clicks.


This page only works under Internet Explorer and over Windows system because it uses an ActiveX controller to pull out the information from the camera.


Here is what the page looks like after pulling the info from my 1D MarkIV.

Enjoy

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 updated

Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 are now available as final releases on Adobe.com and through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.

These updates include camera support for the following models:

* Canon EOS 500D (Digital Rebel T1i/EOS Kiss X3 Digital)
* Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
* Epson R-D1x
* Hasselblad CF-22
* Hasselblad CF-22MS
* Hasselblad CF-39
* Hasselblad CF-39MS
* Hasselblad CFH-22
* Hasselblad CFH-39
* Hasselblad CFV
* Hasselblad 503CWD
* Hasselblad H2D-22
* Hasselblad H2D-39
* Hasselblad H3D-22
* Hasselblad H3D-31



* Hasselblad H3D-39
* Hasselblad H3DII-22
* Hasselblad H3DII-31
* Hasselblad H3DII-39
* Hasselblad H3DII-39MS
* Hasselblad H3DII-50
* Kodak EasyShare Z980
* Nikon D5000
* Olympus E-450
* Olympus E-620
* Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
* Pentax K-7
* Sigma DP2
* Sony A230
* Sony A330
* Sony A380

Note: Hasselblad support is for the 3FR file format only. The Hasselblad FFF file format is not currently supported.

Lightroom 2.4 Bug Fixes

The Lightroom 2.4 update includes several bug fixes.

The following is a list of items FIXED in this release:

* Web galleries with a Collection Title of six characters would not export or upload
* The crop aspect ratio could revert to the last selected ratio even when reset to original
* The crop aspect ratio in Quick Develop could be lost after a crop adjustment
* The crop aspect ratio lock could be lost after an orientation switch
* Images could preview incorrectly when imported using the MTP/PTP USB protocol
* Sony .ARW files may not have been recognized by Lightroom’s import dialog
* The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X 10.5 could fail to switch to the print module if the HP B9180 was set as the default printer
* Metadata options that are intended for use were dimmed incorrectly when exporting DNG files
* The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X was missing a shortcut for “Zoom Out”
* Several translation and shortcut corrections were made for the eight additional languages introduced with Lightroom 2.3

New Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 DNG Options

This release includes new DNG Compatibility conversion options. These choices help address the additional options available with the new DNG 1.3 Specification (http://www.adobe.com/dng):

* Camera Raw 2.4 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 2.4 (Photoshop CS) and later, and Lightroom 1.0 and later
* Camera Raw 4.1 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 4.1 (Photoshop CS3) and later, and Lightroom 1.1 and later. The DNG file will often be readable by earlier versions, depending on the camera model
* Camera Raw 4.6 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 4.6 (Photoshop CS3) and later, and Lightroom 2.1 and later. The DNG file will often be readable by earlier versions, depending on the camera model
* Camera Raw 5.4 and later: The DNG file will be readable by Camera Raw 5.4 (Photoshop CS4) and later, and Lightroom 2.4 and later. The DNG file will often be readable by earlier versions, depending on the camera model
* Custom: (Not available in Lightroom 2.4)
o Backward Version Option: DNG 1.1, DNG 1.3 (default 1.3)
o Checkbox: Linear (demosaiced) (default unchecked)
o Checkbox: Uncompressed (default unchecked)

DNG 1.3 Specification Update

The DNG specification has been updated to version 1.3.[LINK] The update includes the following changes:

* In Chapter 2, “DNG Format Overview”, the section on Defective Pixels has been updated
* The section on Opcode Lists has been added to Chapter 2, “DNG Format Overview”
* The CFALayout tag has been updated in Chapter 4, “DNG Tags”.
* Additional Tags for Version 1.3.0.0 were added to Chapter 4, “DNG Tags”
* Chapter 7, “Opcode List Processing” was added.
* “Appendix A: Compatibility with Previous Versions” was updated.

The additional "Opcode Lists" allow complex processing to be moved off the camera hardware, which can have limited processing power, and into the DNG reader, which is often running on more powerful hardware. This also allows processing steps to be specified, such as lens corrections, which ideally should be performed on the image data after it has been demosaic, while still retaining the advantages of a raw mosaic data format.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 Direct Download Links (Mac - PC)

Adobe Camera Raw 5.4 Direct Download Links (Mac - PC)

Tip: Canon 5D MarkII - Video Locks Up/Freezing (Solution)

Did it ever happened to you?

Lately I've been having some issues with the 5D MarkII video recording mode and would like to share with you what I have figure out to solve, at least for now, these kind of problems.

If you're having the same problems read my story and maybe it could bring you some sort of a relieve.

This has been an issue that I tried to replicate before bringing it to the blog but it seems that is very unpredictable when video recording will Freeze or Locks Up that I cannot tell exactly what is going on.

What I can say is that it happens and I have already lost 3 pieces of important film recording that are lost forever. I did some interviews during the weekend for our brandy new HardHeavy TV and while doing a small cut intro the video recording stopped at 40s and a blinking info "Busy" on the Top LCD.

I've waited more than 5 minutes for it to process since a buffer bar was showing at the back LCD but nothing happened. The shutter was still open but nothing happened. The only way to stop it was to remove both batteries from the grip and the shutter will close. Of course that the video was lost and so the recording :(

Well I formatted the card since this was the beginning of the session and I thought maybe there is something with the card, by the way I was using a 8Gb Sandisk UltraIII 30MB/s, I then started to record the interviews and everything seemed OK by that time.

The first interview went sweet with a 3m40s piece over 640x480 resolution. we did not need more resolution so all things were done on 640 format to keep the video files small.

I went around the place and did some photos of the ambiance, arena, group shots, headbangers shots and some small video pieces to fill in cuts and other stuff for post production.

I returned to the backstage for another interview and that when all the problems started. The card was maybe at half full when I started to record another interview. Everything was going smoothly then suddenly at the middle of the interview the same screen appeared and the video stopped recording... man, there was a chill on my bones and I went from red to white in a sec.

I run a simulation at home and obtained the same results. Although the Lock Up/Freeze did not occur as frequently but sometimes it happened and I think this could be disastrous if you are with a client and the camera acts weird and you loose all those important video recordings :(

Here are some of those Lock Up/Freeze photos.



The picture of the Frozen/Lock on the back LCD screen. You can still see the buffer on the right but I've waited so long and it never went down :(



And the top LCD screen.



You can see that the camera is switched off ;) and the screen is still available but frozen :(



It only unlocks if you remove the battery, in my case, both batteries from the grip.



I run this test several times and in the end I came to the conclusion that the problem is with the Sandisk Extreme III 8GB/30s card.

I also did a quick Google search and found this thread talking about the same problem and with the same conclusions.

I run a couple of tests with some older cards like the Sandisk Ultra II 2.0GB, Sandisk Extreme III 2.0GB, Sandisk Extreme III 4.0GB and with Transcend 4GB 120x, so far, with no errors, Lock Ups or Freezes and I've continuously recorded 30 minutes with each one.

WARNING SOLUTION: If you are using your 5D MarkII for video pay attention to the Sandisk Extreme III 8GB/30s as they can bring you some ours with no sleep.

So until Canon releases another firmware to correct this for these cards I will keep my eyes on those older cards.

...and YES it has happened with older firmware and now with version 1.1.0.

If you are having these kind of problems report them on comments so people could also share your experiences.