Moose News Blog

Nikon announced a new body and three new lenses. You’ve got the D60, the 16-85DX, the 60f2.8AFS micro and the very exciting 24f3.5PC-E. I’m very excited to receive the 24PC-E and create some ultra wide panos with the D3. In case it wasn’t on your radar screen, PMA is this weekend.

(photos courtesy of Nikon)

Here’s some more info on the 24PC-E, 60Micro, 16-85DX, and D60. At the Nikon booth at PMA, you will also be able to see the new 45PC-E Micro and the 85PC-E Micro.

Update: Since I haven’t seen these lenses, I wanted to double check facts before posting more info. The E in PC-E stands for Electromagnetic Diaphragm. Since most photographers don’t use a PC lens, this doesn’t mean much. On the D3 & D300 (only at this time) you can use a PC-E lens in any exposure mode, A, S or P just like you would with any lens. Why is that special? PC lenses “break” in half to achieve their PC and when you do that, you loose any mechanical links to the aperture so previously, all PC lenses were preset lenses. No more, that’s darn cool! The 45 & 85 had the soft release because they aren’t ready for prime time yet. You should see the three lenses as early as March.

We’ve been hammered of late with questions in regards to the 600VR lens. I just got word mine is in route so once I have it and have shot with it, I’ll post some thoughts here.

With the shipping of the Wacom 12WX and my first blog, I’ve had a number of emails of just how to make the most of this cool tool. I’m pretty sure there are many who want to know how to make this work as a 2nd monitor. I don’t know the recipe for Macs and needed the help of my dear friend Joe Sliger to get this right, but here you go.

The recipe for the Photoshop with the 12WX is:

I start by making the 12WX the Primary display in Display Properties (Windows defaults back to normal when the 12WX is not plugged in). Open Photoshop and configure it to your likings and workspace ON the 12WX. Open the image you want to work on; Hit the “F” key until the image appears in a window, not using any of the 3 full screen modes. Than Window Menu > Arrange > New Window for “image name” a duplicate of the original image will show up on top of the original. Drag the duplicate image to the notebook monitor (you can do this by hitting the top express key on the side of the 12WX, which will map the pen across both displays until you click it again). Hit the “F” key until your preferred background shows up (use can use Fullscreen mode now). Hit “CTRL+ALT+0″ to go to fill the monitor with the largest possible preview. Hit the top express key again, which should bring the pointer back under the pen. Select the image that is on the 12WX by clicking anywhere in its window. And hit the F key again with the image on the 12WX selected to select your preferred view. At this point any retouching you do on the 12WX will show up on the larger second display in full view. This enables you to see what Micro retouch is doing to the overall image and Color corrections for small areas and the effect it is having on the whole image.

I hope this helps you make the most of this killer tool!

We left Mammoth yesterday and arrived in West Yellowstone this evening and the entire 1100 mile drive we were in snow. That’s a first and it was gorgeous! All across the NV desert and UT salt flats, snow. What you see here is not our 1st class lodging for DLWS but the old railroad station across the street. Walking to dinner after sunset in the blustery snow, the sliver of the windows in the snow bank caught my attention. The D3 always goes with me and easily handled the exposure and captured all the detail in the old wood sides. Using the 12WX and my secret filter in Color Efex 3.0, I quickly processed the image without even to have to take my feet down from the fire.

Tomorrow it’s off to the geyers, more fun to blog all this next week.

Photo captured by D3, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

With the hwy open again, Mr FedEx & UPS were able to make deliveries and one of them was the new Wacom 12WX. Dang sweet! It’s a real pretty image this baby puts forth. No matter where I travel to now, I can lounge and be a couch potato and work on my images in total comfort and, AND in complete control of my images. We can work in Capture NX or Photoshop and almost without ever having to touch a keyboard key, finish an image. I highly recommend you spend the day capturing some great images than put your feet up with your computer and 12WX and enjoy some of the finer things of life. I’m way too comfortable in my favorite chair, so here’s some of the spes to chew on.

Overall Dimensions: 16″ W x 10.5″ H x .67″ D
Display Area: 10.3″ W x 6.4″ H
Screen Size: 12.1″ diagonal
Native Resolution WXGA (1280 x 800)
Weight: 4.4 lbs with video control unit
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pressure Levels: 1,024 on pen tip and eraser
Stand Adjustability: Flat on desktop, 25° to 60°
Rotation: 360° flat position on pivot
Warranty: 2 years

You might want to head here and read how much Terry loves his 12WX as well!

Lexar’s new Professional UDMA Dual-Slot USB Reader is out. It’s a dual slot reader, well, a slot for SD and a slot for CF cards. This is great for Canon shooters, not so hot for D3 shooters. The new reader supports UDMA speed, too bad USB2 doesn’t carry it through. Us Win folks now have a UDMA reader (fatest available) but it’s nowhere the speed of Firewire800, not even in the same neighborhood. Unless you install a Firewire800 card in your computer can you take advantage of UDMA blistering speed. (Update: I’ve just been told I might have a bad prototype reader, so the numbers posted were wrong. New reader coming, will post times when I have it in hand.) Add to this needing to load multiple CF cards, you’re back in the dark age I feel. So here’s the deal.

You’ll find below a simple Email Petition. I’m calling on YOU to email Lexar (where this petition goes directly) to petition for a single multi slot CF card reader be designed with blistering UDMA speed. Lexar does have the Pro CompactFlash Readers, but they are anything but compact especially when you have to add the Hub to make it all work. But this is still what I prefer because with 1 click I can upload up to 4 CF cards. With the D3 having dual slots, it only makes sense we have 1 CF card reader with multi slots. So here’s your opportunity to ASK Lexar to make your life a little easier by requesting a single, multi-slot CF reader!