Hi all!

For those who just want to mess around
http://www.tawbaware.com/pixelzap.htm
Shareware, $15

Looks very interesting (especially as my *istD has acquired three hot pixels at 800-3200ISO )

Max Lyons wrote PTAssembler, a GUI for Panorama Tools. He's just exhibited a 1gigapixel image: http://www.imaging-resource.com/EVENTS/PMAS04/1076707253.html

Would be nice to see that

Matt

Prieni,

I doubt very much there will be a price drop. Even PS7 has maintained its price. We took the route of getting PS5.5 for £200 from Jessops, then upgraded from there (be warned you can upgrade only from PS7 to PS-CS). Upgrades are £150. Jessops are clearing out PS6 for £400.

www.dabs.com have PS8 full version listed at £540 inc vat.

In fact, we ended up getting the Adobe Creative Suite CS Premium upgrade. That includes InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, GoLive and some other bits. For a complete package this is a bargain. (Bought from www.insight.com/uk)

If it's only PS you need, then there's not much else to do but pay up

Matt

Lurach,

You can't get a PEF file of 5Mb
None of the RAW file applications will save in PEF format, only read
The only other way is to place a full PEF file on a website, then they can download it from there.

The C code for handling PEF files is contained in the dcRAW package. That's freely downloadable, and indeed forms the basis for the Adobe RAW support plugin. Though, the new Photoshop CS plugin has absolutely wonderful control over raw files, it's such a dream to use

Now, here's a suggestion - ask the XnView team if dcRAW is sufficient. If not, I think I could arrange to get a PEF file up on my website temporarily for them to download.

VueScan can process the PEF files and turn them into JPG or TIFF files. However, the colour is not calibrated. (Photoshop CS does a great job though.)

Hope that helps,

Matt
(Contact me by email )

Hi Kim,

I was just being picky I agree with your comments. And indeed, Adobe are exceedingly helpful - especially when you are supporting legal software

Kim & Ava,

Photoshop CS, and all the Adobe PS upgrades just install full versions. I think Photoshop may not even check for a previous version. Acrobat used to check, but the newer versions don't seem to. However, when you register with Adobe, they maintain the list of what you own and will not support a CS upgrade if you don't have the original registered with them. So.... you cannot sell on your older PS versions because you will lose the right to use the CS upgrade You've gotta keep onto the whole upgrade path
(This info I received direct from Adobe when querying their upgrade issue. In fact, I asked them about buying software off EBay, and as a result of that conversation decided to play safe.)

Hope that helps

Matt

Hmmm,

Here's the official low-down on activation:
http://www.adobe.com/activation/main.html

* 30 day grace period.
* Installation on 2 machines, single user, one machine at a time.
* If upgrading, uninstall the first machine, and install and activate on the new.

If in doubt, you can give Adobe a call. They were extremely helpful and took the time to answer all my licensing questions.

There is also the Photoshop CS tryout (151.6Mb).

Matt

Malcolm,

Just a word of warning: Photoshop CS has an XP style activation.

AFAIK, you can only install on one machine. However, the license allows you to install on the main user's laptop, as long as both machines do not run PS-CS at the same time.

It's also worth noting that the Mac version does not, as yet, have this activation. Adobe are trying hard to stop the illegal copying of PS on the PC platform

Have fun anyway

Matt

Hi Ava,

IMHO, I would never upgrade any Windows OS. I find it makes for a big mess. I always advise backing up your data, then doing a clean install of the new OS (XP included - wipe all partitions, then install clean). I find this makes for a much more stable machine.

Yes, ME was always a pain. But then, XP really needs a heap of RAM, as does Photoshop CS. It runs quite nicely on 512Mb, 2.4GHz Pentium 4. Running with 1.5Gb of RAM things go reallly well

It depends where you live, but you may find it more cost effective, and/or less painful, if you just buy a new Dell machine, and sell on your old ME computer as a kit

By and large, software does run on XP. Some older games have issues. I'm still running 16-bit DOS and Windows 3.1 code (development stuff that cannot be brought into 32-bit Windows). With regard to your older programs, the best thing is to do a Google search and see what the status is with XP.

Sorry that it's an expensive route

Matt

Ava,

Definitely go for Photoshop CS. The learning curve is steeper than Elements. I have gone from Elements 1 to Elements 2 to Photoshop 5.5 to Photoshop CS. It's fantastic

Here's a taster: healing brush (like an intelligent clone tool), colour matching between images, 16-bit image support for beautifully smooth graduations, 16-bit layer support, an unbelievable amount of actions and plugins available, the "Extract" tool for pulling out images from backgrounds etc etc etc

Oh yes, and of course, fantastic *istD PEF file support now

Like ShotGun, I'm seeing RAW as a worthy shooting mode. Took some portraits of my little one yesterday and they absolutely rocked! Wonderful tones, lovely colour, fantastic detail (how PSCS does its RAW file sharpening, I don't know, but I think it is with the knowledge of the RGBG pixel layout on the CCD itself, because it is awesome). Another very happy man.

...but now I need more gigs of storage

Matt

PS. The "Camera Raw.8bf" file format filter doesn't work in Elements 2. It was worth a try though

Thanks for the info
I'm off there right now

Here's the direct link for Windows: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2433


Oooooohh Such control

Matt

Malcolm,

IMHO, the DLP technology projectors are far superior. Rather than using LCD and shining through that, the DLP is a semiconductor array of tiny mirrors that reflects the light. There are no visible pixels on screen, so it looks just like a smooth canvas.

InFocus is the main manufacturer of such projectors. I've seen an XGA version running on an 8x6 foot screen. Beautiful But pricy The DLP projectors can also be very bright (InFocus do up to 4500 ANSI Lumens )

I know that Dell have DLP projectors too. (The chips are made by Texas Instruments.)

XGA is 1024x768 pixels, and is the highest they go at the moment. The Dell 3200MP costs around £1200.
Here's the InFocus link http://www.infocus.com/


BTW, DVDs look fantastic on these too

Nearly forgot... bulbs are mega expensive, like £250 - £350 each!! So any deal you get with a spare bulb is worth a lot!

Hope that helps,
Matt