Posted by Jim Hackley on September 19, 2010 at 11:42 PM
Well, over the last month I got reminded of how many items need to be in sync for a good digital photography work flow. I had been using the same PC, monitor and software for the last 6 years. A familiar work flow that made my photography easy and enjoyable. I usually upgrade/change my PC, monitor and software about every 6-7 years and it was close to that time. But I thought I could hold off for another year.
That all changed when I got a new Nikon D300s for my birthday. I already have a D300 so I now have a camera for birds/wildlife and one for landscape work. I put the 300 f4 lens on the D300s and photographed for about a week and went to download my images and that is when I found PS CS3 could not read the new raw files. I had forgotten about the fact that I was still using CS3 and they had stopped updating that raw editor years ago. So, my first step was to upgrade to PS CS5 but I started having problems running it on my PC with 2 gb memory and windows XP SP2. I upgraded to XP SP3 but was still having problems. I was going to upgrade memory but the mother board could not handle it. So I went back to CS3 and using only the D300 for a while. Next my LCD monitor goes dead. I buy a new 23" monitor but can not use the 1980 x 1020 resolution. Next my cd/dvd player stops working, so I give up on that PC and buy a new Dell PC with Windows 7 (6 gb memory). Fairly easy transition to the new PC and the new 23" monitor resolution looks good (needs calibrating). I start the process of learning Windows 7 features, customizing my PC to the way I like and PS CS5 is running fast and working just fine. Next I discovered my Spyder2 color calibration software will not load. I find a work around (from the internet), load some other software and finally get the monitor color calibrated. Next I load my digital images from my external hard drives (I have 3 of them) and after a month of dealing with computer stuff, I am finally back to a working digital photographic work flow. Photography is fun again and I am catching up on my backlog of images but I am glad that I only have go through this process every 5-7 years.
Regards,
Jim
Posted by Mark Windom on September 20, 2010 at 12:06 AM
My computer is 6 years old and I'm still shooting the D2Xs using CS2 and LR 2 to do my PP.....looks like I have alot to look forward to shortly.
Posted by Lon Overacker on September 20, 2010 at 12:12 AM
Ain't film great?
Couldn't resist... but certainly that has nothing to do with it... once film is scanned we deal with the same scenario you're dealing with and I can sympathize. My pc is 5, going on 6, can't squeeze more than 3G of ram out of it and my monitor is developing unwanted vertical lines.... grrrrrh!
I am not looking forward to the upgrade mill, either. My PC is 5, too. And, like Lon, I can't squeeze more than 3GB of RAM onto it, and I'm still running XP-SP3, CS2, and Office 2003.
I recently had to get a new monitor, which turned out to be a really good thing; this NEC 22" and the Spectraview calibration software are excellent.
With some of my master files (from scanned 4x5) approaching 1GB in size, along with OS overhead, that doesn't leave much RAM. Thankfully, I have a second HD I use for a scratch disk.
But, it won't be long before I'll have to get a Win 7 64 bit PC and then get everything working again--my network, 2 printers, scanner, external drive, calibration tool, and all the software...I'll stop now, I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
Like Lon also said, " I feel your pain..."
I am glad you got everything working, and a re back in business!
--P
Posted by Howard Cihak on September 20, 2010 at 5:08 AM
When I say I feel your pain, it's because I AM feeling the pain.
I had been using a Canon 20D along with CS2 and an Epson 2200. Got excellent color prints right out of the box. No muss, no fuss.
Then I bought a Canon 5Dmk2, and that's when the fun(?) began. Well, that meant I had to move up to CS4. Now, I can't, for the life of me, get a decent print from the Epson. If they're not too dark, they're off-color, and usually both.
I've done everything. Recalibrated the monitor. Downloaded the latest paper profiles from Epson. Gone back to the textbooks and followed religiously the instructions for making a print. All to no avail. Now, I've found some indications on the web that CS4 may have some issues with Epson printers. Gaaaaa!
It's enough to make you ask, "Does it really HAVE to be this difficult?"
I feel good in saying I can no longer feel your pain, thankfully. I was so fearful of changing from what was still working so well, except handling GROSS file sizes, that it was only recently I finally got beyond my 6 year old PC unit and moved up. It's of course never easy, but after fussing with various issues for about a week all is well. I did finally surrender a 15 year old all-in-one printer for a newer unit, but all other peripherals seem to be OK and very happy, and me too.
Posted by Bruce King on September 20, 2010 at 4:48 PM
WOW, sounds like fun.
I'm ready for an upgrade from my 7 yr old custom. I've swapped out everything but the mother board. Not looking forward to it but it's got to be done if I want to keep up with the new software. Wish me luck.
Hmmmmm....glad to have my Macs! Using a 1 year old MacBook Pro for most everything. Have an 8 to 10 year old half-globe IMac desktop still running fine except no internet cause lightning fried the internal motherboard ethernet chip (not replaceable). Imac connected to Epson 800R printer. Move images to this OLD system for printing and works fine using older version PS with it and PS5 on newer mac. All works fine! Hats off to Apple.
Discussion
7 repliesThat all changed when I got a new Nikon D300s for my birthday. I already have a D300 so I now have a camera for birds/wildlife and one for landscape work. I put the 300 f4 lens on the D300s and photographed for about a week and went to download my images and that is when I found PS CS3 could not read the new raw files. I had forgotten about the fact that I was still using CS3 and they had stopped updating that raw editor years ago. So, my first step was to upgrade to PS CS5 but I started having problems running it on my PC with 2 gb memory and windows XP SP2. I upgraded to XP SP3 but was still having problems. I was going to upgrade memory but the mother board could not handle it. So I went back to CS3 and using only the D300 for a while. Next my LCD monitor goes dead. I buy a new 23" monitor but can not use the 1980 x 1020 resolution. Next my cd/dvd player stops working, so I give up on that PC and buy a new Dell PC with Windows 7 (6 gb memory). Fairly easy transition to the new PC and the new 23" monitor resolution looks good (needs calibrating). I start the process of learning Windows 7 features, customizing my PC to the way I like and PS CS5 is running fast and working just fine. Next I discovered my Spyder2 color calibration software will not load. I find a work around (from the internet), load some other software and finally get the monitor color calibrated. Next I load my digital images from my external hard drives (I have 3 of them) and after a month of dealing with computer stuff, I am finally back to a working digital photographic work flow. Photography is fun again and I am catching up on my backlog of images but I am glad that I only have go through this process every 5-7 years.
Regards,
Jim
Couldn't resist... but certainly that has nothing to do with it... once film is scanned we deal with the same scenario you're dealing with and I can sympathize. My pc is 5, going on 6, can't squeeze more than 3G of ram out of it and my monitor is developing unwanted vertical lines.... grrrrrh!
All I can say is "I feel your pain..."
Lon
I recently had to get a new monitor, which turned out to be a really good thing; this NEC 22" and the Spectraview calibration software are excellent.
With some of my master files (from scanned 4x5) approaching 1GB in size, along with OS overhead, that doesn't leave much RAM. Thankfully, I have a second HD I use for a scratch disk.
But, it won't be long before I'll have to get a Win 7 64 bit PC and then get everything working again--my network, 2 printers, scanner, external drive, calibration tool, and all the software...I'll stop now, I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
Like Lon also said, " I feel your pain..."
I am glad you got everything working, and a re back in business!
--P
I had been using a Canon 20D along with CS2 and an Epson 2200. Got excellent color prints right out of the box. No muss, no fuss.
Then I bought a Canon 5Dmk2, and that's when the fun(?) began. Well, that meant I had to move up to CS4. Now, I can't, for the life of me, get a decent print from the Epson. If they're not too dark, they're off-color, and usually both.
I've done everything. Recalibrated the monitor. Downloaded the latest paper profiles from Epson. Gone back to the textbooks and followed religiously the instructions for making a print. All to no avail. Now, I've found some indications on the web that CS4 may have some issues with Epson printers. Gaaaaa!
It's enough to make you ask, "Does it really HAVE to be this difficult?"
I'm ready for an upgrade from my 7 yr old custom. I've swapped out everything but the mother board. Not looking forward to it but it's got to be done if I want to keep up with the new software. Wish me luck.