JRosen

My fellow shooters, I just replaced my hard-drive with an SSD drive, and if you have not done this, please give it a thought. I know this is a Nikon Forum, but once we've taken the pix, we have to process them so we can make some money!  

For starters, let me tell you about my modest little system… iMac mid-2011, 21.5", i5, 2.5mhz, with 20gb RAM and stock 500gb HDD.  Completely low-end iMac with only the RAM bumped-up from the stock 4gb.  With this configuration I made a slide-show of over 400 pictures, and set various music behind it.  Made this in iMovie and exported it.  It was a 37 minute slide-show and took around 36 minutes to process/export.  That was last Friday.

I just put in an OWC 6G, 480gb SSD drive ($365.00 @ OWC); and added 16gb RAM (now I have 32gb total RAM).  I cloned my system to this new drive.  I did the surgery myself--it took about 2 hours total, but I was exceedingly careful and followed their superb instruction video to the letter.

Once I had the system up and running, I tried exporting that slide-show again… it was instantaneous--it took only seconds versus 36 minutes with a spinning hard-drive.  Adobe Creative Suite… Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator open instantly… well 10 to 20 seconds until they're on the screen.  I have never seen anything so fast in my life!

This SSD drive is simply amazing and I am in awe.  No more spinning beach-balls in photoshop while editing photos.  I can't imagine how fast this would be with a faster processor--THIS IS AWESOME!

If you haven't done this, I would highly recommend checking this out… its night and day.

By the way, I posted this earlier to another post on this site... Gizmag has an article today about... "A Guide to Buying Your Next Camera Lens"

Here's the link

http://www.gizmag.co...ng-guide/29141/

Great article, easy to understand, explains a lot.

That's a very tough question Angelus.  It would also help to know what camera your [wonderful] daughter got you.  Is it a DSLR, a micro-four-thirds?  I am assuming it has interchangeable lens.  Also you need to look at how much you wish to spend on the lens.

I was buying a scope for a rifle several years ago, the scope was almost twice the price of the rifle!  I asked the sales guy if I should spend more on the scope than on the rifle... he said something so profound, that it carried with me even until today... and its very applicable for this situation.  He said, if you can't see it, you can't shoot it!

There are powerful lens out there that'll set you back a couple of mortgage payments, then there are cheap lens.  Always remember that with lens, you usually get exactly what you pay for.  Buy cheap, get cheap.  What does a cheap lens get you?  Images that just aren't right.  They're just short of spectacular.

Also, if you get a big zoom lens, know that the further you zoom, the more you'll pick-up camera shake--which makes for blurry pics.  That doesn't matter if its the least or most expensive glass out there, when you are dealing with zooms, shake is always your enemy.

If you'd like to tell what kind of camera, the "geniuses" on this site will probably be better adept at helping you make the right choice.

If you do have a DX format DSLR, you might want to go with the: AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm F3.5-5.6G ED VR II

Read more: http://www.nikonforu...6#ixzz2gcdWXyXD

Okay, I'm probably the last one to the party on this, but I just found out about a photographer's contest site.  They have weekly drawings, and it looks very interesting.

If you're like me and never heard of this site its www.viewbug.com.  Its free to sign up, but I didn't get into the site too far to see what fees are required to enter the contests--and they have a lot of contests!

NikonJedi mentioned the black eneloops, while they look good, and even cost a tad bit more, they're limited to [I believe] 500 charges, whereas the white ones will recharge up to 1900 charges.  If you look as the specs on both in side-by-side comparison, they both have the exact same offerings.  I was expecting the black ones to hold a charge longer, but that's simply not the case.  Save a buck or two and stick with the white eneloops.

The newest generation of white eneloops are supposed to last over 2000 charges, but I'm sure your mileage will vary!

To find out more about the eneloops, go to >www.eneloop.com< and check everything out.

One last thing... if you're going to purchase these, in order to help this fantastic site, please purchase from B & H Photo.  Here's a link to the eneloop starter kit...

http://www.bhphotovi...ck_Starter.html

It seems as if this site gets a proceed from every link, so let's help the site make some bucks!

Gizmag has an article today on how to buy your next lens for DSLR's or even the micro four-thirds... anything with an interchangeable lens.  You can probably pick-up some valuable information.  Its well written and easy to understand.

Here's the link...

http://www.gizmag.co...ng-guide/29141/

Wow!  Thanks Adam.  Okay, apparently I wasn't telling the right story.  I do have Adobe Camera Raw, version 6.0.0.205.  But it tells me that my camera is not availble.

The dialogue box actually says that my camera is not supported by the installed version of Camera Raw.

BUT... I just checked and my PS along with Camera Raw needs to be updated!  I feel really stupid right about now!  I'm doing the upgrade and hopefully this will fix the problem.

Thanks again Adam for your quick attention to this!  I'll let the forum know the results.

I installed the upgrade, and I believe I'll be shooting raw from now on!

Okay, this site was worth it just so I could find out I needed a software update!!!!

Thanks again Adam!

You know that Nikon makes a Remote Control for your D3100... its the ML-L3, and you can get this from B & H for around $20.00.  I have one for each of my shooters, and they're great!

Tripods, personally I use Velbon, but that was given, and its really good; but I've heard other pro's say Manfrotto.  If you can, get to a camera brick and mortar and try some out to see what's best for you.  I do have a quick-release plate which is awesome.

I was curious what batteries to use for my Speedlight (SB700), and I was informed by many pro's to use Eneloop by Sanyo (Panasonic).  As it turns out, these babies really do work well.  They hold a charge through rigorous shooting, and have a quick rebound.

I was using disposable batteries in my Speedlight, and it was eating them like candy.  Plus, if I left them in too long they tended to leak.  But these Eneloop batteries are holding up quite well.

They're not too expensive either.  I got them from (one of this site's sponsors) B & H.  They have a starter kit for $34 that has all you need plus the charger.

http://www.bhphotovi...ck_Starter.html