Alphatracks

Lightroom 1.1 is here (at last!) and it is proving a very worthy upgrade. Like many other photographers, I really like the new Clarity slider. The new catalog function finally allows you to add processed photos from your field laptop to the database on your main computer — although I think there is still room for improvement in this area. There are several other new enhancements; I’m still exploring everything that’s there.

If you haven’t upgraded as of yet, you need to know that the actual upgrade process took much longer than I expected. My main desktop is a PowerMac G4 — a little behind the curve, but still quite capable. After upgrading the application itself, you need to upgrade the database from LR 1.0. The read-me file instructed me to load my latest Lightroom library file. Problem is, I couldn’t locate any recent Lightroom library files. There were some from April, but nothing from the last week — or even the last month. This confused me, since I use Lightroom often, so I assumed I should have more up-to-date library files.

I did find several recent Lightroom database files identified as Lightroom Database.lrdb, with a date code prefix. Taking a chance, I tried opening the most recent one in LR1.1. Success! I’m not sure why Adobe’s documentation says to open a library file when on my G4 I needed to open a database file instead — but no matter. I was on the way to having a working copy of LR1.1.

Lightroom next needed to upgrade the library (database file) to work in LR1.1. The dialog box warned me that this might take several minutes,

What does the term several imply to you? Three? Five? Maybe fifteen?

Try 135. That’s how long it took to update the database into the new Lightroom catalog format. I don’t really care how long it takes to perform a major upgrade — as long as I know what to expect. If the process took a full 24 hours - I wouldn’t care as long as I knew upfront and could plan accordingly.

But several minutes doesn’t mean more than two hours — at least to me it doesn’t.

First the program informed me it was checking the integrity of the database. I have Lightroom configured to preform this check weekly — and it has never taken more than five or so minutes for the integrity check. This time it took over twenty minutes — making me nervous that there was a problem somewhere. At long last, however the integrity check finished and Lightroom began updating the database into a 1.1 catalog file.

The program uses the typical Mac progress bar. I was working on a laptop while the G4 was chugging away at the upgrade, so I glanced up now and then to see how the upgrade was going. Initially, the bar moved along at a slow but steady pace. After about ten minutes it reached the center of the bar area. “Great,” I thought. “It’s at the halfway point — should wrap up in another ten minutes or so.”

Then the progress bar stopped progressing. It just stayed at the halfway point, with no indication it had any intention of ever moving again. For over an hour, the bar didn’t budge. I could tell the G4 wasn’t locked up, because I could change to other programs. But there was no progress from Lightroom.

If I was new to upgrading computer software, I might have panicked at that frozen progress bar. Fortunately I’ve had experience upgrading a wide variety of hardware and software including Unix mainframes and Sun Sparc systems. I’ve had operating systems that took as long to upgrade — but I can’t remember an application that took 135 minutes for that task. As long as the Mac wasn’t locked up, however, I decided to allow he process to continue.

Suddenly — after the bar had been stuck in one place for over an hour — the entire progress dialog box closed. At first I thought the program had crashed, but seconds later LR1.1 launched with all my images intact.

Of course your mileage may vary. There are a lot of people who seem to be experiencing trouble upgrading to LR1.1 on the Adobe forums. I’m sure that many of these users do have legitimate problems with LR1.1. I have to say, however, I have had no real problems with Lightroom — either 1.0 or 1.1 aside from the lengthy database upgrade. And I wouldn’t have sweated that if Adobe had warned me it might take hours instead of minutes.

I wonder how many users who are experiencing difficulties simply cancelled the upgrade prematurely instead of waiting for the installer to complete its tasks. When and if you upgrade, I recommend allowing the installer to take as long as it wants. The upgrade is well worth the effort — don’t sabatoge your install by force quitting because it appears to be locked up!

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David Kilpatrick has posted step-by-step instructions with photos, describing how to install a Haoda split-image/microprism screen on the Sony A100 on the Photoclub Alpha blog. It seems fairly painless, although I’m not sure it is something I would want to attempt. Not because I would be afraid to mod my dSLR — although there is always the possibility of causing some damage — and I suspect this could void the camera’s warranty.

More importantly, however, I’m not convinced I would like the new focusing screen. I seldom used the split screen on my film SLRs, finding the split screen to be more a distraction than a focusing aid. Others, however, seem to really like a split screen; and Kilpatrick seems quite happy with his modified Alpha. It might be an improvement, but I’m still concerned I wouldn’t care for the final result.

Of course you can always change back to the original screen, but it seems like a lot of work and expense to go through if you don’t like the new screen.

Still, I appreciate any mods that apply to Sony and Minolta dSLRs, because it encourages small manufacturers to develop products for the Alpha line — and that is always a good thing. It also encourages the Sony community to discover useful mods that can improve the Alpha experience.

If you have a desire for a split screen on your A100, check out David’s instructions on the Photoclub Alpha blog.

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Naturally, there is a huge amount of speculation about the Sony Alpha DSLR concept mockups. I was interested to see that many commentators seem to have overlooked one of the more important features of the concept cameras.

Sure, the concepts are shown with an interesting vertical grip, some apparent changes to the lens mount and some intriguing hinged covers. But what caught my eye - besides that dramatic pentaprism on the flagship model - was the PC flash sync on the camera’s left side, just below the camera strap swivel. Both models feature the sync port, behind a knob shaped cover that features a stylized lighting bolt. This means that the new upgraded Alphas, unlike the A100 and the Minolta 5D, will at last offer a PC sync port

PC doesn’t mean “personal computer”
Just so we understand, PC Sync has nothing to do with a personal computer. Cameras sported PC sync ports long before Bill Gates entered kindergarten. In its most simple form, a PC sync port allows the camera to fire a flash through a sync cord. This becomes immensely important when you want to shoot with studio lighting or use non-dedicated flash units.

Personally, I think selling a DSLR without a PC Sync port should be a federal offense, punishable by heavy fines and a long jail sentence. OK, maybe that’s a little harsh, but it is almost that important.

There was a time you would have needed to look long and hard to find a SLR without a PC sync port. If you did find such an animal, you could bet it would be a bargain basement, knockoff that no true photographer would admit to owning. Any true SLR had at least one sync port. Most of the early Minolta SLRs featured two ports - an X sync and a FP Sync. Later they switched to a single port with a switch that allowed the photographer to select the type of sync port.

The missing PC Sync: the revenge of the bean counters

Then in the late ’70s, the boom in consumer SLRs began. Prior to that, almost all SLRs were purchased by professionals or serious amateurs. With the advent of electronic shutters and computerized exposure systems, casual shooters started to gravitate to lower priced SLRs. All of the major camera makers started to produce SLRs for this influx of informal users. The market became incredibly completive as prices dropped like a rock on intro-level SLRs. None of the companies were making much money on these low-end SLRs, but each manufacturer introduced budget priced automatic cameras hoping to make a residual profit on lenses, flash units and the like.

In such a climate, features considered standard on any self respecting SLR were tossed out the window. First to go were metal bodies and glass focusing screens - plastic was more than good enough for this market. Mirror lock-up? Depth of Field Preview? Everyday shooters didn’t need that kind of stuff.

When manufacturers saw their profit drop to pennies on each low-end SLR body they sold, they continued to look for ways to slash costs. Imagine some sharp-eyed bean-counter who wouldn’t know the difference between an original Ansel Adams print and his first grader’s refrigerator art suddenly spotting that innocent PC sync port on the side of the camera.

“What’s that little thing do? Remote flash huh? Why would anyone need that? The hotshoe ought to be good enough for anyone.”

Sync terminal: XK-Motor, circa 1976

So with a stroke of pen, the camera maker saves twelve cents manufacturing cost on the camera and the photographer looses the ability to use a large amount of studio flash equipment and the like.

The Minolta hotshoe — superior, but limited in numbers
If a pc-sync terminal is important on any film or digital SLR, it is doubly important on Minolta and Sony models. Why? Because of the advanced hotshoe utilized by the Sony A100 and all recent era Minolta film and digital cameras.

There is nothing inherently wrong about the Minolta flash shoe - in fact it is a major improvement over all other flash shoes. I have a box full of old flash units with broken feet. They foot broke after frequent attempts to slide the flash in and out of the standard camera hotshoe. At the same time, I remember having at least one flash that was so loose in the flash shoe that it wobbled and would often fail to fire because the contacts didn’t correctly engage the shoe.

The revamped Minolta hotshoe design eliminated both of these problems. The flash attaches with a satisfying “click.” When you want to remove it, you depress a button and the flash unit slides off smoothly. It is undoubtedly the Cadillac of hotshoes and nothing offered by the competition compares with the Minolta shoe.

One drawback to the advanced hotshoe design, however, is that there are millions of flash units, triggers and other hotshoe accessories that will only attach to the old style hotshoe. You can’t attach these items to the Minolta shoe. There are adapters that will allow you to utilize these old flash units with the new shoe, but the adapters are somewhat scarce and hard to find.

If the camera has a PC sync port, the hotshoe design is a non-issue. Simply place the flash on a bracket with an old style flash shoe. Run a sync cord to the camera and you can use almost any flash (in manual mode) with this setup. Providing you have a sync port that is. You also have access to a full range of studio lighting setups.

Lets hope that Sony realizes all this and retains that all important sync port when the new models ship.

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