The OM System 90mm macro arrived

This lens has shown up in time for my next trip to Costa Rica. Woohoo. 

Now to put it to the test. 

ISO 12800 on the r6 m2

I used DXO PureRaw's new support for r6 m2. This changes my options for butterfly photography. ISO 12800, 1/40th second at 500mm handheld. Sweet!

Print finishing

 Print Finishing Preparation

So I have decided on using self adhesive foam core by Bainbridge. This comes in 40 by 60 inch sheets from my local supplier (Burlington Camera.)

To cut the sheet into three 20 inch strips I have come up with using the table saw. I needed a 84 tooth 10 inch blade that would cut plastics etc. Got this from Home Depot. I also will use this blade for plexiglass cutting for other projects.

After setting the sliding guide on the table saw I can rip the sheets really quick and easy into three 20 inch sections (20 by 40.)

This saves me from getting a larger finishing table, which I have no room for.

How sweet is this if you have a table saw already in the shop!

I am also using bags by Crystal Clear Canada to protect my prints once mounted. 

Canon R6 mark ii fail.

I had this camera in my kit for a week before it went in for service. It did not charge batteries properly via USB.

I think maybe they should have just replaced it but canon wants to repair.

Two new prints made and hung up.



Lower antelope canyon and upper on the right.

The lower was in 2019 and the upper a couple of months ago in 2022. 

It's fun having a great printer (Epson P800) to make hard copies of your images.

Printed on Epson metallic glossy paper as it suits the subject (IMHO).

The center hanging is in memory of Joan and her spirit.

Motherboard replacement

Unplanned hardware replacement.

The darkroom PC motherboard started failing. It would not remember any bios settings between restarts. The PC would eventually boot, after hitting reset button enough times. The PC would boot with default settings.

I have replaced the MB with a new one of the same vintage and rolled in a minor CPU upgrade at the same time. The CPU is now an 8 core 16 thread model (from 6 cores.) It overclocks nicely.

All this was no real fun. Some sleep was lost but, in the end, it's a sweet machine.

With some of the new software for denoise more cores are needed. The video card is still an Asus NVidia 1660 and pulls its weight in DXO denoise.

The boxes

Better keyboard design for the darkroom PC

Some darkroom hardware notes:

 I had a large keyboard (Corsair K55) on the darkroom PC. I found that the numeric keypad portion was not used very much. By moving to a keyboard (pictured) without the keypad portion I was able to make room for my mouse to be on the desk beside the keyboard. Ergonomically this is better. Everything on the same level. Where before the mouse was on the higher desk portion and not the keyboard tray.

I did try the 61 key keyboards but found that not having dedicated arrow keys unworkable in my software. The arrow keys move you quickly around the grid in Lightroom. The small 61 key keyboards did not work out.

The new keyboard and mouse are from Razer (pictured.) They do cost a bit more than cheaper hardware but are worth it. Its Thanksgiving Friday and they were on sale. Optical keys are sweet. I like the mouse, its high resolution and has that thumb rest extension.  I know that there are custom devices for PS, but at this time I will not go there. The smaller keyboard works well!

Best!