Opinion: Updates to BasicColor and ColorEyes Display allow DDC monitor calibration ability … NeatImage user testimonials … Bug-fixes from Canon and Lexar … Edmund sets up a blog.Last week's column was a long rant about two monitors and incompatible software, and you'll recall I was pretty frustrated. This week I'll give you something shorter and happier. I have plenty of small and nice updates to previous stories; these updates have rolled in over the past two weeks.
Before the news, here's a service announcement: I'm setting up an off-site Weblog at http://photofeedback.blogspot.com with the blessings of my supremo editor, Matthew Rothenberg. A story will often elicit quick reactions from vendors and comments from users. I'll put such updates on the blog.
So if you want the latest info on material covered in a fresh story, please check the blog. If you want to comment on a story, do so via the blog. If you want to suggest a story, send me an e-mail. If you are involved with a product and wish to send me details or news, the e-mail link at the bottom of this column or on the blog are a good way to inform me. The blog will also serve as a platform for my coming book project.
Now for the patchwork of pleasant surprises that makes up the week's news.
Good News Number 1—Adobe Creative Suite 2 arrives.
My Adobe Creative Suite 2 package got here. That's definitely good news, and I'd like to thank Allison Rhodes, who handles PR for Adobe. Thanks, Allison: Adobe's products are really the mainstay of any graphics workflow these days, and I needed that software to do my reviewing job, legally.
As an aside, I really like the small "Design Guide" that comes in the CS2 box. Readers interested in the Raw format will find a beautiful condensed two-page user's guide to Adobe's Raw Converter on pages 36 and 37. I could call this a two-page book, it's so good. Those two excellent pages are authored by a man of great honor, Bruce Fraser, color guru extraordinaire and one of the self-proclaimed capi of the Pixel Mafia. Bruce, can I be made consigliere?
Good News Number 2—NeatImage works with CS2.
Getting the CS2 release package means I can now officially review plug-ins for Photoshop CS2 on the Mac. And, in fact, the current NeatImage plug-in that refused to run with the beta version runs faultlessly on the release version. As you will remember, I had resorted to testing the NeatImage plug-in on the older Photoshop CS, and found it quite powerful.
I had requested feedback from users of NeatImage. Promptly, a variety of readers wrote in to tell me they're very happy with it.
Mr. Al Benas writes, "I've been using it on Nikon Coolpix 4500 pictures for the last 1.5 - 2 years on photos taken by my wife for an organizational newsletter (circulation about 1,200). Outside of 10 ft, and set on ISO 400, there's a lot of noise in the background of these shots. Neat Image does an excellent job of cleaning up the noise."
But, he adds, "I also agree about too much smoothing of the skin textures for MY tastes, but the ladies love it." Another gentleman, Marvin McInnis, takes this idea further: He eloquently calls it his "Botox filter."
Good News Number 3—BasicColor 3.10 calibrates the Eizo CG210.
Readers of my last column will remember my endeavor to get good color from a dual-monitor system consisting of an Eizo CG210 and a Samsung 213T.
Now, by some miracle, the neighborly Mr. Karl Koch of Color Solutions Software in Penzberg, Germany let me preview a soon-to-be released version of his software, BasicColor 3.10. This is very similar to the ColorEyes Display profiling product marketed over in the United States by ColorEyes. In fact, the two products share a code base.
BasicColor 3.10 cleaned up my Eizo monitor wonderfully, much better than Eizo's ColorNavigator. The Macbeth Colorchecker colors suddenly click perfectly into place—they feel just right when you compare the original chart and the screen. The Samsung was already pretty good on the Macbeth test anyway, when calibrated with ColorEyes Display.
Mr. Koch tells me this new version of BasicColor can profile a variety of recent LCD monitors via a DDC link. Mr. Jack Bingham of ColorEyes says the same of an upcoming release of his own brand, but I haven't seen this release yet.
Here's a quote from Mr. Koch's e-mail to me: "Final release date [of BasicColor 3.10] is Monday, June 20th. Hardware calibration is supported for: CG18, 19, 21, 210, 220. NEC 1980, 2180 (and the corresponding LaCies and Spektralis monitors), the Diva OEM monitors like Quato, A.C.T. Kern and Eye_Q." And here's a quote from me: "Thank you very much, Mr. Koch, nice product!"
Good News Number 4—Canon and Lexar release fixes.
As you will recall, some Canon cameras have been losing captured images. Canon and the Flash-card maker Lexar have been working together to fix this. Canon now says the issue is resolved. It has released patched firmware for the EOS-1 series cameras; you can download it off Canon's site.
Also, Lexar is implementing a card-exchange program where users can send in, and it updates the firmware of, its Compact Flash 80x memory cards. You can check to see if your card is affected and apply for a return authorization number on the Lexar site.
It's time to stop here—all this exceptionally good news has tired me out! But I'll be back with my usual whiny tone next week. In the meantime, don't worry, be happy, and scrawl your comments all over my blog!
Edmund Ronald has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, but he is currently on a sabbatical as a photographer in Paris. He can be reached at photofeedback@gmail.com.
