The Stack Of Pancakes From Lexar

On a high shelf at our new Murray Street shop is a row of Lexar boxes that fooled the heck out of me.  But now that I have researched what they are, I am mightily impressed.

Firstly, the mistake I made; I thought that they were a set of multiple RAID-drive boxes like a Drobo array. AS I have a Drobo that has been working flawlessly, I was not interested, but i took a picture anyway...

Secondly, the truth revealed through a Google search; these aren't exactly a RAID array - they are a reader and storage tower. let me explain.

We all have some sort of input and output jumble on our computer desks. The maker of the computer has put a half dozen USB or other ports on the back or sides of the thing and we have duly filled them up in a twinkling. Mine has 10 things fighting for space. Wires snake over the desk, even if the mouse and keyboard are wireless - it is just like an electric jungle growing...

The Lexar Professional Workflow HR1 is a vertical box that will accommodate 4 devices on the front and lead them in and out from the back. That means you can stack in separate modules for CF, SD, and USB input. You can read fast as there is Thunderbolt and USB3.0 capability.

Bless me, you can also store from this tower if you plug in Lexar Portable SSD boxes in. It's not doing what the Drobo does, but it will be a lot neater than puting anther external hard drive down and trying to find space for another USB plug and cable!

Note also that on a lower shelf we have a selection of pretty big, pretty small Lexar memory cards. Reliable and good value.

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New Hoodman In The Hood - Readers Have Arrived

You'll remember that we have been selling the excellent Hoodman Steel USB 3.0 UDMA card readers for years. They are fitted to take CF and SD-sized cards and have a secure wired link onto the computer. Fast and tough.

A new model has just come into the shop - the same idea but a slightly different shape - higher and blockier. There is a new socket on the back for the included cable and the thing is very professional.

If you are in the habit of exploding your card readers...come get a new Hoodman and try your luck.

A Lot Faster Than I Can Write - The Question Of Me Vs The Card

Things these days get faster and faster ( except the lines at Coles and Woolies out near my house...) and the cards we sell for memory are no exception.

Currently in stock I see speeds from 25 MB/second up to 280MB/second - of course there are different capacities in the cards and not all types of card are in all speeds, but there is a fair spread of specification - one would think enough to suit all needs.

I have been advised by one of the company writers for the camera system I use to get the fastest possible card - his reasoning is that it allows me to access all the arcane features of the camera. I expect he is right, but up until now the thing has not been an issue.

Studio shooting is slow. An hour to set a scene is lightning work. Some set-ups are the entire morning and a complete day is not unknown. It was a day that had coffee, pastries, cocktails, and language - but was ultimately successful. In the end the speed of the card was irrelevant. Actually the cocktail was faster.

The computer is the next choke-point for information. Mine is an older iMac and I suspect that it, and the reader in use, restrict the flow to about 35 MB/second anyway. If the card in use is able to discharge at a considerably faster speed, I don't know it. Downloading for he number of images I take is not an onerous process anyway.

But.

You might have considerably different needs. You might shoot at high speed and have to send your data down into your devices and out to the world in split seconds. You might shoot 500 images of one subject before you get it right and are unable to bring yourself to discard 499 of them before you store it away...I've seen people like that on those intervention television shows...They are the ones with rooms full of hard drives and laundry baskets full of single socks...

So don't do as I do; use old, cheap cards and only shoot 50 shots per day...come in and buy some of the super-speed types with far greater capacity. They are good value and reliable. And if you upgrade your computer you will be able to go faster anyway.

Classic Chrome Comes Back - With The New Fujifilm Camera

I have been cautioned to be careful how I write about the Classic Chrome setting in the new Fujifilm X 100t camera. Something about not mentioning a company that used to make a colour transparency film with a name that ended in "chrome" but have ceased making it...while still employing a number of patent lawyers who might be looking out for something to occupy the winter months...

Okay. I won't mention them. I'll mention a firm that STILL makes colour slide film with a name that ends in "chrome" - Fujifilm. You can get fresh, cold rolls of Velvia and Provia any time you want from our film fridge. And I can assure you that they are indeed "classics".

Back to the new camera. This post has two pictures taken with the new camera set to "Velvia" and "Classic Chrome". The CC is obviously less saturated than the V but then one would expect that. There are deeper tones in the shadows. It does indeed look a lot like something I have been warned not to talk about from a company that may still have the lawyers on speed dial - I know because I have a large collection of colour transparencies that may or may not have been made by this mystery company in the 1950's and 1960's...allegedly...and I know what it looks like.

Apart from all this chromatic mystery, I must commend the Fujifilm company  for making the new X 100t so easy to use in the macro mode. I am used to firing my X 100 at close-up subjects but this new version is much faster focusing and a lot easier to set up. I would thoroughly recommend it for the wildflowerists amongst us - a perfect fill flash answer for belting around the bush bothering the begonias and beetles.